The Bible

 

Lamentaciones 4

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1 Alef : ¡Cómo se ha oscurecido el oro! ¡Cómo el buen oro se ha demudado! Las piedras del Santuario están esparcidas por las encrucijadas de todas las calles.

2 Bet : Los hijos de Sion, preciados y estimados más que el oro puro. ¡Cómo son tenidos por vasos de barro, obra de manos de alfarero!

3 Guímel : Aun los dragones sacan la mama, dan de mamar a sus chiquitos. La hija de mi pueblo es cruel, como los avestruces en el desierto.

4 Dálet : La lengua del niño de pecho, de sed se pegó a su paladar; los chiquitos pidieron pan, y no hubo quien se lo partiese.

5 He : Los que comían delicadamente, asolados fueron en las calles. Los que se criaron en carmesí, abrazaron los estiércoles.

6 Vau : Y se aumentó la iniquidad de la hija de mi pueblo más que el pecado de Sodoma, que fue trastornada en un momento, y no asentaron sobre ella compañías.

7 Zain : Sus Nazareos fueron blancos más que la nieve, más resplandecientes que la leche; su compostura más encendida que las piedras preciosas cortadas del zafiro;

8 Chet : Oscura más que la negrura es la forma de ellos; no los conocen por las calles. Su piel está pegada a sus huesos, seco como un palo.

9 Tet : Más dichosos fueron los muertos a cuchillo que los muertos del hambre. Porque éstos murieron poco a poco por falta de los frutos de la tierra.

10 Yod : Las manos de las mujeres piadosas cocieron a sus hijos; les fueron comida en el quebrantamiento de la hija de mi pueblo.

11 Caf : Cumplió el SEÑOR su enojo, derramó el ardor de su ira; y encendió fuego en Sion, que consumió sus fundamentos.

12 Lámed : Nunca los reyes de la tierra, ni todos los que habitan en el mundo, creyeron que el enemigo y el adversario entrara por las puertas de Jerusalén.

13 Mem : Por los pecados de sus profetas, por las maldades de sus sacerdotes, que derramaron en medio de ella la sangre de los justos.

14 Nun : Titubearon ciegos en las calles, fueron contaminados en sangre, que no pudiesen tocar a sus vestiduras.

15 Sámec : Les daban voces: Apartaos ¡Inmundicia!, Apartaos, apartaos, no toquéis: porque eran contaminados; y cuando fueron traspasados, dijeron entre los gentiles: Nunca más morarán aquí .

16 Pe : La ira del SEÑOR los apartó, nunca más los mirará. No respetaron la faz de los sacerdotes, ni tuvieron compasión de los ancianos.

17 Ayin : Aun nos han desfallecido nuestros ojos tras nuestro vano socorro. En nuestra esperanza aguardamos gente que no puede salvar.

18 Tsade : Cazaron nuestros pasos, que no anduviésemos por nuestras calles. Se acercó nuestro fin, se cumplieron nuestros días; porque nuestro fin vino.

19 Cof : Ligeros fueron nuestros perseguidores más que las águilas del cielo; sobre los montes nos persiguieron, en el desierto nos pusieron emboscada.

20 Res : El resuello de nuestras narices, el ungido del SEÑOR, fue preso en sus hoyos, de quien habíamos dicho. A su sombra tendremos vida entre los gentiles.

21 Sin : Gózate y alégrate, hija de Edom, la que habitas en tierra de Uz, aun hasta ti pasará el cáliz; te embriagarás, y vomitarás.

22 Tau : Cumplido es tu castigo, oh hija de Sion: nunca más te hará transportar. Visitará tu iniquidad, oh hija de Edom; descubrirá tus pecados.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #10037

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10037. 'And its dung' means all other unclean things. This is clear from the meaning of 'dung' as that which is unclean. 'Dung' means that which is unclean, and therefore means evil and falsity since these in the spiritual sense are the unclean things, because all food that has no use or has served its purpose passes away into dung, and food in the spiritual sense is the truth and good of faith and love, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5915, 8562, 9003. Therefore also dung and excrement correspond to evils that exist in hell, which in the Word is also called a latrine. Regarding this correspondence, see 954, 2755, 4948, 5394, 5395, 7161.

