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Genesis 28

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1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father. And take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother.

3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a company of peoples.

4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee. That thou mayest inherit the land of thy sojournings, which God gave unto Abraham.

5 And Isaac sent away Jacob. And he went to Paddan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram, to take him a wife from thence. And that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan-aram.

8 And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father.

9 And Esau went unto Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.

10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.

11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. And he took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.

12 And he dreamed. And behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

13 And, behold, Jehovah stood above it, and said, I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.

14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee, whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely Jehovah is in this place. And I knew it not.

17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

19 And he called the name of that place Beth-el. But the name of the city was Luz at the first.

20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,

21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, and Jehovah will be my God,

22 then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 3542

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3542. 'And on the smooth of his neck' means so that truth which disjoined was not apparent. This is clear from 'smooth' or 'the smooth' having reference to truth, dealt with in 3527, and from the meaning of 'the neck' as that which joins together, dealt with below. Here therefore, since the appearance was 'on the smooth of his neck' it means so that truth which disjoins was not apparent. The implications of all this may be seen from what has been stated and shown above in 3539, to the effect that the good and the truths which flow from the understanding but not at the same time from the will are neither good nor truths, no matter how much they seem to be so to outward appearance. And if the will is bent on evil, good and truths are disjoined and do not join together. But if the will is in some measure desirous of good, they do not in that case disjoin but join together, even though the order in which they stand is the reverse of proper order; for it is by means of such good and truths that a person is regenerated. And because such good and truths standing thus serve first in the regeneration of man it is said that truth which disjoined would not be apparent. But more of this in what follows below.

[2] The reason why 'the neck' means that which joins together is that higher things with man which belong to the head communicate with lower that belong to the body by means of the neck between. Consequently both influx and communication, and therefore conjunction, are meant by that which lies between. This will be seen far more clearly from the correspondences of the Grand Man with the parts of the human body, to be dealt with at the ends of chapters. The same is consequently meant in the Word by 'the neck', as in Isaiah,

His spirit, like an overflowing stream, will divide even at the neck. Isaiah 30:28.

Here 'an overflowing stream' stands for falsity flowing over in this fashion. 'Dividing at the neck' stands for blocking and cutting off the communication and consequent joining together of higher things with lower ones, which are blocked and cut off when spiritual good and truth are not being received.

[3] In Habakkuk,

You crushed the head from the house of the wicked, laying bare the foundation even at the neck. Habakkuk 3:13.

'Crushing the head from the house of the wicked' stands for destroying false assumptions. 'Laying bare the foundation even at the neck' stands for preventing thereby any joining together. In Jeremiah,

Entangled transgressions have risen up above my neck. He has struck at my strength; the Lord has given me into [their] hands; I am unable to rise up again. Lamentations 1:14.

'Entangled transgressions have risen up above my neck' stands for falsities coming up towards interior or rational things.

[4] Because 'the neck' meant that communication and joining together, 'bands around the neck' therefore meant the cutting off and so the destruction of truth, which occurs when spiritual things that are flowing in constantly from the Lord are no longer allowed to pass into the rational part of a person's mind, nor as a consequence into the natural part. It is this cutting off or destruction that is represented by Jeremiah's being told to make bands and bars for himself and put them on his neck; to send them to different peoples and say that they would be serving Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babel; and to say that those who did not place their necks under his yoke would be visited by sword, famine, and pestilence; but those who did bring their necks under it would be left in the land, Jeremiah 27:2-3, 8, 11. 'Placing the neck under the yoke of the king of Babel and serving him' stands for being made desolate as regards truth and vastated as regards good. For 'Babel' means one who lays waste, see 1327 (end); and people undergo vastation to prevent holy things from being profaned, 301-303, 1327, 1328, 2426, 3398, 3399, 3402. And since evil and falsity come to be served once the influx of good and truth has been cut off, 'placing the neck under the yoke' also means serving. In the same prophet,

Jehovah said, I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel from over the neck of all nations within two years. Jeremiah 28:11.

This stands for their being delivered from vastation. In Isaiah,

Shake yourself from the dust, arise, sit, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. Isaiah 52:2.

'Loosing the bonds from the neck' stands for letting in and receiving good and truth In Micah,

Behold, against this family I am devising this evil from which you will not remove your necks nor go erect, for that will be a time of evil. Micah 2:3.

'Not removing necks from evil' stands for not letting truth in. 'Not going erect' stands for not looking up to higher things, that is, to those of heaven, 248.

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