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Amós 4

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1 OID esta palabra, vacas de Basán, que estáis en el monte de Samaria, que oprimís los pobres, que quebrantáis los menesterosos, que decis á sus señores: Traed, y beberemos.

2 El Señor Jehová juró por su santidad: He aquí, vienen días sobre vosotros en que os llevará en anzuelos, y á vuestros descendientes en barquillos de pescador.

3 Y saldrán por los portillos la una en pos de la otra, y seréis echadas del palacio, dice Jehová.

4 Id á Beth-el, y prevaricad; en Gilgal aumentad la rebelión, y traed de mañana vuestros sacrificios, vuestros diezmos cada tres años;

5 Y ofreced sacrificio de alabanza con leudo, y pregonad, publicad voluntarias ofrendas; pues que así lo queréis, hijos de Israel, dice el Señor Jehová.

6 Yo también os dí limpieza de dientes en todas vuestras ciudades, y falta de pan en todos vuestros pueblos: mas no os tornasteis á mí, dice Jehová.

7 Y también yo os detuve la lluvia tres meses antes de la siega: é hice llover sobre una ciudad, y sobre otra ciudad no hice llover: sobre una parte llovió; la parte sobre la cual no llovió, secóse.

8 Y venían dos ó tres ciudades á una ciudad para beber agua, y no se hartaban: con todo no os tornásteis á mí, dice Jehová.

9 Os herí con viento solano y oruga; vuestros muchos huertos y vuestras viñas, y vuestros higuerales y vuestros olivares comió la langosta: pero nunca os tornasteis á mí, dice Jehová.

10 Envié entre vosotros mortandad al modo que en Egipto: maté á cuchillo vuestros mancebos, con cautiverio de vuestros caballos; é hice subir el hedor de vuestros reales hasta vuestras narices: empero no os tornasteis á mí, dice Jehová.

11 Trastornéos, como cuando Dios trastornó á Sodoma y á Gomorra, y fuisteis como tizón escapado del fuego: mas no os tornasteis á mí, dice Jehová.

12 Por tanto, de esta manera haré á ti, oh Israel: y porque te he de hacer esto, aparéjate para venir al encuentro á tu Dios, oh Israel.

13 Porque he aquí, el que forma los montes, y cría el viento, y denuncia al hombre su pensamiento; el que hace á las tinieblas mañana, y pasa sobre las alturas de la tierra; Jehová, Dios de los ejércitos, es su nombre.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #560

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560. And stings were in their tails, signifies craftiness in deceiving by means of them. This is evident from the signification of "stings," as being craftiness and shrewdness in persuading as to falsities; it follows therefore that they had in them the power to hurt men, for one who deceives craftily and shrewdly is especially harmful. The stings were "in their tails," because they deceive by means of knowledges [scientifica] sensually perceived, knowledges both from the Word and from the world, which are what human learning consists of; they deceive by knowledges from the Word by explaining it sensually according to the letter, and not according to its interior sense; they deceive by knowledges from the world by using them for confirmation. It is to be known that sensual men are more crafty and shrewd than others, and thus in acutely deceiving; for as spiritual men possess intelligence and prudence, so those who are sensual and in falsities possess malice and craftiness, for all malice has its seat in evil, as all intelligence has its seat in good.

[2] It is believed in the world that those who are crafty and shrewd are also prudent and intelligent; but craftiness and malice are not prudence and intelligence, but viewed in themselves are insanity and folly; for such remove themselves from eternal happiness and cast themselves into eternal misery, and this is not the part of the prudent and intelligent but of the insane and foolish. Moreover, with such all things of heavenly and angelic wisdom are in dense darkness, and where that wisdom is thick darkness there is folly. That sensual men are crafty and shrewd can be seen from those who are in the hells, where all are merely natural and sensual; it can hardly be believed by anyone how much craftiness and shrewdness these possess (See in the work on Heaven and Hell 576-581, where the malice and wicked devices of the infernal spirits are treated of).

[3] That "stings" signify craftiness can be seen without confirmation from the Word, for in common discourse the craftiness in speech by which men are deceived are called sharp points, and the talk itself is called sharp. But "stings" signify particularly interior falsities, which are such as cannot be dispelled, because they are from the knowledges and fallacies of the senses. That such falsities are signified by "stings" (or sharp points) can be seen from representatives in the spiritual world, where interior falsities are represented in various ways by sharp things, like the points of swords, the points of arrows, and things pointed in various forms, and this when they are intended to hurt; for this reason it is also forbidden there to exhibit such things to view, for spirits when they see them become furious to inflict injury.

[4] These falsities are signified by "sharp instruments" in Amos:

Behold the days will come upon you in which they will draw you out with barbs, and your posterity with fishhooks (Amos 4:2).

"To draw out with barbs" signifies to lead away from truths by knowledges [scientifica] from the Word and from the world falsely applied; and "to draw out with fishhooks" signifies to lead away from truths by the fallacies of the senses, from which the sensual man reasons.

[5] And in Moses:

If ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom ye let remain of them shall be thorns in your eyes and pricks in your sides (Numbers 33:55).

The "inhabitants of the land whom they were to drive out," signify the evils and falsities of religion and of doctrine; for these were signified in an abstract sense by the nations of the land of Canaan. Therefore "they shall be thorns in your eyes" signifies the harm that will be done by malignant falsities to the truths of the church, and "pricks in your sides" signify the harm that will be done by malignant falsities to the goods of the church, "eyes" signifying in the Word the understanding of truth, and "sides" the things of charity, consequently goods.

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