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Genesis 11

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1 And the whole earth had one language, and the same words.

2 And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Come on, let us make bricks, and burn [them] thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.

4 And they said, Come on, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, the top of which [may reach] to the heavens; and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.

5 And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men built.

6 And Jehovah said, Behold, the people is one, and have all one language; and this have they begun to do. And now will they be hindered in nothing that they meditate doing.

7 Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 And Jehovah scattered them thence over the face of the whole earth. And they left off building the city.

9 Therefore was its name called Babel; because Jehovah there confounded the language of the whole earth. And Jehovah scattered them thence over the face of the whole earth.

10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood.

11 And Shem lived after he had begotten Arphaxad five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

12 And Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Shelah.

13 And Arphaxad lived after he had begotten Shelah four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.

14 And Shelah lived thirty years, and begot Eber.

15 And Shelah lived after he had begotten Eber four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.

16 And Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg.

17 And Eber lived after he had begotten Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters.

18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu.

19 And Peleg lived after he had begotten Reu two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters.

20 And Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug.

21 And Reu lived after he had begotten Serug two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters.

22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor.

23 And Serug lived after he had begotten Nahor two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

24 And Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah.

25 And Nahor lived after he had begotten Terah a hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters.

26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 And these are the generations of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot.

28 And Haran died before the face of his father Terah in the land of his nativity at Ur of the Chaldeans.

29 And Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, a daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.

30 And Sarai was barren: she had no child.

31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth together out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to go into the land of Canaan, and came as far as Haran, and dwelt there.

32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 1356

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1356. That 'Terah' means idolatrous worship becomes clear from the derivatives mentioned from verse 20 down to this point. This second Ancient Church declined from a kind of internal worship, becoming adulterated as it did so until in the end it became idolatrous, as Churches usually do. They pass from internal things to external, ending up with mere externals when internal things have been erased. The fact that the same happened to this Church, even to the extent that a large part of them did not acknowledge Jehovah as God but worshipped other gods, is clear in Joshua,

Joshua said to all the people, Thus said Jehovah, the God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt of old beyond the River, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. Joshua 24:2.

Now fear Jehovah, and serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve Jehovah. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve Jehovah, choose this day whom you are to serve, whether the gods which your fathers served who were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites. Joshua 24:14-15.

From this it is quite evident that Terah, Abram, and Nahor were idolaters.

[2] The fact that Nahor was a nation in which idolatrous worship existed is clear also from Laban the Syrian, who dwelt in the city of Nahor and who worshipped the images or teraphim which Rachel carried away with her, Genesis 24:10; 31:19, 26, 32, 34. And the fact that Abraham had one god, Nahor another, and Terah their father yet another, is clear from Genesis 31:53. It is also explicitly stated in Moses that Jehovah was unknown to Abram,

I, Jehovah, appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Shaddai, and by My name Jehovah I was not known to them. Exodus 6:3.

From this it is evident how much this Church with this people declined into idolatrous worship, which is meant here by 'Terah'. And since Terah means that worship, so do Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

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