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Genesis 27

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1 And it came to pass when Isaac had become old, and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, that he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, My son! And he said to him, Here am I.

2 And he said, Behold now, I am become old; I know not the day of my death.

3 And now, I pray thee, take thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field and hunt me venison,

4 and prepare me a savoury dish such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, in order that my soul may bless thee before I die.

5 And Rebecca heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt venison, to bring it.

6 And Rebecca spoke to Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak to Esau thy brother, saying,

7 Bring me venison, and prepare me a savoury dish, that I may eat, and bless thee before Jehovah, before my death.

8 And now, my son, hearken to my voice in that which I command thee.

9 Go, I pray thee, to the flock, and fetch me thence two good kids of the goats. And I will make of them a savoury dish for thy father, such as he loves.

10 And thou shalt bring [it] to thy father, that he may eat, in order that he may bless thee before his death.

11 And Jacob said to Rebecca his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

12 My father perhaps will feel me, and I shall be in his sight as one who mocks [him], and I shall bring a curse on me, and not a blessing.

13 And his mother said to him, On me [be] thy curse, my son! Only hearken to my voice, and go, fetch [them].

14 And he went, and fetched and brought [them] to his mother. And his mother prepared a savoury dish such as his father loved.

15 And Rebecca took the clothes of her elder son Esau, the costly ones which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son;

16 and she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck;

17 and she gave the savoury dishes and the bread that she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob.

18 And he came to his father, and said, My father! And he said, Here am I: who art thou, my son?

19 And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou didst say to me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, in order that thy soul may bless me.

20 And Isaac said to his son, How is it that thou hast found [it] so quickly, my son? And he said, Because Jehovah thy God put [it] in my way.

21 And Isaac said to Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be really my son Esau or not.

22 And Jacob drew near to Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

23 And he did not discern him, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands; and he blessed him.

24 And he said, Art thou really my son Esau? And he said, It is I.

25 And he said, Bring [it] near to me, that I may eat of my son's venison, in order that my soul may bless thee. And he brought [it] near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.

26 And his father Isaac said to him, Come near, now, and kiss me, my son.

27 And he came near, and kissed him. And he smelt the smell of his clothes, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed.

28 And God give thee of the dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of corn and new wine.

29 Let peoples serve thee, And races bow down to thee. Be lord over thy brethren, And let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be they that curse thee, And blessed be they that bless thee.

30 And it came to pass when Isaac had ended blessing Jacob, and when Jacob was only just gone out from Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came from his hunting.

31 And he also had prepared savoury dishes, and he brought [them] in to his father, and said to his father, Let my father arise and eat of his son's venison, in order that thy soul may bless me.

32 And Isaac his father said to him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn, Esau.

33 Then Isaac trembled with exceeding great trembling, and said, Who was he, then, that hunted venison and brought [it] to me? And I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him; also blessed he shall be.

34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said to his father, Bless me -- me also, my father!

35 And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and has taken away thy blessing.

36 And he said, Is it not therefore he was named Jacob, for he has supplanted me now twice? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?

37 And Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have made him lord over thee, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and new wine have I supplied him -- and what can I do now for thee, my son?

38 And Esau said to his father, Hast thou then but one blessing, my father? bless me -- me also, my father! And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

39 And Isaac his father answered and said to him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above;

40 And by thy sword shalt thou live; And thou shalt serve thy brother; And it shall come to pass when thou rovest about, That thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand, and I will slay my brother Jacob.

42 And the words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebecca. And she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, comforts himself that he will kill thee.

43 And now, my son, hearken to my voice, and arise, flee to Laban my brother, to Haran;

44 and abide with him some days, until thy brother's fury turn away --

45 until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget what thou hast done to him; then I will send and fetch thee thence. Why should I be bereaved even of you both in one day?

