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Genesis 16

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1 Now Sarai the wife of Abram, had brought forth no children; having a handmaid, an Egyptian, named Agar,

2 She said to her husband: Behold, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: go in unto my handmaid, it may be I may have children of her at least. And when he agreed to her request,

3 She took Agar the Egyptian her handmaid, ten years after they first dwelt in the land of Chanaan, and gave her to her husband to wife.

4 And he went in to her. But she, perceiving that she was with child, despised her mistress.

5 And Sarai said to Abram: Thou dost unjustly with me: I gave my handmaid into thy bosom, and she perceiving herself to be with child, despiseth me. The Lord judge between me and thee.

6 And Abram made answer, and said to her: Behold thy handmaid is in thy own hand, use her its it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai afflicted her, she ran away.

7 And the angel of the Lord having found her, by a fountain of water in the wilderness, which is in the way to Sur in the desert,

8 He said to her: Agar, handmaid of Sarai, whence comest thou? and whither goest thou? And she answered: I flee from the face of Sarai, my mistress.

9 And the angel of the Lord said to her: Return to thy mistress, and humble thyself under her hand.

10 And again he said: I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, and it shall not be numbered for multitude.

11 And again: Behold, said he, thou art with child, and thou shalt bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Ismael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.

12 He shall be a wild man: his hand will be against all men, and all men's hands against him: and he shall pitch his tents over against all his brethren.

13 And she called the name of the Lord that spoke unto her: Thou the God who hast seen me. For she said: Verily here have I seen the hinder parts of him that seeth me.

14 Therefore she called that well, The well of him that liveth and seeth me. The same is between Cades and Bared.

15 And Agar brought forth a son to Abram: who called his name Ismael.

16 Abram was fourscore and six years old when Agar brought him forth Ismael.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 1953

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1953. That 'she called the name of Jehovah who spoke to her' means the state of the Lord's Interior Man when it thought about these things is clear from what comes before and after, and also from the meaning of '[calling] the name' as knowing the nature of, dealt with already in 144, 145, 1754. It is the nature of this state, that is, of the Lord's state as it then was when He so thought about the rational, that is described. The rational itself could not engage in such thought; only the Interior or higher Man, referred to in 1926, could do so. In no way does the rational have the ability to think regarding its own nature, for nothing has the ability to see into itself. There has to be that which is more internal or higher that thinks regarding it, for this does have the ability to see it. Take for example the ear. The ear is not able to know, still less to perceive, the utterance which it receives into itself; but it is the interior hearing which is able to do so. The ear merely makes out the articulated sounds or expressions, the interior hearing being that which grasps the meaning, and after that the interior seeing or inner sight which perceives it. This is the manner in which through hearing a person perceives the meaning of the utterance. It is similar with the things of sight. The first ideas received from visual objects are material, as they are also called; but sight still more interior surveys them and in this way engages in thought. The same also applies to man's rational. The rational has no ability at all to see itself, still less to examine its own nature; but there has to be something more internal to do this. Consequently when a person has the ability to do this, that is to say, to perceive anything false present in his rational and any truth shining out of it, and more so if he is able to perceive anything fighting and triumphing, he may know that such an ability springs from the Lord's influx through the internal man. The Lord's Interior Man, referred to above in 1926 and meant here, was that which had been joined to the Internal Man, which was Jehovah, and so was far above that rational. From that Interior Man, as in heavenly light, He saw and perceived what the nature of the rational would be if truth alone and no good dwelt in it.

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