NightWatchman

can any one of you tell me why the bible puts so much emphasis on the EAST side of a city. When ever god was busy smoting tribes of people it was in the east, whenever anyone saw the lord it was in the east. Why the EAST.

How about you AMOS, can you tell me




Ezekiel 40:22
And their windows, and their arches, and their palm trees, were after the measure of the gate that looketh toward the east; and they went up unto it by seven steps; and the arches thereof were before them.

Genesis 2:8
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.


genesis 3:24
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.


Genesis 3:24
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.



Genesis 12:8
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.

Genesis 13:11
Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.


Genesis 29:1
Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east.


Genesis 41:6
And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.


Genesis 41:23
And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:

Genesis 41:27
And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.


Exodus 10:13
And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.

Exodus 27:13
And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.

Exodus 38:13
And for the east side eastward fifty cubits.



Leviticus 1:16
And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, by the place of the ashes:

Leviticus 16:14
And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.


Numbers 34:11
And the coast shall go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward:


Numbers 34:15
The two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance on this side Jordan near Jericho eastward, toward the sunrising.


Joshua 11:8
And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephothmaim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining.



Joshua 12:1
Now these are the kings of the land, which the children of Israel smote, and possessed their land on the other side Jordan toward the rising of the sun, from the river Arnon unto mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east:


Joshua 15:5
And the east border was the salt sea, even unto the end of Jordan. And their border in the north quarter was from the bay of the sea at the uttermost part of Jordan:



Judges 6:33
Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.



Judges 7:12
And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.


1 Kings 4:30
And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt


2 Kings 13:17
And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the LORD's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them.


1 Chronicles 4:39
And they went to the entrance of Gedor, even unto the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks


1 Chronicles 5:9
And eastward he inhabited unto the entering in of the wilderness from the river Euphrates: because their cattle were multiplied in the land of Gilead.


1 Chronicles 9:18
Who hitherto waited in the king's gate eastward: they were porters in the companies of the children of Levi


2 Chronicles 5:12
Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets


2 Chronicles 29:4
And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street,


Nehemiah 3:29
After them repaired Zadok the son of Immer over against his house. After him repaired also Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the east gate.



Job 1:3
His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.



Job 15:2
Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?


Job 38:24
By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?



Psalm 78:26
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.



Isaiah 27:8
In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.



Jeremiah 18:17
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.


Jeremiah 19:2
And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,


Jeremiah 31:40
And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.


Ezekiel 8:16
And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.


Ezekiel 10:19
And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.


Ezekiel 11:1
Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD's house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.


Ezekiel 11:23
And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.


Ezekiel 17:10
Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew.


Ezekiel 40:44
And without the inner gate were the chambers of the singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the north gate; and their prospect was toward the south: one at the side of the east gate having the prospect toward the north.


Ezekiel 42:9
And from under these chambers was the entry on the east side, as one goeth into them from the utter court



Ezekiel 42:10
The chambers were in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, over against the separate place, and over against the building.


Ezekiel 42:12
And according to the doors of the chambers that were toward the south was a door in the head of the way, even the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one entereth into them.



Ezekiel 43:1
Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east:


Ezekiel 43:2
And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.


Ezekiel 43:4
And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east



Ezekiel 43:17
And the settle shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen broad in the four squares thereof; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and the bottom thereof shall be a cubit about; and his stairs shall look toward the east.


Ezekiel 44:1
Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.


Ezekiel 46:12
Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.



Ezekiel 47:1
Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.


Ezekiel 47:2
Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.



Ezekiel 47:3
And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.



Ezekiel 47:8
Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.


Ezekiel 48:1
Now these are the names of the tribes. From the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath; for these are his sides east and west; a portion for Dan.



Ezekiel 48:7
And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Judah.



Ezekiel 48:8
And by the border of Judah, from the east side unto the west side, shall be the offering which ye shall offer of five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the other parts, from the east side unto the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.




Ezekiel 48:10
And for them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst thereof.



Ezekiel 48:16
And these shall be the measures thereof; the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred.


Daniel 2:38
And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.


Amos 8:12
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.



Zechariah 14:4
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.



Matthew 24:27
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.



