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Joel 1

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1 Vorto de la Eternulo, kiu aperis al Joel, filo de Petuel.

2 Auxskultu cxi tion, ho maljunuloj, kaj atentu, ho cxiuj logxantoj de la lando! CXu estis cxi tio en via tempo, aux en la tempo de viaj patroj?

3 Rakontu pri tio al viaj infanoj, kaj viaj infanoj al siaj infanoj, kaj iliaj infanoj al la sekvanta generacio.

4 Kio restis de la rauxpoj, tion mangxis la akridoj; kio restis de la akridoj, tion mangxis la skaraboj; kaj kio restis de la skaraboj, tion mangxis la vermoj.

5 Vekigxu, ho ebriuloj, kaj ploru, gxemu vi, cxiuj drinkantoj, pri la suko vinbera, kiu estas prenita for de via busxo.

6 CXar venis sur mian landon nacio forta kaj nekalkulebla; gxiaj dentoj estas dentoj de leono, kaj makzelojn de leonino gxi havas.

7 GXi dezertigis mian vinberujon, cxirkauxsxiris mian figarbon, tute sensxeligis gxin kaj forjxetis; blankigxis gxiaj brancxoj.

8 GXemu, kiel junulino, kiu metis sur sin sakajxon pro sia fiancxo.

9 For estas la farunoferoj kaj versxoferoj el la domo de la Eternulo; funebras la pastroj, servistoj de la Eternulo.

10 Dezertigita estas la kampo, funebras la tero; cxar ekstermita estas la greno, elsekigxis la mosto, velkis la olivoj.

11 Konsternitaj estas la plugistoj, plorgxemas la vinberkultivistoj, pro la tritiko kaj hordeo, pro la pereo de la rikolto sur la kampo.

12 Elsekigxis la vinberbrancxo, velkis la figarbo; la granatarbo, la palmo, kaj la pomarbo, cxiuj arboj de la kampo elsekigxis; malaperis gajeco cxe la homoj.

13 Zonu vin kaj ploru, ho pastroj; gxemegu, ho servistoj de la altaro; iru kaj kusxu en sakajxoj, ho servistoj de mia Dio; cxar malaperis el la domo de via Dio la farunoferoj kaj versxoferoj.

14 Sanktigu faston, proklamu solenan kunvenon, kunvoku la maljunulojn kaj cxiujn logxantojn de la lando en la domon de la Eternulo, via Dio, kaj kriu al la Eternulo:

15 Ho ve, kia tago! CXar proksima estas la tago de la Eternulo; kiel katastrofo gxi venos de la Plejpotenculo.

16 Antaux niaj okuloj ja malaperis la mangxajxo, el la domo de nia Dio la gxojo kaj gajeco.

17 Forputris la grajnoj sub siaj terbuloj, malplenigxis la grenejoj, detruitaj estas la garbejoj, cxar la greno difektigxis.

18 Ho, kiel gxemas la brutoj, kiel suferas la bovaroj! cxar ili ne havas pasxtajxon; ankaux la sxafaroj turmentigxas.

19 Al Vi, ho Eternulo, mi vokas; cxar fajro ekstermis la herbejojn de la stepo, kaj flamo bruldifektis cxiujn arbojn de la kampo.

20 Ecx la bestoj de la kampo sopiras al Vi; cxar elsekigxis la torentoj da akvo, kaj fajro ekstermis la herbejojn de la stepo.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #58

  
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58. The state of consummation of the Israelitish Church is described in both the historical parts of the Word, and its prophetic parts: in the prophetic, by the atrocious deeds of the kings, first of those of the Israelites, and afterwards of those of the Jews, by whom and under whom the land is said to have been profaned. But it is needless to recite them, because they are well known; only those passages from the prophetic parts shall be adduced in which the consummation and devastation of that Church are treated of. In these passages by "earth" and "land," "Zion," "Jerusalem," "cities," "mountains," "hills," "valleys," and "rivers," similar things are signified as above (n. 55). The following are from the prophetic parts of the Word:

[2] I saw the earth, and behold it was empty and void; and towards the heavens, and their light was not.... I saw, when, behold, Carmel 1 was a desert, and all the cities were desolated at the presence of Jehovah.... For thus hath Jehovah said, The whole land shall be wasteness, yet will I not make a consummation. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be blackened.

Thou, therefore, that art vastated, what wilt thou do? (Jer. 4:23-31; 5:10, 18).

The lion hath come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations... hath gone forth from his place, to reduce the land to a waste.... In that day... the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished (Jer. 4:7, 9).

In that day, every place where there were a thousand vines shall be... for thorns and briars,... because all the land shall be thorns and briars (Isa. 7:23-24).

A voice of the cry of the shepherds and... of the powerful ones of the flock, for Jehovah layeth waste their pastures: whence the sheepfolds of peace were devastated. Jehovah hath forsaken His tabernacle, for their land was reduced to a desolation (Jer. 25:36-38).

This house shall be like Shiloh, and Jerusalem shall be a devastation (Jer. 26:9; 27:17).

