The Bible

 

Lamentations 5

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1 Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach.

2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, Our houses to aliens.

3 We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.

4 We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us.

5 Our pursuers are on our necks: We are weary, and have no rest.

6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, To the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more; We have borne their iniquities.

8 Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.

9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.

11 They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.

13 The young men bare the mill; The children stumbled under the wood.

14 The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music.

15 The joy of our heart is ceased; Our dance is turned into mourning.

16 The crown is fallen from our head: Woe to us! for we have sinned.

17 For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;

18 For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on it.

19 You, Yahweh, remain forever; Your throne is from generation to generation.

20 Why do you forget us forever, [And] forsake us so long time?

21 Turn us to yourself, Yahweh, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old.

22 But you have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us.

   

Commentary

 

Neck

  

'The neck' signifies influx and the communication of interior and exterior levels and their conjunction. The inmost or third heaven has reference to the head and the middle or second heaven has reference to the body. Therefore, because it is in the middle, 'the neck' signifies influx, and the communication of celestial things with spiritual things.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 3603, 5328)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #5328

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5328. 'Or his foot' means all power in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'foot' as the natural, dealt with in 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4931-4952. Here power within the natural is meant because 'lifting up the foot', like 'lifting up the hand', means power, though 'lifting up the hand' means power in the spiritual, whereas 'lifting up the foot' means power in the natural; for the parts within the body that are above the feet correspond to spiritual things. This is especially evident from the Grand Man or the three heavens.

[2] Whenever the whole of heaven is displayed visually as one human being, the inmost or third heaven presents itself as the head, the middle or second heaven presents itself as the body, and the lowest or first as the feet. The reason the inmost or third heaven presents itself as the head is that it is celestial; the reason the middle or second heaven presents itself as the body is that it is spiritual; and the reason the lowest or first presents itself as the feet is that it is natural. By 'the neck' therefore, since this is an intermediate part, is meant the inflow and communication of celestial things with spiritual ones; and by 'the knees', since these are likewise intermediate, is meant the inflow and communication of spiritual things with natural ones. From this it is evident that 'lifting up the hand' means power within the spiritual, while 'lifting up the foot' means power within the natural, and therefore that the power meant by 'the hand' has regard to the spiritual, namely to truth grounded in good, 3091, 3567, 4932. By the spiritual is meant that within the natural which belongs to the light of heaven, and by the natural that within the natural which belongs to the light of the world; for everything belonging to the light of heaven is called spiritual, and everything belonging to the light of the world is called natural.

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