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1 Mose 24:56

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56 Da sprach er zu ihnen: Haltet mich nicht auf, denn der HERR hat Gnade zu meiner Reise gegeben. Lasset mich, daß ich zu meinem HERRN ziehe.

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Arcana Coelestia # 3142

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3142. 'And I have swept the house' means all things had been prepared and filled with goods. This is clear from the meaning of 'sweeping' as preparing and being filled, dealt with immediately below, and from the meaning of 'a house' as good, dealt with in 2233, 2234, 2559. And a person himself, from the good which governs him, is called a house, 3128. The reason why 'sweeping' means preparing and being filled is that nothing else is asked of anyone except to 'sweep his house', that is, to reject evil desires and resulting false persuasions. If he does this he is filled with all forms of good, for good from the Lord is constantly flowing in. It flows into 'the house', that is, into the person who has been cleansed of such things as hinder influx, that is, which turn away, or pervert, or stifle inflowing good. Hence the proverbial expression used by the ancients about sweeping or cleansing the house, and also about sweeping and preparing the way. 'Sweeping the house' was used to mean cleansing oneself of evils and thereby preparing oneself for goods to enter, while 'sweeping the way' was used to mean preparing oneself for the reception of truths; for 'a house' meant good, 3128, and 'the way' truth, 627, 2333.

[2] As in Isaiah,

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Sweep (prepare) the way of Jehovah; make straight in the lonely place a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3.

In the same prophet,

Level out, level out, sweep (prepare) the way; remove the stumbling block from My people's way. Isaiah 57:14.

In the same prophet,

Go through, go through into the gates; sweep (prepare) the way of the people. Level out, level out the way; gather out the stones. Isaiah 62:10.

In Malachi,

Behold, I am sending My angel, and he will sweep (prepare) the way before Me; and suddenly there will come to His temple the Lord whom you are seeking. Malachi 3:1.

In these places 'sweeping the way' stands for getting oneself ready and preparing to receive truth. They refer to the Lord's coming, for which people were to prepare themselves so as to receive the truth of faith, and through that the good of charity, and through this in turn eternal salvation.

[3] In David,

You caused a vine to journey out of Egypt. You cast out the nations, and You planted it, You swept before it and caused its root to be rooted, and it filled the land. Psalms 80:8-9.

This refers in the highest sense to the Lord. 'A vine out of Egypt' is truth based on facts, 'casting out the nations' cleansing from evils, 'sweeping before it' preparing for goods to fill it. 'Sweeping the house' also means in the contrary sense the person who dispossesses himself of all goods and truths and so is filled with evils and falsities, as in Luke,

If the unclean spirit finds no rest he says, I will return to my house out of which I came. And if when he comes he finds it swept and decorated, he goes away and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. Luke 11:24-26; Matthew 12:43-45.

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

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Genesis 19

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1 The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,

2 and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night."

3 He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

5 They called to Lot, and said to him, "Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them."

6 Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him.

7 He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.

8 See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don't do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."

9 They said, "Stand back!" Then they said, "This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!" They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.

10 But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

11 They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

12 The men said to Lot, "Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:

13 for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it."

14 Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, "Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

15 When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, "Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city."

16 But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and his two daughters' hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.

17 It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life! Don't look behind you, and don't stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!"

18 Lot said to them, "Oh, not so, my lord.

19 See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.

20 See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live."

21 He said to him, "Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

22 Hurry, escape there, for I can't do anything until you get there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.

25 He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.

28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

29 It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

30 Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.

31 The firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.

32 Come, let's make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

33 They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she arose.

34 It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

35 They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she got up.

36 Thus both of Lot's daughters were with child by their father.

37 The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38 The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.