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Daniel第2章

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1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep went from him.

2 And the king commanded to call the scribes, and the magicians, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to shew the king his dreams; and they came and stood before the king.

3 And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.

4 And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, O king, live for ever! tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.

5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The command is gone forth from me: If ye do not make known unto me the dream, and its interpretation, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.

6 But if ye shew the dream and its interpretation, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour; therefore shew me the dream and its interpretation.

7 They answered the second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.

8 The king answered and said, I know of a certainty that ye would gain time, because ye see the word is gone forth from me;

9 but if ye do not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you; for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can shew me its interpretation.

10 The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king's matter; therefore there is no king, however great and powerful, that hath asked such a thing of any scribe, or magician, or Chaldean.

11 For the thing that the king demandeth is extraordinary, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.

12 For this cause the king was irritated and very wroth, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

13 And the decree went forth that the wise men were to be slain; and they sought Daniel and his companions to slay them.

14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and prudence to Arioch the chief of the king's bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon:

15 he answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, Why is the decree so rigorous from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.

16 And Daniel went in, and requested of the king that he would give him time, that he might shew the king the interpretation.

17 Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions;

18 that they would desire mercies of the God of the heavens concerning this secret; that Daniel and his companions should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

19 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of the heavens.

20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever; For wisdom and might are his.

21 And it is he that changeth times and seasons; He deposeth kings, and setteth up kings; He giveth wisdom to the wise, And knowledge to them that know understanding.

22 It is he that revealeth the deep and secret things; He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.

23 I thank thee, and I praise thee, O God of my fathers, Who hast given me wisdom and might, And hast made known unto me already what we desired of thee; For thou hast made known unto us the king's matter.

24 Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus unto him: Destroy not the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation.

25 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him: I have found a man of the sons of the captivity of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation.

26 The king answered and said unto Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream that I have seen, and its interpretation?

27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, The secret that the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the magicians, the scribes, the astrologers, shew unto the king;

28 but there is a God in the heavens, who revealeth secrets, and maketh known to king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be at the end of days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these:

29 -- as for thee, O king, thy thoughts arose upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter; and he that revealeth secrets hath made known to thee what shall come to pass.

30 And as for me, this secret is revealed to me, not by [any] wisdom that I have more than any living, but to the intent that the interpretation should be made known to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.

31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold, a great image. This image was mighty and its brightness excellent; it stood before thee, and its appearance was terrible.

32 This image's head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass,

33 its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part of clay.

34 Thou sawest till a stone was cut out without hands; and it smote the image upon its feet of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces.

35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken in pieces together, and they became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation of it before the king.

37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings, unto whom the God of the heavens hath given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory;

38 and wheresoever the children of men, the beasts of the field, and the fowl of the heavens dwell, he hath given them into thy hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all: thou art this head of gold.

39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee; then another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth everything, and as iron that breaketh all these, so shall it break in pieces and bruise.

41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

42 And [as] the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.

43 And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron doth not mingle with clay.

44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of the heavens set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the sovereignty thereof shall not be left to another people: it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, but itself shall stand for ever.

45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, -- the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and the interpretation of it sure.

46 Then king Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.

47 The king answered Daniel and said, Of a truth it is that your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, because thou wast able to reveal this secret.

48 Then the king made Daniel great, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

49 And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon. And Daniel was in the gate of the king.

   

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Apocalypse Explained#176

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176. (Verse 27) And he shall rule them with a rod of iron. That this signifies that He is about to chastise evils by means of truths which are in the natural man is evident from the signification of ruling, as being to chastise, for it is added that He would break them in pieces as a potter's vessels, and the evils which are thereby signified are chastised by means of truths; also from the signification of a rod of iron, as being truths in the natural man. By a rod or staff is signified power, by means of which chastisement is effected, and by iron, truths in the natural man which chastise. (That a rod or staff denotes power, may be seen, n. 4013, 4015, 4876, 4936, 6947, 7011, 7026, 7568, 7572; that hence it is that kings have a sceptre, which is a short staff, n. 4581, 4876.) The reason why iron signifies truths in the natural man is, that metals, as well as all other things on earth, from correspondence, signify things spiritual and celestial, all of which have reference to truths and goods. Gold signifies the good of the internal man, silver its truths; copper or brass the good of the external or natural man, iron its truth. This is the reason why the ancients called the Ages by the names of metals - golden, silver, copper and iron: golden from the most ancient men, who lived in the good of love; silver from the ancients after them, who lived in truths from that good; copper from their posterity, who were in external or natural good; iron from the posterity of the latter, who were in natural truth alone without good. Natural truth is truth in the memory, and not in the life; truth which is of the life is good. (But more may be seen concerning this correspondence in the work, Heaven and Hell 104, 115.)

[2] The successive states of the church, even until the coming of the Lord, are meant by the gold, the silver, the brass, and the iron of which the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream was composed, as it is thus recorded in Daniel:

"His head was fine gold, his breast and his arms silver, his belly and his thighs brass, his legs iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. And a stone was cut out" of the rock, "and smote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Whereas thou sawest the feet, part of potter's clay and part of iron," it signifies that "the kingdom shall be divided; the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. Whereas thou sawest iron mixed with clay of mire, they shall mingle themselves by the seed of man; but they shall not cohere the one with the other, even as iron is not mixed with clay" (n. 32-34, 41-43).

By the head which was fine gold is meant the first state of the church, when men were in the good of love to the Lord; by the breast and arms, which were silver is meant the second state of the church, when they were in truth from that good. By the belly and thighs which were of brass, the following or third state of the church, when men were no longer in spiritual but in natural good, for brass signifies that good; by the legs which were of iron is meant the fourth state of the church, when there was no longer natural good, but only truth; but by the feet which were of iron and clay is meant the last state of the church, when there are truth and falsity: truth in the Word and falsity in doctrine. When the truths of the Word are falsified, and doctrine is drawn from falsified truth, then the state of the church is part iron and part clay, and thus the kingdom is partly strong and partly broken. The kingdom in this passage denotes the church; therefore the church is also called the kingdom of God. That truths are thus mixed with falsities, but that still they do not cohere, is meant by Whereas thou sawest iron mixed with clay of mire, they shall mingle themselves by the seed of man, but they shall not cohere one with the other, even as iron is not mixed with clay. The seed of man denotes Divine truth which is in the Word. (That this is signified by seed, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 3038, 3337, 10248, 10249; that man signifies the Lord, from whom is the Word and also the church, see n. 768, 4287, 7424, 7523, 8547, 9276.) That potter's clay signifies the falsities that are in the natural man, will be seen presently in the following article, no. 177. By the stone cut out of the rock, which smote the image, upon his feet is meant the Lord by means of Divine truth, and the destruction of falsities not cohering with truths from the Word. (That stone signifies truth, and that the stone of Israel is the Lord as to Divine truth, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8609, 10376; that rock also signifies the n. 8581, 10580, and in the small work, The Last Judgement n. 57.) Because iron signifies truths in the natural man, therefore the feet of the statue were of iron, for feet signify the Natural (as may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952).

[3] Similar things are signified by gold, silver, brass, and iron, in the prophet Isaiah:

"For brass I will bring gold, for iron silver, for wood brass, and for stones iron" (60:17).

For brass to bring gold denotes celestial good for natural good; for iron silver denotes celestial truth for natural truth: for wood brass, and for stones iron denote natural good and truth in such abundance as are wood and stone. The state of the celestial church is here treated of. (That iron signifies truth in the natural man, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 425, 426.)

[4] These things are adduced, in order that it may be known that a rod of iron signifies power, by means of which the Lord chastises the evils and disperses the falsities that are in the natural man. For a rod or staff signifies power, as was said above, and iron signifies truths in the natural man. The reason why the Lord chastises evils and disperses falsities by means of truths in the natural man is, that all evils and the falsities therefrom reside therein, but none in the spiritual or internal man. The internal man does not receive evils and falsities, but is closed against them; and because these all reside in the natural man, therefore they must be chastised and dispersed by the things that are also there, which are truths. Truths in the natural man are scientifics (scientifica) and knowledges cognitiones), from which man can think, reason and conclude naturally concerning the truths and goods of the church, and concerning the falsities and evils which are opposed to them, and thence be in some natural enlightenment when he reads the Word: for the Word in the letter is not intelligible without enlightenment, and this is either spiritual or natural. Spiritual enlightenment is only granted to those who are spiritual, who are those who are in the good of love and of charity, and consequently in truths; but natural enlightenment alone is granted to those who are natural (which may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 153, 425, and n. 140, above). To those also who are spiritual while they live in the world, there is granted enlightenment in the Natural; but this exists from the enlightenment in the Spiritual; for with them the Lord flows in through the spiritual or internal man into the natural or external, and thus enlightens the latter. From this enlightenment man sees what is true and good, and what is false and evil; and when he sees these things, then the Lord disperses the evils and falsities which are in the natural man by means of the truths and goods which are also there, and which make one with the goods and truths in the spiritual or internal man. (Further particulars concerning sciences (scientiis) and knowledges (cognitionibus), and what they effect, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 51, and concerning influx, n. 277, 278.)

[5] From these considerations it may now be seen, what is signified by the rod of iron with which the Lord shall rule the nations, that is, will chastise the evils in the natural man. These things are said to the angel of this church because the subject treated of in what is written to this angel is the internal and external man, and their conjunction. For, when the internal and external, or the Spiritual and Natural are conjoined, then the Lord chastises the evils and falsities that are in the natural man, and this by means of the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth and good. But in the case of those in whom the internal and external man are not conjoined, evils and falsities cannot be chastised and expelled, because they receive nothing through the spiritual man from heaven, but everything they receive is from the world, which their Rational favours, and for which it furnishes confirmations.

Things similar to those here signified by a rod of iron, are also signified in the following passages; as in David:

"Thou shalt bruise" the nations "with a sceptre of iron; as a potter's vessel shalt thou disperse them" (Psalms 2:9).

In Isaiah:

"He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked" (11:4).

In the Apocalypse:

The woman "brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron" (12:5).

Out of the mouth of him that sat upon the white horse "went a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations; for he shall rule them with a rod of iron" (19:15).

And in Micah:

"Arise, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass, and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples" (4:13).

The daughter of Zion is the celestial church; a horn is power in the natural man; hoofs are its ultimates, which are called sensual scientifics (scientifica sensualia); hence it is evident what is signified by making the horn iron, and the hoofs brass. (That the daughter of Zion is the celestial church may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 2362, 9055; that horn denotes the power of truth from good in the natural man, n. 2832, 9081, 9719-9721, 10182, 10186; and that hoofs are the scientifics of the sensual man, which are truths in the ultimate of order, n. 7729.)

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.