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Genesis 21

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1 And the Lord came to Sarah as he had said and did to her as he had undertaken.

2 And Sarah became with child, and gave Abraham a son when he was old, at the time named by God.

3 And Abraham gave to his son, to whom Sarah had given birth, the name Isaac.

4 And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham made him undergo circumcision, as God had said to him.

5 Now Abraham was a hundred years old when the birth of Isaac took place.

6 And Sarah said, God has given me cause for laughing, and everyone who has news of it will be laughing with me.

7 And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would have a child at her breast? for see, I have given him a son now when he is old.

8 And when the child was old enough to be taken from the breast, Abraham made a great feast.

9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing with Isaac.

10 So she said to Abraham, Send away that woman and her son: for the son of that woman is not to have a part in the heritage with my son Isaac.

11 And this was a great grief to Abraham because of his son.

12 But God said, Let it not be a grief to you because of the boy and Hagar his mother; give ear to whatever Sarah says to you, because it is from Isaac that your seed will take its name.

13 And I will make a nation of the son of your servant-woman, because he is your seed.

14 And early in the morning Abraham got up, and gave Hagar some bread and a water-skin, and put the boy on her back, and sent her away: and she went, wandering in the waste land of Beer-sheba.

15 And when all the water in the skin was used up, she put the child down under a tree.

16 And she went some distance away, about an arrow flight, and seating herself on the earth, she gave way to bitter weeping, saying, Let me not see the death of my child.

17 And the boy's cry came to the ears of God; and the angel of God said to Hagar from heaven, Hagar, why are you weeping? have no fear, for the child's cry has come to the ears of God.

18 Come, take your child in your arms, for I will make of him a great nation.

19 Then God made her eyes open, and she saw a water-spring, and she got water in the skin and gave the boy a drink.

20 And God was with the boy, and he became tall and strong, and he became a bowman, living in the waste land.

21 And while he was in the waste land of Paran, his mother got him a wife from the land of Egypt.

22 Now at that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, said to Abraham, I see that God is with you in all you do.

23 Now, then, give me your oath, in the name of God, that you will not be false to me or to my sons after me, but that as I have been good to you, so you will be to me and to this land where you have been living.

24 And Abraham said, I will give you my oath.

25 But Abraham made a protest to Abimelech because of a water-hole which Abimelech's servants had taken by force.

26 But Abimelech said, I have no idea who has done this thing; you never gave me word of it, and I had no knowledge of it till this day.

27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement together.

28 And Abraham put seven young lambs of the flock on one side by themselves.

29 Then Abimelech said, What are these seven lambs which you have put on one side?

30 And he said, Take these seven lambs from me as a witness that I have made this water-hole.

31 So he gave that place the name Beer-sheba, because there the two of them had given their oaths.

32 So they made an agreement at Beer-sheba, and Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, went back to the land of the Philistines.

33 And Abraham, after planting a holy tree in Beer-sheba, gave worship to the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.

34 And Abraham went on living in the land of the Philistines as in a strange country.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 2643

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2643. 'Who would have said to Abraham, Sarah will suckle sons?' means that by His own power the Lord implanted the Human within the Divine. This is clear from the representation of 'Abraham' and also of 'Sarah', and from the meaning of 'suckling', and of 'sons'. It has been shown already that 'Abraham' represents Divine Good and 'Sarah' Divine Truth. 'Milk' means that which is spiritual from a celestial origin, that is, truth deriving from good, see 2184, so that 'suckling' means implanting that truth; And 'sons' means truths, here truths that exist in the Rational, as is clear from the meaning of 'sons', 489-491, 533. The reason why in the internal sense the words under consideration mean that the Lord by His own power implanted the Human within the Divine is that Divine Truth is one and the same as the Divine Human, and when in reference to this it is said 'to suckle sons for Abraham' the meaning is that He implanted the Human within the Divine; and as it was the Human He implanted, He did so by His own power. But scarcely any clearer and more intelligible explanation of these matters is possible. To say more would obscure still further what is meant; for these are Divine matters, which can be presented to angels alone by means of celestial and spiritual things. If presented to men in some more exalted manner those matters would fall into the material and bodily ideas which men possess.

[2] What is more, it should be recognized that it is the nature of the Lord's Divine Rational when it was first born that is being described by these words, 'God has made laughter for me; everyone that hears will laugh for me; and she said, Who would have said to Abraham, Sarah will suckle sons?' For this was in keeping with an ancient custom that when an infant was born it was given a name which served to mean the state; and at the same time a description of that state was added, as when Cain was born to Eve and Adam, Genesis 4:1, and when Seth was born to the same, Genesis 4:25; and as when Noah was born to Lamech, Genesis 5:29, Esau and Jacob to Isaac, Genesis 25:25-26, the twelve sons to Jacob, Genesis 29:32-35; 30:6, 8, 11, 13, 18, 20, 24; 35:18, Perez and Zerah to Tamar, Genesis 38:29-30, Manasseh and Ephraim to Joseph, Genesis 41:51-52, and Gershom and Eliezer to Moses, Exodus 2:22; 18:4. What all these represent, and what they mean in the internal sense, was embodied in the descriptions added to the names that were given. The same is the case here with what Isaac represents and means. What this name embodies is evident to some small extent from this brief explanation that has been given, but deeper arcana are nevertheless concealed there since they are Divine matters, which no sentences or phrases can be formed to express.

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