17
até que lhes falte o pão e a água, e se espantem uns com os outros, e se definhem na sua iniqüidade.
Ezequiel 4:17
Apocalypse Revealed #209
209. 'Wretched and poor.' This symbolically means that they have no truths or goods.
Wretched and poor people mean, in the spiritual sense of the Word, people who lack concepts of truth and good, for they are spiritually wretched and poor. They are also meant by the people in the following passages:
I am wretched and poor, O Lord; be mindful of me. (Psalms 40:18) [NCBSP: Psalms 40:17], cf. Psalms 70:5)
Incline Your ear, O Jehovah, and answer me, for I am wretched and poor. (Psalms 86:1)
The impious bare the sword and bend their bow, to cast down the wretched and poor... (Psalms 37:14)
(The impious man) persecuted the wretched and poor man, even to slay the downcast in heart. (Psalms 109:16)
(God) will judge the wretched of the people; He will save the children of the poor... He will deliver the poor man when he cries, and the wretched man... (Psalms 72:4, 12-13)
Jehovah... delivers the wretched man from one who is too strong for him, and the poor man... from those who plunder him. (Psalms 35:10)
(The impious man) devises wicked plans to destroy the wretched with lying words, even when the poor man speaks justly. (Isaiah 37:7)
The wretched shall have their joy in Jehovah, and the poor of mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 29:19)
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
See also elsewhere, as Isaiah 10:2; Jeremiah 22:16; Ezekiel 16:49; 18:12; 22:29; Amos 8:4; Psalms 9:18; 69:32-33; 74:21; 109:22; 140:12; Deuteronomy 15:11; 24:14; Luke 14:13, 21, 23.
The wretched and poor mean chiefly people who lack concepts of truth and goodness and yet desire them, since the rich mean people who possess concepts of truth and goodness (no. 206).
Luke 14:15-24
15
And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
16
Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
17
And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
18
And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
19
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
20
And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
21
So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
22
And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
23
And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
24
For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
