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Genesis 40

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1 After this, it came to pass, that two eunuchs, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, offended their lord.

2 And Pharao being angry with them (now the one was chief butler, the other chief baker)

3 He sent them to the prison of the commander of the soldiers, in which Joseph also was prisoner,

4 But the keeper of the prison delivered them to Joseph, and he served them. Some little time passed, and they were kept in custody.

5 And they both dreamed a dream the same night, according to the interpretation agreeing to themselves:

6 And when Joseph was come in to them in the morning, and saw them sad,

7 He asked them, saying: Why is your oountenance sadder to day than usual?

8 They answered: We have dreamed a dream, and there is nobody to interpret it to us. And Joseph said to them: Both not interpretation belong to God? Tell me what you have dreamed.

9 The chief butler first told his dream: I saw before me a vine,

10 On which were three branches, which by little and little sent out buds, and after the blossoms brought forth ripe grapes :

11 And the cup of Pharao was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into the cup which I held, and I gave the cup to Pharao.

12 Joseph answered: This is the interpretation of the dream: The three branches are yet three days:

13 After which Pharao will remember thy service, and will restore thee to thy former place: and thou shah present him the cup according to thy office, as before thou wast wont to do.

14 Only remember me, when it shall be well with thee, and do me this kindness: to put Pharao in mind to take me out of this prison:

15 For I was stolen away out of the land I of the Hebrews, and here without any fault was cast into the dungeon.

16 The chief baker seeing that he had wisely interpreted the dream, said: I also dreamed a dream, That I bed three baskets of meal upon my heed:

17 And that in one basket which was uppermost, I carried all meats that are made by the art of baking, and that the birds ate out of it.

18 Joseph answered: This is the interpretation of the dream: The three baskets are yet three days:

19 After which Pharao will take thy hand from thee, and hang thee on a cross, and the birds shall tear thy flesh.

20 The third day after this was the birthday of Pharao: and he made a. great feast for his servants, and at the banquet remembered the chief butler, and the chief baker.

21 And he restored the one to his place to present him the cup:

22 The other he hanged on a gibbet, that the truth of the interpreter might be shewn.

23 But the chief butler, when things prospered with him, forgot his interpreter.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 5115

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5115. 'And it was as though budding' means an influx that allows rebirth to be effected. This is clear from the meaning of 'budding' - that is, bringing forth leaves, and also blossom later on - as the first stage of rebirth. The reason an influx is meant is that when a person is being born again spiritual life flows into him, even as a tree, when it starts to bud, is receiving its life through heat from the sun. The birth of a human being is compared in various places in the Word to members of the vegetable kingdom, especially trees. The reason for this comparison is that the entire vegetable kingdom, like the animal kingdom also, represents the kind of things that exist with the human being, and consequently the kind of things that exist in the Lord's kingdom. For the human being is heaven in its least form, as may be seen from what has been shown at the ends of chapters regarding correspondence of the human being with the Grand Man, which is heaven. This also explains why the ancients referred to man as the microcosm; and if more had been known about the heavenly state they would have called him a miniature heaven too. For the whole natural system is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, see 2758, 3483, 4939.

[2] But in particular it is a person who is being born anew, that is, being regenerated by the Lord, who is called heaven; for during that time Divine good and truth from the Lord, and consequently heaven, are implanted in him. Indeed, like a tree, a person who is being born again begins from a seed, which is why in the Word 'seed' means truth obtained from good. Also, like a tree, he brings forth leaves, then blossom, and finally fruit; for he brings forth the kind of things that belong to intelligence, which again in the Word are meant by 'leaves', then the kind of things that belong to wisdom, which are meant by 'blossoms', and finally the kind of things that are matters of life, namely forms of the good of love and charity expressed in action, which in the Word are meant by 'fruits'. Such is the representative likeness that exists between a fruitful tree and a person who is being regenerated, a likeness so great that one may learn from a tree about regeneration, provided that something is known first of all about spiritual good and truth. From this one may see that 'the vine' in the cupbearer's dream serves to describe fully in a representative fashion the process by which a person is born again so far as the sensory power subject to the understanding part is concerned. That process is described first by the three shoots, then by the buds that were formed, after that by the blossom, followed by the ripening of the clusters into grapes, and finally by his pressing them into Pharaoh's cup and his giving this to him.

[3] Furthermore the dreams which come from the Lord by way of heaven are never anything else than scenes based on representatives. Anyone therefore who does not know what this or that in the natural world represents, more so one who is totally unaware of anything at all being representative there, inevitably supposes that those representatives are merely comparisons such as anybody may use in ordinary conversation. They are indeed comparisons; but they are the kind which are also correspondences and which therefore present themselves as visible objects in the world of spirits while the angels positioned more internally in heaven are talking about spiritual or celestial things belonging to the Lord's kingdom. Regarding dreams, see 1122, 1975, 1977, 1979-1981.

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