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Hesekiel 39

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1 Und du, Menschenkind, weissage wider Gog und sprich: Also spricht der HERR HERR: Siehe, ich will an dich, Gog, der du der oberste Fürst bist in Mesech und Thubal.

2 Siehe, ich will dich herumlenken und locken und aus den Enden von Mitternacht bringen und auf die Berge Israels kommen lassen.

3 Und ich will dir den Bogen aus deiner linken Hand schlagen und deine Pfeile aus deiner rechten Hand werfen.

4 Auf den Bergen Israels sollst du niedergelegt werden, du mit allem deinem Heer und mit dem Volk, das bei dir ist. Ich will dich den Vögeln, woher sie fliegen, und den Tieren auf dem Felde zu fressen geben.

5 Du sollst auf dem Felde darniederliegen; denn ich, der HERR HERR, habe es gesagt.

6 Und ich will Feuer werfen über Magog und über die, so in den Inseln sicher wohnen; und sollen's erfahren, daß ich der HERR bin.

7 Denn ich will meinen heiligen Namen kundmachen unter meinem Volk Israel und will meinen heiligen Namen nicht länger schänden lassen; sondern die Heiden sollen erfahren, daß ich der HERR bin, der Heilige in Israel.

8 Siehe, es ist gekommen und ist geschehen, spricht der HERR HERR; das ist der Tag, davon ich geredet habe.

9 Und die Bürger in den Städten Israels werden herausgehen und Feuer machen und verbrennen die Waffen, Schilde, Tartschen, Bogen, Pfeile, Keulen und langen Spieße; und sie werden sieben Jahre lang Feuer damit machen,

10 daß sie nicht müssen Holz auf dem Felde holen noch im Walde hauen, sondern von den Waffen werden sie Feuer machen; und sollen die berauben, von denen sie beraubt sind, und plündern, von denen sie geplündert sind, spricht der HERR HERR.

11 Und soll zu der Zeit geschehen, da will ich Gog einen Ort geben zum Begräbnis in Israel, nämlich das Tal, da man geht am Meer gegen Morgen, also daß die, so vorübergehen, sich davor scheuen werden, weil man daselbst Gog mit seiner Menge begraben hat; und soll heißen "Gogs Haufental".

12 Es wird sie aber das Haus Israel begraben sieben Monden lang, damit das Land gereinigt werde.

13 Ja, alles Volk im Lande wird an ihnen zu begraben haben, und sie werden Ruhm davon haben des Tages, da ich meine Herrlichkeit erzeige, spricht der HERR HERR.

14 Und sie werden Leute aussondern, die stets im Lande umhergehen und mit ihnen die Totengräber, zu begraben die übrigen auf dem Lande, damit es gereinigt werde; nach sieben Monden werden sie forschen.

15 Und die, so im Lande umhergehen und eines Menschen Gebein sehen, werden dabei ein Mal aufrichten, bis es die Totengräber auch in Gogs Haufental begraben.

16 So soll auch die Stadt heißen Hamona. Also werden sie das Land reinigen.

17 Nun, du Menschenkind, so spricht der HERR HERR: Sage allen Vögeln, woher sie fliegen, und allen Tieren auf dem Felde: Sammelt euch und kommt her, findet euch allenthalben zuhauf zu meinem Schlachtopfer, das ich euch schlachte, ein großes Schlachtopfer auf den Bergen Israels, fresset Fleisch und saufet Blut!

18 Fleisch der Starken sollt ihr fressen, und Blut der Fürsten auf Erden sollt ihr saufen, der Widder, der Hammel, der Böcke, der Ochsen, die allzumal feist und gemästet sind.

19 Und sollt das Fett fressen, daß ihr voll werdet, und das Blut saufen, daß ihr trunken werdet, von dem Schlachtopfer, das ich euch schlachte.

20 Sättigt euch nun an meinem Tisch von Rossen und Reitern, von Starken und allerlei Kriegsleuten, spricht der HERR HERR.

21 Und ich will meine Herrlichkeit unter die Heiden bringen, daß alle Heiden sehen sollen mein Urteil, das ich habe ergehen lassen, und meine Hand, die ich an sie gelegt habe,

22 und also das ganze Haus Israel erfahre, daß ich, der HERR, ihr Gott bin von dem Tage an und hinfürder,

23 und die Heiden erfahren, wie das Haus Israel um seiner Missetat willen sei weggeführt. Weil sie sich an mir versündigt hatten, darum habe ich mein Angesicht vor ihnen verborgen und habe sie übergeben in die Hände ihrer Widersacher, daß sie allzumal durchs Schwert fallen mußten.

