JOEL 1
Other translations - next - Joel - BM Home - Full PageCHAPTER I.
the word.
1. The Word of JEHOVAH which was to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Apart from the spiritual sense of these words, no one could know the profound principle embosomed in and enunciated through their literal form. Attention to the apparently unimportant members of the sentence will furnish us with the key to their mystery and teaching: for the least forms of the Divine Word enfold arcana of Heaven. However, let each word be considered in its order.
It is interesting to notice the peculiar meaning of the term Word in the Hebrew tongue. Like the equivalent term used in the New Testament, the original of 'word' is formed from a verb whose primary meaning is, to range in order. So that the related noun has respect to an ordering or regulation. Hence we observe that the ten commandments are, in the original, called 'the ten words,' or orders (Exod 34:28). That is to say, the commandments of God are the laws of Divine Order promulgated for the right and orderly conduct of human life. As the principles of conduct set forth in the Sacred Scriptures have for their end an orderly regulation of human life according to the laws of Divine truth, the Scriptures are called 'the Word of God.' Such principles are the laws derived from Divine Life, and are therefore potent to reform the world. Still, it will thence appear that the Word, or expression of order according to the Divine Mind, is the revelation of the laws by which the Divine is Itself ordered. All order originates in the Divine Mind: because the Divine is Order itself, and is governed by Its own laws. Thus the Divine Word in its supreme aspect is the Law of Divine Life, and to men, the revelation of the very Divine.
The signification of Word, then, it is not difficult to apprehend, is the Divine truth and its revelation: for it is Divine truth which regulates supreme order. Thus the Lord Who declared Himself to be 'the Truth' (John 14:6), is also described as the Word which was God (John 1:1). And as all things came into existence through the Word, we read that "the Word of Jehovah is upright, and His every deed is in truth. In the Word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all their host in the spirit of His mouth" (Psalm xxxiii. 4, 6); also that "the beginning of the Lord's Word is truth" (Psalm 119:160).
To this signification much is added by its association with the Divine name—Jehovah. The vowels of this name have given occasion for much discussion, into which it is unnecessary to enter here. It is probably sufficient to accept the usual explanation—namely, that the name is formed from three parts of the verb to be, and seems to denote Who is, He was, and He will be: the same in fact described by John in Rev 1:8: "Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come,"—that is the Lord, Jesus Christ. Indeed, and this is generally agreed, the name describes the Eternal, the I AM of Exod 3:14 and John 8:58. Thus we are enabled to see that the Word of Jehovah is the Eternal Law—the Order of the Everlasting God.
The laws by which human conduct must be guided and heavenly life determined are unchangeable: they belong to the very Essence of God Himself. These laws have neither been evolved nor newly made; they are now newly made known, but they are in themselves eternal—of God's own nature. From time to time they have been made known to man according to his changing states and spiritual needs; but their intrinsic nature is not altered thereby.
Again, it should be observed that the Lord is eternal in the nature of His own Essential Being—the Divine Esse, the i am: and, that His Inmost Being is Divine Love. For this reason, when the Lord is referred to particularly in relation to the Divine Love, He is named, in the Old Testament, Jehovah. In like manner, when the Lord is referred to as the Divine Wisdom, He is named God (Elohim). So that when good is being spoken of, the name Jehovah (implying the Essential Divine Love) is used, but when truth is the subject, the name God (implying the Existent Divine Wisdom) is used of the Lord. Therefore we remark further, that the Word of Jehovah is the orderly expression of the Divine Love. It is too often forgotten, that the laws for the guidance of man's life on earth, and which are also the laws of angelic life, while they are unchangeable degrees of Truth, are at the same time the precepts and embodiments of Eternal Love.
Hence it is manifest, that the Word of Jehovah signifies the revelation from the Divine Love of every truth necessary for the preservation of man from evil and falsity, and which is moreover needful for his reformation, regeneration, and eternal life in Heaven.
This, then, is the revelation as given from God to man: How is it received by man? We have the answer in the latter words of the verse. We learn in AC 4987, that a change which is deserving of special remark is pointed out in the Sacred Scriptures by the occurrence of the verb to be. Such a notable change of state in regard to the Word of Jehovah is indicated, therefore, in the present case. The particle to should be noticed also, inasmuch as it appears to denote an accordance formed between the members of the sentence in which it stands, or more strictly an accommodation of the one to the other. Whatever, therefore, Joel the son of Pethuel may signify, it is the state to which the revelation from God is accommodated, and to which it is changed in the minds of those receiving it. Thus the revelation, in conformity with the principle, that whatever is received by man from the Lord is modified by the recipient, is adapted to and moulded by the state represented by the prophet.
Before enquiring as to the special signification of the name Joel, it will help the understanding most if we consider here the suggestion of the prophet's office. The prophets, or, "speakers for" God, represented the Divine truth of the Word as taught and received among the members of the Church in which they prophesied. "By the prophets is signified the doctrine of the truth which is through the Word from the Lord" (AC 9229). Hence the prophets represented also the Word (AC 9954); or, what is the same thing, the prophets, their demeanour, and actions, were visible symbols and signs of the treatment bestowed upon the Divine Word by the Church in which they taught. This is fully set forth in TCR 130 and SS 35. It must not be supposed, however, that there is any implication here, that the prophets themselves perceived the supernal significance of the words dictated to them and uttered by them. They did not (AE 624). Though the words were from Jehovah (D. L. 52), they were not received by the prophets from Him immediately (AC 7055, 7268; HH 254). So that the prophets uttered inward spiritual truths in external forms adapted to the state of the Church in which they fulfilled their duties, without any perception of the inward truths at all. This is taught in Matthew 1:22 and 2:15: "What was spoken by the Lord through the prophet." The case seems to be, that the words were dictated to the inward ear of the prophets by spirits filled with the presence of the Divine Mind. Thus the truths were made known to the prophets intermediately. Doubtless the spirits employed would be such as were in accordance with the prophets' interiors, and hence the Word of Jehovah, or revelation of the Divine Mind, would be adapted to the state of man, for whom the revelation was designed. To unfold the internal meaning of the words so imparted has been left for the present age; but it will be seen plainly that the prophets were, for the time being, living representations of the reception accorded to the Divine Word, and the truths thence derived by the Jewish Church. On this account the Lord Himself, Who was the Word made flesh, dwelling among us (John 1:14), was also called The Prophet (John 7:40), and as such suffered rejection, denial, and crucifixion, at the hands of the Jewish people. Joel, then, in his function as a prophet similarly represents the manner in which the Divine Word was received and treated by the Church of Judah.
To what has been advanced in the Introduction regarding the prophet's place in history and among the prophets, some definiteness may be added as to his personal signification by examining his name: for names were given according to those things which were signified (AC 144). Moreover, a name contained the quality of state implied by the person bearing it (AC 4197). Thus we hope to obtain some idea of the state to which the revelation from the Lord was changed in the Jewish Church, and which state was represented by the prophet Joel. The precise nature of the change implied by Joel the son of Pethuel, in the absence of explicit teaching from Swedenborg, we cannot pronounce upon. But taking into view the whole purport of the prophecy we may with sufficient accuracy judge, from analysis and examination of the two names given, that it was perversion.
The name Jôël appears to be formed from jo, the usual abbreviation of jehô (meaning, he shall be), which is the former part of the name Jehovah, and El. Thus the name would either mean, He (i.e., the Lord) shall be El, or more probably, Jehovah is El. The meaning and signification of Jehovah is discussed above, where it is noted that the name is used with a definite intention wherever in the Scriptures it occurs.
El means, literally, a strong one—as in Ezekiel 31:11, where it is probably the king of Babylon who is referred to as "the strong one of the nations." The name was, however, used as the Divine title equal to "God" by several nations surrounding Judah and Israel. Il, the supreme divinity of the Phoenicians (identified by the Greeks with Kronos, and by the Romans with Saturn) is a form of El. Ilu is similarly employed by the Assyrians and Babylonians. Ilâh is the old Arabic of the same word, whence Al-Ilah or Allah, the God, appears in the Koran. Again the term enters into the composition of some ancient names of places—as Babel: in Chaldean, Babil (the Gate of Il), and Bethel (the House of El). So too, Melchizedek, who was a native of Canaan before the Israelites possessed it, is described as a "priest of the most high El" (Gen 14:18). In agreement with the teaching of these facts—namely the use of El for God among the surrounding heathens—the term is sometimes employed for false gods—as in Exod 15:11 and 34:14; also in later books, as a general equivalent for idols—as in Isaiah 44:15, 17; 46:6; 57:5; and Malachi 2:11. Nevertheless the term is often used when the Lord Himself is meant. That is to say, by the Divine Mercy of the Lord this title was applied to Him in accordance with a law of His Providence which works to lead all men, in the way which their states will permit, to the only Lord of Heaven and earth. The reason of this permission is, that the Lord will only remove a false indoctrination gradually: for to remove it suddenly would be to destroy the ground of reverence and truth (see AC 1992). Thus to Abraham (who, as a Chaldean, knew God as "El"), and Isaac and Jacob the Lord appeared in "El Shaddai"; but His name Jehovah was not known to them (Exod 6:3).
Joel—Jehovah is El—therefore, while it may have a more exalted import involved in its parts when perceived in more supernal realms (for it embosoms a revelation for all worlds), may yet be said to imply in the present connection, that Jehovah was regarded in the Jewish Church as no better than an idol or heathen god. A conclusion which history justifies.
