The Bible

 

Genesis 11

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1 Kogu maailmas oli aga üks keel ja ühesugused sõnad.

2 Ja sündis, kui nad hommiku poolt teele läksid, et nad Sinearimaal leidsid oru ja jäid sinna elama.

3 Nad ütlesid üksteisele: 'Tehkem nüüd telliskive ja põletagem neid hästi.' Siis olid telliskivid neile ehituskivideks ja maapigi oli sideaineks.

4 Ja nad ütlesid: 'Tulge, ehitagem enestele linn ja torn, mille tipp oleks taevas, ja tehkem enestele nimi, et me ei hajuks üle kogu maailma!'

5 Aga Issand tuli alla vaatama linna ja torni, mida inimlapsed ehitasid.

6 Ja Issand ütles: 'Vaata, rahvas on üks ja neil kõigil on üks keel, ja see on alles nende tegude algus. Nüüd ei ole neil võimatu ükski asi, mida nad kavatsevad teha!

7 Mingem nüüd alla ja segagem seal nende keel, et nad üksteise keelt ei mõistaks!'

8 Ja Issand pillutas nad sealt üle kogu maailma ja nad jätsid linna ehitamata.

9 Seepärast pandi sellele nimeks Paabel, sest seal segas Issand ära kogu maailma keele ja sealt pillutas Issand nad üle kogu maailma.

10 Need olid Seemi järeltulijad: kui Seem oli sada aastat vana, siis sündis temale Arpaksad kaks aastat pärast veeuputust.

11 Ja Seem elas pärast Arpaksadi sündimist viissada aastat, ja temale sündis poegi ja tütreid.

12 Kui Arpaksad oli elanud kolmkümmend viis aastat, siis sündis temale Selah.

13 Ja Arpaksad elas pärast Selahi sündimist nelisada kolm aastat, ja temale sündis poegi ja tütreid.

14 Kui Selah oli elanud kolmkümmend aastat, siis sündis temale Eeber.

15 Ja Selah elas pärast Eeberi sündimist nelisada kolm aastat, ja temale sündis poegi ja tütreid.

16 Kui Eeber oli elanud kolmkümmend neli aastat, siis sündis temale Peleg.

17 Ja Eeber elas pärast Pelegi sündimist nelisada kolmkümmend aastat, ja temale sündis poegi ja tütreid.

18 Kui Peleg oli elanud kolmkümmend aastat, siis sündis temale Reu.

19 Ja Peleg elas pärast Reu sündimist kakssada üheksa aastat, ja temale sündis poegi ja tütreid.

20 Kui Reu oli elanud kolmkümmend kaks aastat, siis sündis temale Serug.

21 Ja Reu elas pärast Serugi sündimist kakssada seitse aastat, ja temale sündis poegi ja tütreid.

22 Kui Serug oli elanud kolmkümmend aastat, siis sündis temale Naahor.

23 Ja Serug elas pärast Naahori sündimist kakssada aastat, ja temale sündis poegi ja tütreid.

24 Kui Naahor oli elanud kakskümmend üheksa aastat, siis sündis temale Terah.

25 Ja Naahor elas pärast Terahi sündimist sada üheksateist aastat, ja temale sündis poegi ja tütreid.

26 Kui Terah oli elanud seitsekümmend aastat, siis sündisid temale Aabram, Naahor ja Haaran.

27 Ja need olid Terahi järeltulijad: Terahile sündisid Aabram, Naahor ja Haaran; ja Haaranile sündis Lott.

28 Aga Haaran suri enne kui ta isa Terah oma sünnimaal Kaldea Uuris.

29 Ja Aabram ja Naahor võtsid enestele naised; Aabrami naise nimi oli Saarai ja Naahori naise nimi oli Milka, Haarani tütar; Haaran oli Milka ja Jiska isa.

30 Aga Saarai oli viljatu, temal ei olnud last.

31 Ja Terah võttis oma poja Aabrami ja Haarani poja Loti, oma pojapoja, ja Saarai, oma minia, oma poja Aabrami naise, ja lahkus koos nendega Kaldea Uurist, et minna Kaananimaale; ja nad jõudsid Haaranini ning jäid sinna elama.

