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Jeremiah 51

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1 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise against me, a destroying wind;

2 And will send to Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her on all sides.

3 Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his coat of mail: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.

4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.

5 For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah by his God, by the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.

6 Flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.

7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drank of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, it may be she may be healed.

9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth to heaven, and is lifted even to the skies.

10 The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of The LORD our God.

11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.

12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD hath both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thy end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.

14 The LORD of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars; and they shall raise a shout against thee.

15 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.

16 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

17 Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.

20 Thou art my battle-ax and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;

21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and its rider;

22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;

23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.

24 And I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD.

25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.

26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD.

27 Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.

28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of Media, her captains, and all her rulers, and all the land of his dominion.

29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are broken.

31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,

32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.

33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.

34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.

35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.

37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.

38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps.

39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.

41 How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!

42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of its waves.

43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass by it.

44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed: and the nations shall not flow together any more to him: even the wall of Babylon shall fall.

45 My people, depart from the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.

46 And lest your heart should faint, and ye should fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

47 Therefore behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come to her from the north, saith the LORD.

49 As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.

52 Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the hight of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come to her, saith the LORD.

54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

55 Because the LORD hath laid waste Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:

56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompenses shall surely requite.

57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the king, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the people in the fire, and they shall be weary.

59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.

60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou shalt come to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;

62 Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.

63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:

64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #485

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485. CHAPTER 11

1. Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood by, saying, "Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.

2. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.

3. And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth."

4. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.

5. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire will proceed from their mouth and devour their enemies. And if anyone wants to do them injury, he must be killed in this manner.

6. These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.

7. Then, when they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.

8. And their bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

9. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their bodies for three and a half days, and not allow their bodies to be put into tombs.

10. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and be glad, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

11. But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.

12. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.

13. In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city fell. And in the earthquake seven thousand people by name were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14. The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.

15. Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"

16. And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God,

17. saying: "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who are and who were and who are to come, because You have taken Your great power and entered Your kingdom.

18. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time to judge the dead, and to reward Your servants the prophets and saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and to destroy those who are destroying the earth."

19. Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING

The Contents of the Whole Chapter

The subject continues to be the state of the church among the Protestant Reformed and the character of those inwardly caught up in faith alone in opposition to the two essential elements of the New Church, namely, that the Lord alone is God of heaven and earth, whose humanity is Divine, and that people ought to live in accordance with the Ten Commandments. These two essential elements were proclaimed before them (verses 3-6). But they were utterly rejected (verses 7-10). The Lord revived them (verses 11, 12). Those people perished who rejected them (verse 13). From the New Heaven the state of the New Church was shown (verses 15-19).

The Contents of the Individual Verses:

Verse ContentsSpiritual Meaning
1. Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod.John was given the ability and power to learn and see the state of the church in heaven and in the world.
And the angel stood by, saying, "Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.The Lord's presence and His command to see and learn the state of the church in the New Heaven.
2. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it,The state of the church on earth, as it is still, must be set aside and not learned.
for it has been given to the gentiles.Because, owing to evil practices, the state of that church has been lost and forsaken.
And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.It has dispelled every truth of the Word to the point that none remains.
3. And I will give power to my two witnesses,Those people who confess and acknowledge from the heart that the Lord is God of heaven and earth, whose humanity is Divine, and who are conjoined with Him by a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments.
and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days,These two - an acknowledgment of the Lord and a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments, which are the two essential elements of the New Church - must be taught until the end and a new beginning.
clothed in sackcloth."The grief experienced meanwhile over the truth's not being accepted.
4. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.The love and intelligence, or charity and faith, that people have in them from the Lord.
5. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire will proceed from their mouth and devour their enemies.Anyone who wishes to destroy these two essential elements perishes from a hellish love.
And if anyone wants to do them injury, he must be killed in that way.Anyone who condemns the two essential elements is likewise condemned.
6. These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy;People who turn away from these two essential elements cannot receive any truth from heaven.
and they have power over waters to turn them to blood,People who turn away from these two essential elements falsify the Word's truths.
and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.People who wish to destroy these two essential elements propel themselves into evils and falsities of every kind, as often as, and in the measure that, they do so.
7. Then, when they finish their testimony,After the Lord has taught these two essential elements of the New Church,
the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.those people who are caught up in the interior tenets of the doctrine regarding faith alone will reject these two elements.
8. And their bodies will lie in the street of the great cityThese two elements have been utterly rejected.
which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt,The two hellish loves, namely, a love of ruling springing from a love of self, and a love of holding sway from a conceit in one's own intelligence, loves which are present in the church where there is not one God and where the Lord is not worshiped, and where people do not live in accordance with the Ten Commandments.
where also our Lord was crucified.A failure to acknowledge the Lord's Divine humanity, and thus a state in which He is rejected.
9. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their bodies for three and a half days,All those who were or who would be caught up in doctrinal falsities and evil practices at the end of the church still existing, when they have heard and later hear about these two essential elements at the beginning of the New Church,
and not allow their bodies to be put into tombs.have condemned them and will continue to condemn them.
10. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and be glad,The delight of the heart and soul's affection among those people in the church caught up in faith alone.
and send gifts to one another,Their consociation by love and friendship.
because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.These two essential elements of the New Church, opposed as they are to the two essential elements accepted in the Protestant Reformed Church, are objects of contempt, distress, and repugnance.
11. But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet,As the New Church commences and grows, these two essential elements are made living by the Lord in people who accept them.
and great fear fell on those who saw them.A disturbance of the mind and alarm at Divine truths.
12. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here."The two essential elements of the New Church raised by the Lord into heaven, where they originate and where they remain, and where they are protected.
And they ascended to heaven in a cloud,Their elevation into heaven and conjunction with the Lord there through the Divine truth of the Word in its literal sense.
and their enemies saw them.People caught up in a faith divorced from charity heard of these, but remained in their falsities.
13. In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city fell.A considerable change of state occurring then in those people, and their being plucked away from heaven and sinking into hell.
And in the earthquake seven thousand people by name were killed,All those people who professed faith alone and for that reason made works of charity of no account, perished.
and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.People who saw their destruction acknowledged the Lord and were set apart.
14. The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.A lamentation over the corrupted state of the church, and lastly a final lamentation, as depicted after this.
15. Then the seventh angel sounded,An examination and exposure of the state of the church after its end, at the time of the Lord's advent and the advent of His kingdom.
and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"Celebrations on the part of angels, that heaven and the church had become the Lord's, as they had been from the beginning, and that they had now become those of His Divine humanity, thus that the Lord would reign over heaven and earth as regards both aspects of Him to eternity.
16. And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God,An acknowledgment on the part of all the angels in heaven that the Lord is God of heaven and earth, and their highest adoration of Him.
17. saying: "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who are and who were and who are to come,A confession and glorification on the part of the angels in heaven, that the Lord is He who exists, lives, and has power of Himself, and who governs all things, because He alone is eternal and infinite.
because You have taken Your great power and entered Your kingdom.The New Heaven and New Church, where people will acknowledge Him alone as God.
18. The nations were angry,People who were caught up in faith alone and thus in evil practices were enraged, and harassed those who opposed their faith.
and Your wrath has come, and the time to judge the dead,Their destruction, and the last judgment on those people who were without any spiritual life.
and to reward Your servants the prophets and saints,The happiness of eternal life for people who possess doctrinal truths from the Word and live in accordance with them.
and those who fear Your name, small and great,People who love things having to do with the Lord, in a lesser or greater degree.
and to destroy those who are destroying the earth."The casting down into hell of the people who destroyed the church.
19. Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple.The New Heaven, in which the Lord is worshiped in His Divine humanity, and where people live in accordance with the Ten Commandments, which constitute the two essential elements of the New Church that are the means of conjunction.
And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.The reasonings, disturbances, and falsifications of goodness and truth then in the lower regions.

