The Bible

 

Abdías 1

Study

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 #650

Study this Passage

  
/ 962  
  

650. 14:19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vintage of the vine of the earth. This symbolizes the end of the present Christian Church.

Thrusting in his sickle and gathering the vintage has the same symbolic meaning as thrusting in his sickle and reaping, but reaping is said in reference to the crop of a field, while gathering the vintage is said in reference to a vineyard. That to gather the vintage is to harvest a vineyard and gather the grapes, and to reap is to harvest a field and gather the grain, is apparent without explanation.

That a vineyard symbolizes the church which has the Word and where the Lord is thereby known, thus in this case the Christian Church, can be seen from the following passages:

(Jesus said,) "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he shall be cast out as a branch... withered... into the fire...." (John 15:5-6)

Jesus' likening the kingdom of heaven to a landowner who hired "laborers for his vineyard" (Matthew 20:1-8).

The sons who worked in a vineyard (Matthew 21:28).

The fig tree planted in a vineyard that bore no fruit (Luke 13:6-9).

Jesus' telling the following parable: A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it. And he leased it to farmers, that he might receive its fruit. But they killed the servants he sent to them, and finally killed his son (Matthew 21:33-39, Mark 12:1-9, Luke 20:9-16).

(I will) sing... a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard: My beloved has a vineyard...(which) he fenced around... and planted with a choice vine. (Isaiah 5:1-2ff.)

In that day reply to her, "A vineyard of red wine!" I, Jehovah, keep it, I water it every moment...." (Isaiah 27:2-3)

Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard... They have made it desolate. (Jeremiah 12:10-11)

Jehovah is entering into judgment with the elders... For you have set fire to the vineyard. (Isaiah 3:14)

In all vineyards there shall be wailing. (Amos 5:17-18)

In the vineyards there will be no singing or rejoicing. (Isaiah 16:10)

  
/ 962  
  

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #316

Study this Passage

  
/ 962  
  

316. "And do not harm the oil and the wine." This symbolizes the Lord's provision that they not violate and profane the goods and truths concealed inwardly in the Word.

Oil symbolizes the goodness of love, and wine the truth springing from that goodness. Thus the oil here symbolizes sacred goodness, and the wine sacred truth. The Lord's provision that these not be violated and profaned is symbolized by the people's being told not to harm them. For this instruction came from the midst of the four living creatures, thus from the Lord (no. 314). Whatever the Lord says He also provides. That this is something He provides may be seen in nos. 314 and 255 above.

That oil symbolizes the goodness of love - this we will see in nos. 778, 779 below.

That wine symbolizes the truth springing from that goodness is clear from the following passages:

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes..., buy wine and milk without money... (Isaiah 55:1)

It shall come to pass in that day that the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills flow with milk... (Joel 3:18, cf. Amos 9:13-14)

Joy is taken away... from Carmel, and in the vineyards there will be no singing... No treaders will tread out wine in the presses; I have made their shouting cease. (Isaiah 16:10, cf. Jeremiah 48:32-33)

Carmel symbolizes the spiritual church, because it had vineyards there.

[2] ...wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth... The vinedressers have wailed... (Joel 1:5, 10-11)

Almost the same images occur in Hosea 9:2-3.

He washes his clothing in wine, and His vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are red with wine... (Genesis 49:11-12)

The subject is the Lord, and the wine symbolizes Divine truth. That is why the Lord instituted the Holy Supper, in which the bread symbolizes the Lord in respect to Divine good, and the wine the Lord in respect to Divine truth; and in their recipients the bread symbolizes a sacred goodness, and the wine sacred truth, received from the Lord. Therefore He said,

I say to you, that I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you... in My Father's kingdom. (Matthew 26:29, cf. Luke 22:18)

Because bread and wine have these symbolic meanings, so too Melchizedek, going to meet Abram, brought out bread and wine, he being a priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram (Genesis 14:18-19).

[3] The grain offering and drink offering used in sacrifices had similar symbolic meanings, as described in Exodus 29:40, Leviticus 23:12-13, 18-19ff. The grain offering was an offering of wheat flour, thus taking the place of bread, and the drink offering was an offering of wine.

It can be seen from this what these words of the Lord symbolize:

Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins... But they put the... wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. (Matthew 9:17, cf. Luke 5:37-38)

New wine is the Divine truth in the New Testament, thus in the New Church, and the old wine is the Divine truth in the Old Testament, thus in the old church.

A similar idea is symbolized by these words of the Lord at the wedding in Cana of Galilee:

Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now! (John 2:1-10)

[4] Something similar is symbolized by the wine in the Lord's parable concerning the man wounded by thieves, on whose wound the Samaritan poured oil and wine (Luke 10:33-34); for the man wounded by thieves means people whom the Jews wounded spiritually by evils and falsities, and to whom the Samaritan brought aid by pouring oil and wine on their wounds, that is, by teaching them goodness and truth, and as far as possible, healing them.

Sacred truth is symbolized by wine and new wine also elsewhere in the Word, as in Isaiah 1:21-22; 25:6; 36:17.

[5] Because of this, a vineyard in the Word symbolizes a church that possesses truths from the Lord.

That wine symbolizes sacred truth can be seen also from its opposite meaning, in which it symbolizes truth falsified and profaned, as in the following places:

Harlotry, wine, and new wine have taken hold of the heart... Their wine is gone, they commit harlotry continually. (Hosea 4:11, 18)

Harlotry symbolizes the falsification of truth, and so, too, do the wine and new wine here.

...in the hand of Jehovah a cup, and He mixed it with wine; He filled it with the mixture and poured it out, and its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth, sucking, drink. (Psalms 75:8)

Babylon was a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they are deranged. (Jeremiah 51:7)

Babylon has fallen..., because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication... If anyone worships the beast..., he shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed with undiluted wine in the cup of the wrath (of God). (Revelation 14:8-10)

(Babylon has made) all the nations (drink) of the wine... of her fornication. (Revelation 18:3)

...great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath. (Revelation 16:19)

...the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. (Revelation 17:1-2)

[6] The wine that Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, and his lords and wives and concubines drank from the vessels of the Temple in Jerusalem, while they praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone (Daniel 5:2-4) - that wine symbolized nothing else but the sacred truth of the Word and church profaned, which is why the writing then appeared on the wall, and the king that very night was slain (Daniel 5:25, 30)

Wine symbolizes truth falsified also in Isaiah 5:11-12, 21-22; 28:1, 3, 7; 29:9; 56:11-12.

The drink offering that they poured out as an offering to idols has the same symbolic meaning in Isaiah 65:11; 57:6; Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-19; Ezekiel 20:28; Deuteronomy 32:38.

It is owing to its correspondence that wine symbolizes sacred truth, and in an opposite sense, truth profaned. For when a person reads "wine" in the Word, angels - who apprehend everything spiritually - have just this interpretation of it. Such is the correspondence between the natural thoughts of people and the spiritual thoughts of angels. The case is the same with the wine in the Holy Supper. That is why the Holy Supper occasions an introduction into heaven (no. 224 at the end).

  
/ 962  
  

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