IBhayibheli

 

Ezekiel 16

Funda

   

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

2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

3 and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovih* unto Jerusalem; Thy negotiations and thy births are from the land of the Canaanites; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.

4 And as for thy birth, in the day thou wast·​·born thine umbilical·​·cord was not cut·​·off, neither wast thou bathed with water for me to regard; salted thou wast not salted, swaddled thou wast not swaddled.

5 Not an eye spared thee, to do any one of these unto thee, to have pity upon thee; but thou wast cast onto the faces of the field, at the abhorrence of thy soul, in the day that thou wast·​·born.

6 And I passed by thee, and saw thee trodden·​·down in thine own blood, and I said to thee when thou wast in thy bloods*, Live; and, I said to thee when thou wast in thy bloods, Live.

7 As to becoming·​·much, I have put thee as the growth of the field, and thou hast become·​·much and hast grown·​·up, and thou hast come into decorations of decorations; thy breasts are established, and thy hair has grown, and thou wast naked and with nakedness.

8 And I passed by thee, and saw thee, and behold, thy time was the time of loves; and I spread My wing over thee, and covered thy nakedness; and, I promised to thee, and came into a covenant with thee, says the Lord Jehovih, and thou becamest Mine.

9 And I bathed thee with water; and I rinsed thy bloods from on thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

10 And I clothed thee with embroidery, and shod thee with badger skin, and I bound· thee ·up with fine·​·linen, and I covered thee with silk.

11 And I decked thee with decoration, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a necklace upon thy throat.

12 And I put a jewel above thy nose, and earrings on thine ears, and a crown of adornment on thy head.

13 And thou wast decked with gold and silver; and thy clothes were of fine·​·linen, and silk, and embroidery; thou didst eat flour, and honey, and oil; and thou wast· exceedingly ·beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

14 And thy name went·​·out among the nations with thy beauty; for it was all by My honor, which I had set on thee, says the Lord Jehovih.

15 And thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and didst commit·​·harlotry on·​·account·​·of thy name, and didst spill·​·out thy harlotries on all passing·​·by, for him to have.

16 And from thy garments thou didst take, and didst make for thee high·​·places spotted, and didst commit·​·harlotry on them; they shall not come, and it shall not be.

17 And thou hast taken the vessels of thine adornment from My gold and from My silver, which I had given thee, and didst make for thyself images of a male, and didst commit·​·harlotry with them,

18 and didst take thine embroidered garments, and didst cover them; and thou hast put My oil and My incense before them.

19 And My bread which I gave thee, flour, and oil, and honey, I caused thee to eat, and thou hast put it before them for a restful smell; and thus it was, says the Lord Jehovih.

20 And thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, to whom thou hast given·​·birth for Me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy harlotries a·​·little matter,

21 that thou hast slaughtered My sons, and given them to cause them to pass·​·through the fire for them?

22 And with all thine abominations and thy harlotries thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and with nakedness, and wast trodden·​·down in thy blood.

23 And it was after all thine evil; Woe, woe to thee! says the Lord Jehovih.

24 And thou hast built for thyself an arch, and hast made for thyself a high·​·place in every avenue.

25 At the head of every way thou hast built thy high·​·place, and hast made thy beauty to be abominated, and hast opened·​·wide thy feet to all who pass·​·by, and multiplied thy harlotries.

26 And thou hast committed·​·harlotry with the sons of Egypt thy neighbors, great of flesh; and hast multiplied thy harlotries, to provoke Me.

27 And, behold, I have stretched·​·out My hand over thee, and have diminished thy stated food, and given thee into the soul of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed on account of thy way of crime.

28 And thou hast committed·​·harlotry with the sons of Assyria, without satisfying thyself; and thou hast committed·​·harlotry with them, and wast not even satisfied.

29 And thou hast multiplied thy harlotry in the land of Canaan toward Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied by this.

30 How thy heart is languishing, says the Lord Jehovih, in that thou doest all these things, the deed of a domineering woman, a harlot;

31 in that thou buildest thy arch at the head of every way, and makest thy high·​·place on every avenue; and hast not been as a harlot, for thou scoffest·​·at hire;

32 But as the wife that commits·​·adultery, which takes strangers instead of her husband!

33 They give wages to all the harlots; but thou givest thy wages to all thy lovers, and bribest them to come to thee from all around thy harlotry.

