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Genèse 35

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1 Or Dieu dit à Jacob : Lève-toi, monte à Béthel, et demeure là, et y dresse un autel au [Dieu] Fort qui t'apparut, quand tu t'enfuyais de devant Esaü ton frère.

2 Et Jacob dit à sa famille, et à tous ceux qui étaient avec lui : Otez les Dieux des étrangers qui sont au milieu de vous, et vous purifiez, et changez de vêtements.

3 Et levons-nous, et montons à Béthel, et je ferai là un autel au [Dieu] Fort qui m'a répondu au jour de ma détresse, et qui a été avec moi dans le chemin où j'ai marché.

4 Alors ils donnèrent à Jacob tous les Dieux des étrangers qu'ils avaient en leurs mains, et les bagues qui étaient à leurs oreilles, et il les cacha sous un chêne qui était auprès de Sichem.

5 Puis ils partirent; et la frayeur de Dieu fut sur les villes des environs; tellement qu'ils ne poursuivirent point les enfants de Jacob.

6 Ainsi Jacob, et tout le peuple qui était avec lui, vint à Luz, qui est au pays de Canaan, laquelle est Béthel.

7 Et il y bâtit un autel, et nomma ce lieu-là, le [Dieu] Fort de Béthel; car Dieu lui était apparu là, quand il s'enfuyait de devant son frère.

8 Alors mourut Débora, la nourrice de Rébecca, et elle fut ensevelie au-dessous de Béthel sous un chêne, qui fut appelé Allon-bacuth.

9 Dieu apparut encore à Jacob, quand il venait de Paddan-Aram, et le bénit,

10 Et lui dit : Ton nom est Jacob; mais tu ne seras plus nommé Jacob, car ton nom [sera] Israël; et il le nomma Israël.

11 Dieu lui dit aussi : Je suis le [Dieu] Fort, Tout-Puissant : augmente, et multiplie : une nation, même une multitude de nations naîtra de toi, même des Rois sortiront de tes reins;

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

13 Et Dieu remonta d'avec lui du lieu où il lui avait parlé.

14 Et Jacob dressa un monument au lieu où [Dieu] lui avait parlé, [savoir] une pierre pour monument, et il répandit dessus une aspersion, et y versa de l'huile.

15 Jacob donc nomma le lieu où Dieu lui avait parlé, Béthel.

16 Puis ils partirent de Béthel, et il y avait encore quelque petit espace de pays pour arriver à Ephrat, lorsque Rachel accoucha, et elle fut dans un grand travail.

17 Et comme elle avait beaucoup de peine à accoucher, la sage-femme lui dit : Ne crains point; car tu as encore ici un fils.

18 Et comme elle rendait l'âme, (car elle mourut,) elle nomma l'enfant Bénoni; mais son père le nomma Benjamin.

19 C'est ainsi que mourut Rachel, et elle fut ensevelie au chemin d'Ephrat, qui est Bethléhem.

20 Et Jacob dressa un monument sur son sépulcre. C'est le monument du sépulcre de Rachel [qui subsiste] encore aujourd'hui.

21 Puis Israël partit, et dressa ses tentes au-delà de Migdal-Héder.

22 Et il arriva que quand Israël demeurait en ce pays-là, Ruben vint, et coucha avec Bilha, concubine de son père; et Israël l'apprit. Or Jacob avait douze fils.

23 Les fils de Léa étaient Ruben, premier-né de Jacob, Siméon, Lévi, Juda, Issacar, et Zabulon.

24 Les fils de Rachel, Joseph et Benjamin.

25 Les fils de Bilha, servante de Rachel, Dan, et Nephthali.

26 Les fils de Zilpa, servante de Léa, Gad et Aser. Ce sont là les enfants de Jacob, qui lui naquirent en Paddan-Aram.

27 Et Jacob vint vers Isaac son père [en la plaine de] Mamré à Kirjath-arbah, [qui] est Hébron, où Abraham et Isaac avaient demeuré comme étrangers.