It is quite true that El is used to denote the Divine Spiritual of the Lord, or truth in the will and in the act (AC 4402), but the context and subsequent prophecy, of whose character the present verse is a brief statement, lead us to see that here the term points to the Divine Spiritual falsified. Therefore we conclude, that the name being a heathen title for God, in the present connection, a certain estrangement of the essentially Divine One, whose Heart is Love, is indicated by Joel. And this conclusion is supported by the fact, that those who bring about the evil described in this book are called "aliens" and "the nations from around."
By the prophet being styled the son of Pethuel it is clear we are directed to the state whence this degenerate regard for Jehovah originated. Son signifies a state of truth derived from the interior state of good, or in other words, a principle of faith begotten of the condition of soul existent in the people of the Church. The term is principally applied to truth as derived from good; or, in its reverse sense, falsity as derived from evil. When it is observed that truth is begotten of good, as effect is produced by cause, and that every cause begets the form of its own effect, the general principle of this signification will appear. Thus the Divine Good is called in the New Testament "the Father," and the Divine Truth, "the Son." So the prophets, as teachers of God's Truth, and representatives of it, were denominated sons of man. The sons of Israel likewise were representatives of the truths of faith constituting the Church. We have, however, an instance of the opposite meaning when the Lord spoke to those who were characterised by falsity from evil affection, saying, "You are out of your father the devil... he stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks out of his own: because he is false and the father of it. And because I say the truth, you believe Me not" (John 8:44, 45).
The name Pethuel is derived from path^u, which means "induced," and El. To induce signifies, in its bad sense, to entice, or beget a deceptive infatuation. Thus in Deut 11:16, "Take heed to yourselves lest your heart shall induce, and you depart and serve other gods, and prostrate yourselves to them." Pethuel therefore represents the infatuation arising from the influence, upon the Jewish Church, of the surrounding idolatrous worshipers. With this signification that of Bethuel may be compared (AC 3665). It may also be remarked, that the Septuagint version states that Joel was the son of Bethuel, instead of, Pethuel; but that is a manifest error.
We may regard, therefore, Joel the son of Pethuel as indicating the inroads of idolatrous practices from the outer nations, and their effect upon the reception of the Word of Jehovah in the Jewish Church—namely, that the laws of Divine truth, revealed from the Heart of the Lord for the exaltation of human life and the salvation from sin, were perverted by that Church to the level of the vile and degrading superstitions of the heathen worshipers around them. This is the summary of the prophecy following—a statement in brief of the prophet's message: the title and preface of his book; pointing to the results of violating the First Commandment.
Internal Sense. The revelation of the Lord's truth from His Essential Divine Love for the good of man as perverted, in accordance with the false worship of Him derived from the enticements of idolatrous associations.
obedience.
2. Hear this, you elders, and cause all the inhabitants of the earth to listen. Was [ever] this in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
The object of Divine revelation is not simply to make truth known, but rather to evoke the good life of man. The Church of the Lord is not established by the knowledge of truth: the truths of God must be perceived, and from such perception become vital by obedience. Therefore the prophet's message opens by exhorting the Church to obey the Divine precepts of life, and by contrast with its condition— briefly indicated in the second part of the verse—to enforce that exhortation. The exhortation commences, hear this, you elders, that is, hear the Word of Jehovah.
To hear signifies to perceive internally, and thence desire to be obedient. This signification will plainly appear from the words of Genesis 42:22, "And Reuben answered them, saying, Said I not to you as follows, Do not sin against the boy? And you would not hear: therefore, behold, also his blood is required." Also in Judges 11:17: "Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Let me, pray, pass through your land; but the king of Edom would not hear. And in like manner they sent to the king of Moab: and he was not willing." The prophet calls attention to that which he is about to relate and the obedience entailed by the Divine Word in the words hear you this—especially pointing to the subject of the 4th verse. This is a term which appears to have reference to affection, and is probably for that reason used between hear and elders. It would therefore seem to be a medium conjoining wisdom and obedience, as perceived by angelic intelligence, but upon that we cannot speak with certainty. But that to hear this is to perceive internally and obey from the heart the laws of life, because they make for righteousness, cannot be questioned: for the reference is to the Word of Jehovah given to Joel.
Among the sons of Israel, the elders, as being the wise men, represent the principles of wisdom in the Church. Thus we read in Psalm 119:100: "From elders I am intelligent, because I observe Your precepts." Also in Job 12:12: "In the aged ones is wisdom: and length of days is understanding." And because old age was synonymous with wisdom, the law provided and said, "You shall rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of an elder" (Levit 19:32). Again when Jeremiah is announcing, that the principles of goodness and wisdom from the Lord had been destroyed in a degraded community, he says, "My priests and my elders expired in the city" (Lam 1:19).
Wisdom is not learning, nor is it intelligence alone: it is
rather intelligent goodness of mind. Thus, w
Perception and obedience such as were just referred to are more of the will than the understanding, and being thus of a more interior order are fittingly mentioned first: for from there must emerge any external obedience required. While the elders as persons would be required to obey externally the commandments of the Lord, yet they represented that internal obedience which precedes, and does not itself appear as, external action: being rather the inward cause and impulse of such action. Obedience of an external order is nevertheless required to bring the externals of the Church into conformity and harmony with its internal wisdom, and so is also represented. If the truths of Divine Wisdom are to be of any useful service to man, they must be brought down into practice—into external obedience. This truth is indicated by the words, Hear this, you elders, and cause all the inhabitants of the earth to listen. If there be an internal obedience to Divine Law, an external life in correspondence will inevitably follow. In a well ordered community, whither the wise men lead from, the desire for general good, thither will the rest be led.
Accordingly, the same meaning that was observed in to hear, though of a more external order (applicable, too, to the more external plane of mind), appears in the word to listen. While the latter signifies perception and obedience in the internal man, the former relates to obedience from there in the external man. Thus the internal and external are brought into harmony and uniformity. The signification of to listen may be illustrated from the following passages of Scripture:— "Cause to listen, O you heavens, and I will speak: and you shall hear, O earth, the words of My mouth" (Deut 32:1); "Hear, O heavens, and cause you, O earth, to listen: for Jehovah has spoken" (Isaiah 1:2); "Cause to listen, O My people, to My law: incline your ears to the sayings of My mouth" (Psalm lxxviii. i). Hence it will appear, that to listen signifies, from internal understanding to obey in the external will and act. Thus the difference in spiritual significance existing between to hear and to listen appears to be, that the former implies an obedience arising in the internal will and executed in the internal understanding, whereas the latter implies an obedience caused from the internal understanding and executed in the external will.
This signification is enforced by the terms in connection with which to listen is used. All the inhabitants of the earth denotes every good dwelling in the truth of the external mind, even to the last. Herein the earth, being the complement of the heavens, as may be seen in the passages cited above, signifies the external of the spiritual man, especially in regard to the will. The term is thence applied to the external Church as existing among men. Thus, the Lord, in the Word, calls His external Church His earth. See several places in this prophecy—1:6; 2:18; 3:2. Again, the inhabitants of the Lord's external Church are the affections of spiritual good dwelling in truth, as will be seen from the nature of the case and confirmed by the following words of Scripture. The Lord is described as "the inhabitant of the praises of Israel" (Psalm 22:3), because He is pre-eminently the Good that dwells in Truth. "The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved" (Psalm 75:3), when no such natural dissolution had taken place, but rather the degradation of the Lord's external Church, and the goods dwelling in truth had been perverted into the evils dwelling in falsity. It may be remarked also, that the inhabitants of the earth is often used in association with the elders as, together, describing the sum of the Church. Thus, in this prophecy, at 1:14 as well as the present instance. The term all is used because it denotes every spiritual matter of which it is predicated, even to the last. The partial obedience of the Divine laws is not sufficient to form the character designed for man by the Divine Will. Arising in the internal man, there must descend into every affection of the external man an obedience to the laws of life which can alone unify and regenerate the spirit. The words thus far considered therefore imply a life of external obedience in all respects to God's Will as the issue and effect of inward wisdom and desire for good.
In their application to the Church, the significance of these words is manifest. There are those remaining (and these the prophet evokes) who retain the principles of wisdom, and there are those, far more abundantly, who, while they are more external in character, and regard more especially the externals of worship, yet from the very goodness of their natures dwell in the truth. These latter are they indicated by all the inhabitants of the earth. It matters not how humble or how small a place they fill, while they retain and represent this character, they are included in that description, and are those whose service, according to the Divine precepts, the example of the elders should call forth. Indeed it is on the mutual and reciprocal action, upon Divine principles, of those indicated by the elders, and those represented by all the inhabitants of the earth, that the unity and subsistence of the Church depends. The true Church exists in its essence only where this uniformity is most conspicuous. Where the Oneness of God is most perfectly reflected in the life of the Church, there is the Lord's Church. As the inward perception of wisdom, and the outward life conformed thereto, constitutes the whole regeneration of man, and the Church is thus represented, it is manifest why Swedenborg says, that these introductory verses apply "to all who are of the Church."
But did this unity of internals and externals, by obedience induced from within, exist in the Church to which the words were addressed? It did not: and hence the interrogation, Was this in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? So long as the aged could remember, or even their fathers could remember, the conditions of spiritual life involved in the former words had been unknown. The cause of this deplorable fact will be laid down later; but at present it is noted, that a want of unity between internal spiritual life and the external actions of the Jewish Church was the very feature by which it was most marked. For this cause the Jewish was not a true Church, but only the representative of a Church by external forms. The outward professions were pious enough, but the inward character and perceptions of wisdom were corrupt. For this reason the prophet commences by evoking obedience from the elders; for when first principles and leaders are contaminated, what may be expected in the less enlightened who follow? The words which the Lord directed to the Jews of later times are equally true of those of Joel's time. "Alas! for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites (or, actors!), for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within are they full from greed and lustfulness. Blind Pharisee! cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the dish, in order that the outside also of it may become clean. Alas! for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for you are like graves whitewashed, which, indeed, outside appear beautiful, but within are full of dead bones and of all uncleanness. In this manner also you, outside, indeed, appear to men righteous, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Alas! for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for you are building the graves of the prophets, and arranging the monuments of the righteous, while you say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been their partners in the blood of the prophets. So that you are bearing witness concerning yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets; and you—fill you up the measure of your fathers" (Matt 23:25-32).
