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Genesis 11

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1 And all the earth was of one lip*, and their words one.

2 And it was when they journeyed from the east, that they found a vale in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

3 And they said, a man to his companion, Come, let us make bricks*, and let us fire them for a firing*. And they had brick for stone, and they had tar` for clay.

4 And they said, Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower, and its head in the heavens; and let us make for ourselves a name, lest perhaps* we be scattered on the faces of all the earth.

5 And Jehovah came·​·down to see the city and the tower which the sons of man were building.

6 And Jehovah said, Behold, the people are one, and all of them have one lip, and this is what they begin to do; and now there will not be held·​·back from them anything which they scheme to do.

7 Come, let us go·​·down, and there confuse their lip, that they hear not, a man the lip of his companion.

8 And Jehovah scattered them from thence on the faces of all the earth; and they stopped building the city.

9 Therefore He called the name of it Babel, for there did Jehovah confuse* the lip of all the earth; and from thence did Jehovah scatter them on the faces of all the earth.

10 These are the births of Shem: Shem was a son of a hundred years, and begot Arpachshad, two·​·years after the flood.

11 And Shem lived after he begot Arpachshad five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

12 And Arpachshad lived five and thirty years, and begot Shelach.

13 And Arpachshad lived after he begot Shelach three years and four hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

14 And Shelach lived thirty years, and begot Eber.

15 And Shelach lived after he begot Eber three years and four hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begot Peleg.

17 And Eber lived after he begot Peleg thirty years and four hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu.

19 And Peleg lived after he begot Reu nine years and two·​·hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begot Serug.

21 And Reu lived after he begot Serug seven years and two·​·hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor.

23 And Serug lived after he begot Nahor two·​·hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begot Terah.

25 And Nahor lived after he begot Terah nineteen years and a hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 And these are the births of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot.

28 And Haran died upon the faces of Terah, his father*, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

29 And Abram and Nahor took to themselves wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

30 And Sarai was barren; she had no child.

31 And Terah took Abram his son; and Lot the son of Haran, the son of his son; and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son; and they went·​·out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans, to go to the land of Canaan; and they came even to Haran, and dwelt there.

32 And the days of Terah were five years and two·​·hundred years; and Terah died in Haran.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Face

  
Photo by Caleb Kerr

“The eyes are the windows of the soul.” That's a sentiment with roots somewhere in murky antiquity, but one that has become hopelessly cliché because it is both poetic and obviously true. We feel that if we can look in someone's eyes, we can truly know what they are inside. And it's not just the eyes; really it is the face as a whole that conveys this. As Swedenborg puts it, the face is “man's spiritual world presented in his natural world” (Heaven and Hell, No. 91). Our faces reveal our interior thoughts and feelings in myriad ways, which is why psychologists, poker players and criminal investigators spend so much time studying them. It makes sense, then, that people's faces in the Bible represent their interiors, the thoughts, loves and desires they hold most deeply. We turn our faces to the ground to show humility when we bow in worship; we turn them to the mountains when seeking inspiration; we turn them toward our enemies when we are ready to battle temptation. When things are hard, we need to “face facts,” or accept them internally. When the topic is the Lord's face, it represents the Lord's interiors, which are perfect love and perfect mercy. And when people turn away from the Lord and refuse his love, it is described as the Lord “hiding his face.”

(Odkazy: Heaven and Hell 91)