24 Ich habe ihnen getan, wie ihre Sünde und Übertretung verdient haben, und also mein Angesicht vor ihnen verborgen.

25 Darum so spricht der HERR HERR: Nun will ich das Gefängnis Jakobs wenden und mich des ganzen Hauses Israel erbarmen und um meinen heiligen Namen eifern.

26 Sie aber werden ihre Schmach und alle ihre Sünde, damit sie sich an mir versündigt haben, tragen, wenn sie nun sicher in ihrem Lande wohnen, daß sie niemand schrecke,

27 und ich sie wieder aus den Völkern gebracht und aus den Landen ihrer Feinde versammelt habe und ich an ihnen geheiligt worden bin vor den Augen vieler Heiden.

28 Also werden sie erfahren, daß ich, der HERR, ihr Gott bin, der ich sie habe lassen unter die Heiden wegführen und wiederum in ihr Land versammeln und nicht einen von ihnen dort gelassen habe.

29 Und ich will mein Angesicht nicht mehr vor ihnen verbergen; denn ich habe meinen Geist über das Haus Israel ausgegossen, spricht der HERR HERR.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #7091

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7091. 'Thus said Jehovah, the God of Israel' means that it - the admonition to those opposed to the Church's truths - comes from the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the consideration that 'Jehovah, the God of Israel' is used to mean the Lord in respect of the Divine Human, for 'Jehovah' in the Word is the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3075, 5041, 5663, 6281, 6303, 6905. He is called 'the God of Israel' because the Lord's spiritual kingdom is meant by 'Israel', 6426, 6637, and because by His Coming into the world the Lord saved those who belonged to that kingdom or Church, 6854, 6914, 7075. The reason why 'the God of Israel' means the Lord in respect of the Divine Human is that those who belong to that Church envisage everything spiritual or celestial, and the Divine too, in the way they envisage natural things. Therefore if they did not think in a natural way of the Divine as a Person they could not be joined to the Divine through any kind of affection. For if they did not think about the Divine as a Person in a natural way they would have either no ideas at all about the Divine, or else monstrous ones, and so would defile the Divine. So this is why 'the God of Israel' is used to mean the Lord in respect of the Divine Human, in particular of the Divine Natural.

'Israel' and 'Jacob' are used in the highest sense to mean the Lord's Divine Natural, 'Israel' the internal Divine Natural and 'Jacob' the external Divine Natural, see 4570.

Those who belong to the spiritual Church have been and are saved by means of the Lord's Divine Human, 2833, 2834.

The member of the spiritual Church, who is 'Israel', is interior natural, 4286, 4401.

[2] From all this it is now evident why in the Word the Lord is called 'Jehovah, the God of Israel' and 'Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel'. Anyone may see that when the Divine is referred to by these names it is solely because they are suitable for expressing something Holy that is not apparent in the sense of the letter. The fact that the Lord in respect of the Divine Natural is meant by 'the God of Israel' is evident from quite a number of places in the Word, plainly so from the following,

Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel saw the God of Israel, under whose feet there was so to speak a paved work of sapphire stone, like the substance of the sky for clearness. Exodus 24:9-10.

[3] The fact that this was the Lord, and not Jehovah, who is called the Father, is evident from the Lord's words in John,

Nobody has ever seen God. John 1:18.

You have never heard His voice nor seen His shape. John 5:37.

In Isaiah,

I will give you the treasures of darkness, and the secret wealth of concealed places, that you may know that it is I, Jehovah, who called you by your name, the God of Israel. Isaiah 45:3.

In Ezekiel,

Over the heads of the cherubim, in appearance like a sapphire stone, there was the likeness of a throne, and over the likeness of a throne there was a likeness, as the appearance of a man (homo) upon it above. And with him there was the appearance of fire and a rainbow, and of brightness round about. Ezekiel 1:26-28.

These things are called the glory of Jehovah and of the God of Israel in the same prophet, in Ezekiel 1:28; 8:4; 9:3; 10:19-20, and also where the New Temple is the subject, in Ezekiel 43:2; 44:2, [4]. ['The God of Israel' appears] in many other places besides these, such as Isaiah 17:6; 21:10, 17; 24:15; 41:17; Psalms 41:13; 59:5; 68:8, 35; 69:6; 72:18; and elsewhere. The name THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL is also used in Isaiah 1:4; 5:19, 24; 10:20; 17:7; 30:11-12, 15; 49:7; 60:9, 14; Ezekiel 39:7.

