The Bible

 

Hesekiel 44

Study

   

1 Und er führete mich wiederum zu dem Tor des äußern Heiligtums gegen Morgen; es war aber zugeschlossen.

2 Und der HERR sprach zu mir: Dies Tor soll zugeschlossen bleiben und nicht aufgetan werden; und soll niemand da durch gehen, ohne allein der HERR, der Gott Israels, soll dadurchgehen; und soll zugeschlossen bleiben.

3 Doch den Fürsten ausgenommen; denn der Fürst soll darunter sitzen, das Brot zu essen vor dem HERRN; durch die Halle soll er hineingehen und durch dieselbige wieder herausgehen.

4 Danach führete er mich zum Tor gegen Mitternacht vor das Haus; und ich sah, und siehe, des HERRN Haus ward voll der HERRLIchkeit des HERRN; und ich fiel auf mein Angesicht.

5 Und der HERR sprach zu mir: Du Menschenkind, merke eben darauf und siehe und höre fleißig auf alles, was ich dir sagen will von allen Sitten und Gesetzen im Hause des HERRN; und merke eben, wie man hineingehen soll, und auf alle Ausgänge des Heiligtums.

6 Und sage dem ungehorsamen Hause Israel: So spricht der HERR HERR: Ihr macht's zu viel, ihr vom Hause Israel, mit allen euren Greueln;

7 denn ihr führet fremde Leute, eines unbeschnittenen Herzens und unbeschnittenen Fleisches, in mein Heiligtum, dadurch ihr mein Haus entheiliget, wenn ihr mein Brot, Fettes und Blut opfert, und brechet also meinen Bund mit allen euren Greueln

8 und haltet die Sitten meines Heiligtums nicht, sondern macht euch selbst neue Sitten in meinem Heiligtum.

9 Darum spricht der HERR HERR also: Es soll kein Fremder eines unbeschnittenen Herzens und unbeschnittenen Fleisches in mein Heiligtum kommen aus allen Fremdlingen, so unter den Kindern Israel sind,

10 ja, auch nicht die Leviten, die von mir gewichen sind und samt Israel von mir irregegangen nach ihren Götzen. Darum sollen sie ihre Sünde tragen.

11 Sie sollen aber in meinem Heiligtum an den Ämtern, den Türen des Hauses und dem Hause dienen und sollen nur das Brandopfer und andere Opfer, so das Volk herzubringet, schlachten und vor den Priestern stehen, daß sie ihnen dienen.

12 Darum daß sie jenen gedienet vor ihren Götzen und dem Hause Israel ein Ärgernis zur Sünde gegeben haben, darum hab ich meine Hand über sie ausgestreckt, spricht der HERR HERR, daß sie müssen ihre Sünde tragen.

13 Und sollen nicht zu mir nahen, Priesteramt zu führen, noch kommen zu einigem meinem Heiligtum, zu dem Allerheiligsten, sondern sollen ihre Schande tragen und ihre Greuel, die sie geübt haben.

14 Darum hab ich sie zu Hütern gemacht an allem Dienst des Hauses und zu allem, das man drin tun soll.

15 Aber die Priester aus den Leviten, die Kinder Zadoks, so die Sitten meines Heiligtums gehalten haben, da die Kinder Israel von mir abfielen, die sollen vor mich treten und mir dienen und vor mir stehen, daß sie mir das Fette und Blut opfern, spricht der HERR HERR.

16 Und sie sollen hineingehen in mein Heiligtum und vor meinen Tisch treten, mir zu dienen und meine Sitten zu halten.

17 Und wenn sie durch die Tore des innern Vorhofs gehen wollen, sollen sie leinene Kleider anziehen und nichts Wollenes anhaben, weil sie in den Toren im innern Vorhofe dienen.

18 Und sollen leinenen Schmuck auf ihrem Haupt haben und leinen Niederkleid um ihre Lenden; und sollen sich nicht im Schweiß gürten.

19 Und wenn sie etwa zu einem äußern Vorhof zum Volk herausgehen, sollen sie die Kleider, darin sie gedienet haben, ausziehen und dieselben in die Kammern des Heiligtums legen und andere Kleider anziehen und das Volk nicht heiligen in ihren eigenen Kleidern.

20 Ihr Haupt sollen sie nicht bescheren und sollen auch nicht die Haare frei wachsen lassen, sondern sollen die Haare umher verschneiden.

