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Genesis 17

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1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,

4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of a multitude of nations.

5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee.

6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.

8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

9 And God said unto Abraham, And as for thee, thou shalt keep my covenant, thou, and thy seed after thee throughout their generations.

10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee: every male among you shall be circumcised.

11 And ye shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of a covenant betwixt me and you.

12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any foreigner that is not of thy seed.

13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

14 And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

16 And I will bless her, and moreover I will give thee a son of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be [a mother of] nations; kings of peoples shall be of her.

17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

18 And Abraham said unto God, Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!

19 And God said, Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.

20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.

24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.

27 And all the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money of a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 2116

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2116. That 'were circumcised by him' means that they were made righteous by the Lord becomes clear from the representation and consequently from the meaning of 'being circumcised' as being purified, dealt with above in 2039. 'Being circumcised by him' - that is, by Abraham - was also a representative act, that is to say, an act of being purified and so of being made righteous by the Lord. As regards righteousness however, the position is not as people commonly suppose. They imagine that all evils and sins are washed away and completely abolished when people become believers, even if they become such only in their last hour before they die, no matter whether they have committed evil and disgraceful actions throughout the whole course of their lives. I have been fully informed however that not even the smallest evil a person has thought and carried out during his lifetime is washed away and completely abolished, but that everything remains right down to the smallest detail.

[2] The truth of the matter is that in the case of people who have thought and practiced acts of hatred, revenge, cruelty, and adultery, and so have not led charitable lives, the life they have acquired in so doing awaits them after death. Indeed every single facet of that life awaits them and gradually reappears. This for them is the source of torment in hell. But in the case of people who have led lives of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbour all their evils of life await them also; but these are moderated by the goods which they have received from the Lord through the life of charity during their lifetime, and in this condition they are raised up into heaven. Indeed they are withheld from the evils which they have with them so that these do not show themselves. People in the next life who doubt that they have evils with them because they do not show themselves are brought back into those evils until they know that it really is so. After that they are raised once more into heaven.

[3] This then is what being made righteous entails, for in this way people come to acknowledge not their own righteousness but the Lord's. When people say that those are saved who have faith, they are saying something that is true; but in the Word nothing else is meant by faith than love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, and so a life that is derived from those loves. Matters of doctrine and established beliefs do not constitute faith yet are part of faith, for these, each and every one, exist to the end that a person may become such as they teach. This becomes quite clear from the Lord's words about all the Law and all the Prophets, that is, the doctrine of faith in its entirety., consisting in love to God and love towards the neighbour, Matthew 22:35-40; Mark 12:28-35. The fact that no other kind of faith which is truly faith can possibly, exist has been shown in Volume One, in 30-38, 379, 389, 724, 809, 896, 904, 916, 989, 1017, 1076, 1077, 1121, 1158, 1162, 1176, 1258, 1285, 1316, 1608, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1843, 1844, and that heaven itself consists in love to the Lord and in mutual love, in 537, 547, 553, 1112, 2057.

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