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Expanded Comments |
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| 1 Come near, ye nations, to hear, And ye peoples, give attention, Hear doth the earth and its fulness, The world, and all its productions. |
Ye nations, to hear – This dashing to pieces as a potter's vessel will prove a valuable lesson to them when they come forth to an individual judgment under the Millennial reign. D20[D20:2]
Let the earth – The present organization of society. C229[C229:1]; A323[A322:1]; D46[D45:2]
And all things – All selfish and evil things. D20[D20:2]
Come forth of it – Of the spirit of the world. D20[D20:2]
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| 2 For wrath [is] to Jehovah against all the nations, And fury against all their host, He hath devoted them to destruction, He hath given them to slaughter. |
For the indignation – The time of trouble. D13
Is upon all nations – The judgment of nations, now instituted, is a judgment of men in their collective (civil and religious) capacities. D12[D12:1]
Including heathendom also, because they have preferred darkness to light. D70[D70:1]
He hath utterly – Taking the future standpoint. D20[D20:2]
Hath delivered them – Judging them unworthy of a continued lease of power. D70[D70:2]
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| 3 And their wounded are cast out, And their carcases cause their stench to ascend, And melted have been mountains from their blood. |
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| 4 And consumed have been all the host of the heavens, And rolled together as a book have been the heavens, And all their hosts do fade, As the fading of a leaf of a vine, And as the fading one of a fig-tree. |
The host of heaven – The nominal church, ecclesiastical systems. D552[D551:3]; R1947:6[R1947:29], R1705:5[R1705:4], R1488:2[R1488:3]; HG316:5
Shall be dissolved – A symbolic representation of the way in which the change of dispensation will be effected. R1814:2[R1814:2]
Together as a scroll – Catholicism and Protestantism, the two ends. D258, D552,; R4343:3, R3531:4, R1355:6, R1474:1, R1766:2
Not in one great roll, but in two separate parts, really in opposition. R1705:5[R1705:6], R2061:6[R2061:28]
A concentration to one center--but in two great divisions. R1474:1
Coming closer together as their power decreases. R1355
Rolling together for mutual protection, sympathy and co-operation. R5349:4, R1488:2, R3533:1
We see in Germany what seems to be the start of this rolling together. The Emperor has been obliged to conciliate the Catholic element of his empire more and more. R3532:1
The two sides clearly divided; as the book of Revelation clearly distinguishes between the "Image" and the original "Beast," Papacy; while showing that they will be considerably in fellowship. (Rev. 13:15-17) R2047:1, R2046:3
Illustrated by the appointments of ritualists as bishops in the Church of England, and the elevation of a Roman Cardinal to the House of Lords as a Lord Bishop. R2309:1; D551
Shall fall down --Fall off, drop out; not all at once, but gradually, yet rapidly. D552
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| 5 For soaked in the heavens was My sword, Lo, on Edom it cometh down, On the people of My curse for judgment. |
To judgment – Verses 2 to 5 are a symbolic representation of the way in which the change of dispensation will be effected. R1814:2
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| 6 A sword [is] to Jehovah it hath been full of blood, It hath been made fat with fatness, With blood of lambs and he-goats. With fat of kidneys of rams, For a sacrifice [is] to Jehovah in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. |
The blood of lambs – Of the tribulation saints. D17
And goats – The "tare" class. D17
Sacrifice in Bozrah – The name Bozrah signifies "sheep fold," and the city is even yet noted for its goats. D17
Ecclesiasticism, the chief citadel of Christendom. D17
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| 7 And come down have reems with them, And bullocks with bulls, And soaked hath been their land from blood, And their dust from fatness is made fat. |
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| 8 (For a day of vengeance [is] to Jehovah, A year of recompences for Zion's strife,) |
The LORD'S vengeance – The time of trouble. D11; D20; OV345:6
A day of rectifying the wrongs of the people. R3841:5
The controversy – The strife and contention in nominal Zion. D19
Of Zion – The saints, the true Church. OV345:6
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| 9 And turned have been her streams to pitch, And her dust to brimstone, And her land hath become burning pitch. |
Into brimstone – Destruction. A318
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| 10 By night and by day she is not quenched, To the age go up doth her smoke, From generation to generation she is waste, For ever and ever, none is passing into her. |
The smoke thereof – The remembrance of the destruction of the present systems of deception and error. R2609:6
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| 11 And possess her do pelican and hedge-hog, And owl and raven dwell in her, And He hath stretched out over her A line of vacancy, and stones of emptiness. |
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| 12 [To] the kingdom her freemen they call, But there are none there, And all her princes are at an end. |
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| 13 And gone up her palaces have thorns, Nettle and bramble [are] in her fortresses, And it hath been a habitation of dragons, A court for daughters of an ostrich. |
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| 14 And met have Ziim with Aiim, And the goat for its companion calleth, Only there rested hath the night-owl, And hath found for herself a place of rest. |
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| 15 There made her nest hath the bittern, Yea, she layeth, and hath hatched, And hath gathered under her shadow, Only there gathered have been vultures, Each with its companion. |
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| 16 Seek out of the book of Jehovah, and read, One of these hath not been lacking, None hath missed its companion, For My mouth it hath commanded, And His spirit He hath gathered them. |
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| 17 And He hath cast for them a lot, And His hand hath apportioned [it] to them by line, Unto the age they possess it, To all generations they dwell in it! |
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