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Genesis 30

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1 And Rachel, seeing herself without children, envied her sister, and said to her husband: Give me children, otherwise I shall die.

2 And Jacob being angry with her, answered: Am I as God, who hath deprived thee of the fruit of thy womb?

3 But she said: I have here my servant Bala: go in unto her, that she may bear upon my knees, and I may have children by her.

4 And she gave him Bala in marriage: who,

5 When her husband had gone in unto her, conceived and bore a son.

6 And Rachel said: The Lord hath judged for me, and hath heard my voice, giving me a son, and therefore she called his name Dan.

7 And again Bala conceived and bore another,

8 For whom Rachel said: God hath compared me with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called him Nephtali.

9 Lia, perceiving that she had left off bearing, gave Zelpha her handmaid to her husband.

10 And when she had conceived and brought forth a son,

11 She said: Happily. And therefore called his name Gad.

12 Zelpha also bore another.

13 And Lia said: This is for my happiness: for women will call me blessed. Therefore she called him Aser.

14 And Ruben, going out in the time of the wheat harvest into the field, found mandrakes: which he brought to his mother Lia. And Rachel said: Give me part of thy son's mandrakes.

15 She answered: Dost thou think it a small matter, that thou hast taken my husband from me, unless thou take also my son's mandrakes? Rachel said: He shall sleep with thee this night, for thy son's mandrakes.

16 And when Jacob returned at even from the field, Lia went out to meet him, and said: Thou shalt come in unto me, because I have hired thee for my son's mandrakes. And he slept with her that night.

17 And God heard her prayers: and she conceived and bore the fifth son,

18 And said: God hath given me a reward, because I gave my handmaid to my husband. And she called his name Issachar.

19 And Lia conceived again, and bore the sixth son,

20 And said: God hath endowed me with a good dowry: this turn also my husband will be with me, because I have borne him six sons: and therefore she called his name Zabulon.

21 After whom she bore a daughter, named Diana.

22 The Lord also remembering Rachel, heard her, and opened her womb.

23 And she conceived, and bore a son, saying: God hath taken my reproach.

24 And she called his name Joseph, saying: The Lord give me also another son.

25 And when Joseph was born, Jacob said to his father in law: Send me away that I may return into my country, and to my land.

26 Give me my wives, and my children, for whom I have served thee, that I may depart: thou knowest the service that I have rendered thee.

27 Laban said to him: Let me find favour in thy sight: I have learned by experience, that God hath blessed me for thy sake.

28 Appoint thy wages which I shall give thee.

29 But he answered: Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how great thy possession hath been in my hands.

30 Thou hadst but little before I came to thee, and now thou art become rich: and the Lord hath blessed thee at my coming. It is reasonable therefore that I should now provide also for my own house.

31 And Laban said: What shall I give thee? But he said: I require nothing: but if thou wilt do what I demand, I will feed, and keep thy sheep again.

32 Go round through all thy flocks, and separate all the sheep of divers colours, and speckled: and all that is brown and spotted, and of divers colours, as well among the sheep, as among the goats, shall be my wages.

33 And my justice shall answer for me to morrow before thee when the time of the bargain shall come: and all that is not of divers colours, and spotted, and brown, as well among the sheep as among the goats, shall accuse me of theft.

34 And Laban said: I like well what thou demandest.

35 And he separated the name day the she goats, and the sheep, and the he goats, and the rams of divers colours, and spotted: and all the flock of one colour, that is, of white and black fleece, he delivered into the hands of his sons.

36 And he set the space of three days' journey betwixt himself and his son in law, who fed the rest of his flock.

37 And Jacob took green robs of poplar, and of almond, and of place trees, and pilled them in part: so when the bark was taken off, in the parts that were pilled, there appeared whiteness: but the parts that were whole remained green: and by this means the colour was divers.

38 And he put them in the troughs, where the water was poured out: that when the flocks should come to drink, they might have the rods before their eyes, and in the sight of them might conceive.

39 And it came to pass that in the very heat of coition, the sheep beheld the rods, and brought forth spotted, and of divers colours, and speckled.

