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Genesis 37

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1 And Jacob dwelt in the land of Chanaan wherein his father sojourned.

2 And these are his generations: Joseph, when he was sixteen years old, was feeding the dock with his brethren, being but a boy: and he was with the sons of and of Zelpha his father's wives : and he accused his brethren to his father of a most wicked crime.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had him in his old age: and he made him a coat of divers colours.

4 And his brethren seeing that he was loved by his father, more than all his sons, hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

5 Now it fell out also that he told his brethren a dream, that he had dreamed: which occasioned them to hate him the more.

6 And he said to them: Hear my dream which I dreamed.

7 I thought we were binding sheaves in the field: and my sheaf arose as it were, end stood, and your sheaves standing about, bowed down before my sheaf.

8 His brethren answered : Shalt thou be our king? or shall we be subject to thy dominion? Therefore this matter of his dreams and words ministered nourishment to their envy and hatred.

9 He dreamed also another dream, which he told his brethren, saying: I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars worshipping me.

10 And when he had told this to his father and brethren, his father rebuked him, and said: What meaneth this dream that thou hast dreamed? shall I and thy mother, and thy brethren worship thee upon the earth?

11 His brethren therefore envied him: but his father considered the thing with himself.

12 And when his brethren abode in Sichem feeding their father's docks,

13 Israel said to him : Thy brethren feed the sheep in Sichem: come, I will send thee to them. And when he answered:

14 I am ready: he said to him: Go, and see if all things be well with thy brethren, and the cattle: and bring me word again what is doing. So being sent from the vale of Hebron, he came to Sichem:

15 And a man found him there wandering in the field, and asked what he sought.

16 But he answered: I seek my brethren; tell me where they feed the docks.

17 And the man said to him: They are departed from this place: for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothain. And Joseph went forward after his brethren, and found them in Dothain.

18 And when they saw him afar off, be- fore he came nigh them, they thought to kill him.

19 And said one to another: Behold the dreamer cometh.

20 Come, let us kill him, and cast him into some old pit : and we will say : Some evil beast hath devoured him: and then it shall appear what his dreams avail him :

21 And Ruben hearing this, endeavoured to deliver him out of their hands, end said:

22 Do not take away his life, nor shed his blood: but cast him into this pit, that is in the wilderness, and keep your hands harmless: now he said this, being desirous to deliver him out of their hands and to restore him to his father.

23 And as soon as he came to his brethren, they forthwith stript him of his outside coat, that was of divers colours:

24 And cast him into an old pit, where there was no water.

25 And sitting down to eat bread, they saw some Ismaelites on their way coming from Calaad, with their camels, carrying spices, and balm, and myrrh to Egypt.

26 And Juda said to his brethren: What will it profit us to kill our brother, and conceal his blood?

27 It is better that he be sold to the Ismaelites, and that our hands be not defiled: for he is our brother and our flesh. His brethren agreed to his words.

28 And when the Madianite merchants passed by, they drew him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ismaelites, for twenty pieces of silver: and they led him into Egypt.

29 And Ruben, returning to the pit, found not the boy:

30 And rending his garments he went to his brethren, and said: The boy doth not appear and whither shall I go?

31 And they took his coat, and dipped it in the blood of a kid, which they had killed :

32 Sending some to carry it to their father, and to say: This we have found: see whether it be thy son's coat, or not.

33 And the father acknowledging it, said: It is my son's coat, an evil wild beast hath eaten him, a beast hath devoured Joseph.

34 And tearing his garments, he put an sackcloth, mourning for his son a long time.

35 And alibis children being gathered together to comfort their father in his sorrow, he would not receive comfort, but said: I will go down to my son into hell, mourning. And whilst he continued weeping,

36 The Madianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Putiphar, an eunuch of Pharao, captain of the soldiers.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 4818

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4818. 'And there Judah saw the daughter of a man, a Canaanite' means the affection for evil begotten by falsity springing from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'the daughter' as the affection for good, dealt with in 2362, and in the contrary sense as the affection for evil, 3024; from the meaning of 'a man' as one who has intelligence and, in the abstract sense, as truth, but in the contrary sense as one who has no intelligence and as falsity, dealt with just above in 4816; and from the meaning of 'a Canaanite' as evil, dealt with in 1573, 1574. From these meanings it is evident that 'the daughter of a man, a Canaanite' means evil begotten by falsity springing from evil. What evil begotten by falsity springing from evil is will be stated below.

[2] Here the origins of the tribe of Judah must be stated first, since these are the subject in this chapter. That tribe, or the Jewish nation, has three origins, the first being Shelah, Judah's son by his Canaanite wife, the second and third being Perez and Zerah, Judah's sons by his daughter-in-law. The descent of the whole Jewish nation from these three sons of Judah is evident from the list of Jacob's sons and grandsons who accompanied him into Egypt, Genesis 46:12, and also from the grouping of them into families, referred to in Moses,

The sons of Judah according to their families were: of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites; of Perez, the family of the Parzites; of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites. Numbers 26:20; 1 Chronicles 4:21.

From this the nature of that nation's origin is evident; that is to say, a third of them were descended from a Canaanite mother and two thirds from a daughter-in-law. They were all therefore the product of an illicit union, because marriages to daughters of the Canaanites were strictly forbidden - as may be seen in Genesis 24:3; Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3; 1 Kings 11:2; and Chapters 9, 10 of Ezra - while lying with a daughter-in-law was a capital offence, as is evident in Moses,

As regards a man who has lain with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be killed; they have committed perversion; 1 their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:12.

