The Bible

 

Амос 7

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1 Ovo mi pokaza Gospod Gospod: Gle, sazdavaše skakavce, kad počinjaše nicati otava, i gle, beše otava po carevoj kosidbi.

2 A kad pojedoše travu zemaljsku, tada rekoh: Gospode, Gospode, smiluj se; kako će se podignuti Jakov? Jer je mali.

3 Gospod se raskaja zato: Neće biti, reče Gospod.

4 Tada mi pokaza Gospod Gospod, i gle, Gospod Gospod povika da će suditi ognjem; i oganj proždre veliku bezdanu i proždre deo zemlje.

5 A ja rekoh: Gospode, Gospode, prestani; kako će se podignuti Jakov? Jer je mali.

6 Gospod se raskaja zato: Ni to neće biti, reče Gospod Gospod.

7 Tada mi pokaza, i gle, Gospod stajaše na zidu sazidanom po merilima, i u ruci Mu behu merila.

8 I reče mi Gospod: Šta vidiš, Amose? I rekoh: Merila. A Gospod mi reče: Evo, ja ću metnuti merila posred naroda svog Izrailja, neću ga više prolaziti.

9 Jer će se razoriti visine Isakove, i svetinje će Izrailjeve opusteti, i ustaću na dom Jerovoamov s mačem.

10 Tada Amasija sveštenik vetiljski posla k Jerovoamu caru Izrailjevom i poruči mu: Amos diže bunu na te usred doma Izrailjevog, zemlja ne može podneti sve reči njegove.

11 Jer ovako govori Amos: Jerovoam će poginuti od mača, a Izrailj će se odvesti iz zemlje svoje u ropstvo.

12 Potom reče Amasija Amosu: Videoče, idi, beži u zemlju Judinu, i onde jedi hleb i onde prorokuj;

13 A u Vetilju više ne prorokuj, jer je svetinja careva i dom je carski.

14 A Amos odgovori i reče Amasiji: Ne bejah prorok ni proročki sin, nego beh govedar i brah dudove;

15 A Gospod me uze od stada i reče mi Gospod: Idi, prorokuj narodu mom Izrailju.

16 Sada dakle čuj reč Gospodnju. Ti kažeš: Ne prorokuj u Izrailju, i ne kropi po domu Isakovom.

17 Zato ovako veli Gospod: Žena će ti se kurvati u gradu, i sinovi će tvoji i kćeri tvoje pasti od mača, i zemlja će se tvoja razdeliti užem, i ti ćeš umreti u nečistoj zemlji, a Izrailj će se odvesti iz svoje zemlje u ropstvo.

   

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.