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Joel 3

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1 For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring back the captivity of Juda and Jerusalem:

2 I will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land.

3 And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they have put in the stews, and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might drink.

4 But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coast of the Philistines? will you revenge yourselves on me? and if you revenge yourselves on me, I will very soon return you a recompense upon your own head.

5 For you have taken away my silver and my gold: and my desirable and most beautiful things you have carried into your temples.

6 And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem you have sold to the children of the Greeks, that you might remove them far off from their own country.

7 Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon your own heads.

8 And I will sell your sons, and your daughters by the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.

9 Proclaim ye this among the nations: prepare war, rouse up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.

10 Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.

11 Break forth, and come, all ye nations, from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down.

12 Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about.

13 Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is multiplied.

14 Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.

15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.

16 And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

17 And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion my holy mountain: and Jerusalem shall be holy and strangers shall pass through it no more.

18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns.

19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a wilderness destroyed: because they have done unjustly against the children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to generation and generation.

21 And I will cleanse their blood which I had not cleansed: and the Lord will dwell in Sion.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #52

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52. And issuing from His mouth a sharp two-edged sword. This symbolizes a dispersion of falsities by the Lord by means of the Word and doctrine drawn from it.

Swords are often mentioned in the Word, and they symbolize nothing else than truth combating falsities and destroying them. In an opposite sense they also symbolize falsity combating truths. For wars in the Word symbolize spiritual wars, which are those of truth against falsity, and of falsity against truth. Therefore the weapons of war symbolize the means by which the combat is carried on in these wars.

It is apparent that the sword here means a dispersion of falsities by the Lord, because it was seen to issue from His mouth, and to issue from the Lord's mouth is to do so from the Word, for the Lord spoke it with His mouth. Furthermore, because the Word is understood by means of doctrine drawn from it, this too is symbolically meant.

It is called a sharp two-edged sword because it pierces the heart and soul.

[2] To show that the sword here means a dispersion of falsities by the Lord by means of the Word, we will cite some passages which mention a sword, from which the reality of this can be seen. Namely:

A sword against... Babylon, ...her princes and her wise men! A sword against the liars, that they may become fools! A sword against her mighty men, that they may be dismayed! A sword against her horses and her chariots...! A sword against her treasures, that they may be plundered! A drought upon her waters, that they may be dried up! (Jeremiah 50:35-38)

The subject here is Babylon, and by it are meant people who falsify and adulterate the Word. Consequently the liars who are to become fools, the horses and chariots with a sword upon them, and the treasures that will be plundered symbolize their doctrinal falsities. The waters that will have a drought upon them that they may be dried up symbolize truths, as may be seen just above in no. 50.

[3] ...prophesy and say..., "A sword... is sharpened and also polished! Sharpened to make a great slaughter... Let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain, a sword for a great slaughter, piercing the innermost recesses, that... stumbling blocks may be multiplied." (Ezekiel 21:9-15, 19-20)

A sword here means also the laying waste of truth in the church.

Jehovah will contend... with His sword against all flesh, and the slain by Jehovah shall be multiplied. (Isaiah 66:16)

Here and elsewhere in the Word, the slain by Jehovah are what people are called who perish as a result of falsities.

On all the desolate heights in the wilderness the plunderers have come, ...the sword of Jehovah devouring from one end of the land to the other. (Jeremiah 12:12)

At the peril of our lives we bring in our bread, because of the sword in the wilderness. (Lamentations 5:9)

Woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! A sword shall be against his arm and against his right eye. (Zechariah 11:17)

The sword against the shepherd's right eye is falsity in his intellect.

...the sons of men are set on fire..., their tongue a sharp sword. (Psalms 57:4)

Behold, they belch with their mouth; a sword is in their lips. (Psalms 59:7)

(The workers of iniquity) sharpen their tongue like a sword... (Psalms 64:3)

A sword has similar symbolic meanings elsewhere, as in Isaiah 13:15; 21:14-15; 37:6-7, 38; 31:7-8, Jeremiah 2:30; 5:12; 11:22; 14:13-18, Ezekiel 7:15; 32:10-12.

[4] It can be seen from this what the Lord meant by a sword in the following places:

(Jesus said that He did not come) to bring peace on the earth... but a sword. (Matthew 10:34)

(Jesus said,) ."..he who does (not) have a purse... and... knapsack..., let him sell his garments and buy (a sword)...." (The disciples) said, "Lord, look, here are two swords." And He said..., "It is enough." (Luke 22:36, 38)

...all who take the sword will perish by the sword. (Matthew 26:51-52)

Regarding the end of the age, Jesus says,

They will fall by the edge of the sword, and be taken captive among all the nations. And (finally) Jerusalem will be trampled... (Luke 21:24)

The end of the age is the final period of the church. The sword is falsity destroying truth. The nations are evils. The Jerusalem which will be trampled is the church.

[5] It is apparent from this, now, that a sharp sword issuing from the mouth of the Son of Man symbolizes a dispersion of falsities by the Lord by means of the Word.

So, too, in the following places in the book of Revelation:

...to the one who sat on (the fiery red horse)...there was given... a great sword. (Revelation 6:4)

From the mouth (of Him who sat on the white horse) came a sharp sword, that with it He might strike the nations... ...the rest were killed with the sword... of Him who sat on the horse. (Revelation 19:15, 21)

He who sat on the white horse means the Lord in relation to the Word, something that is openly stated there in verses 13 and 16.

The like is meant in the book of Psalms:

Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One... ride upon the word of truth... Your arrows are sharp... (Psalms 45:3-5)

The subject is the Lord. Moreover, elsewhere:

Let the saints exult... and let a two-edged sword be in their hand. (Psalms 149:5-6)

And in Isaiah:

(Jehovah) has made My mouth like a sharp sword. (Isaiah 49:2)

  
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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

 

Revelation 1

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1 This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John,

2 who testified to God's word, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, about everything that he saw.

3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is at hand.

4 John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from God, who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne;

5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood;

6 and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen.

8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

9 I John, your brother and partner with you in oppression, Kingdom, and perseverance in Christ Jesus, was on the isle that is called Patmos because of God's Word and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet

11 saying, "What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."

12 I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. Having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

13 And among the lampstands was one like a son of man, clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest.

14 His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

15 His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the voice of many waters.

16 He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, "Don't be afraid. I am the first and the last,

18 and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.

19 Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter;

20 the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies. The seven lampstands are seven assemblies.

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