Jerusalem, and all the cities of Judah, shall be a desolation and a devastation in this day, because of the wickedness of your works; . . . your land is become a desolation, an astonishment and a curse (Jer. 44:2, 6, 22).

I will give the land to devastation, because they have committed transgression (Ezek. 15:8).

They shall be devastated in the midst of the devastated lands, and her cities in the midst of the desolated cities.... Then I will make the rivers drought,... the land into the hand of the evil, and I will vastate the land and the fulness thereof (Ezek. 30:7, 12).

When I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and will make the stars thereof black. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine;... and I will set darkness upon the land... when I shall bring on thy breaking up (Ezek. 32:7-9);

in like manner as the Lord foretold concerning the consummation of the present Christian Church (Matt. 24:29).

[3] I will give Mount Seir to wasteness and to devastation.... I will make thee the wastes of eternity... (Ezek. 35:3-4, 7, 9, 12, 14-15).

In that day they shall bring up a proverb against you... and say, In vastating we are vastated (Micah 2:4).

Fear and the pit have taken hold of us, devastation and breaking up (Lam. 3:47).

The mountain of Zion is vastated (Lam. 5:18).

Thine iniquity is consummated, O daughter of Zion (Lam. 4:22).

Woe to the sinful nation, heavy with iniquity;... they have provoked the Holy One of Israel.... From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness;... your land is a solitude.... The daughter of Zion is left as a tent in a vineyard, as a besieged city (Isa. 1:4-8, and following verses).

What will ye do in the day of visitation and devastation? Consummation is finished, justice is overwhelmed; for the Lord Jehovih is making a consummation and decision in the whole land (Isa. 10:3, etc., Isa. 10:22-23).

I have heard a consummation and decision from the Lord Jehovih of hosts in the whole land (Isa. 28:22).

The prophet fell upon his face, and said, Lord Jehovih! Thou art making a consummation with the remnants of Israel (Ezek. 11:13).

My sanctuary was profaned, and the land of Israel was devastated (Ezek. 25:3).

Were even Noah, Daniel and Job in the midst of it,... they only shall be delivered, but the land shall become a desolation (Ezek. 14:14, 16).

[4] The completion of the consummation of the Israelitish and Jewish Church was accomplished when the Lord our Saviour, after receiving the sponge of vinegar, cried out upon the cross,

It is consummated (John 19:29-30);

for it is said in David:

They gave gall for My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink:... let their habitation be devastated (Psalm 69:21, 25).

And in another place:

Without cause have they hid for Me the pit of the net; without cause have they digged for My soul. Let devastation come upon him before he is aware;... let him fall into devastation. Rescue My soul from their devastators, and My only one,-that is, the Church-from the lions' whelps (Psalm 35:7-8, 17).

I will make Jerusalem heaps, a habitation of dragons; I will reduce the cities of Judah to a waste;... behold, I am feeding them, even this people, with wormwood, and I will give them waters of gall to drink (Jer. 9:11-15).

Full consummation, after this, is described in Hosea thus:

The sons of Israel shall sit many days: no king, no prince, no sacrifice, no image, no ephod, and no teraphim (Hosea 3:4).

Such is their state at the present day. There is no need to adduce more passages. The passages in which the vastation, desolation and consummation of this Church are further mentioned, shall be only named: as, for example, Isa. 9:13-21; 22:4-14: Jer. 7:31-34; 25:33; 47:4: Ezek. 13:14-15; 14:8, 15; 19:7; 25:12-13; 26:2; 29:9-10, 12; 32:12, 15: Joel 1:15-20; 2:3; 3:19: Nahum 1:8-9: Zeph. 1:15; 2:9: Lam. 1:16: Psalm 73:17-19; 74:3.

The devastated are also called "thrust through" 2 (Ezek. 11:6-7; 21:30, 34; 26:6; 28:8, 23; 31:17-18; 32:20-24, 28-32; 35:8: Zeph. 2:12: Lam. 4:9: Psalm 69:27: and in other places). They are said to be "thrust through" because a "sword," by which this is done, signifies falsity destroying truth.

Footnotes:

1. See R.V. margin.

2. In most of these passages our ordinary Bibles have "slain"; but Young's Literal Translation of the Bible has "pierced," which, of course, is the same as "thrust through."

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

The Bible

 

Jeremiah 10

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1 Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel!

2 Thus says Yahweh, "Don't learn the way of the nations, and don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them.

3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move.

5 They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

6 There is none like you, Yahweh; you are great, and your name is great in might.

7 Who should not fear you, King of the nations? For it appertains to you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you.

8 But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock.

9 There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men.

10 But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation.

11 You shall say this to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.

12 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens:

13 when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries.

14 Every man is become brutish [and is] without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

15 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

16 The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.

17 Gather up your wares out of the land, you who live under siege.

18 For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel [it].

19 Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is [my] grief, and I must bear it.

20 My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

21 For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Yahweh: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.

22 The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals.

23 Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

24 Yahweh, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you, and on the families that don't call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

   

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