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Genesis 9

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1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

2 And let the fear of you and the dread of you be upon every animal of the earth, and upon all fowl of the heavens: upon all that moveth [on] the ground; and upon all the fishes of the sea: into your hand are they delivered.

3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you: as the green herb I give you everything.

4 Only, the flesh with its life, its blood, ye shall not eat.

5 And indeed your blood, [the blood] of your lives, will I require: at the hand of every animal will I require it, and at the hand of Man, at the hand of each [the blood] of his brother, will I require the life of Man.

6 Whoso sheddeth Man's blood, by Man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God he hath made Man.

7 And ye, be fruitful and multiply: swarm on the earth, and multiply on it.

8 And God spoke to Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

10 and with every living soul which is with you, fowl as well as cattle, and all the animals of the earth with you, of all that has gone out of the ark -- every animal of the earth.

11 And I establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood, and henceforth there shall be no flood to destroy the earth.

12 And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I set between me and you and every living soul that is with you, for everlasting generations:

13 I set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

14 And it shall come to pass when I bring clouds over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud,

15 and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living soul of all flesh; and the waters shall not henceforth become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living soul of all flesh that is upon the earth.

17 And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

18 And the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth. And Ham is the father of Canaan.

19 These three are the sons of Noah; and from these was [the population of] the whole earth spread abroad.

20 And Noah began [to be] a husbandman, and planted a vineyard.

21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken, and he uncovered himself in his tent.

22 And Ham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren outside.

23 And Shem and Japheth took the upper garment and both laid [it] upon their shoulders, and went backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were turned away, that they saw not their father's nakedness.

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and learned what his youngest son had done to him.

25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; Let him be a bondman of bondmen to his brethren.

26 And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem, And let Canaan be his bondman.

27 Let God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, And let Canaan be his bondman.

28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 1222

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1222. 'He was Japheth's elder brother' means that its worship was external. This is clear from the meaning of 'Japheth' as the external Church, dealt with in verse 18 onwards of the previous chapter and in verses 1-5 above of this. Here 'Shem was Japheth's elder brother' means in particular that the internal Church and the external Church are 'brothers', for the relationship of internal worship to external worship that has internal worship within it cannot be anything different. It is in fact a blood relationship because charity is the chief thing within both of them; but the internal Church is the 'elder brother' because it is prior and interior. 'Japheth's elder brother also embodies here the fact that the second Ancient Church called Eber was to the first Ancient Church as a brother, for Japheth in the internal sense means nothing other than the external worship that has internal worship within it, whatever Church it may be. Therefore the worship of this new Ancient Church, which worship was chiefly external, is meant as well. The internal sense of the Word is such that no attention is paid to the historical details of the literal sense when the universal features are being considered, which exist quite separate or abstracted from the literal sense, for the two are completely different from each other. Consequently 'Japheth's elder brother' here means in the internal sense that the worship of the new Ancient Church was external. Unless such worship was meant there would have been no need to state here that he was Japheth's elder brother.

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