Week 5    Day 2

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The Inheritance of Asher—Tyre

Joshua 19:29-31

29 ...and the border [of Asher] turns back to Ramah, and to the fortified city Tyre; and the border turns back to Hosah; and the outgoings thereof were at the sea, from the region to Achzib;

30 and Ummah, and Aphek, and Rehob: twenty and two cities and their villages.

31 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Asher according to their families, these cities and their villages.

The City of Tyre

AC 1201.1. “Zidon” signifies exterior cognitions of spiritual things... That this is the signification of “Zidon” is also evident from the fact that Tyre and Zidon were extreme borders of Philistia, and were moreover by the sea; and therefore by “Tyre” interior cognitions are signified, and by “Zidon” exterior cognitions, that is, of spiritual things—which is also evident from the Word.

AC 2967.3. That a “merchant” signifies those who have the knowledges of good and truth; and that “merchandise” signifies the knowledges themselves is evident ...from Ezekiel:

Say to Tyre, O thou that dwellest at the entrances of the sea, that art the trader of the peoples to many isles, Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; in silver, iron, tin, and lead, they furnished thy fairs... Syria was thy merchant in the multitude of thy handiworks. Judah and the land of Israel, they were thy traders; in wheat, minnith and pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm, they furnished thy commerce.... (Ezek. 27 [parts])

These things are said concerning Tyre; and by “Tyre” are signified the cognitions of good and truth... as is plain from the several particulars. “Traffickings,” and “merchandise,” and “wares” mentioned in this passage, are nothing else than these cognitions; and for this reason Tyre is called the “dweller at the entrances of the sea” (that “waters” are cognitions; and that the “sea” is a collection of these, may be seen above, n. 28); and Tyre is also called the “trader of the peoples to many isles,” that is, even to those who are more remotely in worship...

That “Judah and the land of Israel” are “traders in wheat, minnith and pannag, honey, oil, balm” signifies celestial and spiritual things from the Word. The other nations and their merchandise which are mentioned, are the various genera and species of truth and good, thus the cognitions which are with those who are signified by “Tyre.”

AC 2967.4. That they are cognitions from which come wisdom and intelligence is plainly evident in the same prophet, where it is thus said:

Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, By thy wisdom and by thine intelligence, thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures; by the multitude of thy wisdom, by thy trading, thou hast multiplied thy riches, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches. Therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations (Ezek. 28:2, 4-7).

Here it is manifestly evident that the wares with which they traded are the cognitions of good and truth; for from these, and from no other source, come wisdom and intelligence; and it is therefore said, “by thy wisdom and by thine intelligence thou hast gotten thee riches, and thou hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures.” But when cognitions are for the sake of self, for gaining eminence and reputation, or wealth, then they have no life, and those who acquire them are altogether deprived of them. They are deprived of them in the life of the body by embracing falsities for truths and evils for goods; and in the other life they are wholly deprived even of those which are true....

AR 406.2. “Ships” signify the cognitions of good and truth in the following passages:

O Tyre, the builders have perfected thy beauty... Thy wise men were thy ship-masters; all the ships of the sea and their sailors were in thee to trade. The ships of Tarshish were thy troops in thy tradings, from which thou wast exceedingly filled and honored in the heart of the seas (Ezek. 27:4-9, 25).

This is concerning Tyre, because the church as to the cognitions of truth and good is signified by “Tyre” in the Word, as may be evident from the particulars concerning it in this chapter and in the following (Ezek. 28), when understood in the spiritual sense. And as the cognitions of the truth and good of the church are signified by “Tyre,” a ship is therefore described as to the particulars of it, and by each one is signified some quality of those cognitions that contributes to intelligence. What does the Word have in common with the ships of Tyre and its commerce?

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