The Bible

 

Daniel 9

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1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;

10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.

14 Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.

15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.

18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.

19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;

21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.

23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #397

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397. Until their fellow-servants and their brethren, who should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. That this signifies until evils have been consummated, is plain from the signification of, they should be fulfilled, as denoting until they are consummated. And from the signification of "their fellow-servants and their brethren, who should be killed as they were," as denoting evils, for to kill them denotes evil. By fellow-servants are meant those who are in truths, and by brethren are meant those who are in goods; and by fellow-servants and brethren together are meant those who are in truths from good, for in the internal sense the two are conjoined into one. Consummation is mentioned in some passages in the Word, also when evils are consummated; but scarcely any one at this day knows what is signified thereby. In three articles above, n. 391, 392, 394, it was shown that the former heaven consisted of such as had led a moral life in externals, and yet in their internals were evil, and that they dwelt in high places in the spiritual world, and thence supposed that they were in heaven. These, because they were inwardly evil, would not tolerate among them those that were inwardly good, and this on account of the disagreement of their affections and thoughts. For all consociations in the spiritual world are effected according to the agreement of the affections, and thence of the thoughts, for angels and spirits are nothing but affections and the thoughts thence in a human form; and because those who were then on the high places, could not suffer the presence of those who were inwardly good, they, therefore, cast them out from among them, and wherever they saw them they treated them in an evil and disgraceful manner, therefore they were removed from their violence by the Lord, and concealed under heaven, and preserved. And this was taking place from the time when the Lord was in the world until this time when the judgment took place; and then those who were on high places were cast down, and those who were under heaven, raised up. The reason why the evil were so long tolerated upon high places, and the good so long detained under heaven, was that both the latter and the former might be completed, that is, that the good might amount to such a number as to be sufficient to form a new heaven, and also that the evil might fall down of themselves into hell; for the Lord casts no one down into hell, but the evil itself which is with evil spirits, casts them down (as may be seen in the work concerning Heaven and Hell 545-550). This is effected at the time when evils are consummated, that is, are completed.

[2] This also is what is meant by the Lord's words in Matthew:

"The servants of the householder coming, said, Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? whence then are the tares? And they said, Wilt thou, therefore, that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest in gathering the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into the barn. So shall it be in the consummation of the age" (13:27-30, 42).

The consummation of the age is the last time when the judgment [takes place]; the time of harvest is when all things are consummated or completed; the tares denote evils or those in whom evils are, and the wheat denotes goods or those in whom goods are. But concerning these more may be seen in the small work concerning the Last Judgment 65-72. From these considerations it may in some degree be known why it was said to them, that they should rest yet for a little time until their fellow-servants and their brethren, who should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. By being killed is here signified the same as being slain (above, n. 392), namely, to be rejected by the evil on account of the Divine truth, and on account of their confession of the Lord.

[3] From these known circumstances it may be known what is signified by consummation, and by iniquity being consummated, in the following passages.

In Moses:

Jehovah said, "I will go down, and see whether they have made a consummation, according to the cry which is come unto me" (Genesis 18:21).

This is said of Sodom. In the same:

"For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet consummated (fulfilled)" (Genesis 15:16).

In Isaiah:

"I have heard from the Lord Jehovih of hosts a consummation and a decision upon the whole earth" (28:22).

In the same:

"A consummation is determined, justice has overflowed. For the Lord Jehovih of hosts maketh a consummation, and a decision, in the whole earth" (10:22, 23).

In Zephaniah:

"In the fire of the zeal" of Jehovih of hosts "the whole land shall be devoured; for he shall make a consummation, and indeed speedily, with all the inhabitants of the land" (1:18).

In Daniel:

"At length upon the bird of abominations shall be desolation, and even to the consummation and decision it shall drop upon the devastation" (9:27; and elsewhere).

By consummation and decision, in these passages, is signified the last state of the church, which is when truth is no longer, because there is no good, or when there is faith no longer, because there is no charity; when such is the state of the church, then the Last Judgment is come. The reason why the Last Judgment then is come, is also that the human race is the basis or foundation of the angelic heaven, for the conjunction of the angelic heaven with the human race is perpetual, and the one subsists by the other; therefore when the basis does not correspond, the angelic heaven is shaken, therefore there is then a judgment upon those who are in the spiritual world, in order that all things, in the heavens as well as in the hells, may be reduced to order. (That the human race is the basis and foundation of the angelic heaven, and that the conjunction is perpetual, may be seen in the work concerning Heaven and Hell 291-310.) From these things it may be known, that by consummation is meant the last state of the church, when there is faith no longer because there is no charity. This state of the church is also called in the Word vastation and desolation, and by the Lord the consummation of the age (Matthew 13:39, 40, 49; 24:3; 28:20).

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.