The words now before us take the form of a question because, although there is no need for the Lord to enquire in order to perceive, yet the condition of man is such that he believes no one knows his thought and the state of his affection but himself, and, therefore, the letter of the Word is adapted to this delusion. See AC 2693, 4358, 6250. "Jehovah your God tries you, to know whether you really love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deut 13:3). Where a question appears, however, a knowledge from perception is indicated in the spiritual sense of the Word. Was this in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? therefore, suggests that the elders knew from perception that the conditions required were not.
In the former verse it was explained that the verb to be, whenever it occurs in the Hebrew of the Scriptures (which, like the definite article, is not as often as it appears in the English translation), implies a change of state worthy of remark. The interrogation is as to whether any such change for good had taken place, and the implied answer is that it had not. The particle in would seem to suggest its own significance. It may be helpful, however, to examine it. In the Hebrew original in is expressed by what appears to be a fragment of the word coming in or entry. An Arabian writer thus describes its equivalent in the cognate tongue: "Its peculiar power is, the influence which it exerts on nouns, for the purpose of uniting the word so influenced with the verb influencing it." The same mediating force belongs to the like particle in other languages. Thus in Matt 9:34 it is recorded that the Pharisees said, "In the chief of the devils, He casteth out the devils." The word italicised is represented in the Syriac Version by a particle exactly equal in force to the term we have under consideration. This is more remarkable when we note, that its place in the plane of spiritual truth appears to be, not an indication of inmost residence, but rather of the medium by which conjunction of interiors and exteriors is attained. Thus, in the present instance, was this in your days, taking what has already been advanced, may with sufficient accuracy be paraphrased as an affirmation instead of interrogation thus:—It is plainly to be perceived, that the change of heavenly principles revealed from God, which is manifest in the Church, has come about by means of the internal states of life prevalent among the leaders and guides of the Church itself. Again it may be remarked, that while your days means the days of the elders; nevertheless, as the three forms of the pronoun relate to the three degrees of life: the first to the inmost, the second to the internal, and the third to the external—so your days refer to internal states.
That days denote states may be seen in Lam 5:21, which is a prayer that the former states of glory should be renewed in the degenerate Church: "Renew our days as of old"; also in Psalm 96:2, "Announce His salvation from day today"; and Isaiah 49:8, "In the day of salvation have I helped you." Times controlled by the sun have reference to states of love, while times controlled by the moon have reference to states of faith. Days hold common ground between both— that is, they are controlled by sun and moon conjointly; they therefore relate to states of life in general.
In passing to the final clause of this verse it must be observed, that the words or even should, more strictly, be transposed and read "and certainly," as in the original. It is the interrogative form which occasions the altered reading. Just as to be, as stated above, indicates a notable change of state, so and implies a change of less decided character (AC 4987). Certainly indicates an affirmative condition, such as we intend by the natural expression "as certainly as." Or even in the days of your fathers, in the question form, bespeaks the fact, that no certain change in the least for good, but rather one for evil, is the issue of the states whence the present condition of affairs is derived.
It was mentioned under the former verse what father signifies. The term is spiritually applied to the internal hereditary principle as being the prior spiritual progenitor of issuing conditions either in the man or the Church. In its bad sense the word refers to the evil proper to man from progeniture—his hereditary evil, and thence the ground whence may issue his own evil. The question is fittingly asked, whether what the Church should be exists in the states of the elders, or even in those whence their states were begotten, as represented by their fathers. If the preceding states of the Church were bad, as being contrary to the Divine Will, had the elders and the people done anything since to make them better? To understand this it is necessary to reflect a moment on the pristine state of the First Church on the earth and slow degeneracy, by accumulated hereditary evil, which the Church suffered after it. The story is one of gradual decadence, and not of growth as some suppose. The fall continued through the ages until little of spiritual life and truth remained. Wherefore the Redeemer came in the fullness of time to deliver men from the powers of evil which had descended to them and were augmented by their own sins. That fathers signify the spiritual progenitors (more especially, in the bad sense, the states of self-love) from which more exterior states originate, may be seen in the words of the Lord when speaking of the wickedness of the Jews, cited above: "You are from your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do" (John 8:44). Taking the whole clause together—or even in the days of your fathers—it may be thus expressed as to its spiritual import, an unobtrusive, but no less vital change must be affirmed of the Church through the intermediate states of life therein, derived from the evil hereditary principles of the ages.
Thus, this verse, directing us first to the means whereby evil can be removed, in the next place exhibits how, by the scarcely perceptible encouragement of evil inclinations within, the degraded state into which the Jewish Church fell was occasioned.
Internal sense. The Lord through His Word requires the affection for internal perception of, and obedience to, His laws on the part of those of His Church who are in the principles of wisdom, and, as resulting therefrom, a sincere obedience on the part of every one who seeks to know the truth in His external Church, even to the last. Nevertheless, it is well known that instead thereof, such is the state of the Church as would of necessity be the issue of the internal evil of those who should be wise: their state being the most assured consequence of repeated encouragements of tendencies derived from internal hereditary evils and the love of self.
the duty of the church.
3. Tell it over to your sons, and your sons to their sons, and their sons to another generation.
The former verse directed the gaze to the origins of the present evil condition existing in the Church: this verse points to its coming issues. But while it does so more directly as to consequences, nevertheless it does so also in the way of hope, that by pointing the issue it may be averted. Just as in the preceding verse enquiry was made as to the state of the elders and their fathers, so in the present words the elders are enjoined to transmit to their sons and the succeeding generations the salutary lesson to be drawn therefrom, if haply reformation may ensue thereby. We are enabled, therefore, to see the greater scope of the words of Swedenborg formerly quoted: namely, that the first three verses are "to all who are of the Church." There was first, the primary requisite of the Church, even its foundation—the Word of the Lord; then followed the elders, as the embodiments of internal wisdom; all the inhabitants of the earth, as those whom the elders lead in externals, even to the last; the priores whence the elders were derived, and finally the successive descendents of the elders to the third generation.
It was a statute, still observed by the modern Jews, that the memorable events of their history and experience should be transmitted from father to son for future generations. "He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make known to their sons; that a remote generation might know, even sons to be born : who should arise, and relate to their sons: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments" (Psalm 78:5-7). "Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons, and your sons sons" (Deut 4:9—also 6:6, 7; 11:19). It was remarked above that fathers represent the hereditary principle of the mind. In the merciful providence of the Lord the action of heredity is designed to be a means of transmitting from generation to generation accelerated powers for good; and this is indicated by the commandments requiring fathers to transmit to their sons, and those sons to their sons for several generations, the good which the Lord has bestowed upon them. But when, owing to man's corruption of the Lord's gifts, the hereditary transmission is evil, then takes place that which is referred to in the words, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate Me" (Exodus 20:5). To such a hereditary transmission the present verse refers, though indirectly—as pointing to the increasing evil that needs to be removed. As being part of the exhortation to the elders, the words more immediately refer to the repeated application of truth to the life by which the issues of hereditary evil are subjected and its tendencies resisted. Just as hearing and listening, in the preceding verse, signify perception of an internal and an external order, or, more exactly, the obedience resulting from such perceptions in their own planes, so saying and telling signify a corresponding perception of an internal and an external order. The concordance of saying with hearing, and telling with listening, will be seen at once. The perception signified by saying is, in a sense, causative, as being from the one who communicates what is perceived. The perception, therefore, signified by hearing is receptive, as being received by the one to whom the matter is communicated, and is thus received in obedience. One says and another hears: the perception of the speaker is causative of the perception of the hearer. But it must be remembered, that both these terms are used of the internal. Telling and listening are similarly related; but they are terms whose signification is of a more external nature.
The particular force of to tell in this case will not be felt unless two things be observed in connection with it—(1), the primary meaning of the original, like its English representative, is, to number or recount in detail: whence the words "number" and "scribe" or recorder, are derived: wherefore in the present use a detailed enumeration of particulars is involved; and (2), the form of the verb here employed is somewhat causative in its sense, although it cannot be conveniently expressed in English. The term signifies, spiritually, to know the quality of something and thence to give external perception of it. Thus in Psalm 139:17, 18: "How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! how mighty are their heads: if I should number them, they are more abundant than sand." Where to number the thoughts of God is to perceive and give external perception of the Lord's infinite wisdom. Again Psalm 26:6, 7: "I will wash my hands in innocence: so will I compass Yours altar, O Jehovah; that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell all Your wondrous works."
