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Amós 2

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1 ASI ha dicho Jehová: Por tres pecados de Moab, y por el cuarto, no desviaré su castigo; porque quemó los huesos del rey de Idumea hasta tornarlos en cal.

2 Y meteré fuego en Moab, y consumirá los palacios de Chêrioth: y morirá Moab en alboroto, en estrépito y sonido de trompeta.

3 Y quitaré el juez de en medio de él, y mataré con él á todos sus príncipes, dice Jehová.

4 Así ha dicho Jehová: Por tres pecados de Judá, y por el cuarto, no desviaré su castigo; porque menospreciaron la ley de Jehová, y no guardaron sus ordenanzas; é hiciéronlos errar sus mentiras, en pos de las cuales anduvieron sus padres.

5 Meteré por tanto fuego en Judá, el cual consumirá los palacios de Jerusalem.

6 Así ha dicho Jehová: Por tres pecados de Israel, y por el cuarto, no desviaré su castigo; porque vendieron por dinero al justo, y al pobre por un par de zapatos:

7 Que anhelan porque haya polvo de tierra sobre la cabeza de los pobres, y tuercen el camino de los humildes: y el hombre y su padre entraron á la misma moza, profanando mi santo nombre.

8 Y sobre las ropas empeñadas se acuestan junto á cualquier altar; y el vino de los penados beben en la casa de sus dioses.

9 Y yo destruí delante de ellos al Amorrheo, cuya altura era como la altura de los cedros, y fuerte como un alcornoque; y destruí su fruto arriba, sus raíces abajo.

10 Y yo os hice á vosotros subir de la tierra de Egipto, y os traje por el desierto cuarenta años, para que poseyeseis la tierra del Amorrheo.

11 Y levanté de vuestros hijos para profetas, y de vuestros mancebos para que fuesen Nazareos. ¿No es esto así, dice Jehová, hijos de Israel?

12 Mas vosotros disteis de beber vino á los Nazareos; y á los profetas mandasteis, diciendo: No profeticéis.

13 Pues he aquí, yo os apretaré en vuestro lugar, como se aprieta el carro lleno de haces;

14 Y la huída perecerá del ligero, y el fuerte no esforzará su fuerza, ni el valiente librará su vida;

15 Y el que toma el arco no resistirá, ni escapará el ligero de pies, ni el que cabalga en caballo salvará su vida.

16 El esforzado entre esforzados huirá desnudo aquel día, dice Jehová.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #137

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137. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation. (2:22) This symbolically means that therefore they must be left to their doctrine with its falsifications and be sorely infested by falsities.

A bed symbolizes doctrine, as we will see momentarily. Those committing adultery mean, symbolically, falsifications of truth (see nos. 134 and 136 above). And tribulation symbolizes an infestation by falsities (nos. 33, 95, 101), thus a great tribulation a severe infestation.

A bed symbolizes doctrine because of its correspondence; for as the body rests in its bed, so the mind rests in its doctrine. The doctrine symbolized by a bed, however, is the kind that each person acquires for himself, either from the Word or from his own intelligence. For it is in this that his mind finds repose and, so to speak, sleeps.

The beds that people rest in in the spiritual world come from just such an origin. For everyone there has a bed in keeping with the character of his knowledge and intelligence - the wise having magnificent beds, those without wisdom having humble beds, and falsifiers having squalid beds.

[2] This is the symbolic meaning of a bed in Luke:

I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. (Luke 17:34)

The subject is the Last Judgment. The two men in one bed are two who share the same doctrine, but not the same life.

In John:

Jesus said to (the sick man), "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And... he took up his bed, and walked. (John 5:8-12)

And in Mark:

...(Jesus) said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." (And to the scribes He said,) "Which is easier, to say..., 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, '...take up your bed and walk'?..." (Then He said,) "Rise, take up your bed (and walk.)" And... he took up the bed and went out (from their presence). (Mark 2:5, 9, 11-12)

It is apparent that a bed has some symbolic meaning here, because Jesus said, "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Take up your bed and walk'?" To carry one's bed and walk means, symbolically, to meditate on doctrine. That is how it is understood in heaven.

[3] A bed symbolizes doctrine also in Amos:

As a shepherd rescues from the mouth of a lion..., so shall the children of Israel be rescued who dwell in Samaria at the corner of a bed and on the edge of a couch. (Amos 3:12)

At the corner of a bed and on the edge of a couch means relatively removed from the truths and goods of doctrine.

A bed or a couch has the same symbolic meaning elsewhere, as in Isaiah 28:20; 57:2, 7-8.

Because Jacob in the prophecies of the Word symbolizes the church in respect to its doctrine, therefore it is said of him that "he bowed himself on the head of the bed" (Genesis 47:31), that when Joseph came, "he sat up on the bed" (Genesis 48:2), and that "he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last" (Genesis 49:33).

Since Jacob symbolizes the church's doctrine, therefore at times, when thinking of Jacob, I have seen at a height before me a man lying on a bed.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.