The Bible

 

Joelis 2

Study

   

1 Trimituokite Sione, skelbkite pavojų mano šventajame kalne. Tedreba krašto gyventojai, nes ateina Viešpaties diena, nes ji arti.

2 Tamsi, niūri ir debesuota diena. Kaip ryto migla apgaubia kalnų viršūnes, taip galinga ir didelė tauta ateina. Tokios nebuvo iki šiol ir nebebus per kartų kartas.

3 Jų priekyje­visa ryjanti ugnis, užpakalyje­siaučianti liepsna. Kraštas prieš juos kaip Edeno sodas, jiems praėjus­tuščia dykuma; niekas neišsigelbės nuo jų.

4 Jie atrodo kaip žirgai ir puls kaip kariuomenės raiteliai.

5 Jų garsas lyg kovos vežimų, riedančių kalnų viršūnėmis, kaip ūžimas liepsnos, ryjančios ražienas, kaip kariuomenės, kuri išsirikiavusi kovai.

6 Prieš juos drebės tautos, visų veidai pabals.

7 Jie bėgs kaip karžygiai, lips sienomis kaip kariai; kiekvienas eis savo keliu, nesuardydamas gretų.

8 Jie nesistumdys, bet eis kiekvienas savo taku. Jie kris ant kardo, bet nesusižeis.

9 Jie lakstys po miestą, bėgs sienomis, lips į namus, lįs pro langus kaip vagys.

10 Prieš juos drebės žemė ir svyruos dangus, saulė ir mėnulis aptems, žvaigždės nebespindės.

11 Viešpats pakels balsą priešais savo kariuomenę. Jo pulkai yra labai gausūs, ir stiprus tas, kuris vykdo Jo žodį. Viešpaties diena yra didi ir labai baisi, kas galės ją iškęsti?

12 “Todėl dabar,­sako Viešpats,­ gręžkitės į mane visa širdimi, pasninkaudami, verkdami ir dejuodami”.

13 Persiplėškite savo širdis, ne rūbus! Gręžkitės į Viešpatį, savo Dievą, nes Jis yra maloningas ir gailestingas, lėtas pykti ir didžiai geras bei susilaikantis nuo bausmės.

14 Kas žino, gal Jis sugrįš, pasigailės ir paliks palaiminimą­duonos auką ir geriamąją auką Viešpačiui, jūsų Dievui?

15 Trimituokite Sione, paskelbkite pasninką, sušaukite iškilmingą susirinkimą,

16 sukvieskite tautą ir vyresniuosius, atgabenkite vaikus ir žindomus kūdikius. Jaunavedžiai teišeina iš savo kambarių.

17 Tarp prieangio ir aukuro tegul rauda kunigai, Viešpaties tarnai, sakydami: “Viešpatie, pasigailėk savo tautos, neatiduok savo paveldo pagonių paniekai ir pajuokai! Kodėl tautos turėtų sakyti: ‘Kur yra jų Dievas’?”

18 Tada Viešpatį apims pavydas dėl savo krašto ir Jis pasigailės savo tautos.

19 Viešpats atsakys ir tars savo tautai: “Štai Aš duosiu jums javų, vyno ir aliejaus, ir jūs būsite sotūs; Aš nebeleisiu tautoms jūsų niekinti.

20 Atėjusį iš šiaurės pašalinsiu toli nuo jūsų ir nusviesiu jį į tuščią dykumą, jo veidas bus į ytų jūrą ir užpakalinė dalis­į Vakarų jūrą. Nuo jo smarvė pakils ir bjaurus kvapas, nes jis baisių dalykų padarė”.

21 Nebijok, žeme, džiaukis ir džiūgauk, nes Viešpats padarys didelių dalykų.

22 Laukiniai žvėrys, nebijokite! Ganyklos vėl žaliuoja, medžiai neša vaisių, figmedis ir vynmedis duoda derlių.

23 Siono vaikai, džiaukitės Viešpačiu, savo Dievu. Jis ištikimai duodavo jums ankstyvą lietų ir Jis siųs jums lietų, ankstyvąjį ir vėlyvąjį lietų, kaip ir anksčiau.

