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1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
1-3. Of the natural man who, in things Divine, trusts nothing but his knowledges. (scientifics) P. P.
1-12. See Chapter XVI., 26, 28, 29. R. 503.
By these words is described the natural man, deprived of all truth and good by conceit originating in science, and self-intelligence thence derived. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, signifies such science and intelligence, therefore it is said "I am against thee." By the great whale (dragon) is signified the scientific principle of the natural man in general, in this case the false scientific. The river is mine and I have made myself, means intelligence from self and not from the Lord. Put a hook in thy jaws, signifies false speaking and its chastisement. The fish of the rivers to stick to thy scales, signifies false scien tifics of the lowest kind, originating in the fallacies of the senses. Being left in the wilderness means divested of all truth. E. 654.
1-21. Mizraim, or Egypt, in the Word signifies external knowledges, or various matters of knowledge wherewith men would explore the mysteries of faith, and thereby confirm received principles of falsity. A. 1165.
2 Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt;
2-4. Pharaoh is outward knowledge in perverted order, which destroys the truths of faith. A. 60 IS.
2, 18. The prophets were called sons of man, because they represented the Lord as to the Word, and thence signified the doctrine of the church from the Word. L. 28.
3 speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lieth in the midst of his rivers, that hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
3. Sea monsters, or whales are sometimes mentioned in the prophets, and there they signify general knowledge. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt is so called. A. 42.
Whales signify knowledges perverting the truths of faith. By them also are signified reasonings from fallacies. A. 7293.
Egypt is here called a whale, for by it is signified the scientific of the natural man. By a whale also the general scientific principle. E. 342.
3, 4. The conceit of self-derived intelligence of the natural and sensual man is here described. Pharaoh represented, this man, the dragon or whale the same as to scientific which are made falses, or falsified from self-derived intelligence. To withdraw from falses, and to lead to interior truths is called "I will deliver him." E. 714.
Whales signify men merely sensual. E. 714.
3-5. These things were said to the king of Egypt, because by Egypt is signified the natural separated from the spiritual. Hence by the fishes of its rivers those who are in doctrines, and from them are in faith separate, which faith is only knowledge. R. 405.
By Pharaoh is here signified the same as by Egypt, namely, the natural man, and what is scientific in him. He is called a great dragon or whale which means scientifics in general. He shall be drawn au t of the river, and all the fish shall adhere to his scales means that all intelligence would perish, and that the science which is substituted in its place would be in the sensual man without life. The sensual man is the lowest natural man. E. 513.
3-5, 9, 10. Scales are those things which are manifestly external, thus sensual, to which false knowledges adhere. By the river of Egypt is meant falsity. A. 6693.
3-5, 10. Intelligence and the knowledge of truth shall perish. E. 518.
3, 9. To him who would be wise from the world, things of sense and of knowledge are his garden; the love of self and of the world are his Eden. A. 130.
4 And I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales; and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, with all the fish of thy rivers which stick unto thy scales.
4, 5. Such will pervert the truths of the church by applying their scientifics to falsities. P. P.
5 And I will cast thee forth into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open field; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered; I have given thee for food to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens.
5. The fowls of the heavens signify truths of the understanding and thus thoughts, they also signify their opposites, as fantasies or falsities, which being of man's thoughts are called fowls. A. 778.
The wild animal in the opposite sense is taken in the Word for what is not living. A. 908.
That carcasses should be given for meat to the fowl of the air means, that they should be destroyed by falsities, which are the fowls of the air, and by evils or lusts, which are the beasts of the earth. A. 988.
The wild beast of the fields stands for the falsities and evils which are of the loves of self and of the world. A. 9335.
Men as to their affections are meant by beasts. R. 561.
Nothing else but infernal falsities are signified by the birds which came down upon the carcasses. R. 757.
These things are said of Pharaoh, and of Egypt, by whom is signified the natural man separated from the spiritual. When so separated he is in mere falsities and evils, for he is then without the light of heaven, from which all in telligence is derived. By being left thrown out into the wilderness is meant to be without truth and goods, by falling upon the open fields that everything of the church shall perish. E. 388.
By wild beasts in the opposite spiritual sense are signified cupidities of the false by evil, and by birds the thoughts and reasonings thence resulting. Where in the Word the vastation of the church is treated of, it is said, they shall be given to the wild beasts and to the birds to be devoured. E. 650.
It was customary by the Jewish nation to expose the dead bodies of their enemies whom they slew in battle, to the beasts and birds to be devoured. It was therefore formerly accounted horrible and profane, and is so now, to leave dead men upon the field of the earth unburied, even after battle. E. 1100.
