The Bible

 

Jeremiah 48

Study

   

1 Against Moab thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Woe to Nebo! for it is laid waste: Kiriathaim is confounded and taken: Misgab is confounded and dismayed.

2 There shall be no more praise of Moab: in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen; the sword shall pursue thee.

3 A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim, devastation and great destruction.

4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.

5 For in the ascent of Luhith continual weeping shall go up; for in the descent of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.

6 Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

7 For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou also shalt be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.

8 And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD hath spoken.

9 Give wings to Moab, that it may flee and get away: for its cities shall be desolate, without any to dwell in them.

10 Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

11 Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.

12 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will send to him wanderers that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles.

13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Beth-el their confidence.

14 How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war?

15 Moab is laid waste, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, saith the king, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

16 The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.

17 All ye that are about him bemoan him; and all ye that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!

18 Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.

19 O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and espy; ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, What is done?

20 Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is laid waste.

21 And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath,

22 And upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Beth-diblathaim,

23 And upon Kiriathaim, and upon Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon,

24 And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.

25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the LORD.

26 Make ye him drunken; for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

27 For was not Israel a derision to thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou hast spoken of him, thou hast leaped for joy.

28 O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth.

29 We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogance, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.

30 I know his wrath, saith the LORD; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.

31 Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; my heart shall mourn for the men of Kirheres.

32 O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer: thy plants have gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer: the spoiler hath fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.

33 And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the wine-presses: none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.

34 From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, and even to Jahaz, have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim, as a heifer of three years old: for the waters also of Nimrim shall be desolate.

35 Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, saith the LORD, him that offereth in the high places, and him that burneth incense to his gods.

36 Therefore my heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and my heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the riches that he hath gotten have perished.

37 For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.

38 There shall be lamentation generally upon all the house-tops of Moab, and in its streets: for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which is no pleasure, saith the LORD.

39 They shall howl, saying, How is it broken down! how hath Moab turned the back with shame! so shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to all them about him.

40 For thus saith the LORD; Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab.

41 Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men's hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

42 And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the LORD.

43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the LORD.

44 He that fleeth from the fear, shall fall into the pit; and he that getteth out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.

45 They that fled stood under the shade of Heshbon because of the force: but a fire shall come out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.

46 Woe be to thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth: for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captives.

47 Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #649

Study this Passage

  
/ 962  
  

649. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes of the vine of the earth." This symbolizes the Lord's operation from the goodness of His love through the Word's Divine truth into the works of charity and faith among people belonging to the Christian Church.

This is the spiritual meaning of these words, inasmuch as the two angels symbolize the heavens of the Lord's spiritual and celestial kingdoms (nos. 647, 648), and the heavens do nothing of themselves, but from the Lord. For the angels in the heavens are only recipient vessels. Consequently in the spiritual sense nothing else is symbolized but the Lord's operation, here His operation into the church in the Christian world and into the works of charity and faith among the people in it. The vine, indeed, symbolizes that church, as we shall see after this in number 651, and grapes and clusters of grapes symbolize works of charity. This is the symbolism of grapes and clusters of grapes because they are the fruits of the vine in a vineyard, and fruits in the Word symbolize good works.

[2] The angel who came out from the altar told the angel who came out of the temple to thrust in his sickle and gather the grapes because, as we said before, the angel who came out from the altar symbolizes the heavens of the celestial kingdom, or heavens characterized by the goodness of love, while the angel who came out of the temple symbolizes the heavens of the spiritual kingdom, or heavens characterized by truths of wisdom; and the goodness of love does nothing by itself, but only through the truth of wisdom, and the truth of wisdom does nothing by itself, but only in response to the goodness of love. The reality of this is something we showed many times in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom. That is why the angel who came out from the altar told the angel who came out of the temple to thrust in his sickle and gather the clusters of grapes of the vine of the earth.

That now is why this description symbolizes the Lord's operation from the goodness of His love through the Divine truth of His Word.

[3] That grapes and clusters of grapes symbolize goods and the works of charity can be seen from the following passages:

Woe is me! ...I have become like the gatherings of summer, like the gleanings of vintage grapes; there is no cluster to eat; first-ripe fruit my soul desires. The holy man has perished from the earth, and the upright among men. (Micah 7:1-2)

Their grapes are grapes of gall, they have bitter clusters. (Deuteronomy 32:32)

My beloved had a vineyard... He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2, 4)

They look to other gods, they love flagons of grapes. (Hosea 3:1)

...every tree is known by its own fruit. ...people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. (Luke 6:44)

...in the midst of the land... it shall be... like the gleanings of grapes when the grape harvest is done. (Isaiah 24:12-13)

If the gatherers of the grapes come to you, they will not leave any gleanings. (Jeremiah 49:9, cf. Obadiah verses 4, 5)

The plunderer has fallen on... your grape harvest. (Jeremiah 48:32-33)

You will be troubled, you complacent ones, for the grape harvest is failing, the gathering will not come. (Isaiah 32:9-10)

And so on elsewhere where the fruit of the vineyard and the fruit of the vine are mentioned.

Some goods are the goods of a celestial love, and some are the goods of a spiritual love. The goods of a celestial love are those of love toward the Lord, and the goods of a spiritual love are those of a love for the neighbor. The latter goods are called goods of charity and are those meant by the fruits of the vineyard, which are grapes and clusters of grapes. But the goods of love toward the Lord are meant in the Word by the fruits of trees, primarily olives.

[4] "For her grapes are ripe." This symbolically means, because the Christian Church has reached its last state.

The ripening of the vineyard's grapes has the same symbolic meaning as the drying of the harvest above, but a harvest is mentioned in reference to the church in general, while a vineyard is mentioned in reference to the church in particular. The drying of the harvest symbolizes the last state of the church, as may be seen in no. 645 above, and so likewise does the ripening of the grapes of the vineyard.

A vineyard symbolize the church which has the Word's Divine truth and where the Lord is thereby known, since wine symbolizes the interior truth that comes from the Lord through the Word. The vineyard here accordingly symbolizes the Christian Church.

That wine symbolizes truth springing from the goodness of love, thus from the Lord, may be seen in no. 316 above.

  
/ 962  
  

Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.