The Bible

 

Amos 6

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1 GUAI a quelli che sono agiati in Sion, e che se ne stanno sicuri nel monte di Samaria, luoghi famosi per capi di nazioni, a’ quali va la casa d’Israele!

2 Passate in Calne, e vedete; e di là andate in Hamat la grande; poi scendete in Gat de’ Filistei; non valevano que’ regni meglio di questi? non erano i lor confini maggiori de’ vostri?

3 Voi, che allontanate il giorno malvagio, e fate accostare il seggio della violenza;

4 che giacete sopra letti di avorio, e lussuriate sopra le vostre lettiere; e mangiate gli agnelli della greggia, e i vitelli tolti di mezzo della stia;

5 che fate concento al suon del salterio; che vi divisate degli strumenti musicali, come Davide;

6 che bevete il vino in bacini, e vi ungete de’ più eccellenti olii odoriferi; e non sentite alcuna doglia della rottura di Giuseppe.

7 Perciò, ora andranno in cattività, in capo di quelli che andranno in cattività; e i conviti de’ lussurianti cesseranno.

8 Il Signore Iddio ha giurato per l’anima sua, dice il Signore Iddio degli eserciti: Io abbomino l’alterezza di Giacobbe, e odio i suoi palazzi, e darò in man del nemico la città, e tutto ciò che vi è dentro.

9 Ed avverrà che se pur dieci uomini rimangono in una casa, morranno.

10 E lo zio, o il cugin loro li torrà, e li brucerà, per trarre le ossa fuor della casa; e dirà a colui che sarà in fondo della casa: Evvi ancora alcuno teco? Ed esso dirà: Niuno. E colui gli dirà: Taci; perciocchè egli non è tempo di ricordare il Nome del Signore.

11 Perciocchè, ecco, il Signore dà commissione di percuotere le case grandi di ruine, e le case piccole di rotture.

12 I cavalli romperanno essi le zolle su per le rocce? o vi si arerà co’ buoi? conciossiachè voi abbiate cangiato il giudicio in veleno, e il frutto della giustizia in assenzio;

13 voi, che vi rallegrate di cose da nulla; che dite: Non abbiamo noi acquistate delle corna con la nostra forza?

14 Perciocchè, ecco, io fo sorgere contro a voi, o casa d’Israele, una nazione, che vi oppresserà dall’entrata di Hamat, fino al torrente del deserto, dice il Signore Iddio degli eserciti.

   


To many Protestant and Evangelical Italians, the Bibles translated by Giovanni Diodati are an important part of their history. Diodati’s first Italian Bible edition was printed in 1607, and his second in 1641. He died in 1649. Throughout the 1800s two editions of Diodati’s text were printed by the British Foreign Bible Society. This is the more recent 1894 edition, translated by Claudiana.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #542

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542. Verses 3-12. And out of the smoke there went forth locusts on the earth; and there was given unto them power as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was said to them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but the men only that have not the seal of God on their foreheads. And it was given to them that they should not kill them, but that they should torment them five months; and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when it striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it, and they shall long to die and death shall flee from them. And the likenesses of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for battle; and upon their heads as it were crowns like gold, and their faces as men's faces. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as those of lions. And they had breastplates as iron breastplates; and the voice of their wings was as the voice of chariots of many horses running into battle. And they had tails like scorpions, and stings were in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had over them a king, the angel of the abyss, his name in Hebrew Abaddon, and in Greek he hath the name Apollyon. One woe is past; behold there come yet two woes after this.

3. "And out of the smoke there went forth locusts on the earth," signifies that from infernal falsities they became corporeal sensual in the church n. 543; "and there was given unto them power as the scorpions of the earth have power," signifies their ability to persuade, and its effect and power n. 544.

4. "And it was said to them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree," signifies that they should do no harm to any true and living knowledge [scientificum] from the sense of the letter of the Word, nor to any knowledge of truth and good therein n. 545; "but the men only that have not the seal of God on their foreheads" signifies but only to the understanding of truth and the perception of good in those who are not in truths from good from the Lord. n. 546).

5. "And it was given 1 to them that they should not kill them," signifies that they should not be deprived of the faculty to understand truth and perceive good n. 547; "but that they should torment them five months," signifies that the understanding would be darkened and drawn away by the falsities of evil from seeing truth so long as they are in that state n. 548; "and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when it striketh a man," signifies that the darkening and drawing away from seeing the truth is caused by the persuasion with which the mind is infatuated (n. 549).

6. "And in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it," signifies that they then wish to destroy the faculty to understand truth, but are not able (n. 550); "and they shall long to die and death shall flee from them," signifies that they wish to destroy the faculty to perceive good, which is of spiritual life, but in vain (n. 551).

