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Numbers 13

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1 And the people marched from Haseroth, and pitched their tents in the desert of Pharan.

2 And there the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

3 Send men to view the land of Chanaan, which I will give to the children of Israel, one of every tribe, of the rulers.

4 Moses did what the Lord had commanded, sending from the desert of Pharan, principal men, whose names are these:

5 Of the tribe of Ruben, Sammua the son of Zechur.

6 Of the tribe of Simeon, Saphat the son of Hurl.

7 Of the tribe of Juda, Caleb the son of Jephone.

8 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.

9 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Osee the son of Nun.

10 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Phalti the son of Raphu.

11 Of the tribe of Zabulon, Geddiel the son of Sodi.

12 Of the tribe of Joseph, of the sceptre of Manasses, Gaddi the son of Susi.

13 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.

14 Of the tribe of Aser, Sthur the son of Michael.

15 Of the tribe of Nephtali, Nahabi the son of Vapsi.

16 Of the tribe of Gad, Guel the son of Machi.

17 These are the names of the men, whom Moses sent to view the land: and he called Osee the son of Nun, Josue.

18 And Moses sent them to view the land of Chanaan, and said to them: Go you up by the south side. And when you shall come to the mountains,

19 View the land, of what sort it is: and the people that are the inhabitants thereof, whether they be strong or weak: few in number or many:

20 The land itself, whether it be good or bad: what manner of cities, walled or without walls:

21 The ground, fat or barren, woody or without trees. Be of good courage, and bring us of the fruits of the land. Now it was the time when the first ripe grapes are fit to be eaten.

22 And when they were gone up, they viewed the land from the desert of Sin, unto Rohob as you enter into Emath.

23 And they went up at the south side, and came to Hebron, where were Achiman and Sisai and Tholmai the sons of Enac. For Hebron was built seven years before Tanis the city of Egypt.

24 And going forward as far as the torrent of the cluster of grapes, they cut off a branch with its cluster of grapes, which two men carried upon a lever. They took also of the pomegranates and of the figs of that place:

25 Which was called Nehelescol, that is to say, the torrent of the cluster of grapes, because from thence the children of Israel had carried a cluster of grapes.

26 And they that went to spy out the land returned after forty days, having gone round all the country,

27 And came to Moses and Aaron and to all the assembly of the children of Israel to the desert of Pharan, which is in Cades. And speaking to them and to all the multitude, they shewed them the fruits of the land:

28 And they related and said: We came into the land to which thou sentest us, which in very deed floweth with milk and honey as may be known by these fruits:

29 But it hath very strong inhabitants, and the cities are great and walled. We saw there the race of Enac.

30 Amalec dwelleth in the south, the Hethite and the Jebusite and the Amorrhite in the mountains: but the Chanaanite abideth by the sea and near the streams of the Jordan.

31 In the mean time Caleb, to still the murmuring of the people that rose against Moses, said: Let us go up and possess the land, for we shall be able to conquer it.

32 But the others, that had been with him, said: No, we are not able to go up to this people, because they are stronger than we.

33 And they spoke ill of the land, which they had viewed, before the children of Israel, saying: The land which we have viewed, devoureth its inhabitants: the people, that we beheld, are of a tall stature.

34 There we saw certain monsters of the sons of Enac, of the giant kind: in comparison of whom, we seemed like locusts.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 581

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581. That 'the Nephilim' means those who, persuaded of their own prominence and superiority, treated everything holy and true as being worthless is clear from what comes before and directly after; that is to say, they immersed matters of doctrine in their own evil desires, which is what is meant by the statement about the sons of God going in to the daughters of man, who bore children to them. Persuasion concerning self and its own delusions also grows as more and more things enter in, till at length that persuasion is inerasable. And when doctrinal matters concerning faith are added as well, utterly persuasive assumptions cause them to treat everything holy and true as being worthless, and they become Nephilim. As has been stated, this set of people who lived before the Flood are such that all spirits are choked to death by their absolutely dreadful delusions which spread from them like a sphere that is poisonous and choking. Spirits are so choked to death by them that they do not know how to think, and as a result feel semi-dead. And unless the Lord by His Coming into the world had freed the world of spirits from so pernicious a set of people, no one could possibly have stayed on there, and so the human race, which the Lord governs by means of spirits, would have perished. Consequently these people are now detained in a hell beneath what looks like a misty solid rock, beneath the heel of the left foot. Nor do they ever try to escape. The world of spirits is accordingly free of that extremely dangerous crew. That crew and the thoroughly poisonous sphere of persuasions from it will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with as a separate subject. 1 These are the people called the Nephilim, and they treat all that is holy and true as being worthless.

[2] Further mention is made of them in the Word, though their descendants were called Anakim and Rephaim. The fact that they were called Anakim is clear in Moses,

The men who explored the land of Canaan said, We saw the Nephilim there, the sons of Anak who were descendants of the Nephilim; and in our own eyes we were like locusts, and so we were in their eyes. Numbers 13:33.

The fact that they were called Rephaim is clear once again in Moses,

The Emim lived formerly in the land of Moab, a people great and many, and tall like the Anakim. The Rephaim were also considered to be as Anakim; and the Moabites called them Emim. Deuteronomy 2:10-11.

The Nephilim are not mentioned again, but the Rephaim are. In the Prophets the description of them fits what has been said about them already, as in Isaiah,

Hell beneath has been stirred up for you, to meet you as you come. He has roused the Rephaim for you. Isaiah 14:9

This refers to the hell where such people are.

In the same prophet,

The dead will not live, the Rephaim will not rise. To that end You have visited and destroyed them, and wiped out all remembrance of them. Isaiah 26:14.

This also refers to that hell of theirs from which they will never rise up again. And in the same prophet,

Your dead will live, my corpse will rise again. Wake up and sing, O inhabitants of the dust. For Your dew is a dew of herbs. But You will cast away the land of the Rephaim. Isaiah 26:19.

'The land of the Rephaim' is that self same hell.

In David,

Will You work a wonder for the dead? Will the Rephaim rise up and confess You? Psalms 88:10.

This similarly refers to that hell of theirs and to the fact that they can never again rise up and contaminate the atmosphere of the world of spirits with the utterly dreadful poison of their persuasions. Provision has been made by the Lord however to prevent the human race ever again being steeped in such dreadful delusions and persuasions. But the people who lived before the Flood were of such a nature and disposition that they were able to be steeped in them, for reasons until now unknown to anybody, which too will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with later on.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. i.e. in 1265-1272

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