The particular subject upon which the elders are invited to descant is, of course, that referred to formerly as "this"—being the Word of Jehovah, but especially that summarized in the next verse. The term directing our attention to those special words claims consideration. Though above it is translated over, as if it were a particle lending force to the verb, the reader must be warned that while it may do this, the term has a distinctive force of its own, not at all conveyed in the translation. In the first place, the sentence is so arranged that this term occupies the position of greatest emphasis—thereby indicating the importance given it as the chief matter of concern. Even if the term had only a prepositional force, the Latin supra or English above-would better convey its meaning—as may be seen in Genesis 43:19, "And they came near to the man who was over Joseph's house"; and in Exodus 28:27, "near the joining thereof above the girdle of the ephod." Now since "interior things are expressed in the Word by higher things" (AC 2148, 3084, 5146), therefore in the present case over, or above, signifies the spiritual interiors. Manifest examples of this occur in all passages of Scripture wherein the heavens are referred to as "above." "You shall not make to yourself any graven image, or any similitude of that which is in the heavens from above, or which is in the earth from beneath" (Exodus 20:4. See also Genesis 27:39). Observe, too, that the Lord declared that "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). Again we find our term applied to God in Hosea 11:7, "Though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt Him." The spiritual import of the term will be more clearly seen at 2:28 of this prophecy. In regard to this term it must be further noted, that over and it are joined together, but though it is in the singular, over is in the plural form; so that, without doing violence to the text as written, its order and form may be represented thus—"the higher [things] of it to your sons tell you." The more generally accepted meaning, however, is that conveyed above. But the exact form will help us to see with greater precision the force of the verb to tell as pointed out already. The natural idea would be, that the matter of narration should be told over and over again from generation to generation. Nevertheless, this particular form of expression is employed that thereby a more luminous internal sense may be contained. It was mentioned in the preceding verse, that the third personal pronoun signifies things external. In the present instance it in the natural sense refers to the Word of Jehovah. But over it, or "the higher [things] of it," denotes the interior things enfolded in its external form. Thus tell it over signifies that those who are wise in the Church should know the spiritual truths which arc within the external form of the Word, and give external perception of the same to others, that thereby, seeing the causes of their degradation, they may turn and live.
We fall as one evil or false state descends from and succeeds another; we rise again as succeeding states increase in the perceptions of the true and good. If we are induced to look upon the effects of evil with abhorrence, and thus to shun all sin, while at the same time we look to the Lord, by successive steps evil will be removed by Him, and we shall rise again to true life. But just as the descent begins with the more interior nature, whence the exterior is influenced and falls, so the ascent begins in the exteriors, wherein the degrading influences may be first assailed, and mount up to the inward. Wherefore the perception which works effectually to reformation is, in the first place, that which is awakened in the external mind. Nevertheless, as seen in the preceding and present verses, even this is caused through the interiors—the Lord working through the interiors to reform the external. Thus, the elders are required to make the Divine law known to their sons, who are relatively exterior to the elders.
Descendents correspond to the states of the mind begotten in its exterior planes of those more interior. Thus, good, being of the will, is the more interior state and progenitor of truth, which is of the understanding. For this reason it was stated under the first verse, that son, in its good sense, signifies truth from interior good. The succession of generations referred to in this and the former verse may be set forth in this order—the fathers of the elders, the elders, and the sons of the elders to the third generation. In their good sense the following would be their significations in their spiritual order: (l) the hereditary good begetting internal wisdom, (2) the internal wisdom, and (3) the internal wisdom begetting from its good the truths of faith in several descending orders. Just as "the sons of the prophets" denote the truths of faith from the Word, so "the sons of the elders" denote the truths of faith derived from wisdom. Again, the sons of these sons are further truths, and so on, in successive stages. As sons have especial reference to the understanding, the succession of sons may be described as thoughts, either true or false as the subject shall determine. Thought begets thought after its own kind. It may also be remarked that, as "the sons of the prophets" were those who received instruction in the Word from the prophets, so in the present case the sons of the elders are those who receive instruction in the wisdom of the elders, and are not necessarily their actual offspring, although as to their minds they are. They are the perpetuators of the wisdom of the elders in a descending order. The succession of generations, therefore, from the elders, denotes a series of states of thought from the states of wisdom, represented by the elders, in a descending order. So that as the elders are representative of the chief things of wisdom in the Church, and the Church is indicated as perverted from its prior evils, the successive states of thought signified by their sons are false in each according to his remove from the elders. The thoughts of a corrupt mind are respectively less true as they descend one from another, until in the end they are wholly false.
Under 2:2 the term generation will be more fully discussed, but at present it is enough to state, that it is especially applied to the intellectual part of the Church and mind, and signifies what is perpetual therein. Hence generation relates to the perpetual succession of thought. This may be seen from the primary meaning of the word—revolution. So, too, in-Psalm 14:5, "God is in the generation of the righteous," and in Psalm 22:30, "The Lord is proclaimed to the latest generation." The term other indicates an affection for further truth, or truth of another order. Thus in Jeremiah 44:3, "to serve other gods, whom they knew not." Another generation, therefore, signifies the perpetual affection for further truth in the intellectual part, or, in the reverse sense, the affection of falsity. This may be illustrated from common experience. Whether we consider the case of a mind moving upward in truth or downward in falsity, at any stage of its. movement it seeks a higher, or a lower, degree of thought.
We have, then, a definite indication of the state of faith in the Church, or, what is the same thing, the character of its intellectual part. The elders were corrupt—the chief things of its faith were perverted; your sons are the internal falses derived from those chief things; their sons are the external falses derived from the internal, and another generation are all the further desires of falsity in the intellectual part arising therefrom—the lusting after false faiths referred to in the first verse. Thus, the total perversion of faith throughout the Church. We notice further, that three generations from the parent state are mentioned. Three is indicative of completeness in oneness, and thus describes, in the present case, a complete perversion of faith.
Hence the state of faith in the Church is fully described; but the exhortation to tell this to the sons is clearly intended to be carried right through. When what it is that needs reformation is known, the state of better things can be initiated. If, from interior wisdom, the laws of God are communicated successively to those in relatively exterior states of false thought, there must result a renewal of life in consequence. To know the character of the falsity dominating the mind is to see in what direction amendment is needed. If those who should be wise give perception of the truth to those in internal falsity, and they, being amended, commit the same to the more externally false until all the desires of the intellectual man are toward truth, much has been done toward reformation; indeed, the work will tend "to another generation:" namely, "a new creature," and the three successions would denote the renewal of the image of the Divine One.
Internal Sense. The interior things of the Church's perverted state are to be made known to those in internal falsity, thence to those in external falsity, and thence to all who desire falsity in the spiritual Church.
destroyed by sensualism.
4. The remainder from the gnawing-locust the abundant-locust ate, and the remainder from the abundant-locust the licking-locust ate: and the remainder from the licking-locust, the consuming-locust ate!
The subject for special consideration already referred to is recorded in this verse. In order that the allusions of the prophecy in its natural sense may carry their proper force, the subject of this verse must be kept in view continually. Here and there most forcible and telling descriptions will arise, recalling the theme of the locust and its devastating flights. It appears that a double current of thought is sustained throughout a considerable part of the book, but that which has reference to the locusts, as the stronger, bears itself above the other, and sweeps on impulsively to figure the destined end. There can be no doubt that, while describing a natural enemy to the produce of the vineyard, olive-yard, and harvest fields, the prophet is at the same time setting forth the desolation worked by some national foe. This, when the historic or natural sense is regarded.
It will be of use, therefore, to direct attention to the natural sense in the first place. Much diversity of judgement has existed respecting the identity of the insects named: it having been assumed, that creatures of different families were meant where the words here employed appear in the Scriptures. No such assumption need be granted. It is conceded by many, that the locust, though of different species, or perhaps different stages of development, is the creature in each case referred to. There are reasonable objections to both adjuncts to the main contention. Locusts do not make successive flights in orders of species; neither do they in different stages of their growth. The observations of travellers in the home-lands of the locust attest this. In the present translation, therefore, the names are regarded as epithets variously descriptive of the locust tribe. Over eighty different kinds of locust are known, so that the difficulties attending any attempt to identify the above names with special kinds will be appreciated: for the names are not scientifically descriptive. There are some, however, whose colour and coruscation give a bright fiery appearance to the mass when seen floating in the sun's rays. This may have lent something to the descriptions wherein, in the prophecy, fire and the locusts are associated together. Clouds of these creatures settle upon a tract of country, and simply desolate it of every vestige of vegetation: they then march directly forward, never deviating from the direction of their flight, climbing over trees, walls, and houses, consuming every plant, leaf, and fruit as they go, and let nothing escape them. So dense are the swarms at times, that the ground beneath them as they fly is in complete darkness. "I have often in spring," says Joseph de S. Angelo, "seen the sun darkened by very thick clouds (so to say) of locusts, which cross the sea from the coasts of Arabia far into Persia." This is the desolator which, so far as the natural image is concerned, appears ever and anon in the rise and fall of this prophecy.
We note that the Hebrew text makes a distinct division between the two former and the two latter names, according, fittingly, with the signification of those couplets, spiritually. For the two former terms relate to falsity, and the two latter to evil. More particularly, the falsities and evils of the sensual man as destroyers of all the higher knowledge of spiritual life. In 2:25 the four terms occur again, but divided into couplets according to another order.
Locusts, in general, seem to signify the sensual principle of the mind, especially in relation to knowledge. For this reason John the Baptist made his food of locusts and wild honey. With the signification just referred to that of Syria is in close agreement (AC 1232). It has to be remembered, however, - that the distinction which does exist is indicated by the special terms which, by Divine ordination, are used in this verse, instead of Syria. Syria represents the knowledge of truth and good which exists in the external planes of the mind (AE 706), or such knowledge perverted; while the locusts, speaking in more specific terms, denote the sense-knowledge of the same planes. When this is observed it will be more evident, that the effect of heathen idolatry upon Jewish worship is the theme of the whole book. Thus, though the locusts come from the south, they are to represent "the nations from around."
