The Bible

 

Ezekiel 42

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1 Then he brought me forth into the utter court, the way toward the north: and he brought me into the chamber that was over against the separate place, and which was before the building toward the north.

2 Before the length of an hundred cubits was the north door, and the breadth was fifty cubits.

3 Over against the twenty cubits which were for the inner court, and Over against the pavement which was for the utter court, was gallery against gallery in three stories.

4 And before the chambers was a walk of ten cubits breadth inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors toward the north.

5 Now the upper chambers were shorter: for the galleries were higher than these, than the lower, and than the middlemost of the building.

6 For they were in three stories, but had not pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore the building was straitened more than the lowest and the middlemost from the ground.

7 And the wall that was without over against the chambers, toward the utter court on the forepart of the chambers, the length thereof was fifty cubits.

8 For the length of the chambers that were in the utter court was fifty cubits: and, lo, before the temple were an hundred cubits.

9 And from under these chambers was the entry on the east side, as one goeth into them from the utter court.

10 The chambers were in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, over against the separate place, and over against the building.

11 And the way before them was like the appearance of the chambers which were toward the north, as long as they, and as broad as they: and all their goings out were both according to their fashions, and according to their doors.

12 And according to the doors of the chambers that were toward the south was a door in the head of the way, even the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one entereth into them.

13 Then said he unto me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they be holy chambers, where the priests that approach unto the LORD shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy.

14 When the priests enter therein, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the utter court, but there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister; for they are holy; and shall put on other garments, and shall approach to those things which are for the people.

15 Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about.

16 He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.

17 He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.

18 He measured the south side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed.

19 He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

20 He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.

   

Commentary

 

Four

  
Four Mandalas

The number "four" in the Bible represents things being linked together or joined. This is partly because four is two times two, and two represents the ultimate linking between our desire to be good and our understanding of truth. We can also see this in the fact that most buildings are rectangular, with the four sides linking together to make a whole. We also divide directions into four -- north, east, south and west -- and talk about the "four corners" of something meaning all of it. So our special thinking naturally looks at four sides as linking together into a whole.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 417; Arcana Coelestia 1686, 9103, 9601, 9767, 9864)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4528

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4528. The eye, or rather the sight of the eye, corresponds in particular to those communities in the next life which are surrounded by paradise gardens, which appear up above, in front and slightly to the right. There one can see gardens containing trees and flowers belonging to genera and species so numerous that in comparison with them those found on this entire planet are few. Each object there holds a measure of intelligence and wisdom shining out of it, enabling you to say that the people in those gardens are at the same time in the paradise gardens of intelligence and wisdom. Those gardens stir the inner feelings of the people there, and so gladden not only the eye but also at the same time the understanding.

[2] The paradise gardens are in the first heaven, on the verge leading to the inner parts of that heaven. They are representations which come down from the heaven above it when the angels of that higher heaven are engaged in serious discussion about the truths of faith. To communicate with one another the angels there rely on spiritual and celestial ideas to serve them as verbal expressions, and on consecutive sequences of representations, the beauty and loveliness of which cannot be described in any way at all. It is these beautiful and lovely expressions of ideas that are represented in the lower heaven as paradise gardens.

[3] This heaven is divided into many separate heavens, to which the individual parts within the chambers of the eye correspond. There is a heaven where the paradise gardens referred to above may be found. There is a heaven where different coloured skies may be seen, where the whole air is flashing so to speak with gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, very tiny flowers, and countless other things. There is a rainbow heaven where very beautiful rainbows appear, large and small, variegated with most splendid colours. Each of these is a product of the light from the Lord which holds intelligence and wisdom within it, and therefore every single object there holds some measure of intelligence and wisdom - the attributes of truth and good respectively - which is manifested in this representative fashion.

[4] Those who do not have any concept of heaven or of the light there can scarcely be led to believe that such things exist there. Consequently if those who bring that absence of belief with them into the next life have been governed by the truth and good of faith, they are taken by angels to those sights, and when they see them they are astounded. Concerning the paradise gardens, the skies, and the rainbow scenes, see previous descriptions of my experience of them in 1619-1626, 2296, 3220; also in the heavens consecutive representations occur constantly, 1807, 1808, 1971, 1980, 1981, 2299, 2763, 3213, 3216-3218, 3222, 3350, 3475, 3485.

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