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Ezequiel 47

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1 Me hizo tornar luego a la entrada de la Casa; y he aquí aguas que salían de debajo del umbral de la Casa hacia el oriente; porque la fachada de la Casa estaba al oriente; y las aguas descendían de debajo, hacia el lado derecho de la Casa, al mediodía del altar.

2 Y me sacó por el camino de la puerta del norte, y me hizo rodear por el camino fuera de la puerta, por fuera al camino de la que mira al oriente; y he aquí las aguas que salían al lado derecho.

3 Y saliendo el varón hacia el oriente, tenía un cordel en su mano; y midió mil codos, y me hizo pasar por las aguas hasta los tobillos.

4 Y midió otros mil, y me hizo pasar por las aguas hasta las rodillas. Midió luego otros mil, y me hizo pasar por las aguas hasta los lomos.

5 Y midió otros mil, e iba ya el río que yo no podía pasar, porque las aguas se habían alzado, y el río no se podía pasar sino a nado.

6 Y me dijo: ¿Has visto, hijo de hombre? Después me llevó, y me hizo tornar por la ribera del río.

7 Y tornando yo, he aquí en la ribera del río había muchísimos árboles por un lado y el otro.

8 Y me dijo: Estas aguas salen a la región del oriente, y descenderán al desierto, y entrarán en el mar; y entradas en el mar, recibirán sanidad las aguas.

9 Y será que toda alma viviente que nadare por dondequiera que entraren estos dos rios, vivirá; y habrá muchos peces en gran manera por haber entrado allá estas aguas, y recibirán sanidad; y vivirá todo lo que entrare en este arroyo.

10 Y será que junto a él estarán pescadores; y desde En-gadi hasta En-eglaim será tendedero de redes, en su clase será su pescado como el pescado del gran mar, mucho en gran manera.

11 Sus charcos y sus lagunas no se sanarán; quedarán para salinas.

12 Y junto al arroyo, en su ribera de una parte y de otra, crecerá todo árbol de fruto de comer; su hoja nunca caerá, ni faltará su fruto; a sus meses madurará, porque sus aguas salen del Santuario; y su fruto será para comer, y su hoja para medicina.

13 Así dijo el Señor DIOS: Este es el término en que partiréis la tierra en heredad entre las doce tribus de Israel: José dos partes.

14 Y la heredaréis así los unos como los otros; por ella alcé mi mano que la había de dar a vuestros padres; por tanto, esta tierra os caerá en heredad.

15 Y éste será el término de la tierra hacia la parte del norte; desde el gran mar, camino de Hetlón viniendo a Zedad;

16 Hamat, Berota, Sibraim, que está entre el término de Damasco y el término de Hamat; Hazar-haticón, que es el término de Haurán.

17 Y será el término del norte desde el mar de Hazar-enán al término de Damasco al norte, y al término de Hamat al lado del norte.

18 Al lado del oriente, por medio de Haurán y de Damasco, y de Galaad, y de la tierra de Israel, al Jordán; esto mediréis de término hasta el mar del oriente.

19 Y al lado del mediodía, hacia el mediodía, desde Tamar hasta las aguas de las rencillas; desde Cades y el arroyo hasta el gran mar; y esto será el lado austral, al mediodía.

20 Y al lado del occidente el Gran Mar será el término hasta en derecho para venir a Hamat; éste será el lado del occidente.

21 Partiréis, pues, esta tierra entre vosotros por las tribus de Israel.

22 Y será que echaréis sobre ella suertes por herencia para vosotros, y para los extranjeros que peregrinan entre vosotros, que entre vosotros han engendrado hijos; y los tendréis como naturales entre los hijos de Israel; echarán suertes con vosotros para heredarse entre las tribus de Israel.

23 Y será que en la tribu en que peregrinare el extranjero, allí le daréis su heredad, dijo el Señor DIOS.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1326

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1326. That 'therefore He called the name of it Babel' means such worship, namely that meant by 'Babel', is clear from what has been stated so far - about worship which inwardly contains self-love and therefore everything that is filthy and unholy. Self-love is nothing else than the proprium, and how filthy and unholy this is becomes clear from what has been shown already about the proprium in 210, 215. From philautia, 1 that is, from self-love or the proprium, flow all evils, such as those of hatred, revenge, cruelty, adultery, deceit, hypocrisy, and irreligion. Consequently when self-love or the proprium is present in worship, such evils are present too - but the particular kind of evils and their intensity being determined by the extent and nature of what flows from that self-love. This is the origin of all profanation in worship. The fact of the matter is that insofar as self-love or the proprium introduces itself into worship, internal worship departs, that is, internal worship ceases to exist. Internal worship consists in the affection for good and in the acknowledgement of truth, but to the extent that self-love or the proprium intrudes or enters in, the affection for good and the acknowledgement of truth depart or go away. Holiness cannot possibly co-exist with unholiness, any more than heaven can with hell. Instead one must depart from the other. Such is the state and proper order existing in the Lord's kingdom. This is the reason why among the kind of people whose worship is called 'Babel' no internal worship exists, but instead something dead and indeed inwardly corpse-like is worshipped. This shows what their external worship which is inwardly such is like.