The remainder signifies the knowledge of truth and good, which, having been implanted in the mind by the Lord while instruction is received from the Word, remains after the infestations of falsity. Such knowledge is laid up in the mind of every child while receiving the truth. It is the basis of later intelligence, and thus remaining ensures the possibility of regeneration. This signification may be illustrated from Isaiah 44:19, "Shall I make the remainder thereof an abomination?" Knowledge, however, so far as it rests in the outward courts of the mind, is open to the assaults of self-opinion and unwisely formed judgements regarding spiritual life. In that case what is left of the implanted knowledge, after the fallacious persuasions so arising, is called the remainder. The destroyers are the falses and evils of the sensual mind.
Respecting the sensual plane of the human mind, Swedenborg explains that it has an internal and an external phase (the latter is also called the "corporeal"), and that to each there is a volitional and an intellectual aspect (see AC 5077, 9996, 10236). More specifically, the case is set forth as follows. Of the five external senses, that especially subordinate to the intellectual part is sight: for which reason we "see" what we believe. That which is subordinate to the intellectual part and next to the volitional is hearing, as is shown under verse 2. And those which are subordinate to the voluntary part are touch and, not so immediately, taste. Smell is subject to both the voluntary and intellectual parts. These external sensuals, however, are related to internal sensuals. The facts which are laid up in the memory by means of the sensuals, both internal and external, from the world, are known as "sensuals," and the plane of the mind thus instrumental is the sensual degree of it. The man, moreover, who ascends no higher in spiritual development than such knowledge allows, is the sensual man—he trusts to his senses, and neglects all above them. The sensual plane of the mind is also the lowest seat of the paternal proprium. In the light of this fact, what has been said above, respecting the hereditary tendencies descending from the fathers, will be seen to extend in meaning to this present verse. The hereditary evils are hereby represented as having descended and culminated in sensual falses and evils.
The term rendered gnawing-locust is derived from a word meaning "to cut off." It signifies falsity of the internal sensual order. When there exists a desire to know all that is to be believed, by means of sensation regarding it, especially by immediate communication to the hearing, then this order of falsity is present. This is a disposition of mind eminently insidious in its operation, and destructive in its results— although in subjection to more enlightened minds it serves a useful end. "The multiplying of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees, the gnawing-locust shall eat" (Amos 4:9).
The knowledge of truth and good remaining from the infestations of this stage of falsity, which is the desire toward the fallacies of the senses, the prophet declares, that represented by the abundant-locust destroyed. The name is derived from the verb "to be numerous," and refers to the great multiplicity of the locust in general. Thus in Jeremiah 46:23, concerning the Babylonians it is said," They are more numerous than the abundant-locust, they are without number." In its good sense, the term signifies truth of the external sensual, particularly the truths seen, which are useful food for the mind:
see Leviticus 11:22. But sense-knowledge, especially following the desire for knowing by sense alone, and diverted from serving superior powers, usurps the dominion of the higher, and is a possible source of folly—destroying "the leaves which are for the healing of the nations." The particular form of falsity by which we are most rapidly persuaded into wrong courses, being greatly destructive of every living principle of faith, and which is signified by the abundant-locust, is that which takes the character of sense-knowledge sought for and attained only for the sake of knowing, apart from the use it may serve—it is the falsity of the external sensual as the fruition of the desire above referred to. What is accepted only because it has been seen, is often made the means of opposing and denying what is not known by the senses. This was the case of Thomas: "Because you have seen Me, you have believed: Blessed are they who see not and yet believe" (John 20:29). Sense-knowledge is the lowest, most corporeal order of knowledge, and by its very dependence on sensation is most open to fallacy and delusion, so that when it is false, it is a plague desolating the mind of living faith: "If you refuse to let My people go, behold, to-morrow will I bring the abundant-locusts within your boundaries, and they shall cover the face of the earth, that one is not able to see the earth: and they shall eat the remainder that escaped, which remains to you from the hail, and shall eat every tree that grows for you out of the field" (Exodus 10:4-5).
It may be worthy of notice that the Syriac Version adds to the word under consideration a distinguishing term implying t hat the "flying" locust is meant, or a locust able to fly. If this distinction is to be regarded as bearing any weight of authority, an additional evidence of the signification assigned to this term is traceable in 207441:&version=ESV&showfn=yes&showxref&interface=print">AC 7441:—"The fly in the extremity of the rivers of Egypt (Isaiah 7:18) denotes the falsities which are in what is sensual nearest the body. These are compared to such an insect, because the falsities of that kind are precisely like insects flying in the air, obscuring interior things, and causing them injury.... It is to be observed, that the flying things mentioned in the Word all signify things intellectual, thence truths, and in the opposite sense falsities."
To eat signifies, in its good sense, to conjoin and appropriate good; but in its reverse sense, to destroy good and appropriate evil. This will be illustrated not alone by the natural process of eating, but from many parts of the Word. One reference will suffice: "Your words were found, and I did eat them: and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart" (Jeremiah 15:16). That nothing else than the appropriation of the good of the Divine Truth is here meant is manifest. The remainder from the gnawing-locust the abundant-locust ate, therefore, signifies that the knowledge of truth and good remaining from the infestations of falsity of the internal sensual order, the corresponding falsity of the external sensual diverted from its use and appropriated to evil. What survived the desire to know by the senses the fallacies arising therefrom corrupted.
But man is not an organic form of the intellect only: he is such a form of both will and understanding, or primarily will and thence understanding. Thus far the case has been stated only as to the understanding: because the understanding being external, is the first to be assailed and falsified from worldly things. Or if the same thing need be stated in terms of the Church instead of the individual men (the mass of whom compose the Church), then the Church consists of faith and charity, and so far only the destruction of faith has been treated of. From false persuasions of the understanding soon follow unrighteous affections of the heart, and want of charity succeeds to want of faith. The first deflections of the will are associated with the natural desires resident in the external sensual. In regard to the intellectual part the influence was from internal to external, but in regard to the volitional part it is from external to internal in the present case.
More strictly the circuit of consequences may be stated thus —from the desire for sense-knowledge follow the fallacies of the senses, thence ensues pleasure in the feelings of the senses, and finally a subjection of the superior affections of this plane to the lowest.
The original of the licking-locust is derived from the term to lick or lap: it signifies, in its good sense, the good of the external sensual, and in the reverse sense, the evil of the same. Directed right, the natural desires of the senses serve useful ends. We have this indicated by the service of the men who, when they drank water at the order of the Lord through Gideon, lapped it (Judges vii.). But if the good of the sensual be not so directed, as in the case when the understanding is falsified so that the director leads astray, then "the licking-locust strips and flees away" (Nah 3:16). Just as the lower natural thoughts are vitiated by the relatively higher natural intentions if they be corrupt, so the feelings perverted thence return upon the relatively better feelings and corrupt them. The remainder left from the sensual persuasions of the understanding is the good of the Word: it is appropriated to evil by evil in the sensual, for it is by the sensual that man has most immediate contact with the Word externally. When, therefore, the intelligence is sensual, making the understanding of its truth sensual, or falsified, then the good of the Word is also corrupted and converted to sensual evil.
The consuming-locust derives its name from "to eat away," or devour. See in Deut 28:38, "You shall bring much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in: for the abundant-locust shall devour it" From this passage it may be seen that the names of the locust are only epithetical. The term signifies the evil of the internal sensual, or the will of sensual evil. Thus in Isaiah 33:4, speaking of the completed desolation of goodness, "And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the consuming-locust" Referring again to the etymology of the name, this is the creature which "eats away" whatever remains. So in Solomon's prayer, after famine, pestilence, blasting, mildew, and the abundant-locust, the king besought the Divine aid against the consuming-locust (1 Kings 8:37). The two latter names mentioned in the present verse are qualified in the Syriac Version by the term "creeping," which, when considered in connection with what is quoted above from Swedenborg, as to flying insects, will be seen to support their signification.
Thus the conditions of religious life in the Jewish Church, and the causes of those conditions, are plainly set forth. The effect of association with idolatrous races is clearly traceable in the seeking after worldly things, while the worship of God became more and more formal, sensual, and external. Spiritual truth is represented as being subjected to the desires for sense-perception, and then to the fallacies arising in consequence; and spiritual good, as resulting from this, is represented as defiled by subjection to sensual delights, and their inward counterparts—sensual evils. Thus, the Church, external though it was, becomes wholly sensual, and desolate of every truth and good of the Word; for when the outermost is destroyed, nothing of the internal remains.
Internal Sense. The knowledge of spiritual things remaining from the infestations of falsity in the internal sensual, the falsity of the external sensual appropriated: the knowledge remaining from the infestations of this falsity, the evil of the external sensual appropriated; and the knowledge of good remaining from the infestations of this evil, the evil of the internal sensual appropriated.
references—AC 7643, 9331; AE 543; AR 424.
lament over faith.
5. Cause drunken ones to awake, and weep you: and cause all the drinkers of wine to howl—over new wine: because it was struck off from your mouth.
The causes of the Church's desolation having been briefly told, the prophecy addresses itself to the work of reformation. To realise the depth of degradation to which the Church has fallen is to be conscious of the need to reform. To have drunken in full of sensual delights, and then to awake, like the victims of Circe, and discover how much they are degraded and bemeaned, is to arouse the pangs of conscience and grief.
" Greedily they pluck'd The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed; This more delusive, not the touch, but taste Deceived: they, fondly thinking to allay Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit Chew'd bitter ashes."
—Paradise Lost, 10:560.
