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Ezekiel 36

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1 And thou, son of man, prophesy unto mountains of Israel, and thou hast said, O mountains of Israel, hear a word of Jehovah.

2 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because the enemy said against you, Aha, and the high places of old for a possession have been to us,

3 therefore, prophesy, and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because, even because, of desolating, And of swallowing you up from round about, For your being a possession to the remnant of the nations, And ye are taken up on the tip of the tongue, And [are] an evil report of the people.

4 Therefore, O mountains of Israel, Hear a word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus said the Lord Jehovah, to mountains, and to hills, To streams, and to valleys, And to wastes that [are] desolate, And to cities that are forsaken, That have been for a prey, And for a scorn, to the remnant of the nations who [are] round about.

5 Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Have I not, in the fire of My jealousy, Spoken against the remnant of the nations, And against Edom -- all of it, Who gave My land to themselves for a possession, With the joy of the whole heart -- with despite of soul, For the sake of casting it out for a prey?

6 Therefore, prophesy concerning the ground of Israel, And thou hast said to mountains, and to hills, To streams, and to valleys, Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I, in My jealousy, and in My fury, I have spoken, Because the shame of nations ye have borne.

7 Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: I -- I have lifted up My hand, Do not -- the nations who [are] with you from round about -- they their own shame bear?

8 And ye, O mountains of Israel, Your branch ye give out, and your fruits ye bear for My people Israel, For they have drawn near to come.

9 For, lo, I [am] for you, and have turned to you, And ye have been tilled and sown.

10 And I have multiplied on you men, All the house of Israel -- all of it, And the cities have been inhabited, And the wastes are built.

11 And I have multiplied on you man and beast, And they have multiplied and been fruitful, And I have caused you to dwell according to your former states, And I have done better than at your beginnings, And ye have known that I [am] Jehovah.

12 And I have caused man to walk over you, -- My people Israel, And they possess thee, and thou hast been to them for an inheritance, And thou dost add no more to bereave them.

13 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because they are saying to you: A devourer of men [art] thou, And a bereaver of thy nations thou hast been,

14 Therefore, man thou devourest no more, And thy nations thou causest not to stumble any more, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

15 And I proclaim not unto thee any more the shame of the nations, And the reproach of peoples thou bearest no more, And thy nations stumble not any more, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

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

17 `Son of man, The house of Israel are dwelling on their land, And they defile it by their way and by their doings, As the uncleanness of a separated one hath their way been before Me.

18 And I do pour out My fury upon them For the blood that they shed on the land, And with their idols they have defiled it.

19 And I scatter them among nations, And they are spread through lands, According to their way, and according to their doings, I have judged them.

20 And one goeth in unto the nations whither they have gone, And they pollute My holy name by saying to them, The people of Jehovah [are] these, And from His land they have gone forth.

21 And I have pity on My holy name, That the house of Israel have polluted among nations whither they have gone in.

22 Therefore, say to the house of Israel, Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Not for your sake am I working, O house of Israel, But -- for My holy name, That ye have polluted among nations whither ye have gone in.

23 And I have sanctified My great name, That is profaned among nations, That ye have polluted in your midst, And known have the nations that I [am] Jehovah, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, In My being sanctified in you before your eyes.

24 And I have taken you out of the nations, And have gathered you out of all the lands, And I have brought you in unto your land,

25 And I have sprinkled over you clean water, And ye have been clean; From all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, I do cleanse you.

26 And I have given to you a new heart, And a new spirit I give in your midst, And I have turned aside the heart of stone out of your flesh, And I have given to you a heart of flesh.

27 And My Spirit I give in your midst, And I have done this, so that in My statutes ye walk, And My judgments ye keep, and have done them.

28 And ye have dwelt in the land that I have given to your fathers, And ye have been to Me for a people, And I -- I am to you for God.

29 And I have saved you from all your uncleannesses, And I have called unto the corn, and multiplied it, And I have put no famine upon you.

30 And I have multiplied the fruit of the tree, And the increase of the field, So that ye receive not any more a reproach of famine among nations.

31 And ye have remembered your ways that [are] evil, And your doings that [are] not good, And have been loathsome in your own faces, For your iniquities, and for your abominations.

32 Not for your sake am I working, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Be it known to you, Be ashamed and confounded, because of your ways, O house of Israel.