What Judah and his daughter-in-law had done together was linked by him to the law regarding leviratical marriages, which lays down the duty of a brother but never of a father, as is evident from verse 26 of the present chapter. Judah's linking of their deed together to this law implies that the sons of Tamar were to be recognized as the sons of Er the firstborn, who was born from the Canaanite mother, and who was evil in Jehovah's eyes and was therefore made to die, verse 7. For initially those born in a leviratical marriage did not belong to the one from whom they had been conceived but to him whose seed was being raised up, as is clear from Deuteronomy 25:5-6, and also from verses 8 and 9 of the present chapter. Furthermore, the sons whom Tamar bore were the result of whoredom, for when Judah went in to her he thought she was a prostitute, verses 15-16, 21. From all this one can see the origin of the Jewish nation and what kind of origin this was; and one can see that their words in John were founded on a lie,

The Jews said to Him, We were not born of whoredom. John 8:41.

[3] As regards what that origin implies and what it represents, this is evident from what follows. That is to say, those people's interiors were the same or had the same origin. Judah's marriage to a Canaanite implies and represents an origin that consisted in evil begotten by falsity springing from evil, for this is what is meant in the internal sense by 'the daughter of a man, a Canaanite'. And his lying through whoredom with his daughter-in-law implies and represents condemnation due to truth falsified by evil, for throughout the Word 'whoredom' means the falsification of truth, see 3703. 2 Evil begotten by falsity springing from evil is an evil life resulting from a false teaching hatched by the evil of self-love - that is, by those governed by this evil - and backed up by a use of the sense of the letter of the Word. This is what the origin of the evil in the Jewish nation is like, and what the origin of the evil is like in the Christian world, especially among those meant in the Word by Babel. The nature of that evil is such that it closes every path leading into the internal man, closing every path so completely that no conscience at all can be formed there. For if any evil done by a person is due to a false teaching, he believes that this is good because he believes that it is true. He accordingly does it, because he has warrant to do so, with a sense of freedom and delight. All this being so, heaven is closed so completely against him that it cannot be opened.

[4] As an example to explain what this evil is like, take those who from the evil of self-love believe the following: One nation alone is Jehovah's chosen people, in comparison with whom all the rest of mankind are slaves. The rest, they believe, are so base that they may be killed at will and may be treated in a cruel fashion. Such ideas, likewise backed up by a use of the sense of the letter of the Word, were the beliefs of the Jewish nation, as they are also of the Babylonish 3 nation at the present day. Whatever kind of evil done by the latter that is the result of that false teaching, and of any other false teachings built on that one as their foundation, is evil begotten by falsity springing from evil. It destroys the internal man and shuts out even the possibility of any conscience being formed there. These people are referred to in the Word as those immersed in bloodshed; for they treat in savage ways the entire human race because it does not venerate what they believe and so themselves too, and because it does not present its gifts on their altars.

[5] Take another example - those who from the evil of self-love and love of the world believe in the necessity for someone to act as the Lord's vicar on earth. They believe that this person has power to open and close heaven, and so to control everyone's mind and conscience, and they back up this falsity by a use of the sense of the letter of the Word. In their case whatever kind of evil they perform as a result of these ideas is evil begotten by falsity springing from evil, which similarly destroys the internal man in those who are led by that evil to lay claim to that power and so control others. That evil destroys the internal man so completely that people cease to know any longer what the internal man is, or to know of the existence of conscience in anyone, with the result that they cease to believe any longer in a life after death, or in the existence of hell and of heaven, however much they talk about these.

[6] The nature of this evil is such that people in the world cannot tell it apart from other evils; but in the next life angels recognize it quite clearly. For in the next life the countless differences in the essential nature and the origin of evils and falsities are in full view; and it is also the genera and species to which these evils and falsities belong that mark off the hells from one another. Of these countless differences man knows scarcely anything. He believes in the existence of evil but has no knowledge of its essential nature, for the simple reason that he does not know what good is, and does not know what good is because he does not know what charity is. If he knew what the good of charity was he would also know its opposites, which are evils, and also their differences.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, confusion

2. Reading 3703 for 3708

3. i. e. Papal

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 3249

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3249. 'Eastwards to the land of the east' means towards the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the east' and 'the land of the east', to be dealt with below. The good of faith which is meant by 'the land of the east' is nothing else but that which in the Word is called charity towards the neighbour. And charity towards the neighbour is nothing else than a life according to the Lord's commandments. This is what 'the land of the east' means, see 1250. Those therefore who possessed cognitions regarding the good of faith were called 'the sons of the east'. The land of the sons of the east was Aram or Syria - Aram or Syria meaning cognitions of good, see 1232, 1234, and Aram Naharaim or Syria of the [Two] Rivers cognitions of truth, 3051. And because the Syrians, or 'the sons of the east' means those who possessed cognitions of good and truth, they above all others were referred to as wise, as in 1 Kings where Solomon is referred to,

The wisdom of Solomon surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east. 1 Kings 4:30.

And in Matthew, in reference to those who came to Jesus at His birth,

Wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east and have come to worship Him. Matthew 2:1-2.

[2] Indeed in Syria there existed the final remnants of the Ancient Church, which is why cognitions of good and truth still remained there, as also becomes clear from Balaam who not only worshipped Jehovah but also prophesied concerning the Lord and called Him,

A star out of Jacob and a sceptre out of Israel. Numbers 24:17.

The fact that he belonged to the sons of the east in Syria is self-evident, for he says of himself when delivering his discourse,

From Syria Balak has brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. Numbers 23:7.

The fact that Aram or Syria was where the sons of the east lived is made additionally clear from the consideration that when Jacob went to Syria he is said to have gone to the land of the sons of the east, Genesis 29:1.

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