40 And Jacob separated the flock, and put the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the rams: and all the white and the black were Laban's: and the rest were Jacob's, when the flocks were separated one from the other.

41 So when the ewes went first to ram, Jacob put the rods in the roughs of water before the eyes of the rams, and of the ewes, that they might conceive while they were looking upon them:

42 But when the latter coming was, and the last conceiving, he did not put them. And those that were late ward, become Laban's: and they of the first time, Jacob's.

43 And the man was enriched exceedingly, and he had many flocks, maid servants and men servants, camels and asses.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 3960

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3960. And Leah said, God hath endowed me with a good dowry, now will my man dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons. That this signifies in the supreme sense the Divine Itself of the Lord and His Divine Human; in the internal sense, the heavenly marriage; and in the external sense, conjugial love, is evident from the signification of “dwelling with,” and also from the rest of the words Leah then spoke. The reason why “dwelling with,” or “cohabitation,” is in the supreme sense the Divine Itself of the Lord and His Divine Human, is that the Divine Itself, called the “Father,” is in the Divine Human, called the “Son of God,” mutually and alternately, according to the words of the Lord Himself in John:

Jesus saith, Philip, he that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father. Believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (John 14:9-11; 10:38).

That this union is the Divine marriage itself, may be seen above (n. 3211, 3952). Yet this union is not cohabitation, but is expressed by “cohabitation” in the sense of the letter; for things which are one are presented as two in the sense of the letter, as the Father and the Son; and even as three, as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and this for many reasons, concerning which of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere.

[2] That “dwelling together,” or “cohabitation,” in the internal sense is the heavenly marriage, is from the same cause; for this marriage comes forth from the Divine marriage, which is the union of the Father and the Son, or of the Divine Itself of the Lord with His Divine Human. The heavenly marriage is that which is called the Lord’s kingdom, and also heaven; and this because it comes forth from the Divine marriage, which is the Lord. This then is what is signified in the internal sense by “cohabitation,” and hence it is that heaven likewise is called the “habitation of God,” as in Isaiah:

Look down from the heavens, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy adornment where is Thy zeal and Thy mighty acts? the yearning of Thy bowels, and Thy compassions toward me, have restrained themselves (Isaiah 63:15).

The “habitation of holiness” denotes the celestial kingdom; and the “habitation of adornment,” the spiritual kingdom. “Habitation” in this passage comes from the same word as that from which “dwelling together” and “Zebulun” are derived in the passage under consideration.

[3] The reason why “dwelling together” or “cohabitation” in the external sense is conjugial love, is that all genuine conjugial love comes forth from no other source than the heavenly marriage, which is that of good and truth; and this from the Divine marriage, which is the Lord as to His Divine Itself and His Divine Human. (See what has been said before on these subjects; as that the heavenly marriage is from the Divine good which is in the Lord and the Divine truth which is from Him, n. 2508, 2618, 2803, 3132; that from it is conjugial love, n. 2728, 2729; that they who are in genuine conjugial love dwell together in the inmosts of their life, n. 2732; and thus in the love of good and truth, for these are the inmosts of their life; that conjugial love is the fundamental love of all the loves, see n. 2737-2739; that there is a marriage of good and truth in heaven, in the church, in everyone in it, and in everything in nature, n. 718, 747, 917, 1432, 2173, 2516, 2712, 2758; that this marriage is in everything in the Word, n. 683, 793, 801, 2516, 2712; and that thus in the supreme sense the Lord Himself is therein; that by “Jesus Christ” is signified the Divine marriage, n. 3004)

[4] These are the things signified not only by “dwelling together,” or by the words, “now will my man dwell with me,” but also by those which go before—“God hath endowed me with a good dowry;” by the former, however, the truth of good is signified; and by the latter, the good of truth; both together making the heavenly marriage. And as this is the conclusion, it is said: “because I have borne him six sons;” for “six” here signify the same as “twelve,” namely, all things of faith and love; the half of a number and its double having the same signification in the Word, when the subject is similar.

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