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Ezekiel第23章

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1 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother.

3 And they committed whoredom in Egypt; they committed whoredom in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there were handled the teats of their virginity.

4 And their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister; and they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names: Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

5 And Oholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians [her] neighbours,

6 clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them attractive young men, horsemen riding upon horses.

7 And she bestowed her whoredoms upon them, all of them the choice of the children of Asshur; and with all after whom she lusted, with all their idols she defiled herself.

8 Neither left she her whoredoms [brought] from Egypt; for in her youth they had lain with her, and had handled the breasts of her virginity, and poured their fornication upon her.

9 Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the children of Asshur, after whom she lusted.

10 These discovered her nakedness, they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword; and she became a name among women; and they executed judgment upon her.

11 And her sister Oholibah saw [this], and was more corrupt in her passion than she, and in her fornications more than the whoredoms of her sister.

12 She lusted after the children of Asshur [her] neighbours, governors and rulers, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them attractive young men.

13 And I saw that she was defiled: both took one way.

14 And she increased her fornications; for she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

15 girded with girdles upon their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them captains in appearance, [after] the likeness of the children of Babylon, of Chaldea, the land of their nativity.

16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she lusted after them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

17 And the children of Babylon came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their fornication; she too defiled herself with them, and her soul was alienated from them.

18 And she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness; and my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister.

19 Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she played the harlot in the land of Egypt;

20 and she lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is [as] the flesh of asses, and whose issue is [as] the issue of horses.

21 And thou didst look back to the lewdness of thy youth, in the handling of thy teats by the Egyptians, for the breasts of thy youth.

22 Therefore, Oholibah, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy soul is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side.

23 The children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all the children of Asshur with them; all of them attractive young men, governors and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.

24 And they shall come against thee [with] armour, chariots and wheels, and with an assemblage of peoples; they shall set themselves against thee [with] target, and shield, and helmet round about; and I will put judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.

25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall cut off thy nose and thine ears, and thy remnant shall fall by the sword; they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.

26 They shall also strip the of thy garments, and take away thy fair jewels.

27 And I will make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom [brought] from the land of Egypt; and thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

28 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will give thee over into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy soul is alienated.

29 And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare; so that the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy fornications.

30 These things shall be done unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the nations, because thou hast defiled thyself with their idols.

31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; and I have given her cup into thy hand.

32 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and large; thou shalt be for a laughing-stock and a derision, [for] it containeth much.

33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, the cup of thy sister Samaria;

34 thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt gnaw the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken [it], saith the Lord Jehovah.

35 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy fornications.

36 And Jehovah said unto me, Son of man, wilt thou judge Oholah and Oholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations.

37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also passed over unto them their children, whom they bore unto me, to be devoured.

38 Moreover this have they done unto me: in the same day have they defiled my sanctuary and profaned my sabbaths.

39 For when they had slaughtered their children unto their idols, they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, thus have they done in the midst of my house.

40 And furthermore, they sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thine eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments;

41 and satest upon a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hadst set mine incense and mine oil.

42 And the voice of a multitude living carelessly was with her; and with people of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, and they put bracelets upon their hands, and a beautiful crown upon their heads.

43 And I said of her that was old in adulteries, Will she now commit her fornications, even she.

44 And they went in unto her, as they go in unto a whorish woman: so went they in unto Oholah and unto Oholibah the lewd women.

45 And righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women that shed blood; for they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

46 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will bring up an assemblage against them, and will give them to be driven hither and thither and spoiled.

47 And the assemblage shall stone them with stones, and despatch them with their swords; they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire.

48 And I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, and all women shall receive instruction and shall not do according to your lewdness.

49 And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols; and ye shall know that I [am] the Lord Jehovah.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

The White Horse - Appendix#1

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1. APPENDIX to THE WHITE HORSE 1

Since today it must inevitably appear strange that a horse means the understanding of truth, and in a contrary sense, reasonings coming as it were from the understanding which confirm falsehood, I should like to quote more passages still from the Word where the horse is mentioned. Let these suffice:

Is Thine indignation against the sea, O Jehovah, when Thou dost ride upon Thy horses! Thy chariots are salvation. Thou didst trample the sea with Thy horses, the surging of the waters, Habakkuk 3:8, 15.

The hoofs of Jehovah's horses are reckoned as flint, Isaiah 5:28.

At Thy rebuke both chariot and horse lay stunned, Psalm 76:5-6.

I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will overthrow the chariot and those that ride in it, and the horses and their horsemen shall go down, Haggai 2:22.

I will cut off the horse from Jerusalem: he shall speak peace to the nations, Zechariah 9:10.

In these places the Church's understanding of truth is meant by the horse, and doctrine derived from it by the chariot; and those who are able to understand and learn from the Word are meant by riders and horsemen. The matter is plainer still from these places:

Gather yourselves from all around to My sacrifice; you shall be satisfied at My table with horse and chariot. So I will set My glory among the nations, Ezekiel 39:17, 20-21.

Gather yourselves to the great supper of God, and you shall eat the flesh of horses and of those seated on them, Revelation 19:17-18.

The subject here is the New Church that is to be established by the Lord. At that time the understanding of the Word will be opened and from it men will be taught the doctrine of truth. What else would the statements that they were to be filled at the Lord's table with horse and chariot, and that they were to eat the flesh of horses and of those seated on them, be but utter absurdities! In addition to the examples already brought forward, the meaning of horse and chariot is obvious from these places:

Gird on Thy sword, O Mighty One! Mount, and ride on the Word of truth, Psalm 45:3-4.

Sing, lift up a song to Him Who rides upon the clouds, Psalm 68:4.

Jehovah comes riding upon a cloud, Isaiah 19:1.

Sing to the Lord Who is riding on the highest heaven of old, Psalm 68:33-34.

God rode on a cherub, Psalm 18:10.

Then you shall take delight in Jehovah, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth, Isaiah 58:14; Deuteronomy 32:13.

I will make Ephraim ride, Hosea 10:11.

By riding in these passages is meant teaching and being taught the truths of doctrine, and thus being wise. By the heights of the earth are meant the summits of the Church, and by Ephraim also the understanding of the Word. Like matters are meant by horses and chariots, by the four chariots coming out between the mountains of bronze, and by the four horses harnessed to them, which were red, black, white, and dappled grey, and which are also called spirits and are said to have gone forth from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole earth, Zechariah 6:1-8, 15.

Things of a similar nature are meant by these words as well:

When the Lamb opened the seals of the book horses went out in order, first a white horse, second a red horse, third a black horse, and fourth a pale horse, Revelation 6:1-8.

It is obvious that by the book whose seals the Lamb opened the Word is meant, out of which nothing else could come except the understanding of it. What other meaning could horses coming out of an opened book have!

It is clear that a horse means the understanding of truth and a chariot doctrine from the same words when they are used in a contrary sense. A horse then means the understanding falsifying truths by means of mere reasonings, and a chariot consequent doctrine, that is, heresy, as in the following places:

Woe to those who go down into Egypt for help and rely on horses and do not look to the Holy One of Israel! For Egypt is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not spirit, Isaiah 31:1, 3.

You shall set over Israel a king whom Jehovah shall choose, only let him not multiply horses for himself nor lead the people back into Egypt to multiply horses, Deuteronomy 17:14-16.

These matters have been stated because by Egypt is meant the natural man, who corrupts the truths of the Word by mere reasonings from the physical senses. What else could the horses of Egypt being flesh and not spirit, and the king not having to multiply horses, that is, falsehoods that have to do with religion, mean?

Assyria will not save us, we will not ride upon a horse, Hosea 14:3.

Some boast of the chariot and others of horses but we will boast of the name of our God, Psalm 20:7-8.

A horse is a vain thing for safety, Psalm 33:17.

The Holy One of Israel said, In trust shall be your strength. But you said, No. We will flee on a horse, we will ride on a swift one, Isaiah 30:15-16.

Jehovah will set Judah like a glorious horse; they shall put to shame those riding on horses, Zechariah 10:3-5.

I will bring against Tyre the king of Babylon, with horse and with chariot, and with horsemen. Their horses shall be so many that their dust will cover you, and the noise of horse and chariot so much that your walls will be shaken. With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets, Ezekiel 26:7-11.

By Tyre in the Word is meant the Church as regards its cognitions of good and truth, and by the king of Babylon the falsification and profanation of them. Hence it says here that he will come with horse and chariot and horsemen, and that the horses will be so many that their dust will cover him. Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies, with whinnying horse and bounding chariot, Nahum 3:1-4.

By the bloody city is meant doctrine derived from truths of the Word that have been falsified. And in other places as well, such as Isaiah 5:26, 28; Jeremiah 6:23, 8:16, 46:4, 9, 50:37-38, 42; Ezekiel 17:15, 23:6, 20; Habakkuk 1:6, 8-10; Psalms 66:11-12, 147:10. A falsified and ruined understanding of truth that is in the Word is also meant by the red, black, and pale horses of Revelation 6:4-5, 8. Since therefore a horse means an understanding of truth, and in a contrary sense, an understanding of falsehood, it is clear what the Word is like in its spiritual sense.

It is well known that hieroglyphics existed in Egypt and that these were inscribed on columns and temple walls, etc., and that nobody knows nowadays what they meant. They were nothing else but correspondences of natural and spiritual things, to which the Egyptians applied themselves more than any other peoples of their own times in Asia, and it was according to these correspondences that the ancient Greeks composed their fables. The most ancient style was nothing else but this. To all these matters let me add one that is new: All things that manifest themselves in the spiritual world to angels and spirits are without exception correspondences, and for that very reason the whole of the Sacred Scripture has been written by means of correspondences [in the margin: in order that by means of it, as this is the nature of it, men of the Church would be conjoined with angels of heaven]. But because the Egyptians, and others with them in the kingdoms of Asia, began to turn those correspondences into forms of idolatry which the children of Israel tended to favour, the latter were forbidden to call them back into any use at all, as is quite plain from the first of the Ten Commandments where these words appear:

You shall not make for yourself any carved image which is in the heavens above or which is on the earth beneath or which is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I am Jehovah your God, Deuteronomy 5:8-9.

And there are many more examples elsewhere. From that time on the knowledge of correspondences was blotted out. This happened by stages, in so much that nowadays its existence in the past is almost unknown, or that there is such a thing. Now however because a New Church is to be established by the Lord, one that is to be based on the Word, and which is understood by the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, the Lord has been pleased to reveal that knowledge, and so to open up the Word to show what it is like inside in its inmost parts, that is, to show what it is in the spiritual sense. This has been done by means of myself in ARCANA COELESTIA, published in London, and afterwards in APOCALYPSE REVEALED, published in Amsterdam. Since for men of early times that knowledge was the greatest knowledge of all, and from it came their wisdom, it is important that some member of your academy should devote his labours to that knowledge, which can be done chiefly from the correspondences disclosed in APOCALYPSE REVEALED and proved from the Word. If there is a demand for it I am willing to unravel the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which are nothing else but correspondences, and have the matter published. Nobody else can do it.

Em. Swedenborg

脚注:

1. [NCBSP Editor's note: This very brief work of Swedenborg's, which may have been a draft of a letter, was not published by him. It is an appendix to "The White Horse", which Swedenborg had published in 1758. Here's a link to that work: The White Horse 1.

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