The Bible

 

Yechezchial 45

Study

   

1 ובהפילכם את הארץ בנחלה תרימו תרומה ליהוה קדש מן הארץ ארך חמשה ועשרים אלף ארך ורחב עשרה אלף קדש הוא בכל גבולה סביב׃

2 יהיה מזה אל הקדש חמש מאות בחמש מאות מרבע סביב וחמשים אמה מגרש לו סביב׃

3 ומן המדה הזאת תמוד ארך חמש ועשרים אלף ורחב עשרת אלפים ובו יהיה המקדש קדש קדשים׃

4 קדש מן הארץ הוא לכהנים משרתי המקדש יהיה הקרבים לשרת את יהוה והיה להם מקום לבתים ומקדש למקדש׃

5 וחמשה ועשרים אלף ארך ועשרת אלפים רחב יהיה ללוים משרתי הבית להם לאחזה עשרים לשכת׃

6 ואחזת העיר תתנו חמשת אלפים רחב וארך חמשה ועשרים אלף לעמת תרומת הקדש לכל בית ישראל יהיה׃

7 ולנשיא מזה ומזה לתרומת הקדש ולאחזת העיר אל פני תרומת הקדש ואל פני אחזת העיר מפאת ים ימה ומפאת קדמה קדימה וארך לעמות אחד החלקים מגבול ים אל גבול קדימה׃

8 לארץ יהיה לו לאחזה בישראל ולא יונו עוד נשיאי את עמי והארץ יתנו לבית ישראל לשבטיהם׃

9 כה אמר אדני יהוה רב לכם נשיאי ישראל חמס ושד הסירו ומשפט וצדקה עשו הרימו גרשתיכם מעל עמי נאם אדני יהוה׃

10 מאזני צדק ואיפת צדק ובת צדק יהי לכם׃

11 האיפה והבת תכן אחד יהיה לשאת מעשר החמר הבת ועשירת החמר האיפה אל החמר יהיה מתכנתו׃

12 והשקל עשרים גרה עשרים שקלים חמשה ועשרים שקלים עשרה וחמשה שקל המנה יהיה לכם׃

13 זאת התרומה אשר תרימו ששית האיפה מחמר החטים וששיתם האיפה מחמר השערים׃

14 וחק השמן הבת השמן מעשר הבת מן הכר עשרת הבתים חמר כי עשרת הבתים חמר׃

15 ושה אחת מן הצאן מן המאתים ממשקה ישראל למנחה ולעולה ולשלמים לכפר עליהם נאם אדני יהוה׃

16 כל העם הארץ יהיו אל התרומה הזאת לנשיא בישראל׃

17 ועל הנשיא יהיה העולות והמנחה והנסך בחגים ובחדשים ובשבתות בכל מועדי בית ישראל הוא יעשה את החטאת ואת המנחה ואת העולה ואת השלמים לכפר בעד בית ישראל׃

18 כה אמר אדני יהוה בראשון באחד לחדש תקח פר בן בקר תמים וחטאת את המקדש׃

19 ולקח הכהן מדם החטאת ונתן אל מזוזת הבית ואל ארבע פנות העזרה למזבח ועל מזוזת שער החצר הפנימית׃

20 וכן תעשה בשבעה בחדש מאיש שגה ומפתי וכפרתם את הבית׃

21 בראשון בארבעה עשר יום לחדש יהיה לכם הפסח חג שבעות ימים מצות יאכל׃

22 ועשה הנשיא ביום ההוא בעדו ובעד כל עם הארץ פר חטאת׃

23 ושבעת ימי החג יעשה עולה ליהוה שבעת פרים ושבעת אילים תמימם ליום שבעת הימים וחטאת שעיר עזים ליום׃

24 ומנחה איפה לפר ואיפה לאיל יעשה ושמן הין לאיפה׃

25 בשביעי בחמשה עשר יום לחדש בחג יעשה כאלה שבעת הימים כחטאת כעלה וכמנחה וכשמן׃

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Divine Providence #134

Study this Passage

  
/ 340  
  

134a. 2. No one is reformed by visions or by conversations with the dead, because they compel. There are two kinds of visions, divine and demonic. Divine visions are given by means of portrayals in heaven, while demonic visions are effected though magical events in hell. There are imaginary visions as well, visions that are the illusions of a mind that has lost its bearings.

Divine visions (which as just noted are given by means of portrayals in heaven) are the kind that happened to the prophets. When they were having these visions they were not in the body but in the spirit, because visions cannot happen to us while we are physically awake. So when the prophets saw visions, it says that they were in the spirit, as the following passages show.

Ezekiel said, "The spirit lifted me up and took me back to Chaldea to the captivity in a vision of God, in the spirit of God; so the vision that I saw came over me" (Ezekiel 11:1, 24). Then too, spirits held him up between earth and heaven and brought him to Jerusalem in visions of God (Ezekiel 8:3 and following). The same thing happened in a vision of God or in the spirit when he saw the four animals that were cherubim (Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10) and when he saw the new temple, the new earth, and the angel measuring them (Ezekiel chapters 40-48). It says in chapter Ezekiel 40:2, 26 that he was in visions of God at the time, and in chapter Ezekiel 43:5 that he was in the spirit.

[2] Zechariah was in the same kind of state when he saw the man on horseback among the myrtle trees (Zechariah 1:8 and following), when he saw the four horns and the man with a measuring line in his hand (Zechariah 1:18, 20, 21; Zechariah 2:1 and following), when he saw the lampstand and the two olive trees (Zechariah 4:1 and following), when he saw the flying scroll and the ephah (Zechariah 5:1, 6), and when he saw the four chariots coming out from the four mountains, and the horses (Zechariah 6:1 and following).

