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lamentations 3

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1 Minä olen se mies, joka olen kurjuutta nähnyt hänen vihastuksensa vitsan alla.

2 Minut hän on johdattanut ja kuljettanut pimeyteen eikä valkeuteen.

3 Juuri minua vastaan hän kääntää kätensä, yhäti, kaiken päivää.

4 Hän on kalvanut minun lihani ja nahkani, musertanut minun luuni.

5 Hän on rakentanut varustukset minua vastaan ja piirittänyt minut myrkyllä ja vaivalla.

6 Hän on pannut minut asumaan pimeydessä niinkuin ikiaikojen kuolleet.

7 Hän on tehnyt muurin minun ympärilleni, niin etten pääse ulos, on pannut minut raskaisiin vaskikahleisiin.

8 Vaikka minä huudan ja parun, hän vaientaa minun rukoukseni.

9 Hakatuista kivistä hän on tehnyt minun teilleni muurin, on mutkistanut minun polkuni.

10 Vaaniva karhu on hän minulle, piilossa väijyvä leijona.

11 Hän on vienyt harhaan minun tieni ja repinyt minut kappaleiksi, hän on minut autioksi tehnyt.

12 Hän on jännittänyt jousensa ja asettanut minut nuoltensa maalitauluksi.

13 Hän on ampunut munuaisiini nuolet, viinensä lapset.

14 Minä olen joutunut koko kansani nauruksi, heidän jokapäiväiseksi pilkkalauluksensa.

15 Hän on ravinnut minua katkeruudella, juottanut minua koiruoholla.

16 Hän on purettanut minulla hampaat rikki soraan, painanut minut alas tomuun.

17 Sinä olet syössyt minun sieluni ulos, rauhasta pois, minä olen unhottanut onnen.

18 Ja minä sanon: mennyt on minulta kunnia ja Herran odotus.

19 Muista minun kurjuuttani ja kodittomuuttani, koiruohoa ja myrkkyä.

20 Sinä kyllä muistat sen, että minun sieluni on alaspainettu.

21 Tämän minä painan sydämeeni, sentähden minä toivon.

22 Herran armoa on, ettemme ole aivan hävinneet, sillä hänen laupeutensa ei ole loppunut:

23 se on joka aamu uusi, ja suuri on hänen uskollisuutensa.

24 Minun osani on Herra, sanoo minun sieluni; sentähden minä panen toivoni häneen.

25 Hyvä on Herra häntä odottaville, sille sielulle, joka häntä etsii.

26 Hyvä on hiljaisuudessa toivoa Herran apua.

27 Hyvä on miehelle, että hän kantaa iestä nuoruudessaan.

28 Istukoon hän yksin ja hiljaa, kun Herra on sen hänen päällensä pannut.

29 Laskekoon suunsa tomuun-ehkä on vielä toivoa.

30 Ojentakoon hän posken sille, joka häntä lyö, saakoon kyllälti häväistystä.

31 Sillä ei Herra hylkää iankaikkisesti;

32 vaan jos hän on murheelliseksi saattanut, hän osoittaa laupeutta suuressa armossansa.

33 Sillä ei hän sydämensä halusta vaivaa eikä murehduta ihmislapsia.

34 Kun jalkojen alle poljetaan kaikki vangit maassa,

35 kun väännetään miehen oikeutta Korkeimman kasvojen edessä,

36 kun ihmiselle tehdään vääryyttä hänen riita-asiassaan-eikö Herra sitä näkisi?

37 Onko kukaan sanonut, ja se on tapahtunut, jos ei Herra ole käskenyt?

38 Eikö lähde Korkeimman suusta paha ja hyvä?

39 Miksi tuskittelee ihminen eläessään, mies syntiensä palkkaa?

40 Koetelkaamme teitämme, tutkikaamme niitä ja palatkaamme Herran tykö.

41 Kohottakaamme sydämemme ynnä kätemme Jumalan puoleen, joka on taivaassa.

42 Me olemme luopuneet pois ja olleet kapinalliset; sinä et ole antanut anteeksi,

43 olet peittänyt itsesi vihassasi, ajanut meitä takaa, surmannut säälimättä;

44 olet peittänyt itsesi pilvellä, niin ettei rukous pääse lävitse.

