The Bible

 

Jeremiah 42

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1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near.

2 And said to Jeremiah the prophet, We beseech thee, let our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us to the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thy eyes do behold us:)

3 That the LORD thy God may show us the way in which we may walk, and the thing that we may do.

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you.

5 Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for which The LORD thy God shall send thee to us.

6 Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.

7 And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.

8 Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

9 And said to them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him;

10 If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent of the evil that I have done to you.

11 Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD; for I am with you, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

12 And I will show mercies to you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.

13 But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God,

14 Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor hunger for bread; and there will we dwell:

15 And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;

16 Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.

17 So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.

18 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As my anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem: so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.

19 The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day.

20 For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me to the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us to the LORD our God; and according to all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it.

21 And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for which he hath sent me to you.

22 Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #158

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158. ADDITIONAL NOTE

Since this chapter has dealt with the Holy Spirit, it is of importance to note that the Holy Spirit is nowhere named in the Old Testament Word, but only 'the Spirit of holiness' in three passages, one in the Psalms of David (Psalms 51:11), and two in Isaiah (Isaiah 63:10-11). But there are frequent references in the New Testament Word, as much in the Gospels as in the Acts of the Apostles and in their Epistles. The reason is that the Holy Spirit first existed when the Lord came into the world, for it came out of Him from the Father; for 'the Lord alone is holy' (Revelation 15:4). For this reason too the angel Gabriel speaking to Mary the mother of Jesus said 'the holy thing which will be born of you' (Luke 1:35). The reason why we read 'The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified' (John 7:39), although it was said earlier that the Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth (Luke 1:41) and Zechariah (Luke 1:67), as well as Simeon (Luke 2:25), was that it was the spirit of Jehovah the Father which filled them; and it was called the Holy Spirit because the Lord was already at that time in the world.

This is why nowhere in the Old Testament Word does it say that the Prophets spoke from the Holy Spirit, but from Jehovah. For everywhere we read 'Jehovah spoke to me', 'The Word from Jehovah came to me', 'Jehovah said', 'The saying of Jehovah.'

To remove all possibility of doubt I propose to quote the passages solely in Jeremiah where these expressions occur:

Jeremiah 1:4, 7, 11-14, 19;

2:1-5, 9, 19, 22, 29, 31;

3:1, 6, 10, 12, 14, 16;

4:1, 3, 9, 17, 27;

5:11, 14, 18, 22, 29;

6:6, 9, 12, 15-16, 21-22;

7:1, 3, 11, 13, 19-21;

8:1, 3, 12-13;

9:3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 17, 22, 24-25;

10:1-2, 18;

11:1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 17-18, 21-22;

12:14, 17;

13:1, 6, 9, 11-15, 25;

14:1, 10, 14-15;

15:1-3, 6, 11, 19-20;

16:1, 3, 5, 9, 14, 16;

17:5, 19-21, 24;

18:1, 5-6, 11, 13;

19:1, 3, 6, 12, 15;

20:4;

21:14, 7-8, 11-12, 14;

22:2, 5-6, 11, 16, 18, 24, 29-30;

23:2, 5, 7, 12, 15, 24, 29, 31, 38;

24:3, 5, 8;

25:1, 3, 7-9, 15, 27-29, 32;

26:1-2, 18;

27:1-2, 4, 8, 11, 16, 19, 21-22;

28:2, 12, 14, 16;

29:4, 8-9, 16, 19-21, 25, 30-32;

30:15, 8, 10-12, 17-18;

31:1-2, 7, 10, 15-17, 23, 27-28, 31-38;

32:1, 6, 14-15, 25-26, 28, 30, 36, 42, 44;

33:1-2, 4, 10-13, 17, 19-20, 23, 25;

34:1-2, 4, 8, 12-13, 22;

35:1, 13, 17-19;

36:1, 6, 27, 29-30;

37:6-7, 9;

38:2-3, 17;

39:15-18;

40:1;

42:7, 9, 15, 18-19;

43:8, 10;

44:1-2, 7, 11, 24-26, 30;

45:2, 5;

46:1, 23, 25, 28;

47:1;

48:1, 8, 12, 30, 35, 38, 40, 43-44, 47;

49:2, 5-7, 12-13, 16, 18, 26, 28, 30, 32, 35, 37-39;

50:1, 4, 10, 18, 20-21, 30-31, 33, 35, 40;

51:25, 33, 36, 39, 52, 58.

These are solely from Jeremiah. There are similar expressions in all the other Prophets, but it is never said that the Holy Spirit spoke, nor that Jehovah spoke to them by means of the Holy Spirit.

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