Arcana Coelestia #290
290. It was called 'the mother of all living' from its faith in the Lord, who is Life itself. This too becomes clear from what has been shown already. There cannot possibly be more than one Life from which everyone's life derives, nor can life which really is life possibly exist unless it comes by way of faith in the Lord, who is Life. Neither can faith exist which has life within it unless it comes from Him, and so has Him within it. This is why in the Word the Lord is called the only Living, and the LIVING JEHOVAH, in Jeremiah 5:2; 12:16; 16:14-15; 23:7; Ezekiel 5:11; the One living forever, in Daniel 4:34; Revelation 4:10; 5:14; 10:6; in David, the fountain of life, Psalms 36:9; in Jeremiah, the fount of living waters, 17:13. Heaven which derives its life from Him is called 'the land of the living' in Isaiah 38:11; 53:8; Ezekiel 26:20; 32:23-27, 32; Psalms 27:13; 52:5; 142:5. And those who have faith in the Lord are called 'the living', as in David,
Who has kept our soul among the living. Psalms 66:9.
It is also said that those who have faith appear in the Book of Lives, Psalms 69:28, and in the Book of Life, Revelation 13:8; 17:8; 20:15. This also is why it is said of those who receive faith in Him that they are made alive, Hosea 6:2; Psalms 85:6. Conversely those who have no faith were in consequence called 'the dead', as also in Isaiah,
The dead will not live, the Rephaim will not rise. To that end You have visited them and wiped them out. Isaiah 26:14.
This stands for people who are puffed up with self-love. 'Rising up means entering into life. They are also called 'the slain' 1 in Ezekiel 32:23-26, 28-31; and hell is called 'death' in Isaiah 25:8; 28:15. The Lord too refers to them as 'the dead' in Matthew 4:16; John 5:24; 8:21, 24, 51-52.
Footnotes:
1. literally, the pierced
Jeremiah 18
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The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
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Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.
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Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels.
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When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
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Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
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House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter? says Yahweh. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, House of Israel.
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At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;
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if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.
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At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
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if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.
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Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
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But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart.
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Therefore thus says Yahweh: Ask now among the nations, who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
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Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or] shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?
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For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;
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to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.
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I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
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Then they said, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
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Give heed to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.
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Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.
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Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, [and] their young men struck of the sword in battle.
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Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
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Yet, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me to kill me; don't forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you; deal you with them in the time of your anger.