7. "And the likenesses of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for battle," signifies that when man has become sensual he reasons like one who reasons from the understanding of truth n. 552; "and upon their heads as it were crowns like gold," signifies that they seem to themselves when they reason as if they were wise and victorious n. 553; "and their faces as men's faces," signifies that they seem to themselves as it were spiritual affections for truth n. 554.

8. "And they had hair as the hair of women," signifies that they seem to themselves to be as it were affections of natural 2 truth n. 555; "and their teeth were as those of lions," signifies that the sensual things which are the ultimates of the intellectual life seem to them to have power over all things n. 556.

9. "And they had breastplates as iron breastplates," signifies the persuasions with which they gird themselves for combats, against which the truths of the rational spiritual man prevail not n. 557; "and the voice of their wings was as the voice of chariots of many horses running into battle," signifies reasonings as if from the truths of doctrine from the Word which are understood, for which they must fight ardently (n. 558).

10. "And they had tails like scorpions," signifies sensual knowledges [scientifica] that are persuasive n. 559; "and stings were in their tails," signifies craftiness in deceiving by means of them n. 560; "and their power was to hurt the men five months," signifies that while in that state they induce a stupor in the understanding of truth and in the perception of good (n. 561).

11. "And they had over them a king, the angel of the abyss," signifies that they received influx from the hell where those are who are in the falsities of evil and are merely sensual (n. 562); "his name in Hebrew Abaddon, and in Greek he hath the name Apollyon," signifies its quality, that it is destructive of all truth and good n. 563.

12. "One woe is past; behold, there come yet two woes after this," signifies one lamentation over the devastation of the church, and that a lamentation over its further devastation follows (n. 564).

Footnotes:

1. Latin has "and," Greek has "given," as also below, AE 547, at the end.

2. Latin has "of natural truth," but see below, AE 555.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #563

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563. His name in the Hebrew Abaddon, and in the Greek he hath the name Apollyon, signifies the quality of that influx, that it is destructive of all truth and good. This is evident from the signification of "name" 1 as meaning the quality of a state and of a thing (See above, n. 148); also from the meaning of Abaddon in the Hebrew, which is destruction; Apollyon has the like meaning in the Greek; consequently the destruction of truth and good is meant, because these are treated of. The sensual of man, which is the ultimate of his intellectual life, is destructive of all spiritual truth and good, which is the truth and good of the church, because that sensual stands nearest to the world and clings most closely to the body; and from both these it has affections and consequent thoughts, which viewed in themselves are diametrically contrary to spiritual affections and the consequent thoughts, which are from heaven. For man from that sensual loves himself and the world above all things, and so far as these loves are dominant, so far evils and falsities from them are dominant, for evils and falsities swarm forth and flow out from these loves as from their origins. In such loves are all who have become merely sensual through evils of life and falsities therefrom.

This anyone can see from the faculty to understand that everyone possesses; for if that which stands nearest to the world and clings most closely to the body is dominant it follows that the world itself and the body itself, with all their pleasures and lusts, which are called pleasures "of the eye and of the flesh," will be dominant, and that man in order that he may come into spiritual affections and thoughts therefrom must be entirely withdrawn and elevated from these sensual things. This withdrawing and elevation are effected by the Lord alone, so far as man suffers himself, of the Lord, to be led to the Lord, and thus to heaven, by the laws of order which are the truths and goods of the church. When this takes place, as often as man is in a spiritual state he withdraws from this ultimate sensual and is kept elevated above it; and this also for the reason that this sensual in men is altogether corrupted, for in it is what is one's own (proprium) into which everyone is born, which in itself is nothing but evil. From this it can be seen why this sensual is called destruction, that is, "Abaddon" and "Apollyon. "

[2] It is to be known, that there are three degrees of life with every man, an inmost, a middle, and an ultimate; and that man becomes more perfect, that is, wiser, as he becomes more interior, because he thus comes so much the more interiorly into the light of heaven; also that man becomes more imperfect, that is, less wise, as he becomes more exterior, because he thus draws so much nearer to the light of the world and so much farther away from the light of heaven. From this it can be seen what is the quality of the merely sensual man who sees nothing from the light of heaven but solely from the light of the world, namely, that all things belonging to the world are to him in light and splendor, and all things belonging to heaven are in darkness and thick darkness; and when these are in darkness and in thick darkness, and the former in light and splendor, it follows that the only fire of life or the only love that incites and leads is the love of self, and the consequent love of all evils, and that the only light of life that touches and instructs the sight of the thought is that which favors the evils that are loved, and such are the falsities of evil. From this it can be seen of what quality the merely sensual man is, which is treated of thus far in this chapter.

Footnotes:

1. Latin has "man," the Greek and the Latin just before has "name."

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