The Bible

 

Isaiah 1

Study

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:

23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

24 Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellers as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.

31 And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #1043

Study this Passage

  
/ 1232  
  

1043. And decked with gold and precious stone. That this signifies the appearance of that religious persuasion in externals, as it were from spiritual good and truth, although, in internals, it is from infernal evil and falsity, is evident from the signification of gold, as denoting spiritual good, and the evil that is the opposite of it, which is called infernal evil. That gold signifies good, see n. 242. And from the signification of precious stone, as denoting truth from a spiritual origin, and also the falsity that is the opposite of it, which is called infernal falsity. That a precious stone denotes truth from a spiritual origin, see n. 717.

[2] Some observations were made above concerning good and truth from a celestial origin, and concerning good and truth from a spiritual origin. Something shall now be said concerning the evil and falsity which are their opposites.

As the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms - the celestial and the spiritual - so also are the hells distinguished into two dominions, the opposites of those kingdoms. The dominion the opposite of the celestial kingdom is called diabolical, and the dominion the opposite of the spiritual kingdom is called infernal. Those dominions are distinguished in the Word by the names Devil and Satan. The reason why there are two dominions in the hells is, that the heavens and the hells are the opposites of each other; and opposite must altogether correspond to opposite in order that there may be equilibrium. For the existence and subsistence of all things, both in the natural world and in the spiritual world, depend upon a perfect equilibrium between two opposite agents, which, while they clearly act against each other mutually, do so by force, but when not manifestly, they act by effort. By equilibrium all things are kept together in both worlds, and without it all things would perish. The equilibrium in the spiritual world is between good from heaven and evil from hell, and thence between truth from heaven and falsity from hell. For so it is continually ordered by the Lord, that all the genera and species of good and truth in the heavens should have their opposites in evils and falsities of correspondent kinds in the hells. Thus goods and truths from a celestial origin have for their opposites the evils and falsities that are called diabolical; and similarly goods and truths from a spiritual origin have for their opposites the evils and falsities that are called infernal.

[3] The equilibriums derive their cause from this, that the same Divine goods and Divine truths that the angels in the heavens receive from the Lord, the spirits in the hells turn into evils and falsities. All angels, spirits, and men are held by the Lord in equilibrium between good and evil, and thence between truth and falsity, in order that they may be in freedom, and so be withdrawn from evil to good, and from falsity to truth, easily and as of themselves, while yet of the Lord. Hence it is that they are also led in freedom from good to evil, and from truth to falsity, and this also as of themselves, although it is from hell.

  
/ 1232  
  

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