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Jeremiah 42

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1 Then all the captains of the warriors, and Johanan the son of Caree, and Jezonias the son of Osaias, and the rest of the people from the least to the greatest came near:

2 And they said to Jeremias the prophet: Let our supplication fall before thee: and pray thou for us to the Lord thy God for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as thy eyes do behold us.

3 And let the Lord thy God shew us the way by which we may walk, and the thing that we must do.

4 And Jeremias the prophet said to them: I have heard you: behold I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words: and whatsoever thing he shall answer me, I will declare it to you: and I will hide nothing from you.

5 And they said to Jeremias: The Lord be witness between us of truth and faithfulness, if we do not according to every thing for which The Lord thy God shall send thee to us.

6 Whether it be good or evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom me send thee: that it may be well with us when we shall hearken to the voice of the Lord our God.

7 Now after ten days, the word of the Lord came to Jeremias.

8 And he called Johanan the son of Caree, and all the captains of the fighting men that were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest.

9 And he said to them: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, to whom you sent me, to present your supplications before him:

10 If you will be quiet and remain in this land, I will build you up, and not pull you down: I will plane you, and not pluck you up: for now I am appeased for the evil that I have done to you.

11 Fear not because of the king of Babylon, of whom you are greatly afraid: fear him not, saith the Lord: for I am with you, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

12 And I will shew mercies to you, and will take pity on you, and will cause you to dwell in your own land.

13 But if you say: We will not dwell in this land, neither will we hearken to the voice of the Lord our God,

14 Saying: No, but we will go into the land of Egypt: where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor suffer hunger: and there we will dwell.

15 For this now hear the word of the Lord, ye remnant of Juda: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to go into Egypt, and enter in to dwell there:

16 The sword which you fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt: and the famine, whereof you are afraid, shall cleave to you in Egypt, and there you shall die.

17 And all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt, to dwell there, shall die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence: none of them shall remain, nor escape from the face of the evil that I will bring upon them.

18 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my indignation hath been kindled against the inhabitants of Jerusalem: so shall my indignation be kindled against you, when you shall enter into Egypt, and you shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach: and you shall see this place no more.

19 This is the word of the Lord concerning you, O ye remnant of Juda: Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have adjured you this day.

20 For you have deceived your own souls: for you sent me to the Lord our God, saying: Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord our God shall say to thee, so declare unto us, and we will do it.

21 And now I have declared it to you this day, and ;you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, with regard to all the things for which he hath sent me to you.

22 Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence in the place to which you desire to go to dwell there.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #502

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502. Which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. This symbolizes the two hellish loves, namely, a love of ruling springing from a love of self, and a love of holding sway from a conceit in one's own intelligence, loves which are present in the church where there is not one God and where the Lord is not worshiped, and where people do not live in accordance with the Ten Commandments.

Sodom symbolizes, in the spiritual sense, a love of ruling springing from a love of self, as we shall presently see; and Egypt symbolizes, in the spiritual sense, a love of holding sway from a conceit in one's own intelligence, as we shall also presently see. So, because these two loves are symbolized, therefore the city is called, spiritually speaking, Sodom and Egypt.

These two loves are present in the church where there is not one God and where the Lord is not worshiped, and where people do not live in accordance with the Ten Commandments, because people are born with these two loves, and they come into them as they grow up. Nor can these loves be removed except by God the Savior and by a life in accordance with His commandments, and God cannot remove them unless people turn to Him, and neither is a life in accordance with His commandments possible unless a person is led by Him. Actually it is possible, but not a life that contains anything of heaven and so of the church.

A life like that is possible only from Him who is life. That the Lord is that life may be seen in John 1:1, 4; 5:26; 6:33-35ff., 11:25-26; 14:6, 19, and in many other places.

[2] A love of ruling springing from a love of self, and a love of holding sway from a conceit in one's own intelligence, are the principal loves of all the loves in hell, and so are the origin of all the evils and thus of all the falsities in the church. This is something unknown at the present day. The delights of these loves, which surpass the delights of all the heart's pleasures, cause it to be unknown, even though they are, spiritually, Sodom and Egypt.

That Sodom is a love of ruling springing from a love of self can be seen from the description of Sodom in Genesis, where we are told that when angels arrived there, the inhabitants tried to forcibly assault them at the house of Lot, and that fire and brimstone rained down on them from heaven (Genesis 19:1ff.). Fire and brimstone symbolize that love, together with its appetites.

I saw similar sights when cities and societies of people like that were overthrown at the time of the Last Judgment and their inhabitants cast into hell.

These loves and their accompanying evils are symbolized by Sodom and Gomorrah in the following passages: Isaiah 1:10; 3:8-9; 13:19.

[3] That this love is symbolically meant by Sodom is unknown in the world, but remember it and recall it when you come after death into the world of spirits and you will be completely convinced.

It should be known, however, that a love of ruling springing from a love of self and a love of ruling springing from a love of performing useful services are two different things. The latter love is a heavenly love, while the first is a hellish one. Consequently, when one is in first place, the other is in last place; which is to say, when a love of ruling springing from a love of self forms the head, then a love of ruling springing from a love of performing useful services - which is a love of serving the neighbor originating from the Lord - forms first the feet, then the soles of the feet, and finally is trampled underfoot.

On the other hand, when a love of ruling springing from a love of performing useful services - which, as we said, is a heavenly love - forms the head, then a love of ruling springing from a love of self - which, as we said, is a hellish love - forms first the feet, then the soles of the feet, and finally is trampled underfoot.

Still, these two loves can hardly be distinguished by a person in the world. That is because in outward appearance they are similar. But they can be told apart by this, that a heavenly love is present in people who turn to the Lord and live in accordance with the Ten Commandments, while a hellish love is present in people who do not turn to the Lord, and who do not live in accordance with the Ten Commandments.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

1 Kings 8:51

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51 (for they are your people, and your inheritance, which you brought forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron);

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