The Bible

 

Ezechiele 42

Study

   

1 POI quell’uomo mi menò fuori al cortile di fuori, per la via che traeva verso il Settentrione; e mi condusse nelle camere, ch’erano dirimpetto al corpo del Tempio, e dell’edificio, verso il Settentrione;

2 in fronte alla lunghezza di cento cubiti della porta settentrionale, ed alla larghezza di cinquanta cubiti;

3 dirimpetto a’ venti cubiti del cortile di dentro, ed al lastrico, ch’era nel cortile di fuori; un portico riscontrandosi con l’altro da tre parti.

4 E davanti alle camere vi era un corridoio, largo dieci cubiti, ritratto in dentro d’un cubito; e gli usci delle camere erano verso il Settentrione.

5 Or le camere del solaio più alto erano raccorciate; perciocchè i pilastri di quello erano più piccoli che que’ degli altri, cioè, che que’ del solaio basso, e del mezzano dell’edificio.

6 Perciocchè quelle camere erano a tre solai, e quelle non aveano colonne, come quelle de’ cortili; e perciò, quell’alto solaio era raccorciato più che il basso, e il mezzano da terra.

7 E la chiusura, ch’era in fuori, davanti alle camere, traendo verso il cortile di fuori, dirincontro alle camere, era di cinquanta cubiti di lunghezza.

8 Perciocchè la lunghezza delle camere, ch’erano nel cortile di fuori, era di cinquanta cubiti. Ed ecco, davanti al Tempio vi era uno spazio di cento cubiti.

9 E disotto a quelle camere vi era una entrata dal lato d’Oriente, entrando in esse dal cortile di fuori.

10 Nella larghezza del procinto del cortile, traendo verso l’Oriente, dirimpetto al corpo del Tempio, ed all’edificio, vi erano delle camere.

11 E vi era un corridoio davanti a quelle, di simil forma come quello delle camere ch’erano verso il Settentrione; esse erano d’una medesima lunghezza, e d’una medesima larghezza; ed aveano tutte le medesime uscite, ed i medesimi ordini, e le medesime porte.

12 E quali erano le porte delle camere ch’erano verso il Mezzodì, tale era altresì la porta ch’era in fondo al corridoio, che faceva capo alla chiusura del parapetto, ch’era dall’Oriente, quando si entrava in esse.

13 E quell’uomo mi disse: Le camere settentrionali, e le camere meridionali, che sono dirimpetto al corpo del Tempio, son le camere sante, dove i sacerdoti che si accostano al Signore devono mangiar le cose santissime; quivi eziandio devono riporre le cose santissime, e le offerte di panatica, e i sacrificii per lo peccato, e per la colpa; perciocchè quel luogo è santo.

14 Quando i sacerdoti saranno entrati nel Luogo santo, non usciranno di quello nel cortile di fuori; anzi poseranno quivi i lor vestimenti, co’ quali fanno il servigio, e vestiranno altri vestimenti; ed allora potranno venire nel cortile del popolo.

15 Poi quell’uomo, avendo finito di misurar la casa di dentro, mi menò fuori per la via della porta che guardava verso Oriente; e misurò il ricinto d’ogn’intorno.

16 Egli misurò il lato orientale con la canna da misurare; e vi erano cinquecento canne, alla canna da misurare, d’ogn’intorno.

17 Poi misurò il lato settentrionale e vi erano cinquecento canne, alla canna da misurare, d’ogn’intorno.

18 Poi misurò il lato meridionale; e vi erano cinquecento canne, alla canna da misurare, d’ogn’intorno.

19 Poi egli si rivolse verso il lato occidentale, e lo misurò; ed era di cinquecento canne, alla canna da misurare.

20 Egli misurò la casa da’ quattro venti; ed ella avea un muro d’ogn’intorno, di lunghezza di cinquecento cubiti, e di larghezza di cinquecento cubiti: per separare il luogo santo dal profano.

   


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 Revealed #191

Study this Passage

  
/ 962  
  

191. "'I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God.'" This symbolically means that the truths they possess, springing from goodness derived from the Lord, sustain the Lord's church in heaven.

A temple symbolizes the church, and the temple of My God symbolizes the Lord's church in heaven. It is apparent from this that a pillar symbolizes what sustains and stabilizes the church, and that is the Divine truth in the Word.

In the highest sense, a temple symbolizes the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity, particularly in respect to Divine truth. In a representative sense, however, a temple symbolizes the Lord's church in heaven, and so also the Lord's church in the world.

That a temple in the highest sense symbolizes the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity, and particularly in respect to Divine truth, is apparent from the following passages:

(Jesus said to the Jews,) "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." ...He was speaking of the temple of His body. (John 2:19, 21)

I saw no temple in (the New Jerusalem), for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. (Revelation 21:22)

Behold..., the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire. (Malachi 3:1)

I will bow myself toward Your holy temple... (Psalms 138:2)

...I will look again toward Your holy temple... And my prayer went to You, to Your holy temple. (Jonah 2:4, 7)

Jehovah is in His holy temple. (Habakkuk 2:20)

The holy temple of Jehovah or of the Lord is His Divine humanity, for it is to this that people bow, look to, and pray, and not to the temple merely, as the temple is not, in itself, holy. It is called a holy temple, because holiness is predicated of Divine truth (no. 173).