6 And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am Jehovah, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
6, 7. This is said of those who wish to explore spiritual truths by means of outward knowledge. The staff of reed stands for such power, taking by the hand means trusting therein, rending every shoulder means being deprived of all power so as to know nothing. A. 1085.
By the shoulder in the Word is signified all power. A. 4937.
Rending every shoulder stands for depriving of all power of comprehending truth. Egypt is the perverted knowledge which deprives. A. 9836.
By Egypt is signified the natural man who trusts to his own powers. It is therefore called a staff of bruised reed. R. 485.
These things are said concerning those in the church who confide in self-derived intelligence. The sons of Israel mean those who are of the church, their confidence is indicated by the staff of a reed, when they leaned upon it it breakest. E. 627.
Egypt signifies the natural man with the things contained therein. It is therefore called the staff of a bruised reed, which entereth and pierceth the hand, when one leaneth upon it. E. 727.
Because truths have been perverted in this manner, all power, which is of truth, has in their case been destroyed. P. P.
6-9. Concerning those who wish to enter by knowledges and reasonings into the doctrinals of faith, it is thus written. A. 2588.
7 When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and didst rend all their shoulders; and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.
7. By the loins is meant in the first place marriage love, and thence all genuine love. Here in the opposite sense opposite loves are signified, which are the loves of self and of the world. A. 3021.
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and will cut off from thee man and beast.
8-12. And all truth will be utterly devastated, until they no longer have truth. P. P.
9 And the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. Because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it;
10 therefore, behold, I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even unto the border of Ethiopia.
9, 10, 12. See Chapter XIII., 14, 15· Coro. 59.
And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste. D. P., Page 27.
10. Egypt stands for external knowledges, and Cush (Ethiopia) for interior knowledges of internal things of the Word. A. 1164.
11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
12 And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
11-13. Forty also signifies what is complete as to instruction and influx. A. 9437.
11-14. In the Word mention is frequently made of forty, sometimes days, sometimes months, sometimes years. It either means a full vastation of the church, or a full state of temptation. E. 633.
13 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples whither they were scattered;
13, 14. The meaning is that they should be (Judah and Israel) gathered from the nations, and brought back from captivity. A. 1462.
Repeated from Chapter XXIX., 13, 14. A. 2588.
13-15. The inhabitants of Pathros(Pathrusim) signify the teaching of rituals which are only matters of memory, and therefore external. A. 1196.
13-16. See Chapter XXVII., 7. R. 503.
Egypt here signifies the church which is only in natural light, and the temptations which they will have to undergo.. That the natural man may not rule over the spiritual is signified by forty years. The scientifics by which they confirmed falses are meant by Egypt, which the Lord shall gather from the people whither they were dispersed. Their illustration by the knowledges of tru th is signified by their being brought back again upon the land of Pathros. E. 654.
Nevertheless something of the church will be established out of those who are natural and in knowledges. P. P.
14 and I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth; and they shall be there a base kingdom.
15 It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations: and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
16 And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to remembrance, when they turn to look after them: and they shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.
14. The church in which receptions and appropriations here of falses - prevails, is called a land of trading. E. 840.
17 And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
17, 18. Reasonings from knowledges (scientifics) of the natural man will not destroy knowledges of truth with them. P. P.
18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet had he no wages, nor his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it.
18. See Chapter XIII., 18. A. 9166.
Baldness signifies the falsifications of the truths of the Word. S. 35.
When the Israelitish nation had perverted all the sense of the letter of the Word this lamentation is made over them. R. 47.
By every head being made bald is signified to deprive of all good and truth, for he who is deprived of ultimates is also deprived of things prior. E. 66.
Every head being made bald means intelligence perishes. E. 577.
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.
20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which he served, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord Jehovah.
19, 20. But these will be destroyed by reasonings from the natural man with those who trust in knowledges alone, and have perverted the truths of the church. P. P.
21 In that day will I cause a horn to bud forth unto the house of Israel, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
21. To make the horn to grow for the house of Israel, means to multiply the truths of the spiritual church, which is Israel. The opening of the mouth stands for the confession of them. A. 2832.
It is the Lord's good pleasure that man should have strength by faith from love as to what relates to his spmt, and conduces to eternal salvation. Horns signify this power. A. 10182.
In that day means the coming of the Lord. L. 4.
See Chapter XXIV., 26, 27· R. 704.
The horn to bud forth signifies truth in abundance.
The house of Israel stands for the church. E. 316.
Those who are of the church that the Lord will establish will have truths of Doctrine. P. P.
Author: Emanuel Swedenborg (Compiled by Robert S. Fischer 1925)
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