34 And in thee in thy harlotries is the contrary of other women, and after thee they commit· not ·harlotry, and in thy giving hire, and no hire is given to thee, and thus thou art contrary.

35 Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah:

36 thus says the Lord Jehovih; Because thy bronze was spilled·​·out, and thy nakedness revealed by thy harlotries with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thine abominations, and by the bloods of thy sons, which thou didst give to them;

37 behold, therefore I will bring·​·together all thy lovers, with whom thou art·​·agreeable, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even bring· them ·together against thee all around, and will reveal thy nakedness unto them, and they shall see all thy nakedness.

38 And I will judge thee, with the judgments on women who commit·​·adultery and shed blood; and I will give thee blood with fury and zeal.

39 And I will give thee into their hand, and they shall break·​·down thine arch, and shall tear·​·down thy high·​·places; and they shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take the vessels of thine adornment, and place thee naked and with nakedness.

40 And they shall bring·​·up an assembly against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.

41 And they shall burn·​·up thy houses with fire, and do judgments in thee to the eyes of many women; and I will cause thee to cease from committing·​·harlotry, and also thou shalt not still give hire.

42 And I will make My fury on thee to rest, and My zeal shall be removed from thee, and I will be·​·quiet, and will be provoked no more.

43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast made Me tremble in all these things; behold, then I also will put thy way upon thy head, says the Lord Jehovih; and thou shalt not do this crime over all thine abominations.

44 Behold, every enunciator shall enunciate against thee, saying, As is her mother, so is her daughter.

45 Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that abhorred her husband and her sons; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which abhorred their men and their sons; your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

46 And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell upon thy left hand; and thy younger sister, that dwells at thy right·​·hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

47 And thou hast not walked in their ways, and done their abominations; but, as though these were little, small, and loathed, thou wast corrupted more·​·than they in all thy ways.

48 As I am alive, says the Lord Jehovih, Sodom thy sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, pride, satiated with bread; and the tranquility of idleness was to her and to her daughters; neither did she make·​·firm the hand of the afflicted and needy.

50 And they were·​·haughty, and did abomination before Me; and I removed them as I saw good.

51 Neither has Samaria sinned half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.

52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own humiliation over thy sins that thou hast made·​·abominable more·​·than they; they are more justified than thou: and, be thou ashamed also, and bear thy humiliation, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.

53 And I shall return their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and I will bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:

54 so·​·that thou mayest bear thine own humiliation, and mayest be humiliated in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.

55 And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their ancient times, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their times before, and thou and thy daughters shall return to your ancient times.

56 And thy sister Sodom was not reported by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,

57 before thine evil was revealed, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are all around her, the daughters of the Philistines, having·​·contempt for thee all around.

58 Thou hast borne thy crimes and thine abominations, says Jehovah.

59 For thus says the Lord Jehovih; And I will do with thee as thou hast done, in that thou hast despised the oath in making· the covenant ·of·​·none·​·effect.

60 But I will remember My covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will raise·​·up unto thee an eternal covenant.

61 And thou shalt remember thy ways, and be humiliated, when thou shalt take thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger; and I will give them to thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.

62 And I will raise·​·up My covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah:

63 so·​·that thou mayest remember, and be·​·ashamed, and there shall not be to thee an open mouth any·​·more on·​·account·​·of thy humiliation, when I have made·​·atonement toward thee for all that thou hast done, says the Lord Jehovih.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

Amazwana

 

Woolen and linen

  

The instruction not to make clothing that mixes 'woolen and linen' threads means, in the internal sense, that people's spiritual states of good and truth should not be mixed up with one another. See the explanation of this in Arcana Coelestia 10669.

This is an interesting rule, because in many places, New Christian doctrine makes it very clear that there needs to be a marriage of good and truth in each of us. And yet, in heaven, there's a spiritual kingdom, and a celestial kingdom. Both are heavenly, but the people's loves in the spiritual kingdom are different than those of people in the celestial kingdom. They have different approaches to life, and that's by design, and the distinction is useful.

