The Bible

 

Joel 3

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1 For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and divided my land.

3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

4 Yes, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompense? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense upon your own head;

5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things.

6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold to the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head:

8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

10 Beat your plow-shares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together around: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.

12 Let the heathen be awakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen on every side.

13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, go down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

16 The LORD also will roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but The LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

17 So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #432

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432. Verse 5. Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.

"Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand," signifies love to the Lord, and that all who are in that love are in heaven, and come into heaven. "Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand," signifies the light of truth from that good, and that all who are in that light are in heaven, and come into heaven. "Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand," signifies the good of life thence.

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Heaven and Hell #26

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26. It has been said that these angels have wisdom and glory above others for the reason that they have received and continue to receive Divine truths at once in their life. For as soon as they hear Divine truths, they will and do them, instead of storing them up in the memory and afterwards considering whether they are true. They know at once by influx from the Lord whether the truth they hear is true; for the Lord flows directly into man's willing, but mediately through his willing into his thinking. Or what is the same, the Lord flows directly into good, but mediately through good into truth. 1 That is called good which belongs to the will and action therefrom, while that is called truth that belongs to the memory and to the thought therefrom. Moreover, every truth is turned into good and implanted in love as soon as it enters into the will; but so long as truth remains in the memory and in the thought therefrom it does not become good, nor does it live, nor is it appropriated to man, since man is a man from his will and understanding therefrom, and not from his understanding separated from his will. 2

Footnotes:

1. [Swedenborg's footnote] The Lord's influx is into good and through good into truth, and not the reverse; thus into the will and through that into the understanding, and not the reverse (Arcana Coelestia 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153).

2. [Swedenborg's footnote] The will of man is the very being [esse] of his life, and the receptacle of the good of love, while his understanding is the outgo [existere] of his life therefrom, and the receptacle of the truth and good of faith (3619, 5002, 9282).

Thus the will's life is the chief life of man, and the life of the understanding goes forth therefrom (585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109-10110).

Whatever is received by the will comes to be the life, and is appropriated to man (3161, 9386, 9393).

Man is a man from his will and his understanding therefrom (8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109-10110).

Moreover, everyone who wills and understands rightly is loved and valued by others, while he that understands rightly and does not will rightly is rejected and despised (8911, 10076).

Also, after death man remains such as his will and his understanding therefrom have been, while the things that pertain to the understanding and not also to the will then vanish, because they are not in the man (9069, 9071, 9282, 9386, 10153).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.