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Genèse 35

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1 Dieu dit à Jacob: Lève-toi, monte à Béthel, et demeures-y; là, tu dresseras un autel au Dieu qui t'apparut, lorsque tu fuyais Esaü, ton frère.

2 Jacob dit à sa maison et à tous ceux qui étaient avec lui: Otez les dieux étrangers qui sont au milieu de vous, purifiez-vous, et changez de vêtements.

3 Nous Nous lèverons, et Nous monterons à Béthel; là, je dresserai un autel au Dieu qui m'a exaucé dans le jour de ma détresse, et qui a été avec moi pendant le voyage que j'ai fait.

4 Ils donnèrent à Jacob tous les dieux étrangers qui étaient entre leurs mains, et les anneaux qui étaient à leurs oreilles. Jacob les enfouit sous le térébinthe qui est près de Sichem.

5 Ensuite ils partirent. La terreur de Dieu se répandit sur les villes qui les entouraient, et l'on ne poursuivit point les fils de Jacob.

6 Jacob arriva, lui et tous ceux qui étaient avec lui, à Luz, qui est Béthel, dans le pays de Canaan.

7 Il bâtit là un autel, et il appela ce lieu El-Béthel; car c'est là que Dieu s'était révélé à lui lorsqu'il fuyait son frère.

8 Débora, nourrice de Rebecca, mourut; et elle fut enterrée au-dessous de Béthel, sous le chêne auquel on a donné le nom de chêne des pleurs.

9 Dieu apparut encore à Jacob, après son retour de Paddan-Aram, et il le bénit.

10 Dieu lui dit: Ton nom est Jacob; tu ne seras plus appelé Jacob, mais ton nom sera Israël. Et il lui donna le nom d'Israël.

11 Dieu lui dit: Je suis le Dieu tout-puissant. Sois fécond, et multiplie: une nation et une multitude de nations naîtront de toi, et des rois sortiront de tes reins.

12 Je te donnerai le pays que j'ai donné à Abraham et à Isaac, et je donnerai ce pays à ta postérité après toi.

13 Dieu s'éleva au-dessus de lui, dans le lieu où il lui avait parlé.

14 Et Jacob dressa un monument dans le lieu où Dieu lui avait parlé, un monument de pierres, sur lequel il fit une libation et versa de l'huile.

15 Jacob donna le nom de Béthel au lieu où Dieu lui avait parlé.

16 Ils partirent de Béthel; et il y avait encore une certaine distance jusqu'à Ephrata, lorsque Rachel accoucha. Elle eut un accouchement pénible;

17 et pendant les douleurs de l'enfantement, la sage-femme lui dit: Ne crains point, car tu as encore un fils!

18 Et comme elle allait rendre l'âme, car elle était mourante, elle lui donna le nom de Ben-Oni; mais le père l'appela Benjamin.

19 Rachel mourut, et elle fut enterrée sur le chemin d'Ephrata, qui est Bethléhem.

20 Jacob éleva un monument sur son sépulcre; c'est le monument du sépulcre de Rachel, qui existe encore aujourd'hui.

21 Israël partit; et il dressa sa tente au delà de Migdal-Eder.

22 Pendant qu'Israël habitait cette contrée, Ruben alla coucher avec Bilha, concubine de son père. Et Israël l'apprit. Les fils de Jacob étaient au nombre de douze.

23 Fils de Léa: Ruben, premier-né de Jacob, Siméon, Lévi, Juda, Issacar et Zabulon.

24 Fils de Rachel: Joseph et Benjamin.

25 Fils de Bilha, servante de Rachel: Dan et Nephthali.

26 Fils de Zilpa, servante de Léa: Gad et Aser. Ce sont là les fils de Jacob, qui lui naquirent à Paddan-Aram.

27 Jacob arriva auprès d'Isaac, son père, à Mamré, à Kirjath-Arba, qui est Hébron, où avaient séjourné Abraham et Isaac.

28 Les jours d'Isaac furent de cent quatre-vingts ans.

29 Il expira et mourut, et il fut recueilli auprès de son peuple, âgé et rassasié de jours, et Esaü et Jacob, ses fils, l'enterrèrent.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 2838

