The Bible

 

Ezekiel 38

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1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:

5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:

6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.

8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.

9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:

11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,

12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?

15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:

16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?

18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.

19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;

20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.

22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #337

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337. And the kings of the earth and the great men, the rich men and the commanders, and the powerful, and every slave and every freeman. (6:15) This symbolizes those people who before the separation had possessed an understanding of truth and good, a knowledge of their concepts, and learning, acquired from others or on their own, and yet who lacked a life in accordance with them.

All these things are symbolized in turn by these classes of people, and this no one can know but one who knows what kings, great men, rich men, commanders, the powerful, and a slave and a freeman mean symbolically. In the spiritual sense kings symbolize people who possess truths; great men, people who possess good qualities; rich men, people who possess concepts of truth; commanders, people who possess concepts of goodness; the powerful, people who possess learning; slaves, people who acquire these things from others, thus as a matter of memory; and freemen, people who acquire these things on their own, thus with judgment.

It would take too long, however, to confirm from the Word that these are the symbolic meanings of all these designations. We have previously shown what kings symbolize, in no. 20; and what rich men symbolize, in no. 206. What great men symbolize is apparent in Jeremiah 5:5, Nahum 3:10, Jonah 3:7; for greatness is predicated of goodness (nos. 896, 898). And we will see below that the powerful and slaves and freemen are people who possess learning, acquired from others or on their own.

We say that they possess these things and yet lack a life in accordance with them, since evil people, even the worst of them, can have a knowledge and understanding of concepts of truth and goodness, and a great deal of learning as well. But because they lack a life in accordance with them, they do not really possess them. For whatever resides in the intellect alone, and is not present at the same in a person's life, does not exist in the person, being outside of him, as though in a forecourt. But whatever is present at the same time in a person's life exists in the person, being within him as though in the house. Consequently these people are preserved and the former rejected.

  
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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

 

Isaiah 2:14

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14 For all the high mountains, for all the hills that are lifted up,