The Bible

 

Ezekiel 16:21

Study

       

21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

Commentary

 

Walk

  

Walking represents living, and usually means living according to the true things taught to us by the Lord -- to "walk in His ways." When the Lord is pictured walking, it means life itself.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2559

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

2559. 'It happened, when God caused me to depart from my father's house' means when He left behind factual knowledge and the appearances that arise from this, together with their delights, meant here by 'father's house'. This is clear from the meaning of 'departing' as leaving behind, and from the meaning of 'house' as good, 2233, here the good that consists in the delight received from the appearances that go with factual knowledge and rational concepts, for all delight appears as good. The reason 'father's house' here means the delights received from factual knowledge and rational concepts, and therefore from the appearances that go with these, is that they are spoken of in reference to Abraham when he departed from his father's house, for at that time, together with his father's house, Abraham worshipped other gods; see 1356, 1992. This explains why the verb in the clause God caused me to depart is plural. This clause, as is also in keeping with the original language, could be rendered, the gods caused me to wander, but because the Lord is represented by Abraham it must be rendered, 'God caused me to depart'. Now it is because the factual knowledge that existed initially with the Lord, and also the rational concepts formed from that knowledge, were human - steeped as they were in what had been inherited from the mother - and so were not purely Divine, that they are represented by 'Abraham's' first state. But how far representations go, see 665, 1097 (end), 1361, 1992.

  
/ 10837  
  

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