THE EXPOSITION

Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. (11:1) This symbolically means that the Lord gave John the ability and power to learn and see the state of the church in heaven and in the world.

A reed symbolizes weak power, the kind a person has of himself, and a rod symbolizes strong power, the kind a person has from the Lord. Consequently John's being given a reed like a measuring rod symbolizes power from the Lord. That it was the ability and power to learn and see the state of the church in heaven and in the world is apparent from the events that follow in this chapter to the end.

[2] That a reed or length of cane symbolizes weak power such as a person has of himself is apparent from the following:

Look, you are relying on the staff of (a) broken reed, on Egypt, which, when a man leans on it, will go into his hand and pierce it. (Isaiah 36:6)

That... the inhabitants of Egypt may know that I am Jehovah, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they took hold of you with the hand, you broke and punctured all their shoulders... (Ezekiel 29:6-7)

Egypt symbolizes the natural person who relies on his own powers, and that is why it is called the staff of a broken reed.

A reed symbolizes weak power, in Isaiah:

A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not extinguish. (Isaiah 42:3)

[3] A rod, on the other hand, symbolizes strong power, which comes from the Lord, here the power to learn the state of the church, because John used the rod to measure the temple and altar, and to measure means, symbolically, to learn, and the temple and altar symbolize the church, as depicted next.

A rod symbolizes power because in olden times people in the church made wooden rods, and wood symbolizes goodness. It also substituted for the right hand and supported it, and the right hand symbolizes power. It is owing to this that a scepter is a shortened rod, and a scepter symbolizes the power of a king. Moreover, "scepter" and "rod" in Hebrew are the same word. 1

[4] That a rod symbolizes power is apparent from the following passages:

Say, "How the strong staff is broken, the beautiful rod!" ...Come down from your glory, and sit in thirst. (Jeremiah 48:17-18)

Jehovah shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. (Psalms 110:2)

You punctured with his shafts the head of the faithless. (Habakkuk 3:14)

...Israel the rod of (Jehovah's) inheritance. (Jeremiah 10:16; 51:19)

Your rod and Your staff will comfort me. (Psalms 23:4)

Jehovah has broken the staff of the wicked... (Isaiah 14:5, cf. Isaiah 9:4, Psalms 125:3)

My people consult a piece of wood, and their staff answers them. (Hosea 4:12)

...Jehovah... takes away from Jerusalem... the whole staff of bread and the whole staff of water. (Isaiah 3:1, cf. Ezekiel 4:16; 5:16; 14:13, Psalms 105:16, Leviticus 26:26)

A staff of bread and of water symbolizes the power of goodness and truth, and Jerusalem symbolizes the church.

The rod of Levi with the name of Aaron on it, which in the Tabernacle blossomed with almonds (Numbers 17:2-10), symbolizes, in the spiritual sense, nothing else than the power of truth and goodness, because Levi and Aaron symbolized the truth and goodness of the church.

[5] That a rod symbolizes power is apparent from the power of Moses' rod: On being stretched out it turned water into blood (Exodus 7:20). It caused frogs to come up on the land of Egypt (Exodus 8:1ff.). It produced lice (Exodus 8:16f.). It summoned thunder and hail (Exodus 9:23ff.). It caused locusts to come (Exodus 10:12ff.). It caused the Red Sea to be parted and the waters to return (Exodus 14:16, 21, 26). It caused water to flow from the rock at Horeb (Exodus 17:5ff., Numbers 20:7-13). In Moses' hand it enabled Joshua to prevail over the Amalekites (Exodus 17:9-12).

And an angel's staff caused fire to come forth from a rock (Judges 6:21).

It is apparent from these instances that a rod or staff symbolizes power, and also elsewhere, as in Isaiah 10:5, 24, 26; 11:4; 14:29; 30:31-32, Ezekiel 19:10-14, Lamentations 3:1, Micah 7:14, Zechariah 10:11, Numbers 21:18.

Footnotes:

1. I.e., מַטֶּה.

  
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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.

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