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Ezekiel 45

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1 And in your causing the land to fall in inheritance, ye lift up a heave-offering to Jehovah, a holy [portion] of the land: the length -- five and twenty thousand [is] the length, and the breadth ten thousand; it [is] holy in all its border round about.

2 There is of this for the sanctuary five hundred by five hundred, square, round about; and fifty cubits of suburb [is] to it round about.

3 And by this measure thou dost measure: the length [is] five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand: and in it is the sanctuary, the holy of holies.

4 The holy [portion] of the land it [is]; for priests, ministrants of the sanctuary, it is, who are drawing near to serve Jehovah; and it hath been to them a place for houses, and a holy place for a sanctuary.

5 `And of the five and twenty thousand of length, and of the ten thousand of breadth, there is to the Levites, ministrants of the house, for them -- for a possession -- twenty chambers.

6 `And of the possession of the city ye give five thousand of breadth, and of length five and twenty thousand, over-against the heave-offering of the holy [portion]: to all the house of Israel it is.

7 As to the prince, on this side, and on that side, of the heave-offering of the holy place, and of the possession of the city, at the front of the heave-offering of the holy place, and at the front of the possession of the city, from the west corner westward, and from the east corner eastward -- and the length [is] over-against one of the portions from the west border unto the east border --

8 of the land there is to him for a possession in Israel, and My princes do not oppress any more My people, and the land they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

9 `Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Enough to you -- princes of Israel; violence and spoil turn aside, and judgment and righteousness do; lift up your exactions from off My people -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

10 Just balances, and a Just ephah, and a Just bath -- ye have.

11 The ephah and the bath is of one measure, for the bath to bear a tenth of the homer, and the ephah a tenth of the homer: according to the homer is its measurement.

12 And, the shekel [is] twenty gerah: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels -- is your maneh.

13 `This [is] the heave-offering that ye lift up; a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of wheat, also ye have given a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of barley,

14 and the portion of oil, the bath of oil, a tenth part of the bath out of the cor, a homer of ten baths -- for ten baths [are] a homer;

15 and one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the watered country of Israel, for a present, and for a burnt-offering, and for peace-offerings, to make atonement by them -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

16 All the people of the land are at this heave-offering for the prince in Israel.

17 And on the prince are the burnt-offerings, and the present, and the libation, in feasts, and in new moons, and in sabbaths, in all appointed times of the house of Israel: he doth make the sin-offering, and the present, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.

18 `Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In the first [month], in the first of the month, thou dost take a bullock, a son of the herd, a perfect one, and hast cleansed the sanctuary:

19 and the priest hath taken of the blood of the sin offering, and hath put on the door-post of the house, and on the four corners of the border of the altar, and on the post of the gate of the inner court.

20 And so thou dost do on the seventh of the month, because of each erring one, and because of the simple one -- and ye have purified the house.

21 `In the first [month], in the fourteenth day of the month, ye have the passover, a feast of seven days, unleavened food is eaten.

22 And the prince hath prepared on that day, for himself, and for all the people of the land, a bullock, a sin-offering.

23 And the seven days of the feast he prepareth a burnt-offering to Jehovah, seven bullocks, and seven rams, perfect ones, daily seven days, and a sin-offering, a kid of the goats, daily.

24 And a present of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, he doth prepare, and of oil a hin for an ephah.

25 In the seventh [month], in the fifteenth day of the month, in the feast, he doth according to these things seven days; as the sin-offering so the burnt-offering, and as the present so also the oil.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4482

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4482. 'Behold, the land is broad and spacious before them' means extension, that is to say, of truth which is the truth of doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' as the Church, dealt with just above in 4480, and from the meaning of 'broad and spacious' as extension as regards truths, and so as regards those taught by doctrine. When in the Word the measurements of something are given, it is not those measurements that are meant in the internal sense but the essential characteristics of a state that is being described. For measurements involve spatial dimensions and in the next life there are no intervals of space, as there are no periods of time, but states which correspond to these, see 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 3404, 4321. That being so, lengths, breadths, and heights, which are spatial measurements, mean the aspects of a state - length meaning holiness, height good, and breadth truth, see 650, 1613, 3433, 3434. This then is why 'the land is broad and spacious' means the extension of truth which is the truth of doctrine within the Church.

[2] Anyone who does not know of the existence of anything spiritual in the Word other than that which stands out in the literal sense is bound to be amazed by the statement that 'the land is broad and specious' means the extension of truth which is the truth of doctrine within the Church. But the truth of this statement may be established from places where 'breadth' is mentioned in the Word, as in Isaiah,

Asshur will go through Judah, it will deluge it and pass through and will reach even to the neck; and the outstretchings of its wings will fill the breadth of the land. Isaiah 8:8.

In David,

O Jehovah, You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have made my feet stand in a broad place. Psalms 31:8.

In the same author,

Out of my distress I called on Jah; He answered me in a broad place. Psalms 118:5.

In Habakkuk,

I am rousing the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation, marching' into the breadths of the earth. Habakkuk 1:6.

'Breadths' here means nothing other than the truth of the Church.

[3] The reason why breadth has this meaning is that in the spiritual world, that is, in heaven, the Lord is the centre of all, for He is the Sun there. Those in a state of good are more interior, their exact position towards the middle being determined by the character and the amount of the good present in them. This is why 'height' is used in reference to good. Those who are in a similar degree of good are also in a similar degree of truth, and so dwell so to speak at the same distance from the centre, or one might say, dwell on the same contour; and this is why 'breadth' is used in reference to truths. Therefore when a person reads the Word the angels present with him do not understand by 'breadth' anything other than truths. When in the Historical sections, for example, the ark, the altar, the temple, and the spaces outside cities are referred to, states of good and truth are perceived by the dimensions indicating the lengths, breadths, and heights of these. The same is so with the new earth, new Jerusalem, and new Temple - described in Chapters 40-47 of Ezekiel - by which heaven and a new Church are meant, as may be seen from the detailed descriptions in those chapters. So also in John where it is said of the New Jerusalem that it will be foursquare, 'its length being as great as its breadth', Revelation 21:16.

[4] Things which in the spiritual world are interior are described as those that are higher, while those that are exterior are described by those that are lower, 2148, for while in the world, no one can conceive of interior things and exterior ones in any other way, for the reason that he dwells within space and time, and things that belong to space and time have entered in among the ideas comprising his thought and have conditioned the majority of these. From this it is also evident that expressions which give the spatial measurements of things such as the height, length, and breadth of them, are in the spiritual sense expressions used to indicate the magnitude of affections for good and affections for truth.

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