45 Tunkioksi ja hylyksi sinä olet meidät tehnyt kansojen seassa.

46 Suut ammollaan meitä vastaan ovat kaikki meidän vihamiehemme.

47 Osaksemme on tullut kauhu ja kuoppa, turmio ja sortuminen.

48 Vesipurot juoksevat minun silmistäni tyttären, minun kansani, sortumisen tähden.

49 Minun silmäni vuotaa lakkaamatta, hellittämättä

50 siihen asti, kunnes katsoo, kunnes näkee Herra taivaasta.

51 Silmäni tuottaa tuskaa minun sielulleni kaikkien minun kaupunkini tyttärien tähden.

52 Kiihkeästi pyydystivät minua kuin lintua ne, jotka syyttä ovat vihamiehiäni.

53 He sulkivat kuoppaan minun elämäni ja heittivät päälleni kiviä.

54 Vedet tulvivat minun pääni ylitse; minä sanoin: olen hukassa.

55 Minä huusin sinun nimeäsi, Herra, kuopan syvyydestä.

56 Sinä kuulit minun huutoni: "Älä peitä korvaasi minun avunhuudoltani, että saisin hengähtää".

57 Sinä olit läsnä silloin, kun minä sinua huusin; sinä sanoit: "Älä pelkää".

58 Sinä, Herra, ajoit minun riita-asiani, lunastit minun henkeni.

59 Olethan nähnyt, Herra, minun kärsimäni sorron: hanki minulle oikeus.

60 Olethan nähnyt kaiken heidän kostonhimonsa, kaikki heidän juonensa minua vastaan.

61 Sinä olet kuullut heidän häväistyksensä, Herra, kaikki heidän juonensa minua vastaan.

62 Minun vastustajaini huulet ja heidän aikeensa ovat minua vastaan kaiken päivää.

63 Istuivatpa he tai nousivat, katso: minä olen heillä pilkkalauluna.

64 Kosta heille, Herra, heidän kättensä teot.

65 Paaduta heidän sydämensä, kohdatkoon heitä sinun kirouksesi.

66 Aja heitä takaa vihassasi ja hävitä heidät Herran taivaan alta.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8941

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8941. 'You shall not build it with hewn ones' means that it must not be a product of self-intelligence. This is clear from the meaning of 'hewn stones' as the kinds of things which are products of self-intelligence, for 'stones' are truths, 8940, and chiselling or shaping them means producing or fashioning truths, or rather notions made to look like truths, out of the self, that is, out of self-intelligence. For the life in anything produced or fashioned by the self or self-intelligence is derived from the person; and such life is not life at all since the human self or proprium is nothing but evil, 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 987, 1047, 5660, 5786, 8480, whereas what is not derived from the self but from God does have life within it, since God is the source of all life. The subject here is worship of the Lord that springs from truth, for that kind of worship is meant by 'an altar of stones', 8940. .

[2] Truths that inspire worship of the Lord should be derived from nowhere other than the Word; for in every single part the Word has life from God. When truths are derived from the self they have as their end in view rank and prominence over everyone in the world, and also earthly possessions and wealth above everyone. Consequently they hold within them self-love and love of the world, thus all evils in their entirety, 7488, 8318. But truths derived from the Word have eternal life as their end in view; they hold within them love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, thus all forms of good in their entirety. When truths are produced out of the self or self-intelligence they are the masters over the truths which come from God; for they employ the latter to add strength to themselves. But it ought to be the other way round, that is to say, the truths from God ought to be the masters, and those that are products of self-intelligence to be the servants. Products of the self or self-intelligence are called truths, but they are not really truths; they look like truths solely to outward appearances. For the literal sense of the Word is employed, and reasonings are brought in, to make them look like truths; but inwardly they are falsities. What these things are exactly, and what they are like, see above in 8932.

