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Genesis 17

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1 And Abram is a son of ninety and nine years, and Jehovah appeareth unto Abram, and saith unto him, `I [am] God Almighty, walk habitually before Me, and be thou perfect;

2 and I give My covenant between Me and thee, and multiply thee very exceedingly.'

3 And Abram falleth upon his face, and God speaketh with him, saying,

4 `I -- lo, My covenant [is] with thee, and thou hast become father of a multitude of nations;

5 and thy name is no more called Abram, but thy name hath been Abraham, for father of a multitude of nations have I made thee;

6 and I have made thee exceeding fruitful, and made thee become nations, and kings go out from thee.

7 `And I have established My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee, to their generations, for a covenant age-during, to become God to thee, and to thy seed after thee;

8 and I have given to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, the whole land of Canaan, for a possession age-during, and I have become their God.'

9 And God saith unto Abraham, `And thou dost keep My covenant, thou and thy seed after thee, to their generations;

10 this [is] My covenant which ye keep between Me and you, and thy seed after thee: Every male of you [is] to be circumcised;

11 and ye have circumcised the flesh of your foreskin, and it hath become a token of a covenant between Me and you.

12 `And a son of eight days is circumcised by you; every male to your generations, born in the house, or bought with money from any son of a stranger, who is not of thy seed;

13 he is certainly circumcised who [is] born in thine house, or bought with thy money; and My covenant hath become in your flesh a covenant age-during;

14 and an uncircumcised one, a male, the flesh of whose foreskin is not circumcised, even that person hath been cut off from his people; My covenant he hath broken.'

15 And God saith unto Abraham, `Sarai thy wife -- thou dost not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [is] her name;

16 and I have blessed her, and have also given to thee a son from her; and I have blessed her, and she hath become nations -- kings of peoples are from her.'

17 And Abraham falleth upon his face, and laugheth, and saith in his heart, `To the son of an hundred years is one born? or doth Sarah -- daughter of ninety years -- bear?'

18 And Abraham saith unto God, `O that Ishmael may live before Thee;'

19 and God saith, `Sarah thy wife is certainly bearing a son to thee, and thou hast called his name Isaac, and I have established My covenant with him, for a covenant age-during, to his seed after him.

20 As to Ishmael, I have heard thee; lo, I have blessed him, and made him fruitful, and multiplied him, very exceedingly; twelve princes doth he beget, and I have made him become a great nation;

21 and My covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah doth bear to thee at this appointed time in the next year;'

22 and He finisheth speaking with him, and God goeth up from Abraham.

23 And Abraham taketh Ishmael his son, and all those born in his house, and all those bought with his money -- every male among the men of Abraham's house -- and circumciseth the flesh of their foreskin, in this self-same day, as God hath spoken with him.

24 And Abraham [is] a son of ninety and nine years in the flesh of his foreskin being circumcised;

25 and Ishmael his son [is] a son of thirteen years in the flesh of his foreskin being circumcised;

26 in this self-same day hath Abraham been circumcised, and Ishmael his son;

27 and all the men of his house -- born in the house, and bought with money from the son of a stranger -- have been circumcised with him.

   

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Wife

  

The Hebrew of the Old Testament has six different common words which are generally translated as "wife," which largely overlap but have different nuances. Swedenborg uses two different Latin words, which largely overlap but have different nuances. Meanwhile, "wife" is often paired with "man" or "husband," which are also catch-all translations for a basket of Hebrew and Latin terms. So it's hard to pin down one universal meaning for "wife"; context and subject matter have a large effect.

In general, though, marriage in the Bible represents the union we all seek between our hearts and our minds. If we know what is right and pursue it faithfully, the Lord will ultimately help us love doing what is good, and the two aspects of ourselves will be unified. On a higher level, marriage represents the union we can have with the Lord, both individually and collectively as a church. As an intrinsic part of the marriage, the wife plays a key role in that meaning. But that meaning is different depending on what is being described.

If the marriage is describing a person who is spiritual in nature – "spiritual" being the second degree of heavenly life, in which people are led by intellect and knowledge with the desire for good following – the wife represents the desire for good, the affections that drive the person. If the marriage is describing someone who is celestial in nature – "celestial" being the highest degree of heavenly life, in which people are led from love, with the intellect and ideas following – the wife represents the true ideas held by the person or church. If the marriage is describing the union between the Lord and the church, the wife represents the church.

In a way, these are symbolic meanings that actually have little to do with gender. When "wife" describes a church, obviously that church can include both male and female people. When "wife" describes an aspect of a person, that person can obviously be either male or female.

(Препратки: Arcana Coelestia 915, 1468, 1904 [1-2], 3246 [3-4], 3398, 4823 [2])

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Arcana Coelestia #1891

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1891. The Lord's first rational was conceived according to order through the inflowing, that is, through the joining of the Internal Man to the life of the affection for knowledge belonging to the External, verses 1-3. But because it was born from the External Man, it was by nature such as despised intellectual truth, verse 4. Therefore the Lord thought about it being brought into subjection, verses 5-9, and that once it had been brought into subjection it would become spiritual and celestial, verses 10-11. The nature of it if it had not been brought into subjection is described, verse 1a. The Lord's insight from His Interior Man into the cause, verses 13-14. Thus the rational as to its nature is described; also the Lord's state when this rational began, verses 15-16.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.