705、此处主要论述的是大洪水，大洪水不仅表示被称为挪亚的教会成员在能被重生之前不得不经历的试探，还表示无法重生之人的荒废。在圣言中，试探和荒废被比作洪水或诸水的泛滥，实际上也被如此称呼。“洪水”表示试探，以赛亚书：
我离弃你不过片时，却以极大的怜悯再次招聚你。我因怒气涨溢，顷刻之间向你掩面，却要以永远的怜悯怜恤你。这是耶和华你的救赎主说的。这事在我就是挪亚的洪水，我怎样起誓不再使挪亚的诸水漫过大地，我也照样起誓不再向你发怒，也不斥责你。你这受困苦在暴风雨中飘摇不得安慰的人哪。（以赛亚书54:7-9，11）
这论及将要重生的教会及其试探，这些试探被称为“挪亚的诸水”。
此外，在路加福音，主自己也称试探为“洪水”：
耶稣说，凡到我这里来，听见我的话就去行的，就像一个人盖房子，开掘深挖，把根基立在磐石上；洪水泛滥的时候，河流冲击那房子，却不能摇动它，因为它立在磐石上。（路加福音6:47-48）
此处“洪水”表示试探，这一点对任何人来说都是显而易见的。“洪水”表示荒废，如以赛亚书：
主必使又强又多的河水起来漫过他们，就是亚述王和他所有的荣耀；必涨过一切的水道，漫过所有的河岸；必席卷犹大，泛滥弥漫，直到颈项。（以赛亚书8:7-8）
此处“亚述王”表示幻想和虚假的假设，以及基于这些的推理，它们会使人荒废，并且已经使大洪水前的人荒废了。
耶利米书：
耶和华如此说，看哪，诸水从北方涌上来，成为一股泛滥的河流，淹没陆地和充满它的一切，并城和其中所住的。（耶利米书47:2）
这论及非利士人，他们代表那些接受虚假的假设，并基于它们推理属灵事物的人；这些推理会淹没一个人，就像淹没大洪水前的人一样。在圣言中，试探和荒废之所以被比作洪水或诸水的泛滥，实际上也被如此称呼，是因为两者之间有相似之处；正是恶灵带着其与他们同住的说服和虚假假设流入进来，激活了人里面类似性质的事物。对正在重生的人来说，它们就是试探；但对未重生的人来说，它们就是荒废。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]705. Inner Meaning
THIS chapter speaks in detail of the Flood, which does not symbolize simply the trials that people in the church called Noah had to endure before they could be reborn; it also symbolizes the ruination of those who could not be reborn.
The Word compares both trial and ruination to floods of water, and it also calls them floods directly.
Trial. In Isaiah:
"For a short moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you back. In a flood of anger I hid my face from you a moment, but with eternal mercy will I have mercy on you," your redeemer, Jehovah, has said. "For to me it is [like] the waters of Noah, to whom I swore that the waters of Noah would no longer pass over the earth. So have I sworn that I would not rage against you or censure you. Afflicted one, and storm-tossed, and not finding comfort!" (Isaiah 54:7-8, 9, 11)
This is about the regenerating church and about times of trial, which are called the waters of Noah.
[2] The Lord himself also calls our struggles a flood in Luke:
Jesus said, "Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and does them is like a person building a house. The person dug and went down{*1} deep and set a foundation on the rock. For this reason, when a flood took place, the river struck that house but was not strong enough to dislodge it, since it was founded on rock." (Luke 6:47-48)
Anyone can see that the flood here means times when we are tested.
Ruination. In Isaiah:
The Lord is bringing up over them the waters of a river, strong and abundant: the king of Assyria and all his glory; and he comes up over all their brooks and will go over all their banks, and he will go through Judah. He will flood in and pass over; he will reach all the way to their neck. (Isaiah 8:7-8)
The king of Assyria stands for delusions, for falsities adopted as premises, and for faulty reasoning based on them, which ruin us and which ruined the people living before the Flood.
[3] In Jeremiah:
This is what Jehovah has said: "Look! Water climbing from the north; and it will become a flooding river and will flood the earth and its abundance, the city and those living in it." (Jeremiah 47:2-3)
This is about Philistines, representing those who seize on false premises and use them as a basis for reasoning about spiritual matters. False premises and warped reasoning drown a person, as they did the pre-Flood people.
