The Bible

 

Ézéchiel 41:9

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9 Le mur extérieur des chambres latérales avait une épaisseur de cinq coudées. L'espace libre entre les chambres latérales de la maison

Commentary

 

Two

  

The number "two" has two different meanings in the Bible. In most cases "two" indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see if we consider the conflicts we tend to have between our "hearts" and our "heads" -- between what we want and what we know. Our "hearts" tell us that we want pie with ice cream for dinner; our "heads" tell us we should have grilled chicken and salad. If we can bring those two together and actually want what's good for us, we'll be pretty happy. We're built that way -- with our emotions balanced against our intellect -- because the Lord is built that way. His essence is love itself, or Divine Love, the source of all caring, emotion and energy. It is expressed as Divine Wisdom, which gives form to that love and puts it to work, and is the source of all knowledge and reasoning. In His case the two aspects are always in conjunction, always in harmony. It's easy also to see how that duality is reflected throughout creation: plants and animals, food and drink, silver and gold. Most importantly, it's reflected in the two genders, with women representing love and men representing wisdom. That's the underlying reason why conjunction in marriage is such a holy thing. So when "two" is used in the Bible to indicate some sort of pairing or unity, it means a joining together. In rare cases, however, "two" is used more purely as a number. In these cases it stands for a profane or unholy state that comes before a holy one. This is because "three" represents a state of holiness and completion (Jesus, for instance, rose from the tomb on the third day), and "two" represents the state just before it.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Scriptural Confirmations #53

  
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53. 25. A day of cloud and thick darkness (Ezekiel 34:12).

(I will make Mount Seir and the cities thereof into a waste and devastation, into a waste of eternity (Ezekiel 35:3-4, 7, 9, 12, 14-15).

Then the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be built (Ezekiel 36:10).

When I shall sanctify Myself among you, then I will give you a new heart, and I will give a new spirit in the midst of you and I will take away the heart of stone, and will give you a heart of flesh, and I will give a new spirit in your midst, and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God (Ezekiel 36:23, 26-28).

In the day that I have cleansed you from all your iniquities, I will make you to dwell in cities, and the waste places shall be built; they shall say, This land that was devastated is become as the garden of Eden, and the desolate and devastated cities are fortified and inhabited (Ezekiel 36:33-38).

Behold I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people, and I will lead you upon the land of Israel, and I will put my spirit in you that ye may live (Ezekiel 37:12-14). Concerning the dry bones: by the inflowing of the breath among them, and their living again, regeneration is described.

After many days thou shalt be visited, and in the latter days they shall come upon the land that was made a waste (Ezekiel 38:8, 16).

They shall bury Gog in the day in which I shall be glorified (Ezekiel 39:11-12, 13). Gog is one who is in external worship, but not in internal.

Of the great sacrifices upon the mountains of Israel, and that thus He will set His glory among the nations that they may know that Jehovah is their God from that day, and hence-forward (Ezekiel 39:17-22).

Of the New Church which is described by many things in Ezekiel 40-48: of the city which is the New Jerusalem, and of its gates (40): of the temple, etc. (41): of the court and of the chambers there (42): of the eastern gate where the glory of the God of Israel is seen, and of His worship (43): next of His worship and of ministration (44): of the statutes for the prince (45, 46): of waters from the house (47) of the allotment of the land according to tribes (47, 48). That the name of the city is, Jehovah there (48:35).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.