The Bible

 

Ezekiel 28

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1 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying:

2 `Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because thy heart hath been high, And thou dost say: A god I [am], The habitation of god I have inhabited, In the heart of the seas, And thou [art] man, and not god, And thou givest out thy heart as the heart of god,

3 Lo, thou [art] wiser than Daniel, No hidden thing have they concealed from thee.

4 By thy wisdom and by thine understanding Thou hast made for thee wealth, And makest gold and silver in thy treasuries.

5 By the abundance of thy wisdom, Through thy merchandise, Thou hast multiplied thy wealth, And high is thy heart through thy wealth.

6 Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of thy giving out thy heart as the heart of God,

7 Therefore, lo, I am bringing in against thee strangers, The terrible of the nations, And they have drawn out their swords Against the beauty of thy wisdom, And they have pierced thy brightness.

8 To destruction they bring thee down, Thou diest by the deaths of the wounded, in the heart of the seas.

9 Dost thou really say, `I [am] God,' Before him who is slaying thee? And thou [art] man, and not God, In the hand of him who is piercing thee.

10 The deaths of the uncircumcised thou diest, By the hand of strangers, for I have spoken, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

11 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying:

12 `Son of man, lift up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, And thou hast said to him: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Thou art sealing up a measurement, Full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

13 In Eden, the garden of God, thou hast been, Every precious stone thy covering, Ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle, and gold, The workmanship of thy tabrets, and of thy pipes, In thee in the day of thy being produced, have been prepared.

14 Thou [art] an anointed cherub who is covering, And I have set thee in the holy mount, God thou hast been, In the midst of stones of fire thou hast walked up and down.

15 Perfect [art] thou in thy ways, From the day of thy being produced, Till perversity hath been found in thee.

16 By the abundance of thy merchandise They have filled thy midst with violence, And thou dost sin, And I thrust thee from the mount of God, And I destroy thee, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire.

17 High hath been thy heart, because of thy beauty, Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom because of thy brightness, On the earth I have cast thee, Before kings I have set thee, to look on thee,

18 From the abundance of thy iniquity, By the perversity of thy traffic, Thou hast polluted thy sanctuaries, And I bring forth fire from thy midst, It hath devoured thee, And I make thee become ashes on the earth, Before the eyes of all beholding thee.

19 All knowing thee among the peoples Have been astonished at thee, Wastes thou hast been, and thou art not -- to the age.'

20 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,

21 `Son of man, set thy face unto Zidon, and prophesy concerning it;

22 and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I [am] against thee, O Zidon, And I have been honoured in thy midst, And they have known that I [am] Jehovah, In My doing in her judgments, And I have been sanctified in her.

23 And I have sent into her pestilence, And blood into her out-places, The wounded hath been judged in her midst, By the sword upon her round about, And they have known that I [am] Jehovah.

24 And there is no more to the house of Israel A pricking brier, and paining thorn, Of all round about them -- despising them, And they have known that I [am] the Lord Jehovah.

25 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In My gathering the house of Israel, Out of the peoples among whom they were scattered, I have been sanctified in them, Before the eyes of the nations, And they have dwelt on their ground, That I gave to My servant, to Jacob,

26 And they have dwelt on it confidently, And builded houses, and planted vineyards, And dwelt confidently -- in My doing judgments, On all those despising them round about, And they have known that I, Jehovah, [am] their God!'

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8337

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8337. 'And Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a timbrel in her hand' means ascribing glory to the Lord from the good of faith. This is clear from the representation of 'Miriam' as the good of faith, for 'Moses' represents the truth of faith that goes forth directly from the Lord, thus inward truth, whereas 'Aaron' represents the truth of faith that goes forth from the Lord in an indirect way, thus outward truth, 7009, 7089, 7382, so that 'Miriam' is the good of faith which goes forth in an indirect way from the Lord, for when 'men' represent truth, 'their womenfolk' represent good, 6014 (since Miriam along with the women represents external good she is in addition referred to as 'Aaron's sister', though she is not called Moses' sister, the relation between good and truth being like that of sister and brother, 3160. But it should be remembered that 'women' represent good and 'men' truth when the spiritual Church is the subject, whereas 'women' represent truth and 'men' good when the celestial Church is the subject, 4823); from the meaning of 'the prophetess' as one who teaches, dealt with in 2534, 7269, at this point one who joins in praising the Lord, or what amounts to the same thing, one who ascribes glory to Him from the good of faith, since she sang to Jehovah, as Moses and the men of Israel had done (for the meaning of 'singing' as ascribing glory, see 8261, 8263, 8267); and from the meaning of 'taking a timbrel in one's hand' as ascribing glory from the good of faith, since 'a timbrel' has reference to spiritual good, or what amounts to the same thing, to the good of faith, 4138.