[4] The fact that the Lord in respect of His Divine Human is meant by 'the God of Israel' and 'the Holy One of Israel' is also clear from His being called Redeemer, Saviour, and Maker: REDEEMER in Isaiah 47:4 (Jehovah Zebaoth is our Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel is His name), and also in Isaiah 41:14; 43:14; 48:17; 54:5; SAVIOUR in Isaiah 43:3 and MAKER in Isaiah 45:11. From this it is also evident that no one other than the Lord is meant in the Old Testament Word by Jehovah, since He is called JEHOVAH GOD and THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, REDEEMER, SAVIOUR, and MAKER. He is called Jehovah the Redeemer and Saviour in Isaiah,

That all flesh may know that I Jehovah am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Isaiah 49:26.

In the same prophet,

That you may know that I Jehovah am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Powerful One of Jacob. 1 Isaiah 60:16.

Also in Isaiah 43:14; 44:6, 24; 54:8; 63:16; Psalms 19:14.

[5] The fact that the Lord saved Israel, that is, those who belonged to the spiritual Church, may be seen in Isaiah,

I will tell of the mercies of Jehovah, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah has rewarded us with - great [as He is] in goodness to the house of Israel. He said, Surely they are My people, children who do not lie. And therefore He became their Saviour. In all their affliction He suffered affliction, and the angel of His face delivered them; because of His love and His compassion He redeemed them, and took them and carried them all the days of eternity. Isaiah 63:7-9.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin means Israel but the Hebrew means Jacob.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4570

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4570. 'But indeed Israel will be your name' means the nature of the internal natural, or the nature of the spiritual aspect of it, represented by 'Israel'; 'and He called his name Israel' means the internal Natural or the celestial-spiritual aspect of the Natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'name' as the essential nature, dealt with just above in 4568, and from the meaning of 'Israel' as the internal aspect of the Lord's natural and also the celestial-spiritual aspect of the Natural. No one can know why Jacob was called Israel unless he knows what the internal natural is and what the external natural is, and in addition what the celestial-spiritual aspect of the natural is. These matters have in actual fact been explained already, when Jacob was named Israel by the angel; but because they are the kind of things about which people know little, if anything, they need to be explained again.

[2] Two quite distinct and separate degrees exist in man - the rational and the natural. The rational constitutes the internal man and the natural the external; but the natural, like the rational also, has an external aspect of its own and an internal one. The external aspect of the natural is composed of the physical senses and of the impressions received from the world through these senses immediately. By means of his sensory impressions a person is in touch with things belonging to the world and to the body; and people who are confined solely to this natural are called sensory-minded because their thought goes scarcely at all beyond sensory experience. But the internal part of the natural is made up of ideas inferred - by the use of analysis and analogies - from what is in the external, even though it draws on and derives its ideas from sensory impressions. So the natural is in touch through the senses with things belonging to the world and to the body, and through ideas, arrived at by the use of analogy and analysis, with the rational, thus with things belonging to the spiritual world. Such is the composition of the natural. There is another part that exists between and has links with both of them - with the external aspect and with the internal - and so is in touch through the external with things in the natural world, and through the internal with those in the spiritual world. This external natural is represented specifically by 'Jacob', and the internal natural by 'Israel'. The situation is similar with the rational; that is to say, there is an external aspect and an internal, and a further one between the two. But this, in the Lord's Divine mercy, is to be discussed where Joseph is the subject, for 'Joseph' represents the external aspect of the rational.

[3] What the celestial-spiritual is however has been stated several times already - that essentially the celestial is good and the spiritual truth, so that the celestial-spiritual is that which is good resulting from truth. Now because the Lord's Church is both external and internal, and internal features of the Church had to be represented by the descendants of Jacob through things of an external nature, Jacob could not therefore be called Jacob any longer, but was called Israel - see what has been introduced already about these matters in 4286, 4292. Further to this it should be recognized that the terms celestial and spiritual are used both of the rational and of the natural. Celestial is used when people receive good, and spiritual when they receive truth from the Lord; for the good which flows from the Lord into heaven is called celestial, and the truth is called spiritual. In the highest sense the naming of Jacob as Israel means that the Lord progressed towards more interior aspects and made the Natural within Him Divine, both the external aspect of it and the internal. For in the highest sense that which is represented is the Natural itself.

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