Thence to arise, having discovered their self-delusion, and to grieve over their state, are the first movings of repentance. So the prodigal, having eaten of "the husks that swine do eat," when he came to himself, and knew his condition and need, said, "I will arise and go to my Father." To awake signifies to discover or make known. This will be illustrated by these passages of Scripture. "Stir up yourself, and cause my judgement to awake, even to my strife, my God and my Lord" (Psalm 35:23). "When I awake, I am still with You" (Psalm 139:18). "Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust" (Isaiah 26:19). When the soul awakes from the stupor of falsity, it discovers its low condition, and moves to light and life.
To be drunken signifies to be in that state of self-delusion or insanity occasioned by believing only what appeals to the senses. Just as the drunken man, who has induced his drunkenness by indulgence of the sensual appetites, is the victim of delusive fancies bespeaking a temporary insanity, so are those who, in spiritual matters, believe and foster sense-knowledge. It is an order of mental intoxication and spiritual insanity. "They also have erred through the wine, and through the strong drink have strayed: priest and prophet
have erred through the strong drink, they are swallowed up of the wine, they have strayed through the strong drink: they err in vision, they stumble in judgement" (Isaiah 28:7). "They reel to and fro, and stagger like the drunken one, and their wisdom is swallowed" (Psalm 107:27). That drunkenness denotes the insanity spoken of above is plainly shown in Jeremiah 51:7, "Babylon is a golden goblet in the hand of Jehovah, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine: therefore the nations are mad." It was on account of this signification as connected with wine when denoting a falsified faith, that the Law provided that the priests should not drink wine or strong drink before entering the Tabernacle, so that they should teach the statutes of the Lord (Levit 10:9-11). The drunken ones whom the elders are to cause to awake are they who are possessed of that insanity which believes only in the corporeal senses. That is, those in the interior principles of wisdom, by infusing somewhat of their wisdom into those of the Church now stupefied and reeling with sensual affections and thoughts, should bring them to discover their insane delusions, and so remove those delusions.
That contrition and grief of mind may be of more than one degree, and be so expressed in ways more or less prompted by interior causes, will be seen by all who have observed. Weeping, by reason of its cause being in the injured feelings, is expressive of a more interior grief than that which finds expression only by the voice. Thus it is that the elders are called upon to weep. The tears themselves denote the grief of mind on account of falsities; for the water thereof is bitter and astringent, denoting falsity. It is because our Lord takes away the grief of mind on account of falsities, that we read, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Rev 7:17). Because, however, weeping is occasioned by distress of the more interior feelings, it signifies grief interiorly from the deprivation of faith in the Church, while to howl denotes.
an exterior grief for the same. Indeed, as may be seen in the present case, the exterior distress is caused by the interior, it being said that the weeping of the elders will cause the drinkers of wine to howl. "Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him: weeping, weep for him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see the land of his kindred" (Jerem 22:10). "We wept, when we remembered Zion" (Psalm 137:1). There is no awakening from a state of delusion regarding the truth unless an inward affection for the truth has been quickened. To weep, therefore, indicates further a desire to remove falsity and have faith. If the awakening to the discovery of a false state is accompanied by grief over it, then is begun the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, which the Lord will not despise. "They that sow in tears shall reap with shouting. Weeping he goes along bearing the seed to be sown, he returns back with shouting, bearing his sheaves" (Psalm 126:5-6).
That the grief of the interiors would have its effect upon the exteriors could only be expected, and the exterior effect is expressed by to howl. Thus this term is the complement of to weep, describing a repentant grief over the loss of faith, but as it is expressed in the external nature. It is the cry of the voice outwardly uttering the cry of the heart. In Isaiah 15:3 the relation of weeping and howling is plainly set forth: "He shall cause every one to howl, going down in weeping." So in Amos 8:3, "And the songs of the Temple shall be howlings in that day, says the Lord Jehovih."
The drinkers of wine are those who receive and appropriate spiritual truth in the external mind. Just as to eat signifies the appropriation of good, so to drink signifies to be instructed in and appropriate the truths of faith. For this reason the Lord said, "If any one thirst, let him come to Me, and drink.... Whosoever drinks of the water which I will give him, shall in nowise thirst forever; but the water which I will give him shall become, within him, a fountain of water springing up into eternal life" (John 7:37; 4:14). In its reverse sense, the term denotes to receive and appropriate falsities as truths of faith. In this sense the term is used in Psalm 69:12. "They that sit in the gate talk against Me; and I was the song of the drinkers of strong drink." The wine of the internal sense of the Divine Word is the spiritual faith, or in its bad sense, the falsity which is imbibed by the drinker. In its bad signification wine is used in Genesis 9:24, "And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him." In its good sense we find the term in Psalm 104:15, "And wine that makes glad the heart of man." The term all was explained under verse 2, and shown to denote each, even to the last as to the spiritual. All the drinkers of wine, therefore, signifies those who are instructed in and accept falsities as truths of faith even to the last. These are they whom the elders are required to cause to grieve on account of the loss of true faith.
The peculiar punctuation of the Hebrew text, which is as far as possible reproduced above, seems to suggest that what both "elders" and "the drinkers of wine" are to grieve over is "the new wine'' The original of this term is derived from "to tread," used in Malachi 4:3, "You shall tread down the wicked": and refers, therefore, to the wine just trodden out. New wine signifies, that genuine truth of the Church which has not yet been clarified by doctrine, or formulated. The term occurs again in Joel 3:18, where its significance can better be illustrated. It was shown above (under verse 3) that over has reference to what is internal or within. When, therefore, it is said, over new wine in connection with grief, it means that grief must be felt, for the lack of the genuine truth of the Church, from within.
The rationale of this grief is stated in the present and succeeding verse. In the first place, sorrow of heart becomes the elders, inasmuch as new wine has been struck off from their mouth. Such desolation have the locusts worked in the vineyards that no wine can be trodden out—no, not so much as would be needed for the Temple service. The term translated struck off means literally, to make such a division as would distinguish something from that to which it was formerly attached. Thus, while the term is used of cutting down a tree, or slaying a man, it is also used of making a covenant with some one: for the covenant, while binding two parties in one bond, cuts them off from another. In much the same sense we speak of "striking a bargain." In the internal sense to strike off signifies to be separated, on the one hand, from good and truth, or on the other, from evil and falsity. Thus it will be seen that "to make a covenant" means spiritually, to enter into that conjunction with the Lord which separates from evil and falsity. So in Psalm 37:28, "The seed of the wicked shall be struck off." Again in Jeremiah 7:28, "Truth is perished, and is struck off from their mouth." The mouth corresponds to the understanding as it is expressed; otherwise, the utterance of truth or falsity. When truth is not faithfully proclaimed, the mouth is said to speak vanity. A similar condition is spoken of in Psalm 5:9," There is no faithfulness in their mouth." Again in Jeremiah 15:19, it is said by the Lord, "If you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth." "The mouth of Jehovah has spoken it," is an assurance that what is then enunciated is the expressed wisdom of God. The particle from indicates spiritually, an origin or derivation out of externals—something of ascent—whence it is said "from your mouth": for this relates to the elders as the interior things of wisdom. Because it was struck off from your mouth, therefore, denotes that because the genuine truth of the Church has been separated from the falsity originating out of the external state of understanding in those who should lead with wisdom, they should grieve and repent.
Internal Sense. Those who are wise should make known to the self-deluded (who believe only what their external senses. comprehend) their dangerous state, and grieve interiorly from the heart on account of the loss of faith in the Church. They should also induce a corresponding grief in all, even to the last, who appropriate falsities as truths of faith. For both the wise and the deluded need the genuine truth of the Church within: because it has been separated from the falsity originating out of the external state of understanding in which the wise are. references.— AC 1072, 3580; AE 376; AR 316.
heathen infection.
6. For a nation ascended over My earth, mighty, and without number: his teeth, the teeth of a lion; and the jaw-teeth of a bold lion, for him.
It is evident that these words support the conclusion that the locusts were the visible image of a desolating nation as an enemy of the Jews. Apparently the prophet here breaks through the similitude, and plainly describes the desolater as a nation; although the description given of that nation holds good in regard to the locusts. They are countless. "Their multitude," says a traveller, speaking of a swarm of locusts, "is incredible, whereby they cover the earth and fill the air: they take away the brightness of the sun." So great are they in number, that flights have been observed to extend for twenty-four miles, and even much greater distances. A column has been known, when on the wing, to fly rapidly past a given spot for more than three hours without its end coming into view. The locust is armed with two jaws, toothed like a saw, and very powerful. The teeth are said to be harder than stone, and admirably contrived to eat up all the herbs of the land.
In respect to the internal sense of the Word the causes of the desolation of faith are still under view. Why did faith decline? Why was genuine truth separated from the false understanding of the Church? Because a nation ascended over My earth. It was explained under verse 2 that earth signifies the external of the spiritual man or Church, especially in regard to the will. In the present case it is spoken of as My earth, because the Church of the Lord as it exists externally is meant.
By a nation is signified the affections of good or evil, according to the worship prevalent in the Church of which the term is predicated. This is so, because the term describes the community of a state as to their nativity and likeness. A community of persons, such as a nation, have a certain basis of feeling by which they are united, and which belongs to their common nationality, as well as a similitude of thought and expression in language. Let this unity of feeling be called the will faculty, and the unity of thought, the intellectual faculty, or understanding, of the Church existing among any race. Then, in the spiritual sense of the Scriptures the term nation relates to the will faculty, and people describes the intellectual, or understanding,—nation denoting the affections and acts of good according to the worship followed by the community, and people their thoughts or faith in that worship. Thus it is, that when a community is described in the Word as to their state of will as well as that of the understanding, both terms are employed. For instance, Deuteronomy 4:6: "Only this great nation is a wise and understanding people"; or in Psalm 105:13: "They went about from nation to nation, from a kingdom to another people." But both terms may take an opposite sense, according to the context. So that instead of describing a community whose affections and acts are good, or a community whose understanding and thought are true, as the words do when the race is characterised by righteousness and the worship of the Lord, the same terms may, under opposite circumstances, describe them as to their lusts of evil and their false faith. Thus in Isaiah 1:4: "Woe, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, seed of evil-doers, corrupting children!" It is in the latter sense that nation is used in the present instance, and doubtless points to the evils resulting from the heathenish worship of the countries around Judah. It is to the infection by this worship that the prophet refers. The decadence of true faith is laid to the charge of the evils of a false worship ascending over the external Church —or more accurately, entering into the form of worship existing in the Church among the Jewish people: for it was mentioned above that the significance of over is, within. The fact also, that nation is especially applied to foreign peoples gives its significance here greater force and point.
