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Ezekiel第41章

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1 And he took me to the Temple, and took the measure of the uprights, six cubits wide on one side and six cubits wide on the other.

2 And the door-opening was ten cubits wide; and the side walls of the door-opening were five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other: and it was forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide.

3 And he went inside and took the measure of the uprights of the door-opening, two cubits: and the door-opening, six cubits; and the side-walls of the door-opening were seven cubits on one side and seven cubits on the other.

4 And by his measure it was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide in front of the Temple: and he said to me, This is the most holy place.

5 Then he took the measure of the wall of the house, which was six cubits; and of the side-rooms round the house, which were four cubits wide.

6 And the side-rooms, room over room, were three times thirty; there were inlets in the wall of the house for the side-rooms round about, for supports in the wall of the house.

7 The side-rooms became wider as they went higher up the house, by the amount of the space let into the wall up round about the house, because of the inlets in the house; and one went up from the lowest floor by steps to the middle, and from the middle to the upper floor.

8 And I saw that the house had a stone floor all round; the bases of the side-rooms were a full rod of six great cubits high.

9 The wall supporting the side-rooms on the outside was five cubits thick: and there was a free space of five cubits between the side-rooms of the house.

10 And between the rooms was a space twenty cubits wide all round the house.

11 And the free space had doors opening from the side-rooms, one door on the north and one door on the south: and the free space was five cubits wide all round.

12 And the building which was in front of the separate place at the side to the west was seventy cubits wide; the wall of the building was five cubits thick all round and ninety cubits long.

13 And he took the measure of the house; it was a hundred cubits long; and the separate place and the building with its walls was a hundred cubits long;

14 And the east front of the house and of the separate place was a hundred cubits wide.

15 And he took the measure of the building in front of the separate place which was at the back of it, and the pillared walks on one side and on the other side; they were a hundred cubits long; and the Temple and the inner part and its outer covered way were covered in;

16 And the sloping windows and the covered ways round all three of them were of shakiph-wood all round from the level of the earth up to the windows;

17 And there was a roof over the doorway and as far as the inner house, and to the outside and on the wall all round, inside and outside.

18 And it had pictured forms of winged beings and palm-trees; a palm-tree between two winged ones, and every winged one had two faces;

19 So that there was the face of a man turned to the palm-tree on one side, and the face of a young lion on the other side: so it was made all round the house.

20 From earth level up to the windows there were winged ones and palm-trees pictured on the wall.

21 ...

22 The altar was made of wood, and was three cubits high and two cubits long; it had angles, and its base and sides were of wood; and he said to me, This is the table which is before the Lord.

23 The Temple had two doors.

24 And the holy place had two doors, and the doors had two turning leaves, two for one and two for the other.

25 And on them were pictured winged ones and palm-trees, as on the walls; and a ... of wood was on the front of the covered way outside.

26 And there were sloping windows and palm-trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the covered way: and the side-rooms of the house and the ...

   

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Arcana Coelestia#8369

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8369. 'And seventy palm trees' means forms of the good of truth in like measure, that is to say, in full abundance. This is clear from the meaning of 'seventy' - like 'twelve' - as all things in their entirety, dealt with in 7973; and from the meaning of 'palm trees' as forms of good in the spiritual Church, which are forms of the good of truth. And since forms of good are meant by 'palm trees', an affection for good and the delight resulting from it are meant, for an affection for good is the source of all delight. Since 'palm trees' had this meaning they were also used in sacred festivities, such as the feast of tabernacles, in accordance with the following in Moses,

You shall take on the first day the fruit of a fine tree, 1 fronds of palm trees, the bough of a thick tree, and willows of the powerful stream; and you shall be glad before Jehovah your God seven days. Leviticus 23:40.

'The fruit of a fine tree' means celestial good, 'palm trees' spiritual good or the good of truth, 'the bough of a thick tree' truth in the form of factual knowledge, and 'willows of the powerful stream' lowest truths belonging to the natural. The four accordingly mean all forms of good and truths in their proper order.

[2] The fact that 'palm trees' were signs of sacred festivity springing from good is also clear from the following in John,

A great crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. John 12:12-13.

And in the same author, in Revelation,

I saw, and behold a large crowd standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7:9.

In Joel,

The vine has withered and the fig tree languishes, the pomegranate tree and also the palm; all joy has withered away from the sons of man. Joel 1:12.

In David,

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree; he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Psalms 92:12.

Here 'a palm tree' stands for good and 'a cedar' for truth.

[3] Since 'a palm tree' means good it also means wisdom, for wisdom is the discernment of good. The palm trees which were carved along with the cherubs and flowers on the walls of the temple were signs meaning such wisdom. 'The temple' meant the Lord Himself, and in the representative sense it meant heaven, 2777, 3720; 'the cherubs, palm trees, and flowers' on the walls meant providence, wisdom, and intelligence that are the Lord's, and so meant all things belonging to heaven. The fact that they were carved on the walls of the temple is clear in the first Book of Kings,

Solomon carved all the walls of the house all around with openings of carvings of cherubs, 2 and of palm trees, and with openings of flowers. And on the two doors of olive wood he carved carvings of cherubs and of palm trees, and openings of flowers, and overlaid them with gold, so that he spread gold over the cherubs and over the palm trees. 1 Kings 6:29, 32.

These 'carvings' represented the heavenly state; 'the cherubs' represented the Lord's Providence, thus the truth that all things come from Him (for the meaning of 'cherubs' as providence, see 308); 'the palm trees' represented wisdom that is a discernment of good coming from the Lord; and 'the flowers' represented intelligence that is an understanding of truth coming from Him. 'Gold' with which the cherubs and palm trees were overlaid meant the good of love, which holds sway throughout heaven (for the meaning of 'gold' as the good of love, see 113, 1551, 1552, 5658). All this also explains why in the description in Ezekiel of the new temple, meaning the Lord's heaven, it says that 'cherubs and palm trees' were on the walls everywhere, Ezekiel 41:17-18, 20, 25-26.

脚注:

1. literally, a tree of honour

2. i.e. carved figures of cherubs

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.