28 Et le temps qu'Isaac vécut, fut cent quatre-vingts ans.

29 Ainsi Isaac défaillant mourut, et fut recueilli avec ses peuples, âgé et rassasié de jours; et Esaü et Jacob ses fils l'ensevelirent.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 4599

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4599. 'And pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder' means more interior aspects of this. This is clear from the meaning of 'pitching a tent' as an advance in holiness, in this case towards more interior aspects - 'a tent' meaning holiness, see 414, 1102, 2145, 2152, 3312, 4391; from the meaning of 'beyond the tower' as into more interior aspects, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'Eder' as the nature of the state, that is to say, the nature of the advance made in holiness towards more interior aspects. This tower possessed that meaning from of old, but because there is no further reference to it in the Word apart from Joshua 15:21, this cannot be proved from parallel passages in the way other names can. The reason 'beyond the tower' means towards more interior aspects is that things which are more interior are expressed as objects that are lofty and high - as mountains, hills, towers, housetops, and the like. The reason for this is that minds which form their ideas from natural objects in the world as perceived through the external senses see things of an interior nature as objects that are higher than others, 2148.

[2] That 'towers' means interior things may also be seen from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill, 1 which he surrounded [with an enclosure] and gathered out the stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it. Isaiah 5:1-2.

'A vineyard' stands for the spiritual Church, 'the choicest vine' for spiritual good, 'he built a tower in the midst of it' for the interior aspects of truth. Similarly also in the Lord's parable in Matthew,

A householder planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants. Matthew 21:33; Mark 12:1.

[3] In Ezekiel,

The sons of Arvad, and your army, were on your walls round about, and Gammadim were in your towers; they hung their shields on your walls round about; they made perfect your beauty. Ezekiel 27:11.

This refers to Tyre, by which are meant cognitions of good and truth, or people who possess these cognitions. 'Gammadim in its tower' stands for cognitions of interior truth.

[4] In Micah,

Jehovah will reign over them in Mount Zion, from now on and for ever. And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you will it come, and the former kingdom will return, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. Micah 4:7-8.

This describes the Lord's celestial kingdom. 'Mount Zion' describes the inmost part of it, which is love to the Lord; 'hill of the daughter of Zion' its immediate derivative, which is mutual love, called in the spiritual sense charity towards the neighbour; 'tower of the flock' describes its interior truths of good. The existence of a spiritual-celestial kingdom from this is meant by 'the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem'. In David,

Mount Zion will be glad, the daughters of Judah will be exultant, because of Your judgements. Encompass Zion, and go around her; count up her towers. Psalms 48:11-12.

Here 'towers' stands for interior truths which defend the things that constitute love and charity.

[5] In Luke,

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For who of you, when he wishes to build a tower, does not first sit down and work out the cost, whether he has the means to complete it? Or what king going to encounter another king in war does not first sit down and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? So every one of you who does not renounce all that is his own cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:27-28, 31, 33.

Anyone who is not acquainted with the internal sense of the Word can only suppose that here the Lord was using comparisons, and that the expressions 'building a tower' and 'going to war' were not used to mean anything more. He does not know that each comparison in the Word has a spiritual meaning, and is representative, and that 'building a tower' means acquiring interior truths to oneself and 'going to war' fighting from those truths. For the subject in this quotation is the temptations undergone by those who belong to the Church and are here called the Lord's disciples. Those temptations are meant by 'his own cross' which each of them has to carry; and the truth that they do not in any way conquer of themselves and from what is their own but from the Lord is meant by 'he who does not renounce all that is his own cannot be My disciple'. This is how these expressions hang together; but if the references to a tower and to war are understood to be simply comparisons without a more interior sense they do not hang together. From this one may see what light flows from the internal sense.

[6] The interiors of those who are governed by self-love and love of the world, and so the falsities from which they fight and from which they reinforce their kind of religion, are also expressed as 'towers' in the contrary sense, as in Isaiah,

The height of men (vir) will be brought low, and Jehovah alone will be exalted on that day, for the day of Jehovah Zebaoth will be against everyone that is lofty and high, and against everyone that is lifted up, and he will be humbled; and against all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and against all the oaks of Bashan, and against all high mountains, and against all hills that are lifted up, and against every lofty tower and against every fortified wall. Isaiah 2:11-18.

Here the interior and exterior aspects of those loves are described by cedars, oaks, mountains, hills, a tower, and a wall - interior falsities being described by 'a tower'. Thus interior things are again described by objects that are 'high'. The difference however is this: People who are governed by these - by evils and falsities - believe that they themselves are high and above others, whereas those who are governed by goods and truths believe that they themselves are least and below others, Matthew 20:26-27; Mark 10:44. All the same, goods and truths are described as things that are 'high' because in heaven they are closer to the Most High, that is, to the Lord. Furthermore 'towers' is used in the Word in reference to truths, but 'mountains' to forms of good.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, on a horn of a son of oil

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