(Izinkomba: Deuteronomy 22:11)

Okususelwe Emisebenzini kaSwedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #10669

Funda lesi Sigaba

  
Yiya esigabeni / 10837  
  

10669. 'In ploughing and harvesting you shall rest' means so far as the implanting of truth in good and the reception of that truth are concerned. This is clear from the meaning of 'ploughing' as the implanting of truth in good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'harvesting' as the reception of truth in good. 'Harvesting' has this meaning because 'standing grain' means truth in the process of being conceived, 9146, and 'an ear' means truth, the container [of good], while 'wheat' or 'barley' in the ear means good, receiving and also received by [truth]. What should be understood at present however is that human labour involved in this kind of harvesting will cease, since it says, 'In ploughing and harvesting you shall rest'. For by 'rest' on the sabbath day the second state of regeneration is meant, when a person experiences peace, abides in heaven, and is led by the Lord, at which stage those things are brought about without labour or effort on man's part.

'Harvest' means the reception of truth by good, see 9295.

'The sabbath' means a state of peace, when a person is led by the Lord, in the places referred to in 10668.

[2] The reason why 'ploughing' means the implanting of truth in good is that the Church in respect of good, thus also the Church's good, is meant by 'the field', and the truth of faith by 'the seed' that is sown in it.

'The field' means the Church in respect of good, see 2971, 3196, 3310, 3317, 7502, 9139, 9141, 9295.

'Seed' means the truth of faith, 1940, 3310, 3373, 3671, 6158.

[3] Reference is made very many times in the Word to earth or land, ground, field, seedtime, harvest, standing grain, threshing-floor, grain, wheat, and barley; and in those places they mean the kinds of things that are involved in the establishment of the Church and that are involved in the regeneration of a person who is in the Church, thus the kinds of things that are connected with the truth of faith and the good of love which constitute the Church. The reason why those kinds of things are meant lies in correspondence; for all things on this planet, including those in its vegetable kingdom, correspond to spiritual realities that exist in heaven, as is plainly evident from the things which appear there. For in heaven newly ploughed fields, open ones, gardens of flowers, fields ready to be harvested, land planted with trees, and similar things such as exist on earth are seen; and it is well known to those who are there that the realities composing heaven, thus those composing the Church, are what appear before their eyes in this kind of way.

[4] A person reading the Word thinks that such things there are no more than metaphors. But they should be seen to be real correspondences, as with the following in Isaiah,

Listen and hear my voice. Is it all day that the ploughman will plough to sow? That he will open and harrow his ground? When he has levelled its surface 1 does he not scatter the black cummin and sow the cummin? So [the reaper] stores away the measured wheat, the designated barley, and his appointed spelt. So He trains him for judgement, his God teaches him. Isaiah 28:23-26.

These things look like metaphors, but they are real correspondences, which serve to describe the reformation and regeneration of a member of the Church; and this is why it goes on to say, 'So He trains him for judgement, his God teaches him'. 'Training him for judgement' means endowing him with intelligence, for 'judgement' means an intelligent understanding of truth, 2235, and 'teaching him', when done by God, means endowing him with wisdom. From this it may be seen what 'ploughing', 'harrowing', 'scattering the black cummin', 'sowing the cummin', and 'storing away wheat, barley, and spelt' mean, namely this: 'Ploughing' means implanting truth in good; 'harrowing' setting those things in order; 'black cummin' and 'cummin' factual knowledge, this being what a person acquires first, in order that he may receive intelligence; 'wheat' the good of love in the internal man, see 3941, 7605; 'barley' the good of love in the external man, 7602; and 'spelt' the truth which goes with that good, 7605.

[5] Correspondence, not the use of metaphor, gives 'ploughing' its meaning as the first phase of the Church in general and also in particular with each person who is being regenerated or becoming an embodiment of the Church, as is evident from the following words in Moses,

You shall not sow your vineyard with mixed seed. You shall not plough with an ox and an ass together. You shall not wear a garment made of wool and flax mixed together 2 . Deuteronomy 22:9-11.

These words imply that states of goodness and truth are not to be mixed up one with another. For 'vineyard' means the Church in respect of truth, whereas 'field' means the Church in respect of good. 'Ploughing with an ox' means making ready by means of good, 'ploughing with an ass' doing so by means of truth; and 'wool' too means good, whereas 'flax' means truth. The situation is this: Those in the Lord's celestial kingdom live in a state of good, whereas those in His spiritual kingdom live in a state of truth; those who live in one state cannot do so in the other. Can anyone fail to see that those words serve to mean a higher level of things? If they did not do so what harm would there be in sowing a vineyard with mixed seed, ploughing with an ox and ass together, or wearing a garment made of wool and flax mixed together?

Imibhalo yaphansi:

1. literally, the face of it

2. literally, a garment mixed, with wool and flax together

  
Yiya esigabeni / 10837  
  

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