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Genesis 7

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1 And the Lord said to Noah, Take all your family and go into the ark, for you only in this generation have I seen to be upright.

2 Of every clean beast you will take seven males and seven females, and of the beasts which are not clean, two, the male and his female;

3 And of the birds of the air, seven males and seven females, so that their seed may still be living on the face of the earth.

4 For after seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, for the destruction of every living thing which I have made on the face of the earth.

5 And Noah did everything which the Lord said he was to do.

6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the waters came flowing over all the earth.

7 And Noah, with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the flowing of the waters.

8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts which are not clean, and of birds, and of everything which goes on the earth,

9 In twos, male and female, they went into the ark with Noah, as God had said.

10 And after the seven days, the waters came over all the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep came bursting through, and the windows of heaven were open;

12 And rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

13 On the same day Noah, with Shem, Ham, and Japheth, his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark;

14 And with them, every sort of beast and cattle, and every sort of thing which goes on the earth, and every sort of bird.

15 They went with Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh in which is the breath of life.

16 Male and female of all flesh went in, as God had said, and the ark was shut by the Lord.

17 And for forty days the waters were over all the earth; and the waters were increased so that the ark was lifted up high over the earth.

18 And the waters overcame everything and were increased greatly on the earth, and the ark was resting on the face of the waters.

19 And the waters overcame everything on the earth; and all the mountains under heaven were covered.

20 The waters went fifteen cubits higher, till all the mountains were covered.

21 And destruction came on every living thing moving on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts and everything which went on the earth, and every man.

22 Everything on the dry land, in which was the breath of life, came to its end.

23 Every living thing on the face of all the earth, man and cattle and things moving on the face of the earth, and birds of the air, came to destruction: only Noah and those who were with him in the ark, were kept from death.

24 And the waters were over the earth a hundred and fifty days.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 751

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751. Since the subject here is the temptation of the member of the new Church called Noah, and since few, if any, know what temptations are, because nowadays few people undergo such temptations - and those who do are not aware of anything other than the feeling that it is something within them which is suffering in this way - let a brief explanation be given. There are evil spirits who at that time activate a person's falsities and evils, as has been stated. Indeed they draw out of his memory whatever he has thought and carried out since early childhood. Evil spirits can do this so cleverly and wickedly as to defy description. But the angels who are with him draw out his goods and truths, and in this way defend him. This conflict is what the person feels and perceives in himself and is what causes the sting and torment of conscience.

[2] There are two kinds of temptation, the first involving things of the understanding, the second those of the will. When a person's temptation involves those of the understanding, evil spirits activate only the evil deeds he has carried out, which are meant here by 'unclean beasts'. And with these they accuse and condemn. They even activate his good deeds as well, which are also meant here by the 'clean beasts'; but these they corrupt in a thousand ways. At the same time they also activate his thoughts, which are also meant here by 'bird', and in addition they activate the things meant here by 'things creeping over the ground'. This kind of temptation however is mild and is perceived only through the recollection of such experiences, and a kind of mental anguish resulting from this.

[3] When however someone's temptation involves things of the will, it is not so much his deeds and thoughts that are activated. Instead there are evil genii, as evil spirits of this type may be called, who inflame him with the evil desires and the foul loves in which he is steeped, and in this way direct their attack through the person's very desires. They do this so wickedly and secretly that one cannot possibly believe it is they who are doing it. In fact they worm their way in no time at all into the life of his desires, and almost instantaneously twist and convert the affection for good and truth into the affection for evil and falsity. They act in such a way that the individual inevitably thinks that these things come from himself and flow forth of his own free will. This kind of temptation is very severe, and is felt as inward pain and burning torment. This subject is dealt with later on. I have been allowed from much experience to know and realize that this is true, and to know also when evil spirits or genii were flowing in and overwhelming, and from where, who they were and how they did it. In the Lord's Divine mercy these experiences will be described in detail later on.

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