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.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8339

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8339. 'With timbrels and with dances' means praise from joy and gladness. This is clear from the meaning of 'timbrel' as that which has regard to an affection for spiritual good, or to the good of truth, and means the delight or joy belonging to it, dealt with just above in 8337; and from the meaning of 'dance' as that which has regard to an affection for spiritual truth, and means the delightful feeling or gladness belonging to it, dealt with below. In ancient times not only musical instruments and singing served to bear witness to gladness of heart but also dancing. Joyful feelings in the heart or interior things erupted into various activities in the body, such as singing and also dancing. Since in ancient times the glad feelings excelling all others were spiritual ones, that is, feelings springing from affections belonging to spiritual kinds of love, which were affections for goodness and truth, people were allowed, when they engaged in singing and musical harmony, to dance as well and so in dancing also to bear witness to their joy. This explains why 'dancing' is mentioned in the Word, meaning the glad feelings that belong to affections for truth, or to faith grounded in good or charity, as in Jeremiah,

Again you will adorn your timbrels, 1 and will go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. Their life 2 will become like a watered garden, and they will not sorrow any more. Then will the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together. Jeremiah 31:4, 12-13.

In the same prophet,

The joy of our heart has ceased 3 , our dance has been turned into mourning. Lamentations 5:15

In David,

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. Psalms 30:11.

In the same author,

Let them praise His name in dancing, with timbrel and harp let them make melody to Him. Psalms 149:3; 150:4.

Also the gentiles played and danced when they worshipped their gods, as is clear in Exodus 32:6, 19.

[2] The words 'joy and gladness' are used because 'joy' in the Word has reference to good and 'gladness' to truth. This is why 'joy' and 'gladness' are mentioned many times in the Word both together, as in Isaiah,

Behold, joy and gladness consist in slaying oxen ... Isaiah 22:13.

In the same prophet,

They will obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Isaiah 35:10.

In the same prophet, Joy and gladness will be found in Zion, confession and the voice of song. Isaiah 51:3, 11.

In Jeremiah,

The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. Jeremiah 33:11.

In Zechariah,

The fast of the tenth [month] will be to the house of Judah one of joy and gladness. Zechariah 8:19.

In David,

You shall cause me to hear joy and gladness. Psalms 51:8.

In these places both are mentioned because 'joy' has reference to good and 'gladness' to truth; if this were not so the use of one word would have been sufficient. This holy way of speaking is used in the Word in order that the heavenly marriage, that is, the marriage of goodness and truth, might be present in every detail there, 683, 793, 801, 2173, 2516, 2712, 4138 (end), 5138, 5502, 7945.

Footnotes:

1. See footnote on page 138.

2. lit. soul

3. Reading cessavit (has ceased), which Swedenborg has in his rough draft, for cessabit (will cease).

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