The Bible

 

Amos 3

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1 Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:

2 "You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins."

3 Do two walk together, unless they have agreed?

4 Will a lion roar in the thicket, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?

5 Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth, where no snare is set for him? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when there is nothing to catch?

6 Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn't done it?

7 Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.

8 The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord Yahweh has spoken. Who can but prophesy?

9 Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, "Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see what unrest is in her, and what oppression is among them."

10 "Indeed they don't know to do right," says Yahweh, "Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces."

11 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "An adversary will overrun the land; and he will pull down your strongholds, and your fortresses will be plundered."

12 Thus says Yahweh: "As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria on the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed."

13 "Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob," says the Lord Yahweh, the God of Armies.

14 "For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground.

15 I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end," says Yahweh.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #6188

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6188. 'And Israel bowed himself over the head of the bed' means that it turned towards things of the interior natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'bowing oneself' here as turning oneself; and from the meaning of 'the bed' as the natural, dealt with below. Thus 'the head of the bed' is that within the natural which is higher, that is, more internal; for wherever 'the head' is mentioned in the Word, what is more internal is meant. This is in relation to the body, which is more external. In saying that it turned towards things of the interior natural one means that natural truth, which is 'Jacob', was to be raised up to spiritual good, which is 'Israel', in accordance with what was stated and explained above in 6183.

[2] The reason 'the bed' means the natural is that the natural exists beneath the rational and serves it as a kind of bed. For the rational reclines so to speak on the natural, and since the natural is accordingly what is spread beneath, it is therefore called 'the bed', as also in Amos,

"As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so will the children of Israel dwelling in Samaria be rescued, on the corner of a bed and on the end of a couch." Amos 3:12.

'On the corner of a bed' stands for within the lowest part of the natural, 'on the end of a couch' for within sensory awareness. For the people of Israel, whose capital city was Samaria, represented the Lord's spiritual kingdom. One speaks of that kingdom being, as is said of father Israel here, 'over the head of the bed', because spiritual good, which is represented by 'father Israel', is 'the head of the bed'. But when people turn away from that good to what belongs to the lowest part of the natural and to what belongs to sensory awareness, one speaks of them being 'on the corner of a bed and on the end of a couch'. The same prophet speaks of "Those who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch out on their couches, but feel no grief over the ruin of Joseph". Amos 6:4, 6.

'Beds of ivory' are the pleasures of the lowest part of the natural that are pursued by haughty people. 'Feeling no grief over the ruin of Joseph' stands for feeling no concern at all that good from the internal has been reduced to nothing. In David,

If I come into the tent of my house, if I go up onto the couch of my bed . . . Psalms 132:3.

'The tent of my house' stands for the holiness of love, 414, 1102, 2145, 2152, 3312, 4128, 4391, 4599. 'Going up onto the couch of a bed' stands for up onto the natural, to truth that derives from the good of love. 'Coming into the tent of one's house and going up onto the couch of one's bed' is a prophetical saying which, as anyone may see, nobody can understand without the internal sense.

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