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Genesis 6

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1 And after a time, when men were increasing on the earth, and had daughters,

2 The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took wives for themselves from those who were pleasing to them.

3 And the Lord said, My spirit will not be in man for ever, for he is only flesh; so the days of his life will be a hundred and twenty years.

4 There were men of great strength and size on the earth in those days; and after that, when the sons of God had connection with the daughters of men, they gave birth to children: these were the great men of old days, the men of great name.

5 And the Lord saw that the sin of man was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts of his heart were evil.

6 And the Lord had sorrow because he had made man on the earth, and grief was in his heart.

7 And the Lord said, I will take away man, whom I have made, from the face of the earth, even man and beast and that which goes on the earth and every bird of the air; for I have sorrow for having made them.

8 But Noah had grace in the eyes of God.

9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was an upright man and without sin in his generation: he went in the ways of God.

10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 And the earth was evil in God's eyes and full of violent ways.

12 And God, looking on the earth, saw that it was evil: for the way of all flesh had become evil on the earth.

13 And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come; the earth is full of their violent doings, and now I will put an end to them with the earth.

14 Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood with rooms in it, and make it safe from the water inside and out.

15 And this is the way you are to make it: it is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.

16 You are to put a window in the ark, a cubit from the roof, and a door in the side of it, and you are to make it with a lower and second and third floors.

17 For truly, I will send a great flow of waters over the earth, for the destruction from under the heaven of all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth will come to an end.

18 But with you I will make an agreement; and you will come into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.

19 And you will take with you into the ark two of every sort of living thing, and keep them safe with you; they will be male and female.

20 Two of every sort of bird and cattle and of every sort of living thing which goes on the earth will you take with you to keep them from destruction.

21 And make a store of every sort of food for yourself and them.

22 And all these things Noah did; as God said, so he did.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 468

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468. THE INTERNAL SENSE.

From what has been said and shown in the foregoing chapter, it is evident that by names are signified heresies and doctrines. Hence it may be seen that by the names in this chapter are not meant persons, but things, and in the present instance doctrines, or churches, which were preserved, notwithstanding the changes they underwent, from the time of the Most Ancient Church even to “Noah.” But the case with every church is that in course of time it decreases, and at last remains among a few; and the few with whom it remained at the time of the flood were called “Noah.”

[2] That the true church decreases and remains with but few, is evident from other churches which have thus decreased. Those who are left are in the Word called “remains” and a “remnant” and are said to be “in the midst” or “middle” “of the land.” And as this is the case in the universal, so also it is in the particular, or as it is with the church, so it is with every individual man; for unless remains were preserved by the Lord in everyone, he must needs perish eternally, since spiritual and celestial life are in the remains. So also in the general or universal-if there were not always some with whom the church, or true faith, remained, the human race would perish; for, as is generally known, a city, nay, sometimes a whole kingdom, is saved for the sake of a few. It is in this respect with the church as it is with the human body; so long as the heart is sound, life is possible for the neighboring viscera, but when the heart is enfeebled, the other parts of the body cease to be nourished, and the man dies. The last remains are those which are signified by “Noah;” for (as appears from Genesis 6:12, as well as from other places) the whole earth had become corrupt.

[3] Of remains as existing in each individual as well as in the church in general, much is said in the Prophets; as in Isaiah:

He that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy to Him, even everyone that is written unto lives in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have washed away the bloods of Jerusalem from the midst thereof (Isaiah 4:3-4),

in which passage holiness is predicated of the remains, by which are signified the remains of the church, and also of a man of the church; for “those left” in Zion and Jerusalem could not be holy merely because they were “left.” Again:

It shall come to pass in that day, that the remains of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, but shall stay upon Jehovah the Holy One of Israel in truth. The remains shall return, the remains of Jacob, unto the mighty God (Isaiah 10:20-21).

In Jeremiah:

In those days, and in that time, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon him whom I shall make a remnant (Jeremiah 50:20).

In Micah:

The remains of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples, as the dew from Jehovah, as the showers upon the grass (Micah 5:7).

[4] The residue or remains of a man, or of the church, were also represented by the tenths, which were holy; hence also a number with ten in it was holy, and “ten” is therefore predicated of remains; as in Isaiah:

Jehovah shall remove man, and many things [shall be] left in the midst of the land; and yet in it [shall be] a tenth part, and it shall return, and shall be for exterminating; as an oak, and an ilex, when the stock is cast forth from them, the holy seed is the stock thereof (Isaiah 6:12-13); where the residue is called a “seed of holiness.” And in Amos:

Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The city that goeth forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which goeth forth a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel (Amos 5:3).

In these and many other passages, in the internal sense are signified the “remains” of which we have been speaking. That a city is preserved for the sake of the remains of the church, is evident from what was said to Abraham concerning Sodom:

Abraham said, Peradventure ten may be found there; and He said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake (Genesis 18:32).

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