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Ezekiel 39

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1 You, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:

2 and I will turn you around, and will lead you on, and will cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north; and I will bring you on the mountains of Israel;

3 and I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.

4 You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you, and all your hordes, and the peoples who are with you: I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the animals of the field to be devoured.

5 You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.

6 I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who dwell securely in the islands; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

7 My holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I allow my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, the holy One in Israel.

8 Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh; this is the day about which I have spoken.

9 Those who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years;

10 so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall make fires of the weapons; and they shall plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord Yahweh.

11 It shall happen in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east of the sea; and it shall stop those who pass through: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude; and they shall call it The valley of Hamon Gog.

12 Seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.

13 Yes, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown in the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord Yahweh.

14 They shall set apart men of continual employment, who shall pass through the land, and, with those who pass through, those who bury those who remain on the surface of the land, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.

15 Those who pass through the land shall pass through; and when any sees a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, until the undertakers have buried it in the valley of Hamon Gog.

16 Hamonah shall also be the name of a city. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

17 You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood.

18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.

19 You shall eat fat until you be full, and drink blood until you are drunk, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.

20 You shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, says the Lord Yahweh.

21 I will set my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.

22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am Yahweh their God, from that day and forward.

23 The nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against me, and I hid my face from them: so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they fell all of them by the sword.

24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions did I to them; and I hid my face from them.

25 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my holy name.

26 They shall bear their shame, and all their trespasses by which they have trespassed against me, when they shall dwell securely in their land, and none shall make them afraid;

27 when I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations.

28 They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, in that I caused them to go into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them to their own land; and I will leave none of them any more there;

29 neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #706

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706. The reason why the Lord's blood means His Divine truth and that of the Word is that His flesh means in the spiritual sense the Divine good of love, and these two are made one in the Lord. It is well known that the Lord is the Word; and there are two things to which everything in the Word has reference, Divine good and Divine truth. If therefore the Word is substituted for the Lord, it is plain that it is these two which are meant by His flesh and blood. It is established from many passages that blood means the Divine truth of the Lord or of the Word; for instance, from blood being called the blood of the covenant, since a covenant is a link, and linking is effected by the Lord by means of His Divine truth. Also in Zechariah:

By the blood of your covenant I shall release the captives from the pit, Zechariah 9:11.

And in the works of Moses:

After Moses had read the book of the law for the people to hear 1 , he sprinkled half the blood upon the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which Jehovah has made with you upon all these words, Exodus 24:3-8.

Also:

Jesus taking the cup gave it to them, saying, This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, Matthew 26:27-28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20.

[2] The blood of the new covenant or testament cannot mean anything but the Word, which is called an old and a new covenant or testament, and so the Divine truth it contains. It is because blood has this meaning that the Lord gave them wine, saying, 'This is my blood'; and wine stands for Divine truth. For this reason it is also called 'the blood of grapes' (Genesis 49:11; Deuteronomy 32:14). This is plainer still from the Lord's words:

Truly, truly, I tell you: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. For my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, remains in me and I in him, John 6:50-58.

It is perfectly obvious that blood here means the Divine truth of the Word, because it is said that he who drinks it has life in himself, and remains in the Lord, and the Lord remains in him. It ought to be well known in the church that this is the effect of Divine truth and living in accordance with it, and that the Holy Supper strengthens this effect.

[3] It is because blood stands for the Lord's Divine truth, which is also the Divine truth of the Word, and because this is what the old and new covenants and testaments are, that blood was the holiest representative of the church among the Children of Israel. In that church every detail was a correspondence of something natural with something spiritual. For instance, they were to take some of the blood of the Passover and put it on the door-posts and lintels of their houses, to ensure the plague would not come upon them (Exodus 12:7, 13, 22).

The blood of the burnt offering was to be sprinkled over the altar, right to its foundations, and over Aaron, his sons and their clothes (Exodus 29:12, 16, 20-21; Leviticus 1:5, 11, 15; 3:2, 8, 13; 4:25, 30, 34; 8:15, 24; 17:6; Numbers 18:17 2 ; Deuteronomy 12:27). Also over the veil above the Ark, over the mercy-seat there, and over the horns of the incense altar (Leviticus 4:6-7, 17-18; 16:12-15). The blood of the Lamb stands for something similar in Revelation:

These have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, Revelation 7:14.

Also in these words from the same book:

War broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and they defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their 3 witness, Revelation 12:7, 11.

[4] It is impossible to think that Michael and his angels defeated the dragon by anything but the Lord's Divine truth in the Word. For angels in heaven cannot think about any blood, nor do they think about the Lord's passion; but they think of Divine truth and His resurrection. When therefore a person thinks about the Lord's blood, the angels perceive the Divine truth of His Word. When he thinks about the Lord's passion, they perceive His glorification, and then only His resurrection. I have been allowed to know by long experience that this is so.

[5] It is also plain from this passage in the Psalms of David that blood stands for Divine truth:

God will save the souls of the needy. Their blood will be precious in His eyes, and they will live and He will give them of the gold of Sheba, Psalms 72:13-16.

Blood being precious in God's eyes stands for Divine truth being with them; the gold of Sheba is wisdom coming from this. Also in Ezekiel:

Gather for the great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, so that you may eat flesh and drink blood; you will drink the blood of the princes of the earth, and you will drink blood until you are drunk. Thus shall I set my glory among the nations, Ezekiel 39:17-21.

This deals with the church which the Lord is to found among the gentiles. Blood cannot here mean blood, but the truth from the Word they possess; see just above.

Footnotes:

1. Literally: in the ears of the people.

2. Corrected from (Lev.) Ezekiel 8:1.

3. The Latin has 'his witness'.

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

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