Bible

 

Genesis 43

Studie

   

1 And the famine was grievous in the land.

2 And it came to pass, when they had finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, Go again, buy us a little food.

3 And Judah spoke to him, saying, The man did positively testify to us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, unless your brother be with you.

4 If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food;

5 but if thou do not send [him], we will not go down, for the man said to us, Ye shall not see my face, unless your brother be with you.

6 And Israel said, Why did ye deal [so] ill with me [as] to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother?

7 And they said, The man asked very closely after us, and after our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye a brother? And we told him according to the tenor of these words. Could we at all know that he would say, Bring your brother down?

8 And Judah said to Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live, and not die, both we and thou and our little ones.

9 I will be surety for him: of my hand shalt thou require him; if I bring him not to thee, and set him before thy face, then shall I be guilty toward thee for ever.

10 For had we not lingered, we should now certainly have returned already twice.

11 And their father Israel said to them, If it is then so, do this: take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a gift: a little balsam and a little honey, tragacanth and ladanum, pistacia-nuts and almonds.

12 And take other money in your hand, and the money that was returned to you in the mouth of your sacks, carry back in your hand: perhaps it is an oversight.

13 And take your brother, and arise, go again to the man.

14 And the Almighty ùGod give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin! And I, if I be bereaved of children, am bereaved.

15 And the men took that gift, and took double money in their hand, and Benjamin, and rose up, and went down to Egypt, and came before Joseph.

16 And Joseph saw Benjamin with them, and said to the [man] who was over his house, Bring the men into the house, and slaughter cattle, and make ready; for the men shall eat with me at noon.

17 And the man did as Joseph had said; and the man brought the men into Joseph's house.

18 And the men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house, and said, Because of the money that was returned to us in our sacks at the beginning are we brought in, that he may turn against us, and fall upon us and take us for bondmen, and our asses.

19 And they came up to the man that was over Joseph's house, and they spoke to him at the door of the house,

20 and said, Ah! my lord, we came indeed down at the first to buy food.

21 And it came to pass when we came to the inn, that we opened our sacks, and behold, [every] man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money according to its weight; and we have brought it again in our hand.

22 And other money have we brought down in our hand to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks.

23 And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; your money came to me. And he brought Simeon out to them.

24 And the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave water, and they washed their feet; and he gave their asses food.

25 And they made ready the gift for Joseph's coming at noon; for they had heard that they should eat bread there.

26 When Joseph came home, they brought him the gift that was in their hand, into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth.

27 And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well -- the old man of whom ye spoke? Is he yet alive?

28 And they said, Thy servant our father is well; he is yet alive. And they bowed, and made obeisance.

29 And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother of whom ye spoke to me? And he said, God be gracious to thee, my son!

30 And Joseph made haste, for his bowels burned for his brother; and he sought [a place] to weep, and he went into the chamber, and wept there.

31 And he washed his face, and came out, and controlled himself, and said, Set on bread.

32 And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves; because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians.

33 And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth; and the men marvelled one at another.

34 And he had portions carried to them from before him. And Benjamin's portion was five times greater than the portions of them all. And they drank, and made merry with him.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 5651

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

5651. 'And take us as slaves, and our asses' means even to the point where whatever exists in either part of the natural is of no worth. This is clear from the representation of the ten sons of Jacob - who say this about themselves - as the truths in the natural, dealt with in 5403, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5512; from the meaning of 'slaves' or 'servants' as things which are of little value, 2541, in this case those that are of no worth, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'asses' as what was present in the natural, namely factual knowledge, dealt with in 5922, in this case facts present in the exterior natural since the truths meant by 'the sons of Jacob' reside in the interior natural.

[2] The implications of this, that whatever exists in either part of the natural is of no worth, are as follows: If a person is to become spiritual his natural must come to be of no worth, that is, it must cease to have any power that is essentially its own; for to the extent that the natural has any power of its own the spiritual lacks it. Since earliest childhood the natural has been acquiring no other ambitions than those that spring from selfish and worldly desires, thus ones that are the opposite of charity. These evil ambitions make it impossible for good to flow in from the Lord by way of the internal man; for whatever flows in is turned within the natural into what is evil, the natural being the final level into which what is inflowing goes. Consequently unless the natural, that is, the evil and falsity that have been giving shape to the natural, comes to be of no worth, no good can possibly flow in from the Lord by way of heaven. It finds no dwelling-place there and is dissipated, for it cannot stay in what is evil and false. For this reason the internal remains closed to the extent that the natural fails to become of no worth. This is something known within the Church from the teaching that one should put off the old man in order that one may put on the new. 1

[3] Regeneration consists in nothing else than the natural being made subservient and the spiritual becoming its lord; and the natural is made subservient when it is made to correspond to the spiritual. Once the natural is made to correspond it is no longer reactionary but acts as it is commanded, answering the beck and call of the spiritual, almost as the actions of the body are answers to the beck and call of the will, or as speech and facial expressions conform to the thought flowing into them. From this it is evident that for a person to become spiritual, his natural must come to be, so far as his power of will is concerned, of no worth whatsoever.

[4] But it should be realized that it is the old natural that must come to be of no worth, since it is shaped by evils and falsities. Once it has been made of no worth the person is endowed with a new natural, called the spiritual natural. This is called spiritual because the spiritual is what acts by means of it and also makes itself known through it, in the way a cause does through its effect - the cause, as is well known, being the entire reason for the effect. Consequently the new natural, so far as the activities of thought, will, and putting into effect are concerned, is nothing else than the representative of the spiritual. When this new natural comes into being a person receives good from the Lord; when he receives that good truths are conferred on him; when those truths are conferred on him his intelligence and wisdom are made more perfect; and when his intelligence and wisdom are made more perfect he is blessed with happiness that lasts for ever.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. A Pauline teaching; see for example Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:9-10.

  
/ 10837  
  

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