The Word uses floods of water as a simile and a metaphor for times of both trial and ruin because these are similar phenomena. During them, evil spirits stream in with their persuasive lies and false assumptions and arouse the same kind of thinking in us. With a person who is regenerating these agitations are trials; with one who is not regenerating, they bring ruination.
Footnotes:
{*1} The translation here is based on reading "went down" (penetravit) for the first Latin edition's "goes down" (penetrat). Elliott (Swedenborg [1749-1756] 1983-1999) also adopts the past tense for this verb in his translation. [LHC]
Potts(1905-1910) 705
705. THE INTERNAL SENSE705. The subject here specifically treated of is the "flood" by which is signified not only the temptations which the man of the church called "Noah" had to undergo before he could be regenerated, but also the desolation of those who could not be regenerated. Both temptations and desolations are compared in the Word to "floods" or "inundations" of waters, and are so called. Temptations are denoted in Isaiah:
For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but in great compassions will I gather thee again. In an inundation of anger I hid my faces from thee for a moment; but in the mercy of eternity will I have compassion upon thee, saith Jehovah thy Redeemer. For this is the waters of Noah unto Me, to whom I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee and rebuke thee, O thou afflicted and tossed with tempests and not comforted (Isa. 54:7-9, 11). This is said of the church that is to be regenerated, and concerning its temptations, which are called the "waters of Noah." [2] The Lord Himself also calls temptations an "inundation" in Luke:
Jesus said, Everyone that cometh unto Me, and heareth My sayings and doeth them is like unto a man building a house, who digged, and went deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when an inundation came, the stream beat upon that house, but could not shake it, because it had been founded upon the rock (Luke 6:47-48).That temptations are here meant by an "inundation" must be evident to everyone. Desolations are also denoted in Isaiah:
The Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, the king of Asshur and all his glory; and he riseth up above all his channels, and shall go over all his banks: and he shall go through Judah; he shall inundate and go through; he shall reach even to the neck (Isa. 8:7-8). "The king of Asshur" here stands for phantasies, principles of falsity, and the derivative reasonings, which desolate man, and which desolated the antediluvians. [3] In Jeremiah:
Thus hath said Jehovah, Behold waters rise up out of the north, and shall become an inundating stream, and shall inundate the land and the fullness thereof, the city and them that dwell therein (Jer. 47:2-3). This is said of the Philistines, who represent those who take up false principles, and reason from them concerning spiritual things, which reasonings inundate man, as they did the antediluvians. The reason why both temptations and desolations are compared in the Word to "floods" or "inundations" of waters, and are so called, is that they are similarly circumstanced; it being evil spirits who flow in with their persuasions and the false principles in which they are, and excite such things in man. With the man who is being regenerated, these are temptations; but with the man who is not being regenerated they are desolations.
Elliott(1983-1999) 705
705. THE INTERNAL SENSE
Here the subject in particular is the Flood, which means not only the temptations that the member of the Church called Noah had to undergo before he could be regenerated, but also the desolation of those who were incapable of being regenerated. In the Word both temptations and desolations are compared to floods or deluges of waters, and are actually called such.
TEMPTATIONS
In Isaiah,
For a brief moment I forsook you, and with great compassion I will regather you. In a deluge of wrath I hid My facea from you for a moment, but with everlasting mercy I will have mercy on you, said Jehovah your Redeemer, for this is the waters of Noah to Me, to whom I swore that the waters of Noah should go no more over the earth. Thus have I sworn that I will not be angry with you and rebuke you. O afflicted one and storm-tossed, and receiving no comfort! Isa 54:7, 9, 11.This refers to the Church that is to be regenerated, and to temptations which are called 'the waters of Noah'.
[2] Besides this the Lord Himself calls temptations 'a deluge', in Luke,
Jesus said, Every one who comes to Me, and hears My words and does them, is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep, and laid the foundations upon rock; and when a deluge came, a stream broke against that house but was not strong enough to move it because it had been founded upon the rock. Luke 6:47, 48.
The fact that 'a deluge' here is used to mean temptations may be clear to anyone.
