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Abdías 1

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1 VISION de Abdías. El Señor Jehová ha dicho así cuanto á Edom: Oído hemos el pregón de Jehová, y mensajero es enviado á las gentes. Levantaos, y levantémonos contra ella en batalla.

2 He aquí, pequeño te he hecho entre las gentes; abatido eres tú en gran manera.

3 La soberbia de tu corazón te ha engañado, tú que moras en las hendiduras de las peñas, en tu altísima morada; que dices en tu corazón: ¿Quién me derribará á tierra?

4 Si te encaramares como águila, y si entre las estrellas pusieres tu nido, de ahí te derribaré, dice Jehová.

5 Si ladrones vinieran á ti, ó robadores de noche (H­cómo has sido destruído!ñor Jehová,lare the work of God, and understand His doing.o) ¿no hurtaran lo que les bastase? Pues si entraran á ti vendimiadores, aun dejaran algún rebusco.

6 Cómo fueron escudriñadas las cosas de Esaú! sus cosas escondidas fueron buscadas.

7 Hasta el término te hicieron llegar todos tus aliados; te han engañado tus pacíficos, prevalecieron contra ti; los que comían tu pan, pusieron el lazo debajo de ti: no hay en él entendimiento.

8 ¿No haré que perezcan en aquel día, dice Jehová, los sabios de Edom, y la prudencia del monte de Esaú?

9 Y tus valientes, oh Temán, serán quebrantados; porque todo hombre será talado del monte de Esaú por el estrago.

10 Por la injuria de tu hermano Jacob te cubrirá vergüenza, y serás talado para siempre.

11 El día que estando tú delante, llevaban extraños cautivo su ejército, y los extraños entraban por sus puertas, y echaban suertes sobre Jerusalem, tú también eras como uno de ellos.

12 Pues no debiste tú estar mirando en el día de tu hermano, el día en que fué extrañado: no te habías de haber alegrado de los hijos de Judá en el día que se perdieron, ni habías de ensanchar tu boca en el día de la angustia:

13 No habías de haber entrado por la puerta de mi pueblo en el día de su quebrantamiento; no, no habías tú de haber mirado su mal el día de su quebranto, ni haber echado mano á sus bienes el día de su calamidad.

14 Tampoco habías de haberte parado en las encrucijadas, para matar los que de ellos escapasen; ni habías tú de haber entregado los que quedaban en el día de angustia.

15 Porque cercano está el día de Jehová sobre todas las gentes: como tú hiciste se hará contigo: tu galardón volverá sobre tu cabeza.

16 De la manera que vosotros bebisteis en mi santo monte, beberán, todas las gentes de continuo: beberán, y engullirán, y serán como si no hubieran sido.

17 Mas en el monte de Sión habrá salvamento, y será santidad, y la casa de Jacob, poseerá sus posesiones.

18 Y la casa de Jacob será fuego, y la casa de José será llama, y la casa de Esaú estopa, y los quemarán, y los consumirán; ni aun reliquia quedará en la casa de Esaú, porque Jehová lo habló.

19 Y los del mediodía poseerán el monte de Esaú, y los llanos de los Palestinos; poseerán también los campos de Ephraim, y los campos de Samaria; y Benjamín á Galaad.

20 Y los cautivos de aqueste ejército de los hijos de Israel poseerán lo de los Cananeos hasta Sarepta; y los cautivos de Jerusalem, que están en Sepharad, poseerán las ciudades del mediodía.

21 Y vendrán salvadores al monte de Sión para juzgar al monte de Esaú; y el reino será de Jehová.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #649

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649. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes of the vine of the earth." This symbolizes the Lord's operation from the goodness of His love through the Word's Divine truth into the works of charity and faith among people belonging to the Christian Church.

This is the spiritual meaning of these words, inasmuch as the two angels symbolize the heavens of the Lord's spiritual and celestial kingdoms (nos. 647, 648), and the heavens do nothing of themselves, but from the Lord. For the angels in the heavens are only recipient vessels. Consequently in the spiritual sense nothing else is symbolized but the Lord's operation, here His operation into the church in the Christian world and into the works of charity and faith among the people in it. The vine, indeed, symbolizes that church, as we shall see after this in number 651, and grapes and clusters of grapes symbolize works of charity. This is the symbolism of grapes and clusters of grapes because they are the fruits of the vine in a vineyard, and fruits in the Word symbolize good works.

[2] The angel who came out from the altar told the angel who came out of the temple to thrust in his sickle and gather the grapes because, as we said before, the angel who came out from the altar symbolizes the heavens of the celestial kingdom, or heavens characterized by the goodness of love, while the angel who came out of the temple symbolizes the heavens of the spiritual kingdom, or heavens characterized by truths of wisdom; and the goodness of love does nothing by itself, but only through the truth of wisdom, and the truth of wisdom does nothing by itself, but only in response to the goodness of love. The reality of this is something we showed many times in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom. That is why the angel who came out from the altar told the angel who came out of the temple to thrust in his sickle and gather the clusters of grapes of the vine of the earth.

That now is why this description symbolizes the Lord's operation from the goodness of His love through the Divine truth of His Word.

[3] That grapes and clusters of grapes symbolize goods and the works of charity can be seen from the following passages:

Woe is me! ...I have become like the gatherings of summer, like the gleanings of vintage grapes; there is no cluster to eat; first-ripe fruit my soul desires. The holy man has perished from the earth, and the upright among men. (Micah 7:1-2)

Their grapes are grapes of gall, they have bitter clusters. (Deuteronomy 32:32)

My beloved had a vineyard... He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2, 4)

They look to other gods, they love flagons of grapes. (Hosea 3:1)

...every tree is known by its own fruit. ...people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. (Luke 6:44)

...in the midst of the land... it shall be... like the gleanings of grapes when the grape harvest is done. (Isaiah 24:12-13)

If the gatherers of the grapes come to you, they will not leave any gleanings. (Jeremiah 49:9, cf. Obadiah verses 4, 5)

The plunderer has fallen on... your grape harvest. (Jeremiah 48:32-33)

You will be troubled, you complacent ones, for the grape harvest is failing, the gathering will not come. (Isaiah 32:9-10)

And so on elsewhere where the fruit of the vineyard and the fruit of the vine are mentioned.

Some goods are the goods of a celestial love, and some are the goods of a spiritual love. The goods of a celestial love are those of love toward the Lord, and the goods of a spiritual love are those of a love for the neighbor. The latter goods are called goods of charity and are those meant by the fruits of the vineyard, which are grapes and clusters of grapes. But the goods of love toward the Lord are meant in the Word by the fruits of trees, primarily olives.

[4] "For her grapes are ripe." This symbolically means, because the Christian Church has reached its last state.

The ripening of the vineyard's grapes has the same symbolic meaning as the drying of the harvest above, but a harvest is mentioned in reference to the church in general, while a vineyard is mentioned in reference to the church in particular. The drying of the harvest symbolizes the last state of the church, as may be seen in no. 645 above, and so likewise does the ripening of the grapes of the vineyard.

A vineyard symbolize the church which has the Word's Divine truth and where the Lord is thereby known, since wine symbolizes the interior truth that comes from the Lord through the Word. The vineyard here accordingly symbolizes the Christian Church.

That wine symbolizes truth springing from the goodness of love, thus from the Lord, may be seen in no. 316 above.

  
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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.