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Jeremiah 39

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1 In the ninth year of Sedecias king of Juda, in the tenth month, came Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and all his army to Jerusalem, and they besieged it.

2 And in the eleventh year of Sedecias, in the fourth month, the fifth day of the month, the city was opened.

3 And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate: Neregel, Sereser, Semegarnabu, Sarsachim, Rabsares, Neregel, Serezer, Rebmag, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.

4 And when Sedecias the king of Juda and all the men of war saw them, they fled: and they went forth in the night out of the city by the way of the king's garden, and by the gate that was between the two walls, and they went; out to the way of the desert.

5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them: and they took Sedecias in the plain of the desert of Jericho, and when they had taken him, they brought him to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon to Reblatha, which is in the land of Emath: and he gave judgment upon him.

6 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias, in Reblatha, before his eyes: and the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Juda.

7 He also put out the eyes of Sedecias: and bound him with fetters, to be carried to Babylon.

8 And the Chaldeans burnt the king's house, and the houses of the people with fire, and they threw down the wall of Jerusalem.

9 And Nabuzardan the general of the army carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and the fugitives that had gone over to him, and the rest of the people that remained.

10 But Nabuzardan the general left some of the poor people that had nothing at all, in the land of Juda, and he gave them vineyards, and cisterns at that time.

11 Now Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had given charge to Nabuzardan the general concerning Jeremias, saying:

12 Take him, and set thy eyes upon him, and do him no harm: but as he hath a mind, so do with him.

13 Therefore Nabuzardan the general sent, and Nabusezban, and Rabsares, and Neregel, and Sereser, and Rebmag, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon,

14 Sent, and took Jeremias out of the court of the prison, and committed him to Codolias the son of Ahicam the son of Saphan, that he might go home, and dwell among the people.

15 But the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, when he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying: Go, and tell Abdemelech the Ethiopian, saying:

16 Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will bring my words upon this city unto evil, and not unto good: and they shall be accomplished in thy sight in that day.

17 And I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord: and thou shalt not be given into the hands of the men whom thou fearest:

18 But delivering, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword : but thy life shall be saved for thee, because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord.

   

Commentary

 

Garden and paradise

  

A garden and paradise signify intellect and wisdom.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 100, 108)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #108

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108. Whenever the most ancient people compared man to a garden they would also compare wisdom and everything connected with it to rivers. Yet they did not merely compare but actually called them such since it was characteristic of their speech to do so. At a later time the Prophets in a similar way sometimes compared them, and sometimes actually called them, by these names, as in Isaiah,

Your light will rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness will be as the daylight; and you will be like a watered garden and like a spring of waters whose waters fail not. Isaiah 58:10-11.

This refers to people who receive love and faith. Also,

Like valleys that are planted, like gardens beside a river, like aloes 1 Jehovah has planted, like cedars beside the waters. Numbers 24:6.

This refers to people who are regenerate. In Jeremiah,

Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah. He will be like a tree planted beside the waters, which will send out its roots above the stream. Jeremiah 17:7-8.

An instance of regenerate people not being compared to, but actually being called, a garden and a tree beside the rivers occurs in Ezekiel,

The waters caused it to grow, the depth of the waters made it grow tall, the river leading around the place of its planting, and he sent out his lines of water to all the trees of the field. It became beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, for its root was towards many waters. The cedars did not overshadow it in the garden of God, the fir trees were not equal to its branches, and the plane trees were not like its boughs. No tree in the garden of God was equal to it in its beauty. I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden which are in the garden of God envied it. Ezekiel 31:4, 7-9.

From these quotations it is clear that when the most ancient people likened man, or what is the same, the things that are in man, to a garden, they also added the waters and rivers by which it was watered, and that by 'waters and rivers' they understood the things which would cause growth.

Footnotes:

1. The word used in 1st Latin edition means tents, but in other places where Swedenborg quotes this text a word meaning aloes occurs. In Hebrew the spelling, though not the pronunciation, of the two words is identical.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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