24 Klojimai bus pilni javų ir statinės sklidinos vyno ir aliejaus.

25 “Aš atlyginsiu jums už metus, kuriuos sunaikino vikšrai, skėriai, vabalai ir amaras­mano didžioji kariuomenė, kurią siunčiau prieš jus.

26 Jūs gausiai valgysite ir būsite sotūs, ir girsite Viešpaties, savo Dievo, vardą, kuris padarė jums nuostabių dalykų. Mano tauta nebus sugėdinta per amžius.

27 Jūs žinosite, kad Aš esu Izraelyje, Aš, Viešpats, jūsų Dievas, ir nėra kito. Mano tauta nebus sugėdinta per amžius.

28 Po to Aš išliesiu savo dvasios ant kiekvieno kūno. Jūsų sūnūs ir dukterys pranašaus, seniai sapnuos sapnus ir jaunuoliai matys regėjimus.

29 Taip pat ant vergų ir vergių tomis dienomis išliesiu savo dvasios.

30 Aš danguje ir žemėje parodysiu stebuklų­kraujo, ugnies bei rūkstančių dūmų.

31 Saulė pavirs tamsa ir mėnulis­ krauju, prieš ateinant didingai ir baisiai Viešpaties dienai.

32 Tada kiekvienas, kuris šauksis Viešpaties vardo, bus išgelbėtas. Siono kalne ir Jeruzalėje bus išgelbėjimas, kaip Viešpats sakė, likučiui, kurį Jis pašauks”.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Heaven and Hell #119

Study this Passage

  
/ 603  
  

119. This is why in the Word the Lord is compared to the sun when the focus is on love and to the moon when the focus is on faith. It is also why the sun means a love for the Lord that comes from the Lord, and the moon means a faith in the Lord that comes from the Lord. Compare the following passages.

The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days. (Isaiah 30:26)

When I annihilate you, I will cover the heavens and blacken the stars.

I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not make its light. I will blacken all the luminaries in the heavens above you and send darkness over your land. (Ezekiel 32:7-8)

I will darken the sun in its rising, and the moon will not make its light shine. (Isaiah 13:10)

The sun and the moon will be blackened and the stars will withdraw their shining; the sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. (Joel 2:2, 10, 31, 3:15)

The sun became black as hairy sackcloth, and the moon became like blood, and the stars fell to earth. (Revelation 6:12-13)

Immediately after the affliction of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven. (Matthew 24:29)

And elsewhere. In these passages, the sun means love and the moon faith, while the stars mean instances of recognizing what is good and true. 1 These are said to be darkened, to lose their light, and to fall from heaven when they no longer exist.

The Lord's appearance as a sun in heaven may also be inferred from his transfiguration before Peter, James, and John, when "his face shone like the sun" (Matthew 17:2). This is how the Lord was seen by those disciples when they had been lifted out of their bodies and were in the light of heaven.

For this reason, when the early people (who constituted a representative church) were engaged in their divine worship, they faced the sun in the east. It is why they set their temples to face the east.

Footnotes:

1. [Swedenborg's footnote] In the Word, the lesser and greater stars mean instances of recognizing what is good and true: 2495, 2849, 4697.

  
/ 603  
  

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

The Bible

 

Genesis 1

Study

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.

3 God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

4 God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.

5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." There was evening and there was morning, one day.

6 God said, "Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."

7 God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.

8 God called the expanse "sky." There was evening and there was morning, a second day.

9 God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;" and it was so.

10 God called the dry land "earth," and the gathering together of the waters he called "seas." God saw that it was good.

11 God said, "Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with its seed in it, on the earth;" and it was so.

12 The earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with its seed in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

14 God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;

15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of sky to give light on the earth;" and it was so.

16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.

17 God set them in the expanse of sky to give light to the earth,

18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.

19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

20 God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of sky."

21 God created the large sea creatures, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.

22 God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."

23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

24 God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;" and it was so.

25 God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.

26 God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

27 God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

29 God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.

30 To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;" and it was so.

31 God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.