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2838. 'As it is said today' means that which is perpetual. This is clear from the meaning of 'today' in the Word, dealt with below. One frequently reads in the Word the phrase 'even to this day (or today)', as in what has gone before,

He is the father of Moab even to this day, and the father of Ammon even to this day. Genesis 19:37-38; and in what appears later on,

The name of the city is Beersheba even to this day. Genesis 26:33; also,

The children of Israel do not eat the sinew of that which was displaced, which is on the hollow of the thigh, even to this day. Genesis 32:32; as well as,

This is the pillar of Rachel's grave even to [this] day. Genesis 35:20.

Joseph made it a statute even to this day. Genesis 47:26.

In the historical sense 'to this day' and 'today' refer to the time when Moses was alive, but in the internal sense these expressions mean perpetuity and eternity of state. 'Day' means state, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, and so therefore does 'today', which is the present time. That which in the world is temporal is in heaven eternal. To give the meaning of that which is eternal, the expression today or else to this day has been added, though to those who are aware only of the historical sense it does not appear to embody anything further. Similar usages of these expressions occur elsewhere in the Word, such as Joshua 4:9; 6:25; 7:26; Judges 1:21, 26; and in other places.

[2] That 'today' means that which is perpetual and eternal may be seen in David,

I will tell of the statute: Jehovah has said to me, You are My Son; today I have begotten You. Psalms 2:7.

Here 'today' plainly stands for that which is eternal. In the same author,

For ever, O Jehovah, Your Word is fixed in the heavens, Your truth to generation after generation. You have established the earth and it stands. As for Your judgements they stand [even] today. Psalms 119:89-91.

Here also 'today' plainly stands for that which is eternal. In Jeremiah,

Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. I have set you this day (today) over nations and over kingdoms; and I have made you today into a fortified city, and into a pillar of iron, and into walls of bronze. Jeremiah 1:5, 10, 18.

This refers in the sense of the letter to Jeremiah, but in the internal sense the Lord is meant. 'I have set you this day (or today) over nations and over kingdoms, and I have made you today into a fortified city' means from eternity. In regard to the Lord one can only speak of that which is eternal.

[3] In Moses,

You are standing today, all of you, before Jehovah your God, so that you may enter into the covenant of Jehovah your God, and into His oath, which Jehovah your God is making with you today, that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He will be God to you. Not indeed with you alone [do I make it], but with those who stand with us here today before Jehovah our God, and with those who are not with us today. Deuteronomy 29:10, 12-15.

Here in the sense of the letter 'today' means that present time when

Moses addressed the people. Yet it is clear that it nevertheless implies subsequent times and what is perpetual; for making a covenant with anyone, and with those who were there and with those who were not, implies that which is perpetual. Perpetuity itself is what is meant in the internal sense.

[4] That 'daily' and 'today' mean that which is perpetual is clear also from the sacrifice that was offered each day. This sacrifice, because of what is meant by day, daily, and today, was called the continual, or perpetual, sacrifice, Numbers 28:3, 23; Daniel 8:13; 11:31; 12:11. This may be even more plainly evident from the manna which rained from heaven, spoken of in Moses as follows,

Behold, I am causing bread to rain from heaven, and the people shall go out and gather a portion day by day. And they shall not leave any of it until the morning. That which they did leave until the morning bred worms and went rotten, except that gathered on the day before the Sabbath. Exodus 16:4, 19-20, 23.

This happened because 'the manna' meant the Lord's Divine Human, John 6:31-32, 49-50, 58, and because the Lord's Divine Human meant heavenly food, which is nothing other than love and charity, together with the goods and truths of faith. In heaven the Lord imparts this food to angels moment by moment, thus perpetually and eternally, see 2193. This is also what is meant in the Lord's Prayer by the petition, Give us today our daily bread, Matthew 6:11; Luke 11:3, that is, in every moment for evermore.

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