33 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In the day of My cleansing you from all your iniquities, I have caused the cities to be inhabited, And the wastes have been built,

34 And the desolate land is tilled, Instead of which it was a desolation before the eyes of every passer by,

35 And they have said: This land, that was desolated, Hath been as the garden of Eden, And the cities -- the wasted, And the desolated, and the broken down, Fenced places have remained.

36 And known have the nations who are left round about you, That I Jehovah have built the thrown down, I have planted the desolated: I Jehovah have spoken, and I have done [it].

37 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Yet this I am required, By the house of Israel to do to them, I multiply them as a flock of men,

38 As a flock of holy ones, as a flock of Jerusalem, In her appointed seasons, So are the waste cities full of flocks of men, And they have known that I [am] Jehovah!'

   

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Arcana Coelestia #8972

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8972. Verse 1 And these are the judgements which you shall set before them means those more external truths such as must exist in a civic state where the Church is representative, which flow from the internal truths belonging to order in heaven. The fact that these things are meant by 'the judgements that were to be set before the children of Israel' is clear from the meaning of 'judgements' as truths, dealt with in 2235, 6397, 7206, 8685, 8695. The reason why 'judgements' are truths is that all judgement is effected by means of truths; therefore 'executing judgement' in the Word means executing truth, that is, judging in accordance with truths. But the plural 'judgements' means civil laws, thus those more external truths such as exist in a civic state. The words 'where the Church is representative' are added because these truths contain and embody within themselves the truths that belong to order in heaven, as may be recognized from the internal sense of them.

[2] The laws which the Lord delivered to the children of Israel and commanded them to keep were divided into commandments, judgements, and statutes. The term 'commandments' was given to those which were laws of life, 'judgements' to those which were laws of the civic state, and 'statutes' to those which were laws of worship. As regards judgements specifically, they are the kinds of laws that are contained in the present chapter and also some that follow. They served as laws in a Church in which inner realities, those of heaven and of the Church, were represented by outward things; but they do not serve as laws in a Church in which inner realities are no longer represented by outward things, as in the Christian Church. The reason for this is that inner realities have been revealed to people of this Church, and therefore inner realities are the channel through which contact is made with heaven, not outward things, as had been the situation before the Christian Church. Here is the reason why members of the Christian Church are not bound to adhere to the outward requirements of the laws called judgements and statutes, only to the inward ones. Holiness still remains within them because they hold holy truths within them, as also does every single command in the Word regarding the sacrifices. Although these are no longer prescriptive laws they remain holy constituents of the Word because of the Divine realities which they hold within themselves and which they represented. For when they are read by a Christian the Divine realities which are held within them and which were represented by them are discerned in heaven. They fill the angels with holiness, and at the same time the reader too through influx from the angels, especially if the reader himself is thinking at the same time about the Divine realities within them. From this it is evident that even the Old Testament Word is extremely holy.

[3] The fact that the laws which the Lord delivered to the children of Israel and commanded them to keep were divided into commandments that were laws of life, judgements that were laws of the civic state, and statutes that were laws of worship, is evident in Moses,

Jehovah said to Moses, Go, say to them, Go back into your tents. But you, stand here with Me, that I may tell you all the commandments, and statutes, and judgements which you shall teach them, so that they may do them. Deuteronomy 5:30-31.

In the same author,

Furthermore these are the commandments, statutes, and judgements which Jehovah your God commanded to teach you. Deuteronomy 6:1.

In the same author,

Therefore you shall keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them. Deuteronomy 7:11.

In David,

If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgements, if they profane My statutes and do not keep My commandments, I will visit their transgression with the rod. Psalms 89:30-32.

[4] Furthermore all the laws, in that they were those of a representative Church, were generally called judgements and statutes, as in Moses,

Now therefore, O Israel, hear the statutes and the judgements which I will teach you, that you may do them. What great nation [is there] that has righteous statutes and judgements, like all this law which I will set before you today? Deuteronomy 4:1, 8; 5:1.

In Ezekiel.

Jerusalem has changed My judgements into wickedness more than the nations, and My statutes more than the lands that are around her; for they have repudiated My judgements, and have not walked in My statutes. Ezekiel 5:6-7.

In the same prophet,

Let him 1 walk in My statutes and keep My judgements - to do the truth. Ezekiel 18:9.

In addition to these there are many other places, such as Leviticus 18:5; 19:37; 20:22; 25:18; 26:15; Deuteronomy 26:17; Ezekiel 11:12, 20; 20:11, 13, 25; 37:24.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin means them but the Hebrew means him

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

The Bible

 

Exodus 21:28

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28 "If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible.