圣经文本

 

Ezekiel第31章

学习

   

1 It happened in the eleventh year, in the third [month], in the first [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

2 Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom are you like in your greatness?

3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.

4 The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: its rivers ran all around its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.

5 Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it shot [them] forth.

6 All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches did all the animals of the field bring forth their young; and under its shadow lived all great nations.

7 Thus was it beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.

8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the plane trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.

9 I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.

10 Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;

11 I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness.

12 Strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

13 On his ruin all the birds of the sky shall dwell, and all the animals of the field shall be on his branches;

14 to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, [even] all who drink water: for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.

15 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers; and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.

16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.

17 They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, [that] lived under his shadow in the midst of the nations.

18 To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#9336

学习本章节

  
/10837  
  

9336. 'Little by little I will drive them out from before you' means a removal effected gradually according to order. This is clear from the meaning of 'little by little' as gradually, thus slowly; and from the meaning of 'driving out' - when it has reference to falsities and evils, meant by the nations of the land of Canaan - as a removal, dealt with just above in 9333. The words 'gradually according to order' are used because everything with a person who is being regenerated is rearranged in accordance with heavenly order. For a person who has been regenerated is a miniature heaven, 9276, and therefore also within that person order exists akin to that which obtains in heaven.

[2] When a person is born he is, so far as his hereditary evils are concerned, a miniature hell. He also becomes an embodiment of hell to the extent that he draws on hereditary evils and adds his own to them. This being so, the order of a person's life which exists by reason of what he receives at birth, and by reason of his own acts in life, is the opposite of heavenly order. For what is a person's own leads him to love self more than the Lord and to love the world more than heaven, whereas the life of heaven consists in loving the Lord above all things and the neighbour as oneself. From this it is evident that the first life, which is that of hell, must be completely destroyed, that is, evils and falsities must be removed, in order that the new life, which is that of heaven, may be implanted, see 4551, 4552, 4839, 6068. This cannot possibly be done hurriedly, for every deep-rooted evil, together with its falsities, is interconnected with all other evils and their falsities. Such evils and falsities are countless, and their interconnection is so complex that it cannot be comprehended, not even by angels, only by the Lord. From this it is evident that the life of hell with a person cannot be destroyed suddenly; for if it were destroyed suddenly the person too would perish. Nor can the life of heaven be implanted suddenly, for if this were implanted suddenly the person would again perish.

[3] There are thousands and thousands of hidden ways, scarcely a single one of which is known to mankind, by which the Lord leads a person from the life of hell to the life of heaven. I have been informed from heaven that this is so, and it has also been corroborated for me by many things that I have been made aware of. Since mankind knows scarcely anything at all about these things many have fallen into errors concerning human deliverance from evils and falsities, which is the forgiveness of sins. They think that the life of hell with a person can be changed to the life of heaven with him in an instant, by mercy. But in actual fact mercy lies in the whole act of regeneration; and none undergo regeneration apart from those who receive the Lord's mercy in faith and life while they are in the world, in keeping with the Lord's words in John,

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name, who were born, not of blood 1 , nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man (vir), but of God. John 1:12-13.

What 'blood', 'the will of the flesh', and 'the will of man', also 'born of God' mean, see 5826.

[4] The proper way to understand 'a removal from evils and falsities, effected gradually according to order' must also be stated briefly. Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord's Divine Good arranges all things into order in heaven; consequently this Divine Truth, holding good from the Lord within it, is order itself, see 1728, 1919, 2247, 2258, 5703, 6338, 8700, 8988. In accordance with that order all things there come into being, and in accordance with that same order they remain in being; for remaining in being is a constant coming into being. Therefore to enable heaven to come into being in a person, it is necessary for him to receive Divine Truth in the good he has from the Lord. This can be brought into effect only gradually, according to the order similar to that which governs the way the Lord arranges heaven; for if the essential nature of the thing is the same, then the situation on the smaller scale is the same as on the larger scale. This arranging step-by-step is what should be understood here by order brought into effect gradually. From all this it is also evident that the new creation of a person, which is his regeneration, resembles the creation of heaven and earth. For this reason also in the Word a new heaven and a new earth is used to mean a new Church, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 3355 (end), 4535; and the creation of heaven and earth in the first chapter of Genesis serves to mean the new creation of a celestial Church, called Man, dealt with in the explanations of that chapter.