21 Und soll auch kein Priester keinen Wein trinken, wenn sie in den innern Vorhof gehen sollen.

22 Und sollen keine Witwe noch Verstoßene zur Ehe nehmen, sondern Jungfrauen vom Samen des Hauses Israel, oder eines Priesters nachgelassene Witwe.

23 Und sie sollen mein Volk lehren, daß sie wissen Unterschied zu halten zwischen Heiligem und Unheiligem und zwischen Reinem und Unreinem.

24 Und wo eine Sache vor sie kommt, sollen sie stehen und richten und nach meinen Rechten sprechen und meine Gebote und Sitten halten und alle meine Feste halten und meine Sabbate heiligen.

25 Und sollen zu keinem Toten gehen und sich verunreinigen, ohne allein zu Vater und Mutter, Sohn oder Tochter, Bruder oder Schwester, die noch keinen Mann gehabt habe; über denen mögen sie sich verunreinigen.

26 Und nach seiner Reinigung soll man ihm zählen sieben Tage.

27 Und wenn er wieder hinein zum Heiligtum gehet in den innern Vorhof, daß er im Heiligtum diene, so soll er sein Sündopfer opfern, spricht der HERR HERR.

28 Aber das Erbteil, das sie haben sollen, das will ich selbst sein. Darum sollt ihr ihnen kein eigen Land geben in Israel; denn ich bin ihr Erbteil.

29 Sie sollen ihre Nahrung haben vom Speisopfer, Sündopfer und Schuldopfer, und alles Verbannte in Israel soll ihr sein.

30 Und alle ersten Früchte und Erstgeburt von allen Hebopfern sollen der Priester sein. Ihr sollt auch den Priestern die Erstlinge geben von allem, das man isset, damit der Segen in deinem Hause bleibe.

31 Was aber ein Aas oder zerrissen ist, es sei von Vögeln oder Tieren, das sollen die Priester nicht essen.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #5247

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

5247. 'And he clipped [his hair and beard]' means a casting aside and the change made so far as the coverings of the exterior natural were concerned. This is clear from the meaning of 'clipping' - that is, clipping the head and beard - as casting aside the coverings of the exterior natural. For 'hair' which was clipped means the exterior natural, see 3301. Also, both hair on the head and that composing the beard correspond in the Grand Man to the exterior natural. This explains why in the light of heaven sensory-minded people - that is, those who have had no belief in anything apart from that which is natural, and have had no desire to understand how anything more internal or purer can exist apart from that which they can perceive with their senses - have a hairy appearance in the next life. They look so hairy that their faces are scarcely anything else than hairy beards. I have seen faces covered with hair like these on many occasions. But rationally-minded people, that is, spiritually-minded ones, with whom the natural has played a correctly subordinate role, are seen with tidy hair. Indeed from the state of people's hair in the next life one can tell what the natural with them is like. The reason spirits appear with hair on their heads is that in the next life spirits look exactly like people on earth. This too is why the Word sometimes includes a description of the hair of the angels people have seen.

[2] From all this one may now see what is meant by 'clipping', as in Ezekiel,

The priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, shall put off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments, and they shall not sanctify the people in their own garments. And they shall not shave their head and shall not let their hair grow long; they shall surely clip their heads. Ezekiel 44:15, 19-20.

This refers to a new Temple and a new priesthood, that is, to a new Church. 'Putting on other garments' means holy truths; 'not shaving their head, and not letting their hair grow long, but surely clipping their heads' means not casting aside the natural but taking measures to make it conformable, and so to make it subordinate. Anyone who believes that the Word is indeed holy can see that these and all the other details mentioned by the prophet which describe a new land, a new city, and a new Temple and priesthood must not be taken literally. The statement, for example, that the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, will minister there, at which time they will put off their ministerial garments and put on new ones, and will also clip their heads, is not meant literally; rather, each and all the details given by the prophet have as their meaning such things as are aspects of a new Church.

[3] The following rules were laid down for the high priest, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, in Moses,

The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated 1 to wear the garments, shall not shave his head or rend his garments. Leviticus 21:10.

The sons of Aaron shall not introduce any baldness on their head or shave the corner of their beard. They shall be holy to their God, and they shall not profane the name of their God. Leviticus 21:5-6.

You shall purify the Levites like this: Sprinkle over them the water of expiation, and they shall pass a razor over their flesh and wash their garments, and they shall be pure. Numbers 8:7.

