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Genesis 19

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1 And the two angels came to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face to the earth;

2 and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn aside, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.

3 And he urged them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, [even] the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;

5 and they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men that came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

6 And Lot went out unto them to the door, and shut the door after him.

7 And he said, I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly.

8 Behold now, I have two daughters that have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing, forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof.

9 And they said, Stand back. And they said, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and drew near to break the door.

10 But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.

11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

12 And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whomsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of the place:

13 for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxed great before Jehovah: and Jehovah hath sent us to destroy it.

14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons-in-law, who married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for Jehovah will destroy the city. But he seemed unto his sons-in-law as one that mocked.

15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters that are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

16 But he lingered; and the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, Jehovah being merciful unto him; and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.

17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the Plain; Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

18 And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my lord:

19 behold now, thy servant hath found favor in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy lovingkindness, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die:

20 behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape thither (is it not a little one?), and my soul shall live.

21 And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken.

22 Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

23 The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot came unto Zoar.

24 Then Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven;

25 and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Jehovah:

28 and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the Plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.

30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.

31 And the first-born said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:

32 come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

33 And they made their father drink wine that night: and the first-born went in, and lay with her father; and he knew not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

34 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the first-born said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

35 And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he knew not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.

37 And the first-born bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.

38 And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Ben-ammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 2383

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2383. They smote with blindness. That this signifies that they were filled with falsities, is evident from the signification of “blindness.” In the Word “blindness” is predicated of those who are in falsity, and also of those who are in ignorance of truth. Both are called the “blind;” but which are meant in any special instance can be seen from the series or connection, especially in the internal sense. That they who are in falsity are called the “blind,” is evident from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

His watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark (Isaiah 56:10).

“Blind watchmen,” denotes those who from reasoning are in falsity. Again: Isa.

We look for light, and behold darkness; for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness; we grope for the wall like the blind (59:9-10).

In Jeremiah:

They have wandered as the blind in the streets; they have polluted themselves with blood; what they cannot pollute, they touch with their garments (Lam. 4:14);

meaning that all truths have been polluted; the “streets” denoting the truths wherein they have gone astray (n. 2336).

[2] In Zechariah:

In that day I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness; every horse of the peoples will I smite with blindness (Zech. 12:4).

Here and elsewhere in the Word a “horse” denotes the understanding; hence it is said that the “horse should be smitten with astonishment,” and that the “horse of the peoples should be smitten with blindness,” that is, should be filled with falsities.

[3] In John:

For judgment am I come into the world, that they that see not may see, and that they that see may become blind. They of the Pharisees heard these things, and said, Are we also blind? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye would not have sin; but now ye say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth (John 9:39-41).

Here the “blind” in both senses are spoken of, namely, those who are in falsity, and those who are in ignorance of truth. With those who are within the church and know what the truth is, “blindness” is falsity; but with those who do not know what the truth is (as is the case with those who are outside the church), “blindness” is ignorance of the truth, and these are blameless.

[4] Again:

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they may not see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and I should heal them (John 12:40; Isaiah 6:9-11);

meaning that it would be better for them to be in falsities than to be in truths, because they are in a life of evil, and if they were instructed in truths, they would not only still falsify them, but would also defile them with evils; for the like reason that the men of Sodom were smitten with blindness, that is, the doctrinal things were filled with falsities. (Why this was done was shown above, n. 301-303vvv2, 593, 1008, 1010, 1059, 1327, 1328, 2426.)

[5] As what is blind signified what is false, therefore in the representative Jewish Church it was forbidden to sacrifice anything that was blind (Leviticus 22:22; Deuteronomy 15:21; Malachi 1:8). It was also forbidden that any one of the priests who was blind should draw near to offer upon the altar (Leviticus 21:18, 21).

[6] That “blindness” is predicated of ignorance of truth, such as prevails with the Gentiles, is evident in Isaiah:

In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the Book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of thick darkness and out of darkness (Isaiah 29:18).

Here the “blind” denotes those who are in ignorance of truth, being chiefly those outside the church. Again:

Bring forth the blind people and they shall have eyes; 1 and the deaf and they shall have ears (Isaiah 43:8); where the church of the Gentiles is spoken of. Again:

I will lead the blind in a way that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them (Isaiah 42:16).

[7] And again:

I will give Thee for a light of the people, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the bound from the dungeon, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house (Isaiah 42:6-7); where the Lord’s advent is treated of, in that they who are in ignorance of truth should then be instructed; for those who are in falsity do not suffer themselves to be so instructed, because they are acquainted with the truth and have confirmed themselves against it, and have turned the light into darkness, which cannot be dispelled.

In Luke:

The master of the house said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the lame, and the blind (Luke 14:21); where the Lord’s kingdom is treated of, and it is evident that the poor, maimed, lame, and blind are not meant, but those who are such in the spiritual sense.

[8] Again:

Jesus said that they should tell John that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and to the poor the gospel is preached (Luke 7:22).

According to the sense of the letter, by the “blind,” the “lame,” the “lepers,” the “deaf,” the “dead,” the “poor,” only these are meant; because it was actually the case that the blind received sight, the deaf hearing, the lepers health, the dead life.

[9] But yet in the internal sense the same are meant as in Isaiah:

Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, and the lame shall leap as the hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing (Isaiah 35:5-6); where the Lord’s advent is treated of, and the new church at that time, which is called that of the Gentiles; of whom it is declared that they were “blind,” “deaf,” “lame,” and “dumb;” being so called in respect to doctrine and to life. For be it known that all the miracles performed by the Lord always involved, and thence signified, such things as are meant in the internal sense by the healing of the blind, of the lame, of the lepers, the deaf, the dead, and the poor. For this reason the Lord’s miracles were Divine, as also were those performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, as well as all the other miracles that are treated of in the Word. This is an arcanum.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. Et oculi erunt; but cui oculi sunt in n. 6989. [Rotch ed.]

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