46 And Rebecca said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good should my life do me?

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 3570

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3570. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat. That this signifies the conjunction of good first; and that “he brought him wine and he drank” signifies the conjunction of truth afterwards, is evident from the signification of “eating,” as being to be conjoined and appropriated in respect to good (concerning which just above, n. 3568); and from the signification of “wine,” as being the truth which is from good (n. 1071, 1798); and from the signification of “drinking,” as being to be conjoined and appropriated in respect to truth (n. 3168). In regard to the circumstance that the good of the rational, represented by Isaac, conjoins with itself good first, and truth afterwards, and this through the natural, which is Jacob, the case is this: When the natural is in the state in which it is outwardly good and inwardly truth (n. 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563), it then admits many things which are not good, but which nevertheless are useful, being means to good in their order. But the good of the rational does not conjoin and appropriate to itself from this source anything but that which is in agreement with its own good;, for good receives nothing else, and whatever disagrees, it rejects. The rest of the things in the natural it leaves, in order that they may serve as means for admitting and introducing more things that are in agreement with itself.

[2] The rational is in the internal man, and what is there being transacted is unknown to the natural, for it is above the sphere of its observation; and for this reason the man who lives a merely natural life cannot know anything of what is taking place with him in his internal man, that is, in his rational; for the Lord disposes all such things entirely without the man’s knowledge. Hence it is that man knows nothing of how he is being regenerated, and scarcely that he is being regenerated. But if he is desirous to know this, let him merely attend to the ends which he proposes to himself, and which he rarely discloses to anyone. If the ends are toward good, that is to say, if he cares more for his neighbor and the Lord than for himself, then he is in a state of regeneration; but if the ends are toward evil, that is to say, if he cares more for himself than for his neighbor and the Lord, let him know that in this case he is in no state of regeneration.

[3] Through his ends of life a man is in the other life; through ends of good in heaven with the angels; but through ends of evil in hell with devils. The ends in a man are nothing else than his loves; for that which a man loves he has for an end; and inasmuch as his ends are his loves, they are his inmost life (n. 1317, 1568, 1571, 1645, 1909, 3425, 3562, 3565). The ends of good in a man are in his rational, and these are what are called the rational as to good, or the good of the rational. Through the ends of good, or through the good therein, the Lord disposes all things that are in the natural; for the end is as the soul, and the natural is as the body of this soul; and such as the soul is, such is the body with which it is encompassed; thus such as the rational is as to good, such is the natural with which it is invested.

[4] It is known that the soul of man commences in the ovum of the mother, and is afterwards perfected in her womb, and is there encompassed with a tender body, and this of such a nature that through it the soul may be able to act in a manner suited to the world into which it is born. The case is the same when man is born again, that is, when he is being regenerated. The new soul which he then receives is the end of good, which commences in the rational, at first as in an ovum there, and afterwards is there perfected as in a womb; the tender body with which this soul is encompassed is the natural and the good therein, which becomes such as to act obediently in accordance with the ends of the soul; the truths therein are like the fibers in the body, for truths are formed from good (n. 3470). Hence it is evident that an image of the reformation of man is presented in his formation in the womb; and if you will believe it, it is also the celestial good and spiritual truth which are from the Lord that form him and then impart the power to receive each of them successively, and this in quality and quantity precisely as like a man he looks to the ends of heaven, and not like a brute animal to the ends of the world.

[5] That the rational as to good through the natural conjoins with itself good first, and truth afterwards, which is signified by Jacob’s bringing dainties and bread to Isaac and his eating, and bringing him wine and his drinking, may also be illustrated by the offices which the body performs for its soul. It is the soul which gives to the body to have appetite for food, and also to enjoy the taste of it, the foods being introduced by means of the delight of appetite and the delight of taste, thus by means of external good; but the foods which are introduced do not all enter the life, for some serve as menstruums for digesting; some for tempering; some for opening; some for introducing into the vessels; but the good foods selected are introduced into the blood, and become blood, out of which the soul conjoins with itself such things as are of use.

[6] The case is the same with the rational and the natural: to appetite and taste correspond the desire and the affection of knowing truth; and knowledges correspond to foods (n. 1480); and because they correspond, they are circumstanced in like manner; the soul (which is the good of the rational) gives to long for and to be affected with the things which are of memory-knowledge and of doctrine, and introduces them through the delight of the longing and the good of the affection. But the things which it introduces are not all such as to become the good of life; for some serve as means for a kind of digesting and tempering; some for opening and introducing; but the goods which are of life it applies to itself, and thus conjoins them with itself, and from them forms for itself truths. From this it is evident how the rational disposes the natural, in order that it may serve it as the soul or what is the same, may serve the end, which is the soul, to perfect itself, that it may be of use in the Lord’s kingdom.

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