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Ezekiel 4

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1 You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem:

2 and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.

3 Take for yourself an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

4 Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; [according to] the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.

5 For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days: so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6 Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it to you.

7 You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.

8 Behold, I lay bands on you, and you shall not turn you from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.

9 Take for yourself also wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it; [according to] the number of the days that you shall lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.

10 Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time you shall eat it.

11 You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time you shall drink.

12 You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.

13 Yahweh said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.

14 Then I said, Ah Lord Yahweh! behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

15 Then he said to me, Behold, I have given you cow's dung for man's dung, and you shall prepare your bread thereon.

16 Moreover he said to me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay:

17 that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #7602

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7602. 'And the barley' means its good. This is clear from the meaning of 'the barley' as the good of the exterior natural. The reason why 'the barley' means that good is that it is a product of the field and is a grain that serves for food. For 'grain' in general means the good of truth, 3580, 5295, 5410, 5959, as do 'barley and wheat' in particular - 'barley' the good of the exterior natural, and 'wheat' the good of the interior natural. The former is meant by 'the barley' in Joel,

The minchah has been cut off, and the drink offering, from the house of Jehovah; the priests have been mourning, the ministers of Jehovah. The field has been devastated, the land has been mourning because the grain has been laid waste, the new wine has failed, the oil languishes. Farmers have been put to shame, vine dressers have wailed over the wheat and over the barley, for the reason that the harvest of the field has perished. Joel 1:9-11.

The prophet is referring at this point to a laying waste of what is good and true, as is clear from what follows it there. Not those products therefore are meant by 'the grain', 'the new wine', 'the wheat', and 'the barley', but spiritual things; that is, 'the wheat' means interior good, and 'the barley' exterior good. 'Barley' has a similar meaning in Ezekiel 4:9 and Deuteronomy 8:8. In the Book of Judges,

When Gideon reached the camp, there was a man recounting a dream to his companion. And he said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream; and behold, a cake of barley bread rolled towards the camp of Midian, and came all the way to a tent, and struck it so that it fell, and overturned it, and so the tent collapsed. Judges 7:13.

'Midian' means those who are guided by the truth that goes with simple good, and in the contrary sense those who fail to lead a good life, 3242, 4756, 4788, 6777. This good is the good of the exterior natural and is meant by 'barley bread'. But sensory pleasure, if this is what a person has in view instead of that good, is what is meant by 'a cake of barley bread'. This is the state that the Midianites described here represented on that occasion.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4788

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4788. 'The Midianites sold him into Egypt' means that those in whom some truth partnering simple good was present consulted facts. This is clear from the representation of 'the Midianites' as those in whom the truth that partners simple good is present, dealt with in 3242, 4756; from the meaning of 'Egypt' as facts, dealt with in 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 2588, 4749; from the meaning of 'selling' as alienating, dealt with in 4752, 4758; and from the representation of 'Joseph' as Divine Truth. When the latter is said to have been alienated - or 'sold' to facts, meant by 'Egypt' - by those in whom the truth partnering simple good is present, the meaning is that they consulted those facts. For people in whom the truth partnering simple good is present allow themselves to be led away, very much so, by the illusions of the senses, and so by means of facts based on these.

[2] In verse 28 above it was stated that Joseph was drawn out of the pit by the Midianites, who then sold him to the Ishmaelites. From this it would seem that only the Ishmaelites could have sold him in Egypt. Yet he was not sold by the Ishmaelites but by the Midianites, and the reason for this is that the Ishmaelites represent those in whom simple good is present, 4747, whereas the Midianites represent those in whom the truth partnering that good is present. 'Joseph' or Divine Truth could not be sold by those who are governed by good, only by those governed by truth; for those governed by good know from good what Divine truth is, whereas those governed by truth have no such knowledge.

[3] Members of the Church fall into two distinct categories - those governed by good and those governed by truth, the former being called celestial, the latter spiritual. Between the two there is a wide difference. Those governed by good are moved by an affection to do good for its own sake and without thought of reward. To them being allowed to do good is itself the reward, for doing good gives them feelings of joy. Those governed by truth however are not moved by an affection to do good for its own sake; rather, they are moved to do it because they have been commanded to do it. For the most part these people do think about reward; and this, as well as boasting about what they do, is what gives them their feeling of joy.

[4] From this it is evident that people motivated by good to do good act from an internal affection, whereas those motivated by truth to do good act from some external affection. From this the difference between the two groups may be seen, namely that the former are internal people, the latter external ones. Those therefore who are internal people are unable 'to sell' - that is, to alienate - Divine Truth represented by 'Joseph', because good enables them to discern what is true. Neither the illusions of the senses therefore, nor consequently facts, lead them away. But those who are external people are able 'to sell' or alienate it because no good is present enabling them to discern what is true. They do know what is true, but only because doctrine and teachers have given them that knowledge. If they consult facts they easily let themselves be led away by illusions, for they have no inner gift to speak to them. This now explains why Joseph was not sold by the Ishmaelites but by the Midianites.

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