127. Internal Meaning of Ezekiel, Chapter 4
Representation of the perverted church in the church. (2)
1-2 He should represent the falsities of the church, and the church besieged by them. (2)
3 He should represent the hardness of their heart, from which it is that they have no fear; (2)
4-8 he should also represent the church besieged by falsities of evil and evils of falsity. (2)
9-16 He should represent the falsification and adulteration of the sense of the letter of the Word, (2)
1
Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:
2
And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.
3
Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
4
Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.
5
For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6
And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.
7
Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
8
And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.
9
Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
10
And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.
11
Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
12
And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.
13
And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.
14
Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
15
Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
16
Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:
17
That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.
16. The state of the church founded on the Word and represented in the prophets was what bearing the iniquities and sins of the people means. The reality of this is apparent from what we are told about the prophet Isaiah, that he went naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a wonder (Isaiah 20:3); and about the prophet Ezekiel, that he made containers for departure and covered his face so as not to see the ground, so that he was thus a sign to the house of Israel. He also said, “Behold, I am a sign to you” (Ezekiel 12:6, 11).
[2] That they regarded this as bearing iniquities is clearly apparent in the case of Ezekiel when he was ordered to lie for a period of three hundred days and a period of forty days on his left and right sides facing Jerusalem, and to eat a barley cake made with cow dung, in a passage where we also read the following:
Lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I will lay on you the years of their iniquity reflected in the number of the days, three hundred and ninety, that you may bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. Then, when you have completed them, lie again on your right side, that you may bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. (Ezekiel 4:4-6)
[3] By bearing in this way the iniquities of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, the prophet did not take away those iniquities or thereby atone for them, but only represented and portrayed them, as is apparent in the same chapter from the following:
“Thus, ” says Jehovah, “shall the children of Israel eat their unclean bread among the nations where I will drive them.... Behold, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem..., that they may lack bread and water, and be left desolate, each man and his brother, and waste away because of their iniquity.” (Ezekiel 4:13, 16-17)
[4] So, too, when the same prophet showed himself and said, “I am a sign to you, ” saying also, “As I have done, so shall it be done to them” (Ezekiel 12:6, 11).
The same thing is therefore meant where we are told regarding the Lord, “He has borne our diseases.” “He has carried our sorrows.” “Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquities of us all.” “By His knowledge He shall justify many by His bearing their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:4, 6, 11) This in a chapter whose subject throughout is the Lord’s suffering.
[5] That the Lord, as the grand prophet, represented the state of the church in relation to the Word, is apparent from the particulars of His suffering, as for example, that He was betrayed by Judas; that the chief priests and elders arrested Him and condemned Him; that they struck Him blows; that they struck Him on the head with a reed; that they put on it a crown of thorns; that they divided His garments, and for His tunic cast lots; that they crucified Him; that they gave Him vinegar to drink; that they pierced His side; that He was entombed, and on the third day rose again.
[6] The Lord’s being betrayed by Judas symbolized His betrayal by the Jewish nation, who had the Word; for Judas represented that nation.
The Lord’s being arrested and condemned by the chief priests and elders symbolized His having been so treated by the whole Jewish Church.
His being whipped, spat upon in the face, struck blows, and struck on the head with a reed symbolized the Jews’ treatment of the Word in a similar way in respect to its Divine truths, all of which have to do with the Lord.
His having a crown of thorns put on Him symbolized the Jews’ falsification and adulteration of those truths.
Their dividing the Lord’s garments and casting lots for His tunic symbolized their having done away with all the Word’s truths, but not its spiritual sense — the Lord’s tunic symbolizing that level of meaning in the Word.
Their crucifying the Lord symbolized their destruction and profanation of the entire Word.
Their offering Him vinegar to drink symbolized nothing but truths falsified and falsities, which is why He did not drink it, and why He then said, “It is finished.”
Their piercing His side symbolized their complete extinction of every truth in the Word and every goodness in it.
His being entombed symbolized His rejection of any remaining human quality received from His mother.
His rising again on the third day symbolized His glorification.
[7] The same things are symbolized by those passages in the Prophets and Psalms where they are foretold.
As a consequence, after the Lord had been whipped and brought out wearing the crown of thorns and a purple garment that the soldiers put on Him, He said, “Behold, the man!” (John 19:1, 5). He said this because “the man” symbolizes the church, inasmuch as the Son of man symbolizes the truth of the church, thus the Word.
It is apparent from this now that to bear iniquities means to represent and portray in person sins against the Word’s Divine truths.
We shall see later that the Lord endured and suffered these things as the Son of man, and not as the Son of God; for the Son of man symbolizes the Lord in relation to the Word.
Published by the General Church of the New Jerusalem, 1100 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009, U.S.A. A translation of Doctrina Novae Hierosolymae de Domino, by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688-1772. Translated from the Original Latin by N. Bruce Rogers. ISBN 9780945003687, Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954074.
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