[3] In the world there are two semblances of religion that exist as a result of self-intelligence. One is that in which self-love and love of the world is everything; in the Word this semblance of religion is called Babel. Inwardly it is profane on account of self-love and love of the world, while outwardly it is holy on account of the Word, which people have employed to add strength to their own ideas. The other semblance of religion is that in which the inferior light of the natural order is everything. Those with this kind of religion acknowledge nothing to be true which they do not apprehend. Some belonging to this seeming religion acknowledge the Word, yet they employ it to add strength to their own ideas; thus they treat it as their servant. Others however do not acknowledge the Word; instead they identify the Divine with the natural order. For the light in which they see, being the inferior light of the natural order, shines only within the natural order and cannot be made brighter by the superior light of heaven, because they cast aside the Word, the source of all enlightenment. Those belonging to both the latter and the former semblances of religion are in hell, because they are devoid of heavenly life, which they cannot receive because they have cast the Word aside. And those of them who have employed the Word to add strength to their own ideas have set no value at all on it in their hearts; yet because it has had power and authority among the common people they have used it to serve them in this way, in order that false notions fashioned by their own intelligence might thereby be validated. From all this one may see what is meant in the spiritual sense by the command that no altar of hewn stones was to be built.

[4] 'Hewn stone' means that which is a product of self-intelligence in the following places as well: In Isaiah,

In order that [all] the people may know, Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, on account of pride and arrogance of heart, saying, The bricks have fallen and we will build from hewn stone. Isaiah 9:9-10.

In Jeremiah,

Even if I cry and shout, He has shut out my prayers. He has fenced round my ways with hewn stone, He has overturned my paths. Lamentations 3:8-9.

In Amos,

Because you tread down the crushed, and seize from him the burden of grain, you will build houses of hewn stone, yet you will not dwell in them. Amos 5:11.

'Hewn stone' here stands for the kinds of things that self-intelligence produces in matters of faith.

[5] Since those things were meant by 'hewn stone', the altar first built in the land of Canaan by the children of Israel after they crossed the Jordan was built of unhewn stones; for crossing over Jordan represented introduction into the Lord's kingdom, which is accomplished by means of the truths of faith. That altar is spoken of as follows in Joshua,

Joshua built an altar to Jehovah God of Israel on Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded the children of Israel, An altar of whole stones over which no one has wielded any iron tool. 1 Joshua 8:30-31; Deuteronomy 27:1-8.

[6] The temple in Jerusalem likewise was built of whole, not hewn, stones. This is referred to in the first Book of Kings as follows,

As regards the house itself, when it was being built it was built of whole stone, as it had been brought [there]; for not a hammer or axe, [nor] any tool of iron, was heard in the house while it was being built. 1 Kings 6:7.

For by 'the temple of the Lord' was represented the Lord in respect of Divine Truth. The Lord Himself teaches that He was represented by the temple, in John 2:19, 21-22; and the reason why He was represented in respect of Divine Truth was that Divine Truth was taught there. This also was why it was built of stones; for 'stones' meant Divine Truth, 8940. And it also explains why the Lord was called 'the Stone of Israel', 6426.

[7] From all this one may now see what was meant by the stone of the altar, and also what was meant by the stone of the temple, as well as what was meant by the requirement that they were to be whole stones, and not hewn, namely this: Religion should be composed of truths derived from the Lord, thus from the Word, and not from self-intelligence. Products of self-intelligence are also described in the following way in Isaiah,

The craftsman casts a graven image, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. He seeks a skilled 2 craftsman to make ready a graven image. Isaiah 40:19-20.

'A graven image' stands for some religious fabrication that is a product of the proprium or self, put forward to be venerated as what is Divine, 8869. 'The craftsman' stands for those who from self produce and fashion things. Their attempt to make these things look like truths is described by '[a goldsmith! overlays it with gold, and casts chains made of silver' and 'he seeks a skilled craftsman'.

[8] In the same prophet,

Makers of the graven image, all are vanity. All his companions will be ashamed; and the workmen themselves ... He fashions the iron with tongs, and works it with the coals, and forms it with sharp hammers; so he makes it with his strong arm. 3 He fashions pieces of wood, stretches out a cord, and marks it off with a ruler. He makes it into its angles, and marks it out with a ring, so that he may make it in the form of a man (vir), according to the beauty of a human being, to dwell in the house. Isaiah 44:9, 11-13.

