1
Ang salita ng Panginoon na dumating kay Oseas na anak ni Beeri, nang mga kaarawan ni Uzias, ni Jotam, ni Ahaz, at ni Ezechias, na mga hari sa Juda, at nang mga kaarawan ni Jeroboam na anak ni Joas, na hari sa Israel.
Oseas 1:1
Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture # 79
79. In many places in the Prophets the subject is an understanding of the Word when referring to the church, and the teaching is that the church exists only where the Word is rightly understood, and that the character of the church is such as the understanding of the Word among the people in the church.
Many places in the Prophets also describe the church that existed in the Israelite and Jewish nation, saying that it was entirely destroyed and ended by the people’s falsifying the sense and meaning of the Word. For nothing else destroys the church.
[2] Ephraim in the Prophets describes both a true understanding of the Word and a false one, especially in Hosea, for Ephraim in the Word symbolizes the understanding of the Word in the church. And because an understanding of the Word is what forms the church, therefore Ephraim is called a “dear son” and “a pleasant child” (Jeremiah 31:20); the “firstborn” (Jeremiah 31:9); “the helmet” of Jehovah’s head (Psalms 60:7, 108:8); “a mighty man” (Zechariah 10:7); “fitted with the bow” (Zechariah 9:13). And the children of Ephraim are called “armed” and “shooters of the bow” (Psalms 78:9). A bow symbolizes doctrine from the Word battling against falsities.
Ephraim was also therefore shifted to Israel’s right hand and blessed, and taken in place of Reuben (Genesis 48:5, 11ff.).
And Ephraim, with his brother Manasseh, under the name of their father Joseph, was therefore praised above all the others by Moses in his blessing the children of Israel (Deuteronomy 33:13-17).
[3] At the same time, the character of the church when any understanding of the Word has been lost is also described by Ephraim in the Prophets, especially in Hosea, as is apparent from the following:
...Israel and Ephraim shall stumble.... Ephraim shall be desolate.... Ephraim is oppressed and shaken in judgment.... ...I will be like a lion to Ephraim.... I...will seize them and go away; I will take them away and not rescue them. (Hosea 5:5, 9, 11-14)
O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? ...For your holiness is like a morning cloud, and like the falling morning dew it goes away. (Hosea 6:4)
[4] They shall not dwell in Jehovah’s land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and shall eat unclean food in Assyria. (Hosea 9:3)
Jehovah’s land is the church. Egypt is the factual knowledge of the natural man. Assyria is his resulting reasoning, by which the Word is falsified as regards any understanding of it. That is why we are told that Ephraim shall return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
[5] Ephraim feeds on the wind, and pursues the east wind; he daily increases lies and desolation. He makes a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried down into Egypt. (Hosea 12:1)
To feed on the wind, to pursue the east wind, and to increase lies and desolation is to falsify truths and so destroy the church.
[6] The harlotry of Ephraim, too, has the same symbolic meaning. For harlotry symbolizes the falsifying of an understanding of the Word, that is, of its genuine truth. As in the following:
I know Ephraim..., (that he surely) has committed harlotry, (and) Israel is defiled. (Hosea 5:3)
I have seen a foul thing in the house of Israel: there Ephraim committed harlotry, (and) Israel is defiled. (Hosea 6:10)
Israel is the church, and Ephraim is its understanding of the Word, which forms the church and its character. That is why Ephraim is said to have committed harlotry and Israel to be defiled.
[7] Since the church with the Jews was utterly destroyed by its falsifications of the Word, therefore regarding Ephraim we read the following:
...will I give you up, Ephraim? ...will I hand you over, Israel? ...like Admah? (Or) will I set you like Zeboiim? (Hosea 11:8)
Now because the prophet Hosea, from the first chapter to the last, has as his subject the falsification of the Word and its destruction of the church, and because harlotry symbolizes a falsification of the truth in it, therefore the prophet was commanded to represent the state of the church by taking himself a harlot as his woman and producing children by her (chapter 1), and a second time by taking an adulteress as his woman (chapter 3).