These rules would never have been given unless they had held holy ideas within them. Can there be anything holy or anything of the Church in the actual rule forbidding the high priest to shave his head or rend his garments, or in the actual rule forbidding the sons of Levi to introduce any baldness on their head or shave the corner of their beard, or in that commanding the Levites to shave their flesh with a razor when they underwent purification? Rather, the possession of an external or natural man made subordinate to the internal or spiritual man, both of which have thereby been made subordinate to the Divine, is the holy idea within those rules; and it is also what angels perceive when man reads about them in the Word.

[4] The same goes for what is said about a Nazirite who was holy to Jehovah. If someone next to him happened to die suddenly and so defile his consecrated head, the Nazirite was required to clip his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he had to clip it. On the day that the days of his Naziriteship were completed he had to clip his consecrated head at the door of the Tent of Meeting and to take the hair from his head and put it on the fire which was under the sacrifice of peace offerings, Numbers 6:8, 9, 13, 18. For the meaning of a Nazirite and what aspect of holiness he represented, see 3301. No one can possibly understand why anything holy existed within the Nazirite's hair unless he knows from correspondence what is meant by 'the hair' and from this what aspect of holiness a Nazirite's hair corresponded to. Nor can anyone likewise understand how the source of Samson's strength lay in his hair, which he told Delilah about in the following description,

No razor has come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite of God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, my strength will depart from me, and I shall become weak and be like anyone else. And Delilah called a man who shaved off the seven locks of his hair; and his strength departed from him. After that, when the hair on his head began to grow, even as it had been shaved off, his strength returned to him. Judges 16:17, 19, 22.

Without any knowledge of correspondence who can see that the Lord's Divine Natural was represented by 'a Nazirite', or that 'Naziriteship' had no other meaning than this, or that Samson's strength was due to that representation?

[5] Anyone who does not know, and more so one who does not believe that the Word has an internal sense, and that the sense of the letter serves to represent the real things contained in the internal sense, will recognize scarcely anything holy at all in these matters, when in fact the greatest holiness lies within them. Anyone who does not know, and more so one who does not believe that the Word has an internal sense that is intrinsically holy cannot know what the following texts enfold within them: In Jeremiah,

Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. Cut off the hair of your Naziriteship and throw it away. Jeremiah 7:28-29.

In Isaiah,

On that day the Lord will shave by means of a razor hired at the crossing-places of the River - by means of the king of Asshur - the head and the hair of the feet; and it will consume the beard also. Isaiah 7:20.

In Micah,

Make yourself bald, and shave your head for the children of your delight; extend your baldness like an eagle, for they have departed from you. Micah 1:16.

Nor will anyone know the aspect of holiness contained in the reference to Elijah's being a man covered with hair, who wore a skin girdle around his loins, 2 Kings 1:8. Nor will he know why the children who called Elisha baldhead were torn apart by the bears out of the forest, 2 Kings 2:23-24.

[6] Both Elijah and Elisha represented the Lord as to the Word, and so represented the Word itself, specifically the prophetical part, see Preface to Genesis 18, and 2762. Being covered with hair and having a skin girdle meant the literal sense, 'a man covered with hair' meaning that sense so far as truths were concerned, 'wearing a skin girdle around his loins' so far as forms of good were concerned. For the literal sense is the natural sense of the Word since it employs ideas formed from things that exist in the world, whereas the internal sense is the spiritual sense because it employs ideas formed from things existing in heaven. These two senses are related to each other in the way that the internal and the external are related in the human being. But because the internal can have no existence without the external, the external being the last and lowest degree of order within which the internal is held in being, the calling of Elisha 'baldhead' therefore meant the shameful accusation made against the Word that it lacked so to speak an external and so lacked a sense suited to man's capacity to understand it.

[7] From all this one may see that every particular detail in the Word is holy. However, this holiness within the Word is discerned by no one unless he is acquainted with the internal sense; yet an inkling of it flows from heaven into someone who believes that the Word is holy. The internal sense known to the angels is the channel through which that influx comes; and even if the person has no understanding of that sense it nevertheless stimulates an affection in him, because the affection felt by the angels who know that sense is communicated to him. From this it is also evident that the Word was given to man so that he might have a means of communication with heaven and so that by flowing into him Divine Truth in heaven might stimulate affection in him.

Footnotes:

1. literally, whose hand has been filled

  
/ 10837  
  

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