คร่ำครวญ 5:2
Many thanks to Philip Pope for the permission to use his 2003 translation of the English King James Version Bible into Thai. Here's a link to the mission's website: www.thaipope.org
Arcana Coelestia #3081
3081. 'A virgin, and no man had known her' means pure from everything false. This is clear from the meaning of 'a virgin'. The word 'virgin' occurs in various places in the Word, where it means the Lord's kingdom, and also the Church, and therefore means every person who is the Lord's kingdom or who is the Church; and it receives this meaning from conjugial love which exists in chaste virgins. Conjugial love in the spiritual sense is the affection for good present in truth, and the affection for truth grounded in good, from which affections, when joined so to speak in marriage, conjugial love flows, see 2508, 2618, 2727-2729. And because conjugial love, as has been stated, is seen in a virgin, the Lord's kingdom, which is also compared to and actually called a marriage, is called a virgin. The reason 'no man had known her' means pure from everything false is that 'a man' (vir) in the Word means not only rational truth but also in the contrary sense falsity, see 265, 749, 1007, so that 'known by a man' means defiled by falsity, and 'not known by a man' pure from falsity. The word 'man' (vir) is not used here in the sense of a husband.
[2] 'A virgin' in the Word means those who are in the Lord's kingdom, or what amounts to the same, who have the Lord's kingdom within them. This is clear in John,
These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins, these are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes; for they are spotless before God's throne. Revelation 14:4-5.
[3] Plainly, these are called 'virgins, who follow the Lamb', that is, who are in the Lord's kingdom; and they are also said to be 'spotless'. In the proper sense they are 'virgins' who are governed by love to the Lord - that is, who are celestial - and so who are moved by an affection for good. They too are called 'virgins' who are governed by charity towards the neighbour - that is, who are spiritual - and so are moved by the affection for truth, as becomes clear from the following places in the Word: In Isaiah,
She has spurned you, she has scorned you, the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you, the daughter of Jerusalem. Isaiah 37:22.
These words are addressed to the king of Asshur. 'The virgin daughter of Zion' stands for the celestial Church, 'the daughter of Jerusalem' for the spiritual Church.
[4] In Jeremiah,
Again I will build you, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel! Again you will adorn yourself with your timbrels and will go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. And their life 1 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.
'Virgin of Israel' stands for the spiritual Church. The affection for truth which springs from good which exists with that Church is described here and elsewhere as 'timbrels' and 'dances'. In the same prophet,
The roads of Zion mourn, her priests groan, her virgins are dejected. The Lord has trodden the winepress for the virgin daughter of Judah. See my grief - my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. Lamentations 1:4, 15, 18.
'Virgins' stands for affections for good and truth. Elsewhere in the same prophet,
Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah. Lamentations 5:11.
'Virgins' stands for affections for good.
[5] In Amos,
They will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst. Amos 8:12-13.
'The beautiful virgins' stands for affections for truth, 'the young men' for truths, or what amounts to the same, those with whom truths exist, of whom it is said that 'they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it', and so 'will faint for thirst'.
[6] In Zechariah,
Jehovah their God will save them on that day; as a flock - His people. For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins. Zechariah 9:16-17.
'The young men' stands for truths, 'the virgins' for affections. In David,
All glorious is the king's daughter within, in her clothing with gold interweavings; in embroidered robes she is led to the king. Virgins following her, her friends, have been brought to You. Psalms 45:13-14.
'The king's daughter' stands for the Lord's spiritual kingdom. 'Virgins following her, her friends' stands for affections for truth.
[7] In the same author,
They have seen Your goings, O God, the goings of my God in the sanctuary. The singers went before, players of the stringed instrument after, in the midst of the young women playing timbrels. Psalms 68:24-25.
'The young women playing timbrels' also stands for affections for truth. But young women are distinguished from virgins by innocence, the word 'virgins' being used because of conjugial love, thus of those in whom innocence is present since conjugial love is innocence itself, see 2736. This explains why in the verses quoted from John they are said 'to follow the Lamb wherever He goes', for 'the Lamb' is used to mean the Lord's innocence. Furthermore all in heaven are called virgins from the innocence present in their good. According to the amount and particular nature of the innocence present in that good 'they follow the Lamb'.
Voetnoten:
1. literally, soul
Jeremiah 31
1
At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2
Thus says Yahweh, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
3
Yahweh appeared of old to me, [saying], Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
4
Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.
5
Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy [its fruit].
6
For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.
7
For thus says Yahweh, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and say, Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel.
8
Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, [and] with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here.
9
They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10
Hear the word of Yahweh, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar off; and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd does his flock.
11
For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12
They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13
Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14
I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says Yahweh.
15
Thus says Yahweh: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.
16
Thus says Yahweh: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says Yahweh; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17
There is hope for your latter end, says Yahweh; and [your] children shall come again to their own border.
18
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus], You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.
19
Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
20
Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says Yahweh.
21
Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.
22
How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? for Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man.
23
Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity: Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.
24
Judah and all its cities shall dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.
25
For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished.
26
On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27
Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal.
28
It shall happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says Yahweh.
29
In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.
30
But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31
Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32
not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh.
33
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:
34
and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all Know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
35
Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name:
36
If these ordinances depart from before me, says Yahweh, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.
37
Thus says Yahweh: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Yahweh.
38
Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that the city shall be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner.
39
The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and shall turn about to Goah.
40
The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to Yahweh; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever.
