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Genesis 45

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1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood before him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.

2 And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard.

3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.

4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

5 And now be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and there are yet five years, in which there shall be neither plowing nor harvest.

7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not;

10 and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:

11 and there will I nourish thee; for there are yet five years of famine; lest thou come to poverty, thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast.

12 And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you.

13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen: and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither.

14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.

15 And he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.

16 And the report thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.

17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye: lade your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan;

18 and take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.

19 Now thou art commanded, this do ye: take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

20 Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.

21 And the sons of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

23 And to his father he sent after this manner: ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with grain and bread and provision for his father by the way.

24 So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way.

25 And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father.

26 And they told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt. And his heart fainted, for he believed them not.

27 And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived:

28 and Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 5926

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5926. 'And he fell on the neck of Benjamin' means an inmost joining to the intermediary. This is clear from the meaning of 'the neck' as an influx, communication, and joining together, dealt with in 3542, 3695, 3725 (strictly speaking it is a joining together of celestial things and spiritual ones, 5320, 5328, thus a joining of the internal celestial, which is 'Joseph', to the spiritual of the celestial, which is 'Benjamin'; consequently 'falling on the neck' means joining very closely to oneself, which is therefore an inmost joining together); and from the representation of 'Benjamin' as the intermediary, dealt with in 5411, 5413, 5443, 5679, 5686, 5688, 5689.

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 4612

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4612. 'Jacob came to Isaac his father' means that at this point the Divine Rational was joined to the Divine Natural. This is clear from the representation of 'Jacob' as the Divine Natural during the state dealt with just above in 4604-4610, and from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Divine Rational, dealt with in 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3012, 3194, 3210. A joining together is meant by these words stating that he came to him. In all that follows to the end of the chapter the subject is the joining of the natural to the rational, and therefore what has gone immediately before has contained a description of the essential nature of that natural. That is to say, it has described how all aspects of good and truth were now present within it, the essential nature of it being meant by the twelve sons of Jacob; for as has been shown, each of his sons represents some general aspect of truth or good.

[2] As regards the joining of the natural to the rational, the subject in what follows below, it should be remembered that the rational receives truths and goods before the natural does, and in a more perfect way, 3286, 3288, 3321, 3368, 3498, 3513. For the rational is purer and more perfect than the natural because it is more internal or higher, and regarded essentially dwells in the light of heaven to which it is suited. This is why the rational receives things belonging to that light - that is to say, truths and goods, or what amounts to the same, the things that constitute intelligence and wisdom - before the natural does, and in a more perfect way. The natural, on the other hand, is grosser and less perfect because it is more external or lower, and regarded essentially dwells in the light of the world, a light which holds no intelligence or wisdom within itself, except insofar as it receives these from the light of heaven shining through the rational. Influx, which the learned talk about at the present day, is nothing other than this.

[3] With the natural however the position is that from earliest infancy and childhood it receives its essential nature from impressions gained from the world which come through the external senses; and a person uses and draws on these impressions to develop his understanding. But because the delights of self-love and love of the world reign in him at that time of life, and consequently selfish desires, which are the product of both his heredity and his own actions, the understanding so developed is filled with those desires. And all that accords with his delights he sees as goods and truths. Consequently the way these are ordered in the natural is the reverse or opposite of a heavenly ordering. When this is a person's state the light of heaven is, it is true, flowing in through the rational, for it is this that gives him the ability to think, to reason, to speak, and in outward appearance to act decently and politely. But things belonging to the light of heaven which contribute to such a person's eternal happiness are not present in the natural, since the delights which reign there are antagonistic towards them; for the delights of self-love and love of the world are by nature utterly opposed to the delights that go with love of the neighbour and consequently with love to the Lord. That person is able, it is true, to have a knowledge of the things belonging to light or heaven, but he cannot have any affection for them, except insofar as they are conducive to the acquisition of important positions and material gain, thus insofar as they accord with the delights of self-love and love of the world.

[4] From this it may be seen that order within the natural is the complete reverse or opposite of heavenly order. This being so, when the light of heaven flows in by way of the rational into the natural it is inevitably turned back, or smothered, or perverted. This is why the natural must be regenerated before it can be joined to the rational. Once the natural has been regenerated the things which flow in from the Lord by way of heaven, and so through the rational into the natural, are received there because they accord with it. For the natural is nothing else than the receptacle of good and truth coming from the rational, that is, from the Lord by way of the rational. By the natural is meant the external man, also called the natural man, and by the rational the internal man. These preliminary remarks have been made to enable one to see the implications of what follows below, for there the joining of the natural to the rational is the subject.

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