IBhayibheli

 

Ezekiel 19

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1 Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

2 And say, What is thy mother: A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

3 And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.

4 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains to the land of Egypt.

5 Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.

6 And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.

7 And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fullness of it, by the noise of his roaring.

8 Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.

9 And they put him in custody in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

10 Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

11 And she had strong rods for the scepters of them that bore rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her hight with the multitude of her branches.

12 But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.

13 And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.

14 And fire hath gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

   

Okususelwe Emisebenzini kaSwedenborg

 

Apocalypse Revealed #400

Funda lesi Sigaba

  
Yiya esigabeni / 962  
  

400. And they were cast down to the earth, and a third of the trees were burned up. This symbolically means that in people concerned with the internal elements of the church and caught up in faith alone, all affection for truth and perception of truth, which make a person a person of the church, had perished.

To be shown that the earth to which the hail and fire mingled with blood were cast down symbolizes the church among people concerned with its internal elements and caught up in faith alone, and that these are the clergy, see no. 398 above. A third part symbolizes everything in relation to truth, as a fourth part symbolizes everything in relation to goodness (no. 322). That the number three symbolizes all, completeness, and totally, will be seen in no. 505 below. A third part or a third consequently has the same symbolism.

To be burned up means, symbolically, to perish - in this case to perish by falsity springing from a hellish love, which is what is meant by hail and fire mingled with blood, as just explained in no. 399 above.

A tree symbolizes a person. And because a person is human by virtue of the affection of his will and the perception of his intellect, these also are therefore symbolized by a tree.

There is as well a correspondence between a person and a tree. Consequently in heaven one sees paradisal parks formed of trees that correspond to the affections and resulting perceptions of angels. And elsewhere, in hell, there are forests formed of trees that bear harmful fruit, in accordance with their correspondence to the lusts and resulting thoughts of the inhabitants there.

That trees in general symbolize people in respect to their affections and consequently perceptions can be seen from the following passages:

All the trees of the field shall know that I, Jehovah, bring low the tall tree and raise up the low tree, and dry up the green tree and make the dry tree burgeon. (Ezekiel 17:24)

Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah... He shall be like a tree planted by the waters... Nor will He cease from bearing fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Blessed is the man...(whose) delight is in the law... He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season... (Psalms 1:1-3)

Praise Jehovah... you fruitful trees... (Psalms 148:7-9)

Satiated are the trees of Jehovah... (Psalms 104:16)

...the ax is laid to the root of the tree... ...every tree which does not bear good fruit will be cut down... (Matthew 3:10; cf. 7:16-20)

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten; for a tree is known by its fruit. (Matthew 12:33, cf. Luke 6:43-44)

...I will kindle a fire..., (which) shall devour every green tree and every dry tree... (Ezekiel 20:47)

Since a tree symbolizes a person, therefore it was a statute that the fruit of a tree serving for food in the land of Canaan be uncircumcised (Leviticus 19:23-25). Furthermore, that when the people besieged a city, they not take an axe to any tree bearing good fruit (Deuteronomy 20:19-20). And still other regulations, which we do not cite here owing to their number.

  
Yiya esigabeni / 962  
  

Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

IBhayibheli

 

Amos 9:10

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10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, The evil shall not overtake nor fall upon us.