Genesis 32
1
And Jacob went on his way; and the angels of God met him.
2
And when Jacob saw them he said, This is the camp of God. And he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3
And Jacob sent messengers before his face to Esau his brother, into the land of Seir, the fields of Edom.
4
And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak to my lord, to Esau: Thy servant Jacob speaks thus -- With Laban have I sojourned and tarried until now;
5
and I have oxen, and asses, sheep, and bondmen, and bondwomen; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favour in thine eyes.
6
And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother, to Esau; and he also is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.
7
Then Jacob was greatly afraid, and was distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the sheep and the cattle and the camels, into two troops.
8
And he said, If Esau come to the one troop and smite it, then the other troop which is left shall escape.
9
And Jacob said, God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Jehovah, who saidst unto me: Return into thy country and to thy kindred, and I will do thee good,
10
-- I am too small for all the loving-kindness and all the faithfulness that thou hast shewn unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two troops.
11
Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, [and] the mother with the children.
12
And thou saidst, I will certainly deal well with thee, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13
And he lodged there that night; and took of what came to his hand a gift for Esau his brother --
14
two hundred she-goats, and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes, and twenty rams;
15
thirty milch camels with their colts; forty kine, and ten bulls; twenty she-asses, and ten young asses.
16
And he delivered [them] into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself; and he said to his servants, Go on before me, and put a space between drove and drove.
17
And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meets thee, and asks thee, saying, Whose art thou, and where goest thou, and whose are these before thee?
18
-- then thou shalt say, Thy servant Jacob's: it is a gift sent to my lord, to Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.
19
And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, According to this word shall ye speak to Esau when ye find him.
20
And, moreover, ye shall say, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will propitiate him with the gift that goes before me, and afterwards I will see his face: perhaps he will accept me.
21
And the gift went over before him; and he himself lodged that night in the camp.
22
And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok;
23
and he took them and led them over the river, and led over what he had.
24
And Jacob remained alone; and a man wrestled with him until the rising of the dawn.
25
And when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the joint of his thigh; and the joint of Jacob's thigh was dislocated as he wrestled with him.
26
And he said, Let me go, for the dawn ariseth. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
27
And he said to him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28
And he said, Thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast wrestled with God, and with men, and hast prevailed.
29
And Jacob asked and said, Tell [me], I pray thee, thy name. And he said, How is it that thou askest after my name? And he blessed him there.
30
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel -- For I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved.
31
And as he passed over Peniel, the sun rose upon him; and he limped upon his hip.
32
Therefore the children of Israel do not eat of the sinew that is over the joint of the thigh, to this day; because he touched the joint of Jacob's thigh -- the sinew.
Arcana Coelestia # 1159
1159. 'Every one according to his tongue, according to their families, as to their nations' means that they were ranged according to the character of each one, 'according to his tongue' meaning according to each one's individual belief, 'according to their families' meaning according to uprightness, 'as to their nations' meaning as to both belief and uprightness in general. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'tongue', and 'families', and 'nations' in the Word, which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on. The reason why in the internal sense 'tongue' means individual belief, and so basic assumptions and persuasions, is that the tongue corresponds to the understanding part of man's mind, that is, to his thought, in the way that an effect corresponds to its cause. Such is the case not only with the influx of a person's thoughts into the movements of the tongue in speaking, but also with the influx of heaven, about which something from personal experience will in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated elsewhere.
[2] That 'families' in the internal sense means uprightness, as well as charity and love, arises from the fact that all things belonging to mutual love are in the heavens like blood relatives and relatives by marriage, and so are like families, see 685. This is why in the Word things belonging to love or charity are described as 'houses' and also as 'families', points which there is no need to pause over and confirm here. That 'a house' has this meaning, see 710.
[3] That 'nations' means both belief and uprightness in general is clear from the meaning of 'a nation' or 'nations' in the Word. In the good sense nations mean things of the new will and understanding, and so mean the goods of love and the truths of faith. But in the contrary sense evils and falsities are meant. The same applies to houses, families, and tongues, as may be confirmed from very many places in the Word. The reason is that the Most Ancient Church was distinguished into separate houses, families, and nations. A married couple with their children, together with menservants and maidservants, constituted one house. A number of houses in close proximity in turn constituted one family, while a number of families constituted a nation. Consequently nations meant all families taken together as a whole. The same applies in heaven, but all relationships there are determined by love to and faith in the Lord, 685.
[4] This then is how nations come to mean what they do in the internal sense, namely that which is general embracing things both of the will and of the understanding, or what amounts to the same, both the things of love and those of faith. Their meaning however depends on the families and houses of which they consist. For these points, see also what has been stated already in 470, 471, 483 From these considerations it is clear that 'nations' means both belief and uprightness in general, and that 'everyone according to his tongue, according to their families, and as to their nations' means the disposition of each person, family, and nation whose worship was derived from the Ancient Church.
