The Bible

 

Hosea 9

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1 `Rejoice not, O Israel, be not joyful like the peoples, For thou hast gone a-whoring from thy God, Thou hast loved a gift near all floors of corn.

2 Floor and wine-press do not delight them, And new wine doth fail in her,

3 They do not abide in the land of Jehovah, And turned back hath Ephraim [to] Egypt, And in Asshur an unclean thing they eat.

4 They pour not out wine to Jehovah, Nor are they sweet to Him, Their sacrifices [are] as bread of mourners to them, All eating it are unclean: For their bread [is] for themselves, It doth not come into the house of Jehovah.

5 What do ye at the day appointed? And at the day of Jehovah's festival?

6 For, lo, they have gone because of destruction, Egypt gathereth them, Moph burieth them, The desirable things of their silver, Nettles possess them -- a thorn [is] in their tents.

7 Come in have the days of inspection, Come in have the days of recompence, Israel doth know! a fool [is] the prophet, Mad [is] the man of the Spirit, Because of the abundance of thine iniquity, And great [is] the hatred.

8 Ephraim is looking [away] from My God, The prophet! a snare of a fowler [is] over all his ways, Hatred [is] in the house of his God.

9 They have gone deep -- have done corruptly, As [in] the days of Gibeah, He doth remember their iniquity, He doth inspect their sins.

10 As grapes in a wilderness I found Israel, As the first-fruit in a fig-tree, at its beginning, I have seen your fathers, They -- they have gone in [to] Baal-Peor, And are separated to a shameful thing, And are become abominable like their love.

11 Ephraim [is] as a fowl, Fly away doth their honour, without birth, And without womb, and without conception.

12 For though they nourish their sons, I have made them childless -- without man, Surely also, wo to them, when I turn aside from them.

13 Ephraim! when I have looked to the rock, Is planted in comeliness, And Ephraim [is] to bring out unto a slayer his sons.

14 Give to them, Jehovah -- what dost Thou Give? Give to them miscarrying womb, and dry breasts.

15 All their evil [is] in Gilgal, Surely there I have hated them, Because of the evil of their doings, Out of My house I do drive them, I add not to love them, all their heads [are] apostates.

16 Ephraim hath been smitten, Their root hath dried up, fruit they yield not, Yea, though they bring forth, I have put to death the desired of their womb.

17 Reject them doth my God, Because they have not hearkened to Him, And they are wanderers among nations!

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #404

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404. (Verse 14) And the heaven departed as a book when it is rolled together. That this signifies that the spiritual man was shut, is plain from the signification of heaven, as denoting the church in general and in particular; for the church is the Lord's heaven on earth; the church also makes one with heaven by conjunction; therefore when heaven and earth are mentioned in the Word, the church internal and external is meant; for the internal of the men of the church is heaven with them, and the external is the world with them. And because by heaven and earth is signified the church internal and external, hence also the internal and external man, or the spiritual and natural man, is signified; for the man is a church in whom is the good of love and faith, therefore from the men in whom the church is, the church in general exists; hence it is clear why by heaven is here meant the internal or spiritual man. It is said the spiritual man, and the spiritual mind is meant, which is the higher or interior mind of man, whereas the lower or exterior mind is called the natural man; and from the signification of, "it departed as a book when it is rolled together," as denoting its being closed; for the spiritual mind, which is, as was said, the higher or interior mind with man, is opened by truths applied to life, thus by goods, whereas it is closed by falsities applied to life, thus by evils, and the closing up is like the rolling together of the scroll of a book. That this is so, was plainly evident by the appearances in the spiritual world, when the Last Judgment was accomplished; for then the mountains and hills there appeared sometimes to be rolled together as the scroll of a book is rolled together, and then they that were upon them were rolled down into hell. The cause of this appearance is based on this circumstance, that the interiors of their minds, through which somewhat of light from heaven flowed in before, were then shut. What takes place in general with many, takes place with every one of a like quality in particular; for in the spiritual world such as is the general, such is the particular (as may be seen in the work concerning Heaven and Hell 73). By book is meant a scroll, because in ancient times there were no types and, consequently, no books, such as there are at this day, but there were scrolls of parchment; hence by the books in the Apocalypse are meant scrolls, and by, the heaven departed as a book when it is rolled together, is meant as a scroll rolled together; similarly in Isaiah:

"All the host of the heavens shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a book" (34:4).

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Deuteronomy 8:8

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8 a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey;