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Ezekiel 47

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1 And he causeth me to turn back unto the opening of the house; and lo, water is coming forth from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the front of the house [is] eastward, and the water is coming down from beneath, from the right side of the house, from the south of the altar.

2 And he causeth me to go out the way of the gate northward, and causeth me to turn round the way without, unto the gate that [is] without, the way that is looking eastward, and lo, water is coming forth from the right side.

3 In the going out of the man eastward, and a line in his hand, then he measureth a thousand by the cubit, and he causeth me to pass over into water -- water to the ankles.

4 And he measureth a thousand, and causeth me to pass over into water -- water to the knees. And he measureth a thousand, and causeth me to pass over -- water to the loins.

5 And he measureth a thousand -- a stream that I am not able to pass over; for risen have the waters -- waters to swim in -- a stream that is not passed over.

6 And he saith unto me, `Hast thou seen, son of man?' and he leadeth me, and bringeth me back unto the edge of the stream.

7 In my turning back, then, lo, at the edge of the stream [are] very many trees, on this side and on that side.

8 And he saith unto me, `These waters are going forth unto the east circuit, and have gone down unto the desert, and have entered the sea; unto the sea they are brought forth, and the waters have been healed.

9 And it hath come to pass, every living creature that teemeth, whithersoever the streams come, doth live: and there hath been great abundance of fish, for these waters have come thither, and they are healed; and every thing whither the stream cometh hath lived.

10 And it hath come to pass, fishers do stand by it, from En-Gedi even unto En-Eglaim; a spreading place of nets they are; according to their own kind is their fish, as the fish of the great sea, very many.

11 Its miry and its marshy places -- they are not healed; to salt they have been given up.

12 And by the stream there cometh up on its edge, on this side and on that side, every [kind of] fruit-tree whose leaf fadeth not, and not consumed is its fruit, according to its months it yieldeth first-fruits, because its waters from the sanctuary are coming forth; and its fruits hath been for food, and its leaf for medicine.

13 `Thus said the Lord Jehovah: This [is] the border whereby ye inherit the land, according to the twelve tribes of Israel; Joseph [hath] portions.

14 And ye have inherited it, one as well as another, in that I have lifted up My hand to give it to your fathers; and this land hath fallen to you in inheritance.

15 `And this [is] the border of the land at the north quarter; from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, at the coming in to Zedad:

16 Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, that [is] between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazar-Hatticon, that [is] at the coast of Havran.

17 And the border from the sea hath been Hazar-Enan, the border of Damascus, and Zaphon at the north, and the border of Hamath: and [this is] the north quarter.

18 `And the east quarter [is] from between Havran, and Damascus, and Gilead, and the land of Israel, [to] the Jordan; from the border over-against the eastern sea ye measure: and [this is] the east quarter.

19 `And the south quarter southward [is] from Tamar unto the waters of Meriboth-Kadesh, the stream unto the great sea: and [this is] the south quarter southward.

20 `And the west quarter [is] the great sea, from the border till over-against the coming in to Hamath: this [is] the west quarter.

21 `And ye have divided this land to you, according to the tribes of Israel;

22 and it hath come to pass, ye separate it for an inheritance to yourselves, and to the sojourners who are sojourning in your midst, who have begotten sons in your midst, and they have been to you as native, with the sons of Israel, with you they are separated for an inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Israel.

23 And it hath come to pass, in the tribe with which the sojourner sojourneth, there ye give his inheritance -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

   

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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.