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Ezekiel 31

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1 καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ἑνδεκάτῳ ἔτει ἐν τῷ τρίτῳ μηνὶ μιᾷ τοῦ μηνὸς ἐγένετο λόγος κυρίου πρός με λέγων

2 υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου εἰπὸν πρὸς φαραω βασιλέα αἰγύπτου καὶ τῷ πλήθει αὐτοῦ τίνι ὡμοίωσας σεαυτὸν ἐν τῷ ὕψει σου

3 ἰδοὺ ασσουρ κυπάρισσος ἐν τῷ λιβάνῳ καὶ καλὸς ταῖς παραφυάσιν καὶ ὑψηλὸς τῷ μεγέθει εἰς μέσον νεφελῶν ἐγένετο ἡ ἀρχὴ αὐτοῦ

4 ὕδωρ ἐξέθρεψεν αὐτόν ἡ ἄβυσσος ὕψωσεν αὐτόν τοὺς ποταμοὺς αὐτῆς ἤγαγεν κύκλῳ τῶν φυτῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ συστέματα αὐτῆς ἐξαπέστειλεν εἰς πάντα τὰ ξύλα τοῦ πεδίου

5 ἕνεκεν τούτου ὑψώθη τὸ μέγεθος αὐτοῦ παρὰ πάντα τὰ ξύλα τοῦ πεδίου καὶ ἐπλατύνθησαν οἱ κλάδοι αὐτοῦ ἀφ' ὕδατος πολλοῦ

6 ἐν ταῖς παραφυάσιν αὐτοῦ ἐνόσσευσαν πάντα τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ὑποκάτω τῶν κλάδων αὐτοῦ ἐγεννῶσαν πάντα τὰ θηρία τοῦ πεδίου ἐν τῇ σκιᾷ αὐτοῦ κατῴκησεν πᾶν πλῆθος ἐθνῶν

7 καὶ ἐγένετο καλὸς ἐν τῷ ὕψει αὐτοῦ διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν κλάδων αὐτοῦ ὅτι ἐγενήθησαν αἱ ῥίζαι αὐτοῦ εἰς ὕδωρ πολύ

8 κυπάρισσοι τοιαῦται οὐκ ἐγενήθησαν ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πίτυες οὐχ ὅμοιαι ταῖς παραφυάσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐλάται οὐκ ἐγένοντο ὅμοιαι τοῖς κλάδοις αὐτοῦ πᾶν ξύλον ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐχ ὡμοιώθη αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ κάλλει αὐτοῦ

9 διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν κλάδων αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐζήλωσεν αὐτὸν τὰ ξύλα τοῦ παραδείσου τῆς τρυφῆς τοῦ θεοῦ

10 διὰ τοῦτο τάδε λέγει κύριος ἀνθ' ὧν ἐγένου μέγας τῷ μεγέθει καὶ ἔδωκας τὴν ἀρχήν σου εἰς μέσον νεφελῶν καὶ εἶδον ἐν τῷ ὑψωθῆναι αὐτόν

11 καὶ παρέδωκα αὐτὸν εἰς χεῖρας ἄρχοντος ἐθνῶν καὶ ἐποίησεν τὴν ἀπώλειαν αὐτοῦ

12 καὶ ἐξωλέθρευσαν αὐτὸν ἀλλότριοι λοιμοὶ ἀπὸ ἐθνῶν καὶ κατέβαλον αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῶν ὀρέων ἐν πάσαις ταῖς φάραγξιν ἔπεσαν οἱ κλάδοι αὐτοῦ καὶ συνετρίβη τὰ στελέχη αὐτοῦ ἐν παντὶ πεδίῳ τῆς γῆς καὶ κατέβησαν ἀπὸ τῆς σκέπης αὐτῶν πάντες οἱ λαοὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν καὶ ἠδάφισαν αὐτόν

13 ἐπὶ τὴν πτῶσιν αὐτοῦ ἀνεπαύσαντο πάντα τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ στελέχη αὐτοῦ ἐγένοντο πάντα τὰ θηρία τοῦ ἀγροῦ

14 ὅπως μὴ ὑψωθῶσιν ἐν τῷ μεγέθει αὐτῶν πάντα τὰ ξύλα τὰ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι καὶ οὐκ ἔδωκαν τὴν ἀρχὴν αὐτῶν εἰς μέσον νεφελῶν καὶ οὐκ ἔστησαν ἐν τῷ ὕψει αὐτῶν πρὸς αὐτὰ πάντες οἱ πίνοντες ὕδωρ πάντες ἐδόθησαν εἰς θάνατον εἰς γῆς βάθος ἐν μέσῳ υἱῶν ἀνθρώπων πρὸς καταβαίνοντας εἰς βόθρον

15 τάδε λέγει κύριος κύριος ἐν ᾗ ἡμέρᾳ κατέβη εἰς ᾅδου ἐπένθησεν αὐτὸν ἡ ἄβυσσος καὶ ἐπέστησα τοὺς ποταμοὺς αὐτῆς καὶ ἐκώλυσα πλῆθος ὕδατος καὶ ἐσκότασεν ἐπ' αὐτὸν ὁ λίβανος πάντα τὰ ξύλα τοῦ πεδίου ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἐξελύθησαν

16 ἀπὸ τῆς φωνῆς τῆς πτώσεως αὐτοῦ ἐσείσθησαν τὰ ἔθνη ὅτε κατεβίβαζον αὐτὸν εἰς ᾅδου μετὰ τῶν καταβαινόντων εἰς λάκκον καὶ παρεκάλουν αὐτὸν ἐν γῇ πάντα τὰ ξύλα τῆς τρυφῆς καὶ τὰ ἐκλεκτὰ τοῦ λιβάνου πάντα τὰ πίνοντα ὕδωρ

17 καὶ γὰρ αὐτοὶ κατέβησαν μετ' αὐτοῦ εἰς ᾅδου ἐν τοῖς τραυματίαις ἀπὸ μαχαίρας καὶ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτοῦ οἱ κατοικοῦντες ὑπὸ τὴν σκέπην αὐτοῦ ἐν μέσῳ τῆς ζωῆς αὐτῶν ἀπώλοντο

18 τίνι ὡμοιώθης κατάβηθι καὶ καταβιβάσθητι μετὰ τῶν ξύλων τῆς τρυφῆς εἰς γῆς βάθος ἐν μέσῳ ἀπεριτμήτων κοιμηθήσῃ μετὰ τραυματιῶν μαχαίρας οὕτως φαραω καὶ τὸ πλῆθος τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ λέγει κύριος κύριος

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #108

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108. Whenever the most ancient people compared man to a garden they would also compare wisdom and everything connected with it to rivers. Yet they did not merely compare but actually called them such since it was characteristic of their speech to do so. At a later time the Prophets in a similar way sometimes compared them, and sometimes actually called them, by these names, as in Isaiah,

Your light will rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness will be as the daylight; and you will be like a watered garden and like a spring of waters whose waters fail not. Isaiah 58:10-11.

This refers to people who receive love and faith. Also,

Like valleys that are planted, like gardens beside a river, like aloes 1 Jehovah has planted, like cedars beside the waters. Numbers 24:6.

This refers to people who are regenerate. In Jeremiah,

Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah. He will be like a tree planted beside the waters, which will send out its roots above the stream. Jeremiah 17:7-8.

An instance of regenerate people not being compared to, but actually being called, a garden and a tree beside the rivers occurs in Ezekiel,

The waters caused it to grow, the depth of the waters made it grow tall, the river leading around the place of its planting, and he sent out his lines of water to all the trees of the field. It became beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, for its root was towards many waters. The cedars did not overshadow it in the garden of God, the fir trees were not equal to its branches, and the plane trees were not like its boughs. No tree in the garden of God was equal to it in its beauty. I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden which are in the garden of God envied it. Ezekiel 31:4, 7-9.

From these quotations it is clear that when the most ancient people likened man, or what is the same, the things that are in man, to a garden, they also added the waters and rivers by which it was watered, and that by 'waters and rivers' they understood the things which would cause growth.

Footnotes:

1. The word used in 1st Latin edition means tents, but in other places where Swedenborg quotes this text a word meaning aloes occurs. In Hebrew the spelling, though not the pronunciation, of the two words is identical.

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

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