Daniel was in the same kind of state when he saw the four beasts rising from the sea (Daniel 6:1 [7:1] and following), and when he saw the battles of the ram and the goat (Daniel 8:1 and following). It says in Daniel 7:1-2, 7, and 13; in Daniel 8:2; and in Daniel 10:1, 7, and 8 that he saw these things in the vision of his spirit, and it says in Daniel 9:21 that he saw the angel Gabriel in a vision.

[3] John was in the vision of the spirit when he saw the things he describes in the Book of Revelation--for example, when he saw the seven lampstands with the Human-born One in their midst (Revelation 1:12-16), when he saw the throne in heaven with someone sitting on it, surrounded by the four animals that were cherubim (Revelation 4), when he saw the book of life taken by the Lamb (Revelation 5), when he saw the horses come out of the book (Revelation 6), when he saw the seven angels with their trumpets (Revelation 8), when he saw the pit of the abyss opened with the locusts coming out of it (Revelation 9), when he saw the dragon and its battle with Michael (Revelation 12), when he saw the two beasts rise up, one from the sea and one from the land (Revelation 13), when he saw the woman sitting on the scarlet beast (Revelation 17) and the destruction of Babylon (Revelation 18), when he saw the white horse with someone riding it (Revelation 18 [19]), when he saw the new heaven and the new earth and the holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven (Revelation 21), and when he saw the river of water of life (Revelation 22). It says that he saw these things in the vision of his spirit in Revelation 1:11 [1:10]; Revelation 4:2; Revelation 5:1; Revelation 6:1; and Revelation 21:12 [21:10].

These were the kinds of visions that were visible from heaven to the sight of their spirits and not to their physical sight.

Things like this do not happen nowadays, because if they did they would not be understood, since they happen by means of images whose details are pointing to inner features of the church and secrets of heaven. It was foretold in Daniel 9:24 that they would stop when the Lord came into the world.

However, demonic visions have sometimes occurred. They are brought about by spirits who inspire deceptive passions and visions and who call themselves the Holy Spirit because of a mental confusion that engulfs them. Now, however, these spirits have been gathered in by the Lord and consigned to a hell separate from the other hells.

We can see from all this that no one can be reformed by any visions except the ones that are in the Word. There are imaginary visions as well, but these are nothing but the illusions of a mind that has lost its bearings.

134b. The story that the Lord told about the rich man in hell and Lazarus in Abraham's lap shows that no one is reformed by conversations with the dead. The rich man said, "Father Abraham, I beg you to send Lazarus to my father's house where I have five brothers, to bear witness to them so that they do not come to this place of torment." Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the prophets: let them heed them." But he said, "No, father Abraham, but if someone came to them from the dead, they would repent." He answered him, "If they do not heed Moses and the prophets, they would not be convinced if someone rose from the dead" (Luke 16:27-31).

Conversations with the dead may lead to the same results as miracles that I have just described. That is, we may be convinced and be constrained to worship for a short while. However, since this deprives us of rational functioning at the same time that it hems in our evils, as already noted [130-131, 133], this spell or inner restraint is released and the pent-up evils erupt in blasphemy and profanation. Still, this happens only when spirits have imposed some religious dogma. No good spirit--let alone any angel of heaven--would ever do this.

  
/ 340  
  

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

The Bible

 

Ezekiel 41

Study

   

1 He brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tent.

2 The breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured its length, forty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits.

3 Then went he inward, and measured each post of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the breadth of the entrance, seven cubits.

4 He measured its length, twenty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said to me, This is the most holy place.

5 Then he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side room, four cubits, all around the house on every side.

6 The side rooms were in three stories, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which belonged to the house for the side rooms all around, that they might have hold [therein], and not have hold in the wall of the house.

7 The side rooms were broader as they encompassed [the house] higher and higher; for the encompassing of the house went higher and higher around the house: therefore the breadth of the house [continued] upward; and so one went up [from] the lowest [room] to the highest by the middle [room].

8 I saw also that the house had a raised base all around: the foundations of the side rooms were a full reed of six great cubits.

9 The thickness of the wall, which was for the side rooms, on the outside, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side rooms that belonged to the house.

10 Between the rooms was a breadth of twenty cubits around the house on every side.

11 The doors of the side rooms were toward [the place] that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits all around.

12 The building that was before the separate place at the side toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length ninety cubits.

13 So he measured the house, one hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with its walls, one hundred cubits long;

14 also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, one hundred cubits.

15 He measured the length of the building before the separate place which was at its back, and its galleries on the one side and on the other side, one hundred cubits; and the inner temple, and the porches of the court;

16 the thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries around on their three stories, over against the threshold, with wood ceilings all around, and [from] the ground up to the windows, (now the windows were covered),

17 to [the space] above the door, even to the inner house, and outside, and by all the wall all around inside and outside, by measure.

18 It was made with cherubim and palm trees; and a palm tree was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces;

19 so that there was the face of a man toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. [thus was it] made through all the house all around:

20 from the ground to above the door were cherubim and palm trees made: thus was the wall of the temple.

21 As for the temple, the door posts were squared; and as for the face of the sanctuary, the appearance [of it] was as the appearance [of the temple].

22 The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits; and its corners, and its length, and its walls, were of wood: and he said to me, This is the table that is before Yahweh.

23 The temple and the sanctuary had two doors.

24 The doors had two leaves [apiece], two turning leaves: two [leaves] for the one door, and two leaves for the other.

25 There were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubim and palm trees, like as were made on the walls; and there was a threshold of wood on the face of the porch outside.

26 There were closed windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch: thus were the side rooms of the house, and the thresholds.