As terms implying something higher relate to what is spiritually interior, therefore to ascend denotes to emerge from an inferior to a superior state, or from an exterior to an interior state. For this reason the Scriptures describe a journey from any of the exterior parts of Palestine towards Jerusalem as "going up to Jerusalem." Thus in Psalm 122:3, 4: "Jerusalem is built as a city joined together: whither the tribes ascend, tribes of Jehovah, a testimony for Israel." Again in Jeremiah 19:5: "Burnt-offerings to the Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke, neither ascended into My heart." "Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah? or who shall rise in the place of His holiness? He that is of clean hands and pure heart: who has not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn to deceit" (Psalm 24:3, 4). That the evils of heathen worship had entered into the Lord's external Church is plainly the meaning of these words.
The nation is described as mighty and without number, because the state of falsity is so denoted. Mighty, in its natural sense, is applied to numbers in particular, not to space or extension in space. All terms implying numeration, spiritually refer to truth, or in the reverse sense, falsity; while all terms implying extension in space refer to good or evil. Mighty, therefore, signifies the effect of falsity from evil, for while it relates to number it also includes the idea of strength, as strength by number; but the power of falsity is from the evil whence it originates. Whether we speak of the power of evil through falsity, or of the effect of falsity from evil, it is the same. In reference to both qualities mentioned just above,—that is, of good and truth in their power,—it is said,. "And Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation" (Genesis 18:18). Again, when it is meant that the Lord's Church is more effective in truth, it is said, "Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and mightier than we" (Exodus 1:9).
To appreciate the full force of the next phrase, it should be noted that instead of without number, its literal form is "the nothing of number." Certainly, that the multitude was so great that they could not be numbered is meant, but the word nothing is the same as that used in Isaiah 40:23, "That brings the princes to nothing." It is derived from the verb "to be nothing." Another noun formed from the same root is used for nothingness, falsehood and power (especially the power of the false and wicked). Thus in Amos 1:5 we read of "the inhabitant from the valley of idols," more literally, from the valley of nothingness; and this in direct association with "the people of Syria." See what is said under verse 1, as to the connection between this prophecy, the Syrians, and other idolatrous nations. So in Isaiah 66:3, reference is made to one in false worship as if "he blessed an idol," or nothingness. It is suggestive that the same word should be used for falsehood, idols, and nothingness. When we note that this is the term often used of the power of the false and unreal, we read with clearer comprehension the words of Isaiah 40:17, "All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothingness and desolation." Though, therefore, the phrase "without number" is intended to describe the apparent numerical strength of this nation, and does describe the multitude of the locusts, it also directs us to the real nothingness of their power. What else can be the strength of falsity in reality, seeing it is a negative state, than interior nothingness? Signifying, then, the apparent force of falsity, absence of the truth by which alone true power is given, is also indicated. Number, as may be seen from what is said above, as well as what is said under verse 3 concerning to tell, whence the present term is derived, signifies the quality of truth. In the present case, being predicated of the nation, it signifies falsity. In spiritual things, states or qualities are understood by terms which, in their natural sense, involve quantities. A nation, mighty and without number, therefore, denotes the lust of false worship, whose effect proceeds from evil through falsity, and its negative state in regard to the truths of faith; in other words, the power of evil and the power of falsity. It is not an unknown thing, even in modern times, for the Church charged with the truths of God to be led by those whose minds are negative regarding the essential truths of life—nay, for the Church, wherein the truth should repose, to be infected itself with heathen darkness and superstition.
The teeth correspond to the exterior intellectual part of the mind, otherwise the hard facts deposited in the memory, with which the spiritual food is masticated and first prepared for assimilation to the spiritual man. In reference to the scarcity of such knowledge, it is said in Amos 4:6, "I have also given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities "—meaning there was nothing to eat. In the bad sense the teeth, or ultimates of life in the natural man, which are sensual, describe those sensual facts as destroying instead of using. Thus in Deut 32:24, "They shall be emaciated with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send forth the teeth of beasts upon them." "The wicked plots against the righteous, and gnashes upon him with his teeth" (Psalm 37:12).
The rabbis tell us that seven of the words employed in the Old Testament, by which the lion is named, describe the king of the desert as to his seven periods of development. The two terms used in the present verse refer to the lion's third and sixth ages respectively. That rendered "lion," because it is the term most commonly occurring, refers to a mature lion, though only of the third age. It signifies in its supreme sense the Power of Divine Love and Divine Truth, and in this sense is applied to the Lord. As in Revelation 5:5, "The lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David." In an inferior sense, the term signifies the good of celestial love, and thence truth in its power: for the power of truth is from good. "What is stronger than a lion?" (Judges 14:18). In its opposite sense the lion denotes the evil of self-love, and his teeth are the sensual falses which appertain thereto. Thus in Psalm 7:2, "Deliver me, lest he tear my soul like a lion crushing." Also Psalm 22:21, "Save me from the lion's mouth." Again in Jeremiah 2:30, "Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion." It should be noticed also that in Revelation 9:8 we have the same description given of the locusts, "And their teeth were as those of lions." Of this, Swedenborg says, "Sensual men who are in falsities from confirmation, seem to themselves to be in power over all things, so as to be perfectly invincible. The teeth of the locusts, which signify such sensual things, were therefore as the teeth of lions, for a lion signifies power" (AR 435). His teeth are the teeth of a lion, therefore, denotes that the exterior sensuals of those in the evils of idolatry are in the same state as the sensuals of those confirmed in falsity from the love of self, which love is "the lion seeking whom he may devour." The destructive character of such evils is further represented by the words and the jaw-teeth of a bold lion [belong] to him: that is, to the nation. That the bold lion, or lion of the sixth age, signifies a more confirmed state of self-love with the ardour of falsity added thereto, will be manifest. Thus in Hosea 13:8, "There will I devour them like a bold lion." This is the destructive power of falsity from a confirmed state of self-love. The jaw-teeth, or grinders, signify the hardened sensual falsities which result from using the facts of the letter of the Word for confirming falsity and destroying truth. Thus in Psalm 58:6, "Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the jaw-teeth of the lion's whelps, O Jehovah." Hence when the jaw-teeth of a bold lion are attributed to the nation, it is meant, that those in the evil of false worship are ardent to confirm falsity from the love of self by the sensual facts of the memory.
Internal Sense.—Genuine truth is separated from the Church, because heathenish lust enters into and infects the will of the Lord's external Church, the power of which lust is in its evil and the multiplicity of its falsity: its external sensual things appearing to itself capable of overcoming and destroying all truth and invincible in confirming falsity.
references.—AC 9052; AE 403, 556; AR 435.
faith desolated.
7. He put my vine to desolation, and my fig-tree to dissolution: [by] uncovering he uncovered it, and caused [it] to be cast down; they caused its tendrils to whiten.
In its natural sense, this verse states exactly the result of a swarm of locusts settling upon the vegetation of a land. The chronicles of travel abound with accounts of the desolation of herbage caused by these creatures: everything green and succulent is devoured first; when this is consumed, they attack the bark and young shoots of the trees, so that they leave them bare and whited skeletons.
There are two aspects of life essential to a true Church, and both are necessarily indivisible from faith. These two phases of faith and its resultant good are represented by the vine and the fig-tree. The vine corresponds to the intellectual part of the Spiritual Church. It is found most perfectly represented in those who raise up the natural truths of the Word and transform them into spiritual wisdom and happiness, as the Lord, Who declared Himself to be the True Vine, transformed the water into wine at Cana. Just as the vine needs to entwine itself about some other standing object in order most effectually to produce its fruit, so the intellectual part of the Spiritual Church needs the mutual affections of others in order to manifest in deeds the intuitions of the spirit. Some firm basis of activity is needed in order to bring forth work. The vine is known for its tendency to spread its arms and roots without restraint. Indeed so generous is it of its fruit, that unless wisely kept back it would spend its strength in a single season. It is with reference to the unstinted affection for giving Himself to the world and the extension of spiritual faith, that the Lord, from Whom is all faith, and Who is the Truth Itself, said, "I am the Vine"; and to those who become channels of faith from Him as being in the affection of mutual charity, "You are the tendrils" (John 15:5). It is because the Church is the ground upon which are established and nourished such intellectual perceptions, that it is called a "vineyard." Contrasting the heavenly faith implanted by the Lord with that estranged from the truth, He says, "Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly seed of truth: how then are you turned into the excrescences of the vine alien to Me?" (Jeremiah 2:21). It will be seen, then, that My vine indicates the spiritual truths of the Lord applied to the good of the neighbour, or the Church of the Lord in that respect.