DESOLATIONS
In Isaiah,
The Lord is causing to rise up over them the waters of the river, mighty and many, the king of Asshur and all his glory; and it is rising over all its channels, and will go over all its banks, and it will go through Judah, it will deluge it and pass through and will reach even to the neck. Isa 8:7, 8.
Here 'the king of Asshur' stands for the delusions, false assumptions, and reasonings based on these, which desolate a person and which desolated the people before the Flood.
[3] In Jeremiah,
Thus said Jehovah, Behold, waters rising out of the north, they will be a deluging stream, and they will deluge the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it. Jer 47:2, 3.
This refers to the Philistines who represent people who adopt false assumptions and from them engage in reasonings about spiritual matters, which reasonings overwhelm a person as they did the people before the Flood. The reason why in the Word both temptations and desolations are compared to floods or deluges of waters, and are actually called such, is that there is a similarity between the two, it being evil spirits who flow in with their persuasions and false assumptions which dwell with them and who activate the things of a like nature in man. With someone who is being regenerated they are temptations, but with someone who is not they are desolations.
Latin(1748-1756) 705
705. SENSUS INTERNUSHic agitur in specie de 'diluvio,' per quod significantur non solum tentationes quas homo Ecclesiae quae 'Noahus' vocatur, sustinere debuit antequam regenerari potuit, sed etiam per diluvium significatur desolatio eorum qui non potuerunt regenerari; tam tentationes quam desolationes, in Verbo comparantur diluviis seu inundationibus aquarum, ac ita vocantur; pro tentationibus, apud Esaiam, In momento parvo reliqui te, et in miserationibus magnis recolligam te; in inundatione{1} irae abscondi facies Meas momento a te, sed in misericordia aeternitatis miserebor tui, dixit Redemptor tuus Jehovah, nam aquae Noahi hoc Mihi, cui juravi non transituras aquas Noahi amplius super terram; sic juravi non succensurum tibi, et increpaturum te;... afflicta et procellis jactata, nec consolationem nacta, liv 7-9, 11;
hic de regeneranda Ecclesia, et de tentationibus quae vocantur 'aquae Noahi.' [2] Ipse Dominus etiam tentationes appellat inundationem, apud Lucam, Jesus dixit, Omnis qui venit ad Me, et audit sermones Meos, facitque eos,... similis est homini aedificanti domum, qui fodit et in profundum penetrat, posuitque fundamentum super petra, unde, inundatione facta, illisum flumen domui isti, sed non valuit dimovere eam quoniam fundata erat super petra, vi 47, 48;
quod hic per 'inundationem' intelligantur tentationes, unicuivis constare potest. Pro desolationibus, apud Esaiam, Dominus ascendere faciens super eos aquas fluminis validas et multas, regem Asshuris, et omnem gloriam ejus, et ascendit super omnes rivos ejus, et ibit super omnes ripas ejus, et ibit per Jehudam, inundabit et transibit, usque ad collum pertinget, viii 7, 8:
ubi 'rex Asshuris' pro phantasiis, principiis falsi, et ratiociniis inde, quae desolant hominem, et desolarunt antediluvianos: [3] apud Jeremiam, Sic dixit Jehovah, Ecce aquae ascendentes a septentrione, et erunt in flumen inundans, et inundabunt terram, et plenitudinem ejus, urbem et habitantes in ea, xlvii 2, 3;
ubi de Philistaeis, per quos repraesentantur illi qui principia falsa capiunt et inde ratiocinantur de spiritualibus, quae inundant hominem, sicut antediluvianos. Quod tam tentationes quam desolationes in Verbo comparentur diluviis seu inundationibus aquarum, et ita vocentur, causa est quia similiter se habent; sunt mali spiritus qui influunt cum suis persuasionibus et principiis falsi in quibus sunt, et excitant similia apud hominem; sed apud hominem qui regeneratur, sunt tentationes, apud hominem qui non regeneratur, sunt desolationes. @1 Heb. [ ] (shetseph) occurs only in this verse. A.V. translates by 'little,' but R.V. corrects to 'overflowing.' S. always has inundatione where he quotes this verse. The word is clearly a variant of [ ] (sheteph)=flood.$