32 Ja Terahi elupäevi oli kakssada viis aastat, ja Terah suri Haaranis.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #754

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754. There are various ways in which a church comes to an end. It happens principally through circumstances which cause falsity to look like truth; and when this happens, the good which is inherently good, what is called spiritual good, can no longer exist. What is then believed to be good is only natural good, the product of a moral life. The reason for truth coming to an end, and good with it, is principally the two natural loves which are diametrically opposed to the two spiritual loves; these are called self-love and love of the world. When self-love is dominant, it is the opposite of love to God; and when the love of the world is dominant, it is the opposite of love towards the neighbour. Self-love is wishing well to no one but oneself, except for selfish reasons; and likewise the love of the world. Once those loves have got a grip, they spread like mortification through the body, and stage by stage destroy every part of it. It is clear that such a love attacked past churches from the description of Babylon (Genesis 11:1-9; Isaiah 13, 14, 47; Jeremiah 50; and in Daniel 2:31-47; 3:1-7ff; and Daniel 5; 6:8-end; Daniel 7:1-14; and in Revelation 17, 18, both from beginning to end). In the end, Babylon vaunted itself so much that it not only transferred to itself the Lord's Divine power, but also did its best to attract to itself all the riches of the world.

[2] Omens and far from misleading appearances allow us to conclude that outside Babylon similar loves would have broken out from many of the leaders of churches, had not their power been checked and so limited. What else might be expected but that such a person would look upon himself as God, the world as heaven, and pervert all the church's truth? For real truth, which is inherently true, cannot be known and acknowledged by a purely natural person; nor can God impart it to him, because it turns upside down and becomes falsity. As well as those two loves there are many more causes for truth and good coming to an end, and so causing the end of churches; but these are secondary causes, subordinate to the two mentioned.

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

The Bible

 

Jeremiah 50

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1 The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 Declare among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don't conceal: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed; her images are disappointed, her idols are dismayed.

3 For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and animal.

4 In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Yahweh their God.

5 They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, [saying], Come, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.

6 My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.

7 All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh, the habitation of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers.

8 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the male goats before the flocks.

9 For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain.

10 Chaldea shall be a prey: all who prey on her shall be satisfied, says Yahweh.

11 Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out [the grain], and neigh as strong horses;

12 your mother shall be utterly disappointed; she who bore you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13 Because of the wrath of Yahweh she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

14 Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against Yahweh.

15 Shout against her all around: she has submitted herself; her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh: take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her.

16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land.

17 Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.

18 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

19 I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.

20 In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.

21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: kill and utterly destroy after them, says Yahweh, and do according to all that I have commanded you.

22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut apart and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

24 I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren't aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have striven against Yahweh.

25 Yahweh has opened his armory, and has brought forth the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a work [to do] in the land of the Chaldeans.

26 Come against her from the utmost border; open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left.

27 Kill all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

28 The voice of those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple.

29 Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow; encamp against her all around; let none of it escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.

30 Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her men of war will be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh.

31 Behold, I am against you, you proud one, says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies; for your day has come, the time that I will visit you.

32 The proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are around him.

33 Thus says Yahweh of Armies: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; and all who took them captive hold them fast; they refuse to let them go.

34 Their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of Armies is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 A sword is on the Chaldeans, says Yahweh, and on the inhabitants of Babylon, and on her princes, and on her wise men.

36 A sword is on the boasters, and they shall become fools; a sword is on her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed.

37 A sword is on their horses, and on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is on her treasures, and they shall be robbed.

38 A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.

39 Therefore the wild animals of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be lived in from generation to generation.

40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, so shall no man dwell there, neither shall any son of man live therein.

41 Behold, a people comes from the north; and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

42 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon.

43 The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, [and] pangs as of a woman in travail.

44 Behold, [the enemy] shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who can stand before me?

45 Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.

46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembles, and the cry is heard among the nations.