[8] We have cited these passages to make it known from the Word and confirmed by it that the character of the church is such as the understanding of the Word in it: an excellent and precious church if its understanding is formed by genuine truths drawn from the Word, but a destroyed church, indeed a foul one, if its understanding is formed by truths falsified.
As confirmation that Ephraim symbolizes an understanding of the Word, and in an opposite sense that understanding falsified, and that the result is the destruction of the church, all the other passages dealing with Ephraim could be presented, such as Hosea 4:17-18, 7:1, 11, 8:9, 11, 9:11-13, 16, 10:11, 11:3, 12:1, 8, 14, 13:1, 12; Isaiah 17:3, 28:1; Jeremiah 4:15, 31:6, 18, 50:19; Ezekiel 37:16, 48:5; Obadiah 1:19; Zechariah 9:10.
Ezekiel 48
1
Now these are the names of the tribes: From the north end, beside the way of Hethlon to the entrance of Hamath, Hazar Enan at the border of Damascus, northward beside Hamath, (and they shall have their sides east [and] west), Dan, one [portion].
2
By the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one [portion].
3
By the border of Asher, from the east side even to the west side, Naphtali, one [portion].
4
By the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh, one [portion].
5
By the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim, one [portion].
6
By the border of Ephraim, from the east side even to the west side, Reuben, one [portion].
7
By the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah, one [portion].
8
By the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the offering which you shall offer, twenty-five thousand [reeds] in breadth, and in length as one of the portions, from the east side to the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in its midst.
9
The offering that you shall offer to Yahweh shall be twenty-five thousand [reeds] in length, and ten thousand in breadth.
10
For these, even for the priests, shall be the holy offering: toward the north twenty-five thousand [in length], and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south twenty-five thousand in length: and the sanctuary of Yahweh shall be in its midst.
11
[It shall be] for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept my instruction, who didn't go astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.
12
It shall be to them an offering from the offering of the land, a thing most holy, by the border of the Levites.
13
Answerable to the border of the priests, the Levites shall have twenty-five thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length shall be twenty-five thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.
14
They shall sell none of it, nor exchange it, nor shall the first fruits of the land be alienated; for it is holy to Yahweh.
15
The five thousand that are left in the breadth, in front of the twenty-five thousand, shall be for common use, for the city, for dwelling and for suburbs; and the city shall be in its midst.
16
These shall be its measures: the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred.
17
The city shall have suburbs: toward the north two hundred fifty, and toward the south two hundred fifty, and toward the east two hundred fifty, and toward the west two hundred fifty.
18
The remainder in the length, answerable to the holy offering, shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward; and it shall be answerable to the holy offering; and its increase shall be for food to those who labor in the city.
19
Those who labor in the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, shall cultivate it.
20
All the offering shall be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand: you shall offer the holy offering foursquare, with the possession of the city.
21
The residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy offering and of the possession of the city; in front of the twenty-five thousand of the offering toward the east border, and westward in front of the twenty-five thousand toward the west border, answerable to the portions, it shall be for the prince: and the holy offering and the sanctuary of the house shall be in its midst.
22
Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, it shall be for the prince.
23
As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, Benjamin, one [portion].
24
By the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, Simeon, one [portion].
25
By the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, Issachar, one [portion].
26
By the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, Zebulun, one [portion].
27
By the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, Gad, one [portion].
28
By the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar to the waters of Meribath Kadesh, to the brook [of Egypt], to the great sea.
29
This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their several portions, says the Lord Yahweh.
30
These are the exits of the city: On the north side four thousand and five hundred [reeds] by measure;
31
and the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates northward: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one.
32
At the east side four thousand and five hundred [reeds], and three gates: even the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one.
33
At the south side four thousand and five hundred [reeds] by measure, and three gates: the gate of Simeon, one; the gate of Issachar, one; the gate of Zebulun, one.
34
At the west side four thousand and five hundred [reeds], with their three gates: the gate of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one; the gate of Naphtali, one.
35
It shall be eighteen thousand [reeds] around: and the name of the city from that day shall be, Yahweh is there.