[2] Consequently such things in the Word mean those which are hellish, as may be recognized from the following places: In Isaiah,

He who remains in Zion, and he who is left in Jerusalem, will be called holy, everyone who has been written for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord will have washed the excrement of the daughters of Zion and washed away the blood 1 of Jerusalem. Isaiah 4:3-4.

'Zion' and 'Jerusalem' mean the Church, 'Zion' the Church among those who are governed by the good of love, and 'Jerusalem' the Church among those who are guided by truths springing from that good. 'Washing the excrement of the daughters of Zion' means purifying from evils those in the Church who are governed by the good of love, while 'washing the blood of Jerusalem' means purifying from falsities of evil those there who are guided by truths.

[3] In Jeremiah,

They will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and they will spread them out before the sun and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served. They will not be gathered nor buried; they will be as dung on the face of the earth. Jeremiah 8:1-2.

These words describe the condition of those who rendered the Church's forms of good and its truths unholy. Their condition at that time was represented by the bringing of the bones out of their tombs. 'The bones of the kings' and 'of the princes' brought out of their tombs mean truths rendered unholy; 'the bones of the priests' and 'of the prophets' mean forms of good rendered unholy. 'Being spread out before the sun and the moon, and all the host of heaven' means being removed from all goodness and truth; 'not being gathered and buried' means not being raised up to life; and 'being dung on the face of the earth' means being nothing but that which is hellish. In the same prophet,

They will die by the deaths of grievous illnesses, so that they are not mourned nor buried; they will become dung on the face of the earth. Jeremiah 16:4; 25:33.

'Becoming dung on the face of the earth' has the same meaning as the words used in the previous quotation.

[4] In Lamentations,

Those who ate delicacies are desolate 2 in the streets; those brought up in purple have embraced dunghills. Lamentations 4:5.

'Those who ate delicacies' means those who have the Word and consequently have cognitions or knowledge of truth; 'those brought up in purple' means those with cognitions of good; and 'embracing dunghills' means learning and choosing falsities instead of those things. In Malachi,

If you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart, I will send a curse on you, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your feasts. Malachi 2:2-3.

'Spreading dung on their faces' means defiling the more internal things of life with the falsities of evil; '[spreading] the dung of feasts' means defiling the holy things of worship.

[5] In Ezekiel,

The prophet was commanded, Make a barley cake with human dung, for thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean. But he said, Ah Lord Jehovih! my soul has not been polluted; abominable flesh has not come into my mouth. Then He answered, I give you excrement of the ox instead of dung of the human being, that you may make your bread with it. For I will cause them to be in want of bread and water, and they will be dismayed with one another 3 , and waste away on account of their iniquity. Ezekiel 4:9-17.

These things represented the character of goodness and truth in the Church of the Jewish nation. 'A barley cake with dung of the human being' means the Church's interior good defiled with the evils of self-love; 'a cake with excrement of the ox' means the Church's external good defiled with the evils of that love. Since those things are meant by 'cake' it says that they would be in want of bread and water and would be dismayed. 'Bread and water' means goodness and truth; 'being in want of them' and 'being dismayed' means being deprived of [them].

[6] Since such things were meant by dung and excrement it is evident what the following words in Moses mean,

There shall be a space outside the camp, where you may go out, and you shall have a spade 4 with which you shall cover your excrement. For Jehovah God will be walking in the midst of your camp, so that your camp may be holy, and so that He may see no indecent thing among you and turn away from you 5 . Deuteronomy 23:12-14.

This command was given because uncleanness was represented by dung. For the camp where the children of Israel were living represented heaven and the Church, in which the Lord is present through faith and love. The place outside the camp therefore represented a place where heaven and the Church did not exist, thus where the Lord was not present through faith and love. This is why it says, 'Jehovah will be walking in the midst of the camp, so that the camp may be holy, and so that He may see no indecent thing and turn away'. 'Indecent thing' means uncleanness that results from evils and falsities. The fact that 'the camp' there meant heaven and the Church, in which the Lord is present, will be seen in what comes next.

Footnotes:

1. literally, bloods

2. literally, have been laid waste

3. literally, will be desolated by a man and his brother

4. literally, peg or nail

5. literally, may not see in you the nakedness of any thing and turn back from after you

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