This too describes a religious fabrication that is a product of self-intelligence. Something similar occurs in Jeremiah,

The customs 4 of the nations are vanity. Since indeed one cuts out wood from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman using an axe, he decorates it with silver and gold; and they make it firm 5 with pegs and hammers. Jeremiah 10:3-4.

And also in Hosea,

Nonetheless they now sin more and more, and make for themselves a molten image from silver, idols by their own intelligence, completely the work of craftsmen. Hosea 13:2

A religious fabrication, produced out of self-intelligence and not derived from the Word, is meant in the internal sense by 'idols' and 'strange gods', by 'molten images' and 'graven images'. Products of the self are nothing else; for in themselves they are dead, even though venerated as living.

Footnotes:

1. literally, upon which he has not moved iron

2. literally, intelligent

3. lit the arm of his strength

4. lit statutes

5. The Latin means he makes firm but the Hebrew means they make firm, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.

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

The Bible

 

Deuteronomy 28

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1 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that Yahweh your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth:

2 and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

3 You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.

4 You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.

5 Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed.

6 You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out.

7 Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways.

8 Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to; and he will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

9 Yahweh will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you; if you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and walk in his ways.

10 All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of Yahweh; and they shall be afraid of you.

11 Yahweh will make you plenteous for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you.

12 Yahweh will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand: and you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow.

13 Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do [them],

14 and shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

15 But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come on you, and overtake you.

16 You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.

17 Your basket and your kneading trough shall be cursed.

18 The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock shall be cursed.

19 You shall be cursed when you come in, and you shall be cursed when you go out.

20 Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.

21 Yahweh will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it.

22 Yahweh will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish.

23 Your sky that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you shall be iron.

24 Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust: from the sky shall it come down on you, until you are destroyed.

25 Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and shall flee seven ways before them: and you shall be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 Your dead body shall be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there shall be none to frighten them away.

27 Yahweh will strike you with the boil of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed.

28 Yahweh will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart;

29 and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you.

30 You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: you shall build a house, and you shall not dwell therein: you shall plant a vineyard, and shall not use its fruit.

31 Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it: your donkey shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you: your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have none to save you.

32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people; and your eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day: and there shall be nothing in the power of your hand.

33 The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you don't know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always;

34 so that you shall be mad for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.

35 Yahweh will strike you in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, of which you can not be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

36 Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you shall set over you, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone.

37 You shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where Yahweh shall lead you away.

38 You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in; for the locust shall consume it.

39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine, nor gather [the grapes]; for the worm shall eat them.

40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olive shall cast [its fruit].

41 You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.

42 All your trees and the fruit of your ground shall the locust possess.

43 The foreigner who is in the midst of you shall mount up above you higher and higher; and you shall come down lower and lower.

44 He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him: he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

45 All these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you:

46 and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever.

47 Because you didn't serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;

48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he has destroyed you.

49 Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you shall not understand;

50 a nation of fierce facial expressions, that shall not respect the person of the old, nor show favor to the young,

51 and shall eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; that also shall not leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

52 They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which Yahweh your God has given you.

53 You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.

54 The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining;

55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates.

56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,

57 and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates.

58 If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YAHWEH YOUR GOD;

59 then Yahweh will make your plagues wonderful, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and severe sicknesses, and of long continuance.

60 He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cling to you.

61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring them on you, until you are destroyed.

62 You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

63 It shall happen that as Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and you shall be plucked from off the land where you go in to possess it.

64 Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.

65 Among these nations you shall find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot: but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul;

66 and your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.

67 In the morning you shall say, "I wish it were evening!" and at evening you shall say, "I wish it were morning!" for the fear of your heart which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.

68 Yahweh will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I said to you, You shall see it no more again: and there you shall sell yourselves to your enemies for bondservants and for bondmaids, and no man shall buy you.

   

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