"The temple that sanctifies the gold" in Matthew 23:16-17 means nothing else than the Lord's Divine humanity.

[2] That a temple in a representative sense symbolizes the Lord's church in heaven, is apparent from the following passages:

(The) voice (of Jehovah) from the temple...! (Isaiah 66:6)

...a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven... (Revelation 16:17)

The temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. (Revelation 11:19)

...the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. And out of the temple came the seven angels... And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God... (Revelation 15:5-6, 8)

I called upon Jehovah, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple... (Psalms 18:6)

I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and His skirts filled the temple. (Isaiah 6:1)

[3] That a temple symbolizes the church in the world is apparent from these passages:

Our holy... temple... has become a conflagration... (Isaiah 64:11)

I will shake all nations..., that I may fill this house with glory... The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former... (Haggai 2:7, 9)

The new temple in Ezekiel 40; 41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46; 47; 48 describes a church to be established by the Lord. A church is also meant in Revelation 11:1 by the temple that the angel measured. So likewise elsewhere, as in Isaiah 44:28, Jeremiah 7:2-4, 9-11, Zechariah 8:9.

...the disciples (of Jesus) came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, ."..Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left... upon another, that shall not be demolished." (Matthew 24:1-2)

The temple here symbolizes the church today; and its demolition means, symbolically, that not one stone would be left upon another. This symbolizes the end of that church, when not any truth would remain. For when the disciples spoke with the Lord about the temple, the Lord foretold the consecutive states of this church, even to its last one, or the end of the age; and the end of the age means the final period of the church, which is the one that exists today. This was represented by the destruction of that temple to its foundations.

[4] A temple has these three symbolic meanings, namely the Lord, the church in heaven, and the church in the world. Because these three are bound up together, they cannot be separated. Consequently one cannot be meant without the other. Therefore anyone who divorces the church in the world from the church in heaven, or the one or the other from the Lord, is without the truth.

The temple here means the church in heaven, because reference to the church in the world follows after this (no. 194).

  
/ 962  
  

Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Ezekiel 48

Study

   

1 Now these are the names of the tribes: From the north end, beside the way of Hethlon to the entrance of Hamath, Hazar Enan at the border of Damascus, northward beside Hamath, (and they shall have their sides east [and] west), Dan, one [portion].

2 By the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one [portion].

3 By the border of Asher, from the east side even to the west side, Naphtali, one [portion].

4 By the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh, one [portion].

5 By the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim, one [portion].

6 By the border of Ephraim, from the east side even to the west side, Reuben, one [portion].

7 By the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah, one [portion].

8 By the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the offering which you shall offer, twenty-five thousand [reeds] in breadth, and in length as one of the portions, from the east side to the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in its midst.

9 The offering that you shall offer to Yahweh shall be twenty-five thousand [reeds] in length, and ten thousand in breadth.

10 For these, even for the priests, shall be the holy offering: toward the north twenty-five thousand [in length], and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south twenty-five thousand in length: and the sanctuary of Yahweh shall be in its midst.

11 [It shall be] for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept my instruction, who didn't go astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.

12 It shall be to them an offering from the offering of the land, a thing most holy, by the border of the Levites.

13 Answerable to the border of the priests, the Levites shall have twenty-five thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length shall be twenty-five thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.

14 They shall sell none of it, nor exchange it, nor shall the first fruits of the land be alienated; for it is holy to Yahweh.

15 The five thousand that are left in the breadth, in front of the twenty-five thousand, shall be for common use, for the city, for dwelling and for suburbs; and the city shall be in its midst.

16 These shall be its measures: the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred.

17 The city shall have suburbs: toward the north two hundred fifty, and toward the south two hundred fifty, and toward the east two hundred fifty, and toward the west two hundred fifty.

18 The remainder in the length, answerable to the holy offering, shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward; and it shall be answerable to the holy offering; and its increase shall be for food to those who labor in the city.

19 Those who labor in the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, shall cultivate it.

20 All the offering shall be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand: you shall offer the holy offering foursquare, with the possession of the city.

21 The residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy offering and of the possession of the city; in front of the twenty-five thousand of the offering toward the east border, and westward in front of the twenty-five thousand toward the west border, answerable to the portions, it shall be for the prince: and the holy offering and the sanctuary of the house shall be in its midst.

22 Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, it shall be for the prince.

23 As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, Benjamin, one [portion].

24 By the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, Simeon, one [portion].

25 By the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, Issachar, one [portion].

26 By the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, Zebulun, one [portion].

27 By the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, Gad, one [portion].

28 By the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar to the waters of Meribath Kadesh, to the brook [of Egypt], to the great sea.

29 This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their several portions, says the Lord Yahweh.

30 These are the exits of the city: On the north side four thousand and five hundred [reeds] by measure;

31 and the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates northward: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one.

32 At the east side four thousand and five hundred [reeds], and three gates: even the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one.

33 At the south side four thousand and five hundred [reeds] by measure, and three gates: the gate of Simeon, one; the gate of Issachar, one; the gate of Zebulun, one.

34 At the west side four thousand and five hundred [reeds], with their three gates: the gate of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one; the gate of Naphtali, one.

35 It shall be eighteen thousand [reeds] around: and the name of the city from that day shall be, Yahweh is there.