[2] In former times many types of musical instruments were used when God was worshipped, but with much discrimination. In general wind instruments were used to express affections for good, and stringed instruments affections for truth; and the origin of this was the correspondence of every sound to the affections. It is well known that some types of musical instruments are used to express one kind of natural affections and other types to express another kind, and that when a fitting melody is played they in actual fact stir the affections. Skilled musicians know all about this and also make proper use of it. The reason for it lies in the very nature of sound, and its accord with the affections. Mankind at first learned about it not from science and art but through the ear and its keen sense of hearing. From this it is plain that the ability does not have its origin in the natural world but in the spiritual world; it, springs from the correspondence of things in the natural world - which flow into it in accordance with true order - with realities in the spiritual world. Harmonious sound and various forms it takes correspond to states of joy and gladness in the spiritual world, and states of joy and gladness there spring from affections, which in that world are affections for what is good and true. From this one may now recognize that musical instruments correspond to delights and pleasures belonging to spiritual and celestial affections, and that some instruments correspond to celestial affections, others to spiritual ones; see what has been stated and shown about them previously in 418-420, 4138.

[3] As regards 'a timbrel' in particular, this corresponds to spiritual good, that is, to the good of truth. This is because a timbrel is neither a stringed nor a wind instrument but, being made of skin, is an instrument of one continuous string so to speak; and it is also because it has a heavier and deeper sound than that made by stringed instruments. This may also be recognized from the Word, in places in which 'a timbrel' is mentioned, as in Isaiah,

The joy of timbrels will cease, the noise of merry ones will cease, the joy of the harp will cease. Isaiah 24:8.

'The joy of timbrels' stands for delights that belong to affections for the good of faith; 'the joy of the harp' stands for delight that belongs to an affection for the truth of faith.

In Jeremiah,

Again I will build you, that you may be built, O virgin of Israel! Again you will adorn your timbrels, 1 and will go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. Jeremiah 31:4.

'Adorning timbrels' stands for ascribing glory to God from spiritual good, for it refers to the spiritual Church, meant by 'the virgin of Israel'.

[4] Similarly in Ezekiel,

You were in Eden, the garden of God. The workmanship of your timbrels and your pipes was within you; on the day you were created they were prepared. Ezekiel 28:13.

This refers to Tyre, by which cognitions or knowledge of good and of truth are meant, 'timbrels' meaning affections for the former and 'pipes' feelings of joy in the latter.

In David,

They have seen Your goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. The singers went before, players [of stringed instruments] after, in the midst of the virgins playing timbrels. Psalms 68:24-25.

In the same author,

Shout to the God of Jacob; raise a song, and sound the timbrel, the delightful harp with the lyre. Psalms 81:1-2.

In the same author,

Sing to Jehovah a new song; let them praise His name in dancing, with timbrel and harp let them make melody to Him. Psalms 149:1, 3.

Here 'praising with timbrel' stands for ascribing glory from the feeling of delight that belongs to an affection for the good of faith, and 'praising with harp' for the pleasant feeling that belongs to an affection for the truth of faith.

[5] In the same author,

Praise God with timbrel and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and organ praise Him with sounding cymbals 2 ; praise Him with clanging cymbals. 3 Psalms 150:3-5

'Praising with timbrel and dance' stands for doing so from the good and truth of faith; 'on stringed instruments and organ' stands for doing so from truths and consequently from good. Since all instruments corresponded to and were signs of the delights and pleasant feelings that belong to spiritual and celestial affections a large number of the Psalms of David have titles indicating how they were to be accompanied, such as On Neginoth, On the Nehiloth, On the Octave, 4 Shiggaion, the Gittith Muthlabben, the Sheminith, Shoshannim, or Mahalath.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin here and in 153, 1069:2, 3081:4 means literally will adorn your timbrels, but the Hebrew is generally taken to mean adorn yourself with timbrels.

2. lit. cymbals of sound

3. lit. cymbals of clangour

4. The Hebrew means On the Sheminith.

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