Revelation 7:2
And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,



Revelation 21:13
On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

twelve gates. what are the twelve gates to the city?

NightWatchman

Amos

Hi NightWatchman, first I should tell you that I enjoyed your post about "Light" in "Existence of God" and this could help you here.

With regard to East, the best I can do is give you my interpretation and I''ll be happy to do that for the exercise only. So please do not believe me at will.

East is from where we came. East is the Alpha or that which was given to us at birth. It is our soul, and in our soul is contained the Thousand Year Reign that is more or less foreign to us in our conscious mind. I say more or less because our inspirations come from there and in contemplation do we try to search and infer from there (induction as opposed to deduction).

The "city" is our conscious mind and its inhabitants are the details of our curriculum vitae that we wrote upon our own blank slate (tabula rasa). We do this each in our own way and in our own time and is therefore West of Eden (Eden is my "soul" wherein we are eternal because it is incarnate upon us and therefore our Thousand Year Reign. Eden is equal to your "East").

We were placed East of Eden from where we must go West because we cannot go East from Eden and there add to the beginning of our Thousand Year Reign. We journey through Eden in our infancy (the inquisitive child or Emile of Rousseau) and soon leave Eden when we become aware of our ego whereupon we built our city. In "The Spire" this "city" was the "church tower" built upon the chest of the hero and in "WE" it was the "intergral" that was built on the imagination of the engineer.

Notice that the Thousand Year Reign is the extreme possible duration of time from where we can recollect data via intuit memory (intuition is the memory of our soul).

Why is this movement in time described from East to West and not West to East? Probably because the sun rises in the East wherefore "morning came and evening followed" instead of "evening came and morning followed" (NAB). In other words, God is light that we as humans, or in our human condition, manipulate into life. Very clever, don't you think? Needless to say, our ego (the city) is good and we must make the most of it because it will become part of the East for the next many generations.

The windows were inspirations, the arches were journeys into the unknown and the palms were the rewards they brought about, all after the degree of intimacy we have with the netherworld of our subconscious mind. The seven steps make reference to the progressive stages in the journey of life and our subsequent understanding of them-- which will never be ours until we arrive at the seventh stage where we will see the netherworld of our subconscious mind as the upper world of our soul that got us 'home' thusfar.

The twelve gates are ours when we come full circle in the alpha and can recall from "both the old and the new." The old is the alpha and the new is the twelve steps we have added between the alpha and omega.

Six gates are involutionay and six are evolutionary (yand and yin). I would say that fall is 1-3, winter is 4-6, spring is 7-9 and summer is 10-12. The first six are involutionay because they require energy (pleasure-pain), while the second 6 are lived from entropy stored in our soul (Rev. 14:13).

NightWatchman

Amos, then what is all the SEVEN stuff

Seven days of creation in Genesis Genesis 1
Seven days until rain after Noah enters the ark Genesis 7:4, 10
Seven days between the doves Genesis 8:10, 12
Seven years Jacob serves for each of his two wives Genesis 28:18-20; 29:27-30
Seven ewe lambs at the well of Beersheba Genesis 21:28-30
Seven days pursuit of Jacob by Laban Genesis 31:23
Seven bows by Jacob meeting Esau Genesis 33:3
Seven kine and seven ears of corn in Pharaoh's dreams

(Seven good years and seven famine years)
Genesis 41
Seven daughters of Reuel, Priest of Midian Exodus 2:16
Seven days the waters turned to blood Exodus 7:25
Seven lamps of the Menorah Exodus 25:37
Seven elements of furniture in the Tabernacle Exodus 25
Seven feasts of Israel Leviticus 23
Seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread Exodus 12:15, 19; 13:6, 7; Leviticus 23:6
Seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles Leviticus 23:34-36
Seven weeks to the Feast of Weeks Leviticus 23:16
Seven months in the ecclesiastical year, from Nisan to Tishri
Seven years of the sabbatical year Leviticus 25:4
Seven times seven to the Jubilee Year Leviticus 25:8
the repeated use of seven in the Levitical priestly instructions Exodus 29:35, 37; et al.
Seven priests with seven trumpets circling Jericho seven times Joshua 6
Seven nations of Canaan Joshua 3:10; 24:11
Solomon was seven years building the Temple 1 Kings 6:38
Naaman washed seven times in the river 2 Kings 5:10, 14
Seven loaves fed the 4,000 Matthew 15: 32-39; Mark 8:1-9
Seven deacons in Acts Acts 6:5
Seven sons of Sceva Acts 19:14
Seven lamp stands Revelation 1:12, 13, 20
Seven Spirits before His throne Revelation 1:4; 3:1
Seven horns, seven eyes... Revelation 5:6
Seven structural elements to each letter




