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Ezekiel 5

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1 Kaj vi, ho filo de homo, prenu al vi glavon akran, kiel razilo de barbiroj, prenu gxin al vi, kaj pasigu gxin sur via kapo kaj sur via barbo, kaj prenu al vi pesilon, kaj disdividu la harojn:

2 trionon forbruligu meze de la urbo, kiam finigxos la tagoj de la siegxado; trionon prenu, kaj dishaku gxin per la glavo en la cxirkauxajxo de la urbo; kaj trionon disblovu en la venton, kaj Mi elingigos post ili la glavon.

3 Kaj prenu el tio malgrandan kvanton, kaj ligu gxin en la randon de via vesto.

4 Kaj ankoraux iom prenu el tio, kaj jxetu en fajron, kaj forbruligu ilin per fajro; el tie eliros fajro sur la tutan domon de Izrael.

5 Tiele diras la Sinjoro, la Eternulo:Jen estas Jerusalem; Mi starigis gxin meze de la nacioj, kaj cxirkaux gxi estas diversaj landoj.

6 Sed gxi agis kontraux Miaj decidoj pli malpie, ol la nacioj, kaj kontraux Miaj legxoj pli malbone, ol la landoj, kiuj estas cxirkaux gxi; cxar ili malestimis Miajn decidojn, kaj Miajn legxojn ili ne sekvis.

7 Tial tiele diras la Sinjoro, la Eternulo:CXar via amaso estas pli malbona, ol la nacioj, kiuj estas cxirkaux vi, cxar Miajn legxojn vi ne sekvis kaj Miajn decidojn vi ne plenumis, kaj vi ne agis ecx laux la justeco de la nacioj, kiuj estas cxirkaux vi,

8 tial tiele diras la Sinjoro, la Eternulo:Jen Mi ankaux iros kontraux vin, kaj Mi faros inter vi jugxon antaux la okuloj de la nacioj.

9 Kaj Mi agos kun vi tiel, kiel Mi neniam agis kaj kiel Mi neniam plu agos simile, pro cxiuj viaj abomenindajxoj.

10 Tial gepatroj mangxos gefilojn inter vi, kaj gefiloj mangxos siajn gepatrojn; kaj Mi faros kontraux vi jugxon, kaj Mi disblovos vian tutan restajxon al cxiuj ventoj.

11 Tial, kiel Mi vivas, diras la Sinjoro, la Eternulo, pro tio, ke vi malpurigis Mian sanktejon per cxiuj viaj abomenindajxoj kaj per cxiuj viaj fiajxoj, Mi vin malgrandigos, kaj Mia okulo ne indulgos, kaj Mi ne kompatos.

12 Triono el vi mortos de pesto kaj pereos de malsato meze de vi; Triono falos de glavo en viaj cxirkauxajxoj; kaj trionon Mi dispelos al cxiuj ventoj, kaj Mi elingigos post ili la glavon.

13 Mi plene agigos Mian koleron, kaj Mi ripozigos Mian indignon sur ili, kaj Mi faros al Mi kontentecon, por ke ili eksciu, ke Mi, la Eternulo, parolis en Mia fervoro, kiam Mi konsumos Mian koleron sur ili.

14 Kaj Mi vin dezertigos kaj hontigos inter la nacioj, kiuj estas cxirkaux vi, antaux la okuloj de cxiu pasanto.

15 Kaj vi estos hontindajxo kaj mokatajxo, ekzemplo kaj teruro por la nacioj, kiuj estas cxirkaux vi, kiam Mi faros kontraux vi jugxon en kolero kaj indigno kaj kun indigna moralinstruo. Mi, la Eternulo, tion diris.

16 Kiam Mi jxetos sur ilin Miajn kruelajn sagojn de malsato, kiuj estos pereigaj kaj kiujn Mi sendos por ekstermado, tiam Mi faros cxe vi la malsaton cxiam pli granda, kaj Mi rompos cxe vi la panan apogon.

17 Mi sendos sur vin malsaton, kaj sovagxajn bestojn, kiuj faros vin seninfanaj; kaj pesto kaj sangoversxado trairos vin, kaj glavon Mi venigos sur vin. Mi, la Eternulo, tion diris.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed #47

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47. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow. (1:14) This symbolizes the Divine love accompanying Divine wisdom in first things and last.

A person's head symbolizes everything connected with his life, and everything connected with a person's life has some relation to love and wisdom. A head consequently symbolizes both wisdom and love. However, because there is no love without its wisdom, nor wisdom without its love, therefore it is the love accompanying wisdom that is meant by a head; and when describing the Lord, it is the Divine love accompanying Divine wisdom. But on the symbolism of the head in the Word, more will be seen in nos. 538 and 568 below.

