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Genesis 8

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1 And God kept Noah in mind, and all the living things and the cattle which were with him in the ark: and God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters went down.

2 And the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were shut, and the rain from heaven was stopped.

3 And the waters went slowly back from the earth, and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters were lower.

4 And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

5 And still the waters went on falling, till on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen.

6 Then, after forty days, through the open window of the ark which he had made,

7 Noah sent out a raven, which went this way and that till the waters were gone from the earth.

8 And he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had gone from the face of the earth;

9 But the dove saw no resting-place for her foot, and came back to the ark, for the waters were still over all the earth; and he put out his hand, and took her into the ark.

10 And after waiting another seven days, he sent the dove out again;

11 And the dove came back at evening, and in her mouth was an olive-leaf broken off: so Noah was certain that the waters had gone down on the earth.

12 And after seven days more, he sent the dove out again, but she did not come back to him.

13 And in the six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters were dry on the earth: and Noah took the cover off the ark and saw that the face of the earth was dry.

14 And on the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was dry.

15 And God said to Noah,

16 Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives.

17 Take out with you every living thing which is with you, birds and cattle and everything which goes on the earth, so that they may have offspring and be fertile and be increased on the earth.

18 And Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives;

19 And every beast and bird and every living thing of every sort which goes on the earth, went out of the ark.

20 And Noah made an altar to the Lord, and from every clean beast and bird he made burned offerings on the altar.

21 And when the sweet smell came up to the Lord, he said in his heart, I will not again put a curse on the earth because of man, for the thoughts of man's heart are evil from his earliest days; never again will I send destruction on all living things as I have done.

22 While the earth goes on, seed time and the getting in of the grain, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will not come to an end.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 935

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935. 'And summer and winter' means the state of a regenerate person as regards things belonging to his new will, which by turns come and go as summer and winter do. This becomes clear from what has been stated about cold and heat. The changes taking place in people who have yet to be regenerated are likened to cold and heat, while those that take place in those who have been regenerated are likened to summer and winter. That the person who has yet to be regenerated is the subject of the former phrase while one who has been regenerated is the subject of this latter is clear from the consideration that with the former 'cold' is mentioned first and 'heat' second, while here 'summer' comes first and 'winter' second. The reason is that the person who is being regenerated starts from 'cold', that is, from the point of no faith and charity; but once he has been regenerated he starts from the point of charity.

[2] The fact that a regenerate person experiences alternations, that is to say, at one point no charity resides with him and at the next some charity, is perfectly clear for the reason that with everybody, even the regenerate, nothing but evil exists. Everything good with him is the Lord's alone. Because nothing but evil exists with him it is inevitable that he undergoes such changes, at one time living so to speak in 'summer', that is, in charity, and at another in 'winter', that is, in no charity. The result of such changes is that a person is being ever more perfected and so made ever more happy. Such changes take place with a regenerate person not only during his lifetime but also when he has entered the next life, for without changes like those of summer and winter as regards things of the will, and like those of day and night as regards things of the understanding, he is in no way perfected and made more happy. In the next life however people's changes are like those of summer and winter in temperate regions and like those of day and night in springtime.

[3] The Prophets too describe these states as summer and winter, and as day and night, as in Zechariah,

And it will be, on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, part of them to the eastern sea and part of them to the western sea; in summer and in winter will it be. Zechariah 14:8.

This refers to the New Jerusalem, or the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, that is, the state of His kingdom in both places, which is also called summer and winter. In David,

O God, Your is the day, Thine also is the night. You have prepared the light and the sun, You have fixed all the bounds of the earth, You have made summer and winter. Psalms 74:16-17.

These words embody like matters. Similarly in Jeremiah who says that the covenant for the day is not to be broken, nor the covenant for the night, so that day and night come at their appointed time, Jeremiah 33:20.

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