The Bible

 

Jeremiah 49

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1 Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?

2 Therefore behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel be heir to them that were his heirs, saith the LORD.

3 Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together.

4 Why gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come to me?

5 Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those that are about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wandereth.

6 And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the LORD.

7 Concerning Edom, thus saith the LORD of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? hath counsel perished from the prudent? hath their wisdom vanished?

8 Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.

9 If grape-gatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.

10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is laid waste, and his brethren, and his neighbors, and he is not.

11 Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.

12 For thus saith the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drank; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it.

13 For I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all her cities shall be perpetual wastes.

14 I have heard a rumor from the LORD, and an embassador is sent to the heathen, saying, Assemble, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.

15 For lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men.

16 Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thy heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the hight of the hill: though thou shouldst make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.

17 Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all her plagues.

18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.

19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?

20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.

21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise of it was heard in the Red sea.

22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

23 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are faint-hearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.

24 Damascus hath become feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.

25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!

26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.

27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.

28 Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the LORD; Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and lay waste the men of the east.

29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry to them, Fear is on every side.

30 Flee, get you far off, dwell deep, O ye inhabitants of Hazor, saith the LORD; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you.

31 Arise, go up to the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care, saith the LORD, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone.

32 And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides of it, saith the LORD.

33 And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.

34 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,

35 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.

36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them towards all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.

37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:

38 And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the LORD.

39 But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #299

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299. And he who sat on it had a bow. This symbolizes their having a doctrine of truth and goodness from the Word, from which they fought against falsities and evils emanating from hell, thus fighting against hell.

He who sat on the white horse in Revelation 19:11-13 means the Lord in relation to the Word, but he who sat on this white horse means an angelic person in relation to a doctrine of truth and goodness from the Word, thus a doctrine from the Lord, like the army of the Lord in heaven which followed the Lord on white horses in Revelation 19:14.

Regarding Him who sat on the white horse in Revelation 19, we are told that out of his mouth went a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations, and the sword going out of His mouth symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word fighting against falsities and evils (nos. 52, 108, 117). Here, however, we are told that he who sat on this white horse had a bow, and the bow symbolizes a doctrine of truth and goodness from the Word fighting against evils and falsities.

To fight against falsities and evils is also to fight against the hells, as evils and falsities emanate from there, and therefore this, too, is symbolically meant.

[2] That a bow in the Word symbolizes doctrine doing battle in both senses can be seen from the following passages:

(Jehovah's) arrows are sharp, and all His bows bent; His horses' hooves are accounted as rocks. (Isaiah 5:28)

(The Lord) has bent his bow like an enemy... (Lamentations 2:4)

O Jehovah..., You ride on Your horses; ...Your bow will be bared. (Habakkuk 3:8-9)

He gave the nations before Him, and made Him rule over kings. He gave them as the dust to His sword, as... stubble to His bow. (Isaiah 41:2)

Because the subject is Jehovah or the Lord, a bow in these places symbolizes the Word, from which the Lord fights in a person against evils and falsities.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; the war bow shall be cut off. Rather He shall speak peace to the nations. (Zechariah 9:10)

They bend their tongue, their bow a lie, and not the truth... (Jeremiah 9:3)

Lo, the wicked bend their bow; they make ready their arrows on the bowstring, to shoot in the dark the upright in heart. (Psalms 11:2)

They will provoke Joseph and shoot at him; the archers will hate him. But he will rest on the tautness of his bow... by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob... (Genesis 49:23-24)

Set yourselves in array against Babylon... All you who bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrow, for she has sinned against Jehovah. (Jeremiah 50:14, cf. 50:29)

David lamented... over Saul... to teach the children of Judah the Bow. (2 Samuel 1:17-18)

This lamentation describes the combat of truth against falsities.

[3] Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: "Lo, I am breaking the bow of Elam, the source of its might." (Jeremiah 49:35)

(Jehovah) made Me a polished arrow; in His quiver He has hidden Me. (Isaiah 49:2)

Behold, children are a heritage from Jehovah... Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them. (Psalms 127:3-5)

Children here and elsewhere symbolize doctrinal truths.

In Salem shall be (Jehovah's) tabernacle... There He broke the strings of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the war. (Psalms 76:1-3)

(Jehovah) will make wars cease... He will break the bow..., cut asunder the spear; He will burn the chariot with fire. (Psalms 46:9; cf. Ezekiel 39:8-9, Hosea 2:18)

In these places a bow symbolizes a doctrine of truth fighting against falsities, and in an opposite sense, a doctrine of falsity fighting against truths. Arrows accordingly symbolize truths or falsities.

Since a war in the Word symbolizes a spiritual war, therefore the weapons of war - such as the sword, spear, shield, buckler, bow, and arrows - symbolize the kind of things that have to do with that war.

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