nightwatchman

Amos

A lot of sevens but they all amount to the same thing (I think).

The seven is the beginning of 'our' second go-around and the beginning of the purgation period which is the early evolutionary period. It is just after Epiphany wherein "all has been made clear" (notice how the Magi came from the East with Balthasar meeting them enroute from the South (South is between 4 and 6, and was slightly black to show the redemption of 'our' sin). Redemption here means the recall of the apostels into the upper room and the apostels were at one time the shepherds that were our strongholds needed to built our 'city' (in effect they were our skills and qualities as social beings=curriculum vitae). So Balthasar represents the fruits of our labors now coming to us as richess in heaven, or, Balthasar represents that which we added to the alpha and we are now coming fulll circle in the omega from where we return on our journey back towards the alpha (Eden). Six is metanoia and seven is when we return back to Eden on our own while we search for entropy (locusts in the desert because our volition has done a 180).

The seventh day of creation is the day on which evening did not follow the day. Notice that on the first six days the NAB clearly states that "morning came and evening followed" while on the seventh day evening did not follow the day. The inference here is that if we are arrive on the seventh day we are illuminated by the celestial ligth, see Rev.22:5 and also 21:23 wherein even the "temple was no more" to indicate that religion cannot be part of the Christian life. To be illuminated by the celestial light means that we no longer have to extract illumination from the light of common day to enhance our temporal mode of existence as city dweller. This means that we have become a clochard! (Sabine-but not really). It just means that we have become "son of man" and have no place to lie our head" and this is cause for the abandonment sought by the clochard or hermit.

In the 8 we come full circle in both minds and in this sense must the 8 be juxtaposed with the number 3 where we are divided and not full circle in either our self consciousness nor in our God consciousness. The 7 is opposite the 2 wherein we showed rebellion and instead of coming full cirle in one mind with God went the other way. In the 7 we are God, or at least one with God ("the father and I are one") but not in harmony as in the number 11 (which is back in Eden).

Editer to add that the arrival of 7 (the magi) is evidence of a rebirth from a benevolent female as opposed to a malevolent female and the earliest promise of Easter (resurrection) to follow which in turn is the reason why the Eastern Rite does not celebrate Christ-mass until Epiphany (Christ-mass is the crisis moment). In other words, if a virgin birth is possible a non virgin birth must be possible which now means that in a non virgin birth we impregante (fuck?) ourselves. Go yea Marti Luther!

The Naked Mage

Actually, "we" as a whole came from Africa, which is to the southwest. Unless you mean it figuratively, of course, which is probably your best bet, considering the Bible's laughable scientific ignorance.

What in the name of....??

Find ANOTHER personal interpretation.

Jamie_L

If I had to guess: this EAST stuff harkens back to the days when humans viewed the sun as a god. Sun rises in the east, and all that, don't ya know. If God brings light, he probably lives in the East somewhere, sending the sun out every day or so.

Yep, I'd definitely guess its got something to do with the sun (not to be confused with the Son - or perhaps it is).

Jamie

dangin

You're so silly. The sun is a chariot pulled across the sky by apollo each day.

Amos

So why would an omniscient mind be doing the science?

The Naked Mage

This "omniscient mind" thought that the Earth was flat, so you're right; clearly, it doesn't do the science.

Jobar

In "The Spire" this "city" was the "church tower" built upon the chest of the hero and in "WE" it was the "intergral" that was built on the imagination of the engineer.

Amos, do you write poetry? If so, I'd be interested in hearing it. As Lewis Carroll proved, poetry need not make a lick of sense to be good...