[2] That such worship is 'Babel' is clear from many parts of the Word where Babel is described, as in Daniel, where the description of the statue which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel saw in a dream - whose head was gold, breast and arms silver, belly and thighs bronze, legs iron, and feet partly iron and partly clay - means that true worship finally deteriorated into the kind of worship called 'Babel', and therefore also a stone cut out of the rock smashed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, Daniel 2:31-33, 44-45. The statue of gold which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel set up, and which people were to adore, had no other meaning, Daniel 3:1-end. The same applies to the description of the king of Babel with his nobles drinking wine from the vessels of gold that had come from the Temple in Jerusalem, of their praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and stone, and of writing therefore appearing on the wall, Daniel 5:1-end; to the description of Darius the Mede commanding that he be adored instead of God, Daniel 6:1-end; and to that of the beasts seen by Daniel in a dream, Daniel 7:1-end, as well as to that of the beasts and Babel in John's Revelation.

[3] That such worship was meant and represented is quite clear not only in Daniel and John but also in the Prophets: in Isaiah,

Their faces were faces of flames; the stars of the heavens and their constellations do not give their light The sun is darkened in its coming up and the moon does not shed its light Tziim lie down there, and their houses are full of ochim, and daughters of the owl dwell there, and satyrs dance there, and iim answer in its palaces, and dragons in its halls of pleasure. Isaiah 13:8, 10, 21-22

This refers to Babel and describes the internal aspect of such worship by 'faces of flames', which are evil desires; by 'the stars', which are truths of faith, 'not giving their light'; by 'the sun', which is holy love, 'being darkened'; by 'the moon', which is the truth of faith, 'not shedding its light'; by 'tziim, ochim, daughters of the owl, satyrs, dim, and dragons', which are the more interior aspects of worship. For such things belong to self-love or the proprium. This also is why Babel in John is called 'the mother of whoredoms and abominations', Revelation 17:5; and in the same book,

A dwelling-place of demons, 2 and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Revelation 18:2.

From these places it is evident that when such things are within, it is impossible for any good or truth of faith to be there, and that to the extent that those things enter in, the goods which are the objects of affection, and the truths of faith, depart. They are also called in Isaiah 21:9 'the graven images of the gods of Babel'.

[4] That it is self-love or the proprium which lies within their worship, or that it is worship of self, is quite clear in Isaiah,

Prophesy this parable against the king of Babel, You said in your heart, I will go up the heavens, above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the uttermost parts of the north. I will go up above the heights of the cloud, I will make myself like the Most High. But you will be brought down to hell. Isaiah 14:4, 13-15.

Here, it is plain, Babel means the person who wishes to be worshipped as a god, that is, worship of self is meant.

[5] In the same prophet,

Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babel; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. You trusted in your wickedness, you said, No one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray; you said in your heart, I am, and there is no one besides me. Isaiah 47:1, 10.

In Jeremiah,

Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, destroying the whole earth; and I will stretch out My hand over you and roll you down from the rocks and will make you into a mountain of burning. Though Babel rise up into the heavens, and though she fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me those who lay waste will come to her. Jeremiah 51:25, 53.

This again shows that 'Babel' is worship of self.

[6] The fact that such people have no light of truth, but only total darkness, that is, that they do not possess the truth of faith, is described in Jeremiah,

The word which Jehovah spoke against Babel, against the land of the Chaldeans, There will come up upon her a nation from the north, which will make her land a desolation, and none will dwell in it; both man and beast will scatter themselves, they will go away. Jeremiah 50:1, 3.

'The north' stands for thick darkness, or absence of truth. 'No man and no beast' stands for the absence of good. For more about Babel, see at verse 28 3 below, where Chaldea is referred to.

Footnotes:

1. A Greek word, also used in late Medieval or Neo-Latin, which means self-love, self-regard.

2. The Latin means dragons, but the Greek means demons, which Swedenborg has in other pieces where he quotes this verse.

3. i.e. 1368

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.