Desolate is a term signifying the state of being deprived of the truth of spiritual faith just referred to. "Your land shall no more be termed Desolate" (Isaiah 62:4), is the Lord's promise that His Church shall be renewed in the truths of spiritual faith. "Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they put to desolation a land of pleasantness" (Zech 7:14). That to put, which is always used in the sense of application to a set, limited purpose, signifies to apply in a definite way, may be seen in Daniel 6:14: "Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and put his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him." Hence, He put my vine to desolation, signifies that the lust of false worship applied the intellectual part of the Lord's spiritual Church to the deprivation of spiritual faith, or, in other words, deprived the Church of spiritual faith and charity: so that the intellectual faculty, instead of being employed in uplifting natural truth into spiritual wisdom and faith, was perverted into a means of falsifying faith.
As the vine corresponds to the Church in respect to the good of the neighbour by the application of spiritual truths, so the fig-tree corresponds to the good done by the application of natural truths: that is, the natural good of the Church, done, not from any exalted spiritual perception, but because it is felt to be right to do it. This is the good which, though springing from feelings of mutual regard, men seem to do spontaneously and of themselves. When the Church is spoken of with respect to this natural goodness, it is called a fig-tree. The fruits of the tree are the good deeds done as the offspring of the general disposition indicated: the leaves are the elemental notions which are complementary to those deeds. Thus, when the Jewish Church exhibited the notions without the good works, it was, being wholly natural and external, represented by the fig-tree whereon was "nothing but leaves," "and presently the fig-tree withered away." The Lord said to Nathanael, whose simplicity of character He attested, "When you were under the fig-tree, I saw you" (John 1:48). That is, Nathanael was under the influence of that naturally good disposition which fitted him to become a follower of the Lord. There are, however, differences in the fruits of the fig-tree, according as they indicate works done for the good of others or the love of self. We have this illustrated in the two baskets of figs shown to Jeremiah: "What see you, Jeremiah ? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good: and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten for badness" (Jerem 24:1-3).
When the Church is in a right and prosperous state regarding spiritual faith and natural charity, then it is said, "In that day, says Jehovah of hosts, shall you call every man his fellow under a vine and under a fig-tree" (Zech. 3:10)—that is, men shall dwell in the affections of mutual love and charity under the influence of spiritual and natural truth. Again: "Judah and Israel abode in safety, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree" (1 Kings iv. 25); and, "they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid" (Micah 4:4).
That the natural goodness of the Lord's Church was put to dissolution, signifies that it was rendered merely natural and external, being deprived of all inward spiritual truth. The outward goodness which is only outward and without inward truth to sustain and direct it, is hollow, like a multitude of bubbles; and of this internal truth, as already told, the lust of idolatry had despoiled the Church. Concerning the natural sense of the term translated dissolution, there are various opinions. Most probably, however, the term is formed from one that means the fragments or broken branches of trees. If, therefore, the destructive work of the locusts be considered, inasmuch as they reduce a tree to dried sticks, the above translation will not be misleading, beside being in agreement with the Syriac and Septuagint versions. It will be seen that the picture is that of a fig-tree shorn of its leaves and fruit, with its life sapped out, so that the branches droop and fall. It is a fitting symbol of the Church whose inward spiritual life is wasted, and whose outward deeds are as the "dried sticks" of goodness—merely sapless forms. After a similar manner "the sweet singer of Israel" describes the effect of evil in the Church: "He smote their vines also, and their fig-trees: and break the trees of their boundaries" (Psalm 105:33). So in Isaiah 34:4 the knowledge of heavenly things is said to wither away "as the leaf withers away from the vine, and as a withering from the fig-tree." We are reminded again of the fig-tree that withered away.
Describing the Church under two aspects, the vine and fig-tree seem to be united in the singular pronoun now following —"uncovering he uncovered it" (literally, her). The Church is frequently described as the Lord's Bride, and therefore the term "her" would be appropriate, beside combining the feminine terms vine and fig-tree. Uncovering he uncovered it, is a form of expression commonly used in the Old Testament; as in Genesis 2:17, "dying you shall die," by which is meant that an internal death is occasioned by deadness in the more exterior things of the mind. A like meaning is conveyed by the present expression: namely, that depriving the Church of truth, the lust of idolatry deprived it of good. All coverings denote exterior forms of good and truth which clothe the interiors. Thus, to uncover, signifies to deprive of good and truth. Hence the prophet Ezekiel, as representing the Divine Word, was commanded to have his arm uncovered (Ezek 4:7); his arm corresponding to the power of the Word.
That he caused [it] to be cast down, signifies that the Church was moved by power from the evil of this heathenish worship, so as to be despoiled of its true life, may be readily perceived. It is illustrated in Ezek 7:19: "They shall cause their silver to be cast down in the streets." As silver corresponds to truth from the internal man, this passage means that such truth is despoiled of its life.
They caused its tendrils to whiten, signifies that sensual things, denoted by the locusts, make it appear that the derivations of the intellectual part are of self-merit. The term tendril is never applied to any plant except the vine, and therefore signifies the derivatives of the intellectual part of the spiritual Church. The term is derived literally from to "intertwine," and refers to the use of the tendrils, which is, to support the vine by interlacing it with some other object. Thus the significance of the vine, as stated above, is continued in its derivatives; and, indeed, the tendrils of the vine are modified clusters of grapes and branches. To whiten, signifies, in its bad sense, to appear in one's own merit, or take merit to self, and thus devise falsity. The word points to an artificial and pharisaical piety. It is interesting to note that the same term is applied to the process of making bricks in Gen 11:3 —that is, to the process of producing artificial imitations of stone—"Come, let us whiten bricks." So the Lord said, "Alas! for you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like graves whitewashed, which, indeed, outside appear beautiful, but within are full of dead bones and of all uncleanness" (Matt 23:27).
Looking back over verses 5-7, it is noticeable that they are an appeal to the Church "to repent because evil from the sensual man has destroyed the various things of the Church."
Internal Sense.—The lust of heathenism deprived the intellectual part of the Lord's spiritual Church of the truths of faith, and its natural good of charity; depriving it of truth it was deprived of good and despoiled of inward life, and sensual things caused its derivations to appear as due to its own merit.
references.—AC 1072, 5113, 9052; AE 403, 556; Cor. 56.
returning to the lord.
8. Adjure you, as a virgin girded [with] sackcloth, over the owner of her childhood.
Naturally regarded, this is a picture in a sentence. It is a virgin betrothed, after the custom of the orientals, in her childhood, but bereaved before the realization of her happiness. She wears the clothing of her grief, but lays herself under perpetual obligation of fidelity to him whom she calls her own and her owner. Commonly an oriental espousal is regarded as little else than a commercial transaction; the proper understanding of this passage leads to the conclusion that this is a mistake. What now remains, as the transmitted custom of marriage from ancient times in the East, only points to the degradation of the true ideal suggested in the Scripture. The betrothed bridegroom is called "the owner" of his betrothed bride, as she is said to "own" her husband, not as the possessor of some commercial and marketable property, but as being the soul who alone can own its "other-self." The verse introduces an impassioned exhortation to return to the Lord in fidelity and truth: for "truth is fallen in the street," and fallen by the deed of those charged with its upholding.
The natural sense of to adjure may be more exactly expressed by, "to lay one under an obligation by oath," probably, by invoking the name of God. Thus the silver which Micah took to himself had been sanctified to the Lord by his mother, and he had known that she had laid herself under the obligation so to use it: "And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred of silver that were taken from you, respecting which you did adjure (lay yourself under obligation by oath), and spoke of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me: I took it" (Judges 17:2). So in 1 Sam 14:24, "Saul caused the people to adjure, saying, Cursed be the man that eats bread until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies." Again 1 Kings 8:31, "If any man sin to his neighbour, and lay upon him an adjuration to cause him to adjure," etc. Hosea 4:2, compared with the commands against false oaths, would seem to bring this term within the scope of the second commandment. In the same sense the word is used in Hosea 10:4, "They speak words, adjuring falsely in their making a covenant." That the internal signification of the term, in its good sense, is to testify and confirm by truth, the natural meaning amply illustrates. It should be observed, that the form of the present verb is feminine, as continuing the idea of the preceding verse, by addressing the Church as the espoused of the Lord. Again, the sense of the passage is best obtained by understanding the latter words in connection with this, thus: "Adjure you, over the Owner of your childhood, as would a virgin girded with sackcloth over the owner of her childhood." So that deeply concealed in this word is the indication of the covenant or obligation laid upon the Church by its espousal to the Lord. The Church is called upon to return to Him by re-avowal of her faith and fidelity, and to realise her marriage bond by rejecting all other loves and desires but that of communion with the Holy One.
The Scriptures frequently speak by comparisons. The present verse is an instance: for the particle as is introduced. There is a Divine reason hidden within this. The spiritual import of the particle is, that something is so according to the appearance. The uses which appearances perform in the Divine Providence are very important in man's salvation, inasmuch as he is enabled thereby to act as from himself, and thus with freedom and reason. Swedenborg declares, that although the desire for truth is really not from ourselves, but from the Lord, it is permitted to appear to be our own, "for no one, without this appearance, can be saved," and "man, without the appearance that it is his, could not be in any affection of knowing, nor in any affection of understanding" (D.P. 79, 76). The value of this particle in the present case will be perceived from the following paraphrase,—O Church of God, lay yourself under obligation of fidelity toward your Lord, appearing to be the Church desirous of Truth, but distressed by the loss of it.
The espoused Church of the Lord, as to the affection of the genuine Truth, is signified by a virgin. In the natural sense this word seems to refer to a maiden of an age fit to be betrothed, and often of one already betrothed, though not wedded. See Isaiah 62:5, "For as a chosen youth owns a virgin, so shall your sons own you: and as the bridegroom rejoices over the b