脚注:

1. literally, bloods

  
/10837  
  

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

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#8700

学习本章节

  
/10837  
  

8700. 'For the task is too heavy for you' means that it is not possible because it does not arise from true order. This is clear from the meaning of 'heavy task' as something not possible. The meaning of 'heavy burden' here as something not possible is clear from what comes before, where it says that he and the people with him would wither away, meaning that the truth which had been implanted was going to perish, and also from what comes after - 'You are not able to do it yourself alone', and later on in verse 23, 'If you do this thing, you are able to stand fast' - by which impossibility if no change takes place is meant.

[2] The reason why it is not possible because it does not arise from true order is that in the next life everything is possible which arises from order, and everything is impossible which does not arise from order. Divine Truth, which emanates from the Lord, is what makes order, indeed is order. Consequently everything that is in keeping with Divine Truth, being in keeping with order, is possible; and everything that is contrary to Divine Truth, being contrary to order, is impossible. Let some examples serve to show plainly that this is so. It is in keeping with order that people who have led good lives will be saved, and those who have led bad ones will be condemned. Therefore it is impossible to send to hell those who have led good lives, or to raise to heaven those who have led bad ones. Consequently it is impossible for those in hell to be brought, by the Lord's pure mercy, out of there into heaven and to be saved. For it is the acceptance of the Lord's mercy when they lived in the world that saves everyone. Those who accept it in the world are open to the Lord's mercy in the next life, for there they have the ability to accept it. Imparting it to others, and doing so at will to all and sundry provided that they possess faith and so believe they have been cleansed from sins, is impossible because it is contrary to true order, that is, contrary to the Divine, who is order.

[3] It is in keeping with order that faith and charity should be implanted in freedom and not under compulsion, and that faith and charity that has been implanted in freedom should remain, but not if implanted under compulsion. The reason for this is that when they are implanted in freedom they are instilled into the person's affection and so into his will, and are accordingly made his own, but not so if they are implanted under compulsion. Consequently it is impossible for a person to be saved unless, having been born in evil, he is left in freedom to do evil or to refrain from it. When with that freedom he refrains of his own accord from evil, an affection for truth and goodness is instilled by the Lord; and this gives him freedom to receive insights belonging to faith and desires belonging to charity; for freedom exists as a result of affection. From this it is evident that it is impossible for a person to be saved under compulsion; were it possible all people in the world would be saved.

[4] It is in keeping with order in the next life for all to be formed into different communities according to the life they acquired in the world, the evil living in association with the evil, and the good with the good. It is not possible therefore for the evil and the good to be together, nor is it possible for the evil to be governed by good; for good and evil are opposites and one destroys the other. From this it is also evident that it is not possible for those in hell to be saved, so that salvation by mercy alone, regardless of the life a person has been leading, is an impossibility. Those who are in hell and suffer torment there attribute the torments there to the Divine. They say that since the Divine is all-powerful He is able, if He is willing, to take their torment away, but that He is not willing, and that for this reason He is responsible for it. For they say that he who is able yet unwilling to take it away is the one who is responsible for it. But it is impossible for such things to be taken away because that is contrary to order. If they were taken away the evil would rise up against the good; they would overpower the angels themselves and destroy heaven. But the Divine desires only what is good, that is to say, the happiness of those who are good, and those torments only because they restrain and at the same time correct the wicked. Since this is the end in view, being the end that Divine Love and Mercy itself has in view, it is not possible for the torments suffered by those in hell to be taken away. From these examples it becomes clear that everything is impossible which is contrary to order, however possible it may seem to be to those unacquainted with the arcana of heaven.

  
/10837  
  

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