Since a head means both love and wisdom in their first forms, it follows accordingly that hair means love and wisdom in their final forms. And because the hair mentioned here describes the Son of Man, who is the Lord in relation to the Word, His hair symbolizes the Divine good connected with love, and the Divine truth connected with wisdom, in the outmost expressions of the Word - the outmost expressions of the Word being those contained in its literal sense.

[2] The idea that the hair of the Son of Man or the Lord symbolizes the Word in this sense may seem absurd, but still it is the truth. This can be seen from passages in the Word that we cited in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 35 and 49. We showed there as well that Nazirites in the Israelite Church represented the Lord in relation to the Word in its outmost expressions, which is its literal sense, as a nazir in Hebrew is a hair or head of hair. 1 That is why the power of Samson, who was a Nazirite from the womb, lay in his hair. The Divine truth similarly has power in the literal sense of the Word, as may be seen in the aforementioned Doctrine Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 37-49.

For the same reason, too, the high priest and his sons were strictly forbidden to shave their heads.

For that reason as well, forty-two of the boys who called Elisha a baldhead were torn apart by two she-bears. Like Elijah, Elisha represented the Lord in relation to the Word. A baldhead symbolizes the Word without its outmost expression, which, as said, is its literal sense, and she-bears symbolize this sense of the Word divorced from its inner meaning. Those who so divorce it, moreover, appear in the spiritual world as bears, though only at a distance. It is apparent from this why what happened to the boys happened as it did.

It was, therefore, also the highest disgrace and a mark of extreme mourning to inflict baldness.

[3] Accordingly, when the Israelite nation had completely perverted the literal sense of the Word, this lamentation over them was composed:

Her Nazirites were whiter than snow, brighter white than milk... Darker than blackness is their form. They go unrecognized in the streets. (Lamentations 4:7-8)

Furthermore:

Every head was made bald, and every shoulder shaved bare. (Ezekiel 29:18)

Shame will be on every face, and baldness on all their heads. (Ezekiel 7:18)

So similarly Isaiah 15:2, Jeremiah 48:37, Amos 8:10.

Because the children of Israel by falsities completely dissipated the literal sense of the Word, therefore the prophet Ezekiel was commanded to represent this by shaving his head with a razor and burning a third part with fire, striking a third part with a sword, and scattering a third part to the wind, and by gathering a small amount in his skirts, to cast it, too, afterward into the fire (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

[4] Therefore it is also said in Micah:

Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, because of your precious children; enlarge your baldness like an eagle, for they have departed from you. (Micah 1:16)

The precious children are the church's genuine truths from the Word.

Moreover, because Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, represented Babylon's falsification of the Word and destruction of every truth there, it accordingly came to pass that his hair grew like eagles' feathers (Daniel 4:33).

Since the hair symbolized that holy component of the Word, therefore it is said of Nazirites that they were not to shave the hair of their head, because it was the consecration of God upon their head (Numbers 6:1-21). And therefore it was decreed that the high priest and his sons were not to shave their heads, lest they die and the whole house of Israel be angered (Leviticus 10:6).

[5] Now, because hair symbolizes Divine truth in its outmost expressions, which in the church is the Word in its literal sense, therefore something similar is said also of the Ancient of Days in Daniel:

I watched till the thrones were thrown down, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His garment was as white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. (Daniel 7:9)

That the Ancient of Days is the Lord is clearly apparent in Micah:

You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from antiquity, from days of old. (Micah 5:2)

And in Isaiah, where He is called Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6).

[6] From these passages and many others - too many to cite - it can be seen that the head and hair of the Son of Man, which were like wool, as white as snow, mean the Divine expression of love and wisdom in first things and last. And because the Son of Man means the Lord in relation to the Word, it follows that the Word, too, is meant in its first elements and last. Why else should it be that the Lord here in the book of Revelation and the Ancient of Days in Daniel are described even in respect to their hair?

That hair symbolizes the literal sense of the Word is clearly apparent from people in the spiritual world. Those who have scorned the literal sense of the Word appear bald there, and conversely, those who have loved the literal sense of the Word appear possessed of handsome hair.

The head and hair are described as being like wool and like snow because wool symbolizes goodness in outmost expressions, and snow symbolizes truth in outward expressions - as is the case also in Isaiah 1:18 2 - inasmuch as wool comes from sheep, which symbolize the goodness of charity, and snow comes from water, which symbolizes truths of faith.

Footnotes:

1. The Hebrew נָזִיר (nazir) fundamentally means "one consecrated" or "one set apart;" but as a condition of the Nazirite vow was to let the hair grow, by extension a cognate word נֵזֶר (nezer) came to mean also the hair of a Nazirite's consecration, and by analogy, a woman's long hair.

2. "Come now, and let us reason together," says Jehovah. "Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

  
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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.

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