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Genesis 12

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1 And Jehovah said to Abram, Go from thy land, and from thy birth, and from the house of thy father, to the land that I will cause thee to see.

2 And I will make thee into a great nation; and I will bless thee, and will make· thy name ·great; and be thou a blessing.

3 And I will bless those who bless thee, and will curse him who reviles thee; and in thee shall all the families of the ground be blessed.

4 And Abram went as Jehovah had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was a son of five years and seventy years, when he went·​·out from Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and their every acquisition that they had acquired, and the soul that they had made* in Haran; and they went·​·out to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to the land of Canaan.

6 And Abram passed·​·through into the land, even·​·to the place Shechem, even·​·to the oak·​·grove of Moreh; and the Canaanite was then in the land.

7 And Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said, To thy seed will I give this land. And there he built an altar to Jehovah, who appeared to him.

8 And he moved·​·away from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and stretched·​·out his tent; with Bethel toward the sea, and Ai on the east. And he built there an altar to Jehovah, and called on the name of Jehovah.

9 And Abram journeyed, going and journeying, toward the south.

10 And there was a famine in the land. And Abram went·​·down toward Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was heavy in the land.

11 And it was, as he came·​·near to come unto Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, Behold, I pray, I know that thou art a woman beautiful in appearance;

12 and it shall be, that the Egyptians shall see thee, and they will say, This is his wife; and they will kill me, and will make· thee ·to·​·live.

13 Say, I pray, thou art my sister; so·​·that it may be·​·well with me on account·​·of thee, and that my soul may live because·​·of thee.

14 And it was, as Abram came to Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful.

15 And the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.

16 And he did·​·well to Abram on account·​·of her; and he had flock and herd, and donkeys and menservants, and handmaids and she·​·donkeys, and camels.

17 And Jehovah plagued Pharaoh with great plagues, and his house, on·​·account·​·of the matter* of Sarai, the wife of Abram.

18 And Pharaoh called to Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done to me? why didst thou not tell me that she is thy wife?

19 Why saidst thou, She is my sister? and I might have taken her to me for a woman. And now, behold thy wife; take her, and go.

20 And Pharaoh commanded the men concerning him; and they sent· him ·away, and his wife, and all that he had.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 4430

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4430. 'And Shechem saw her' means truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Shechem' as truth, in this case the truth received by the Church from ancient times. The reason why 'Shechem' has this representation is that remnants of the Church still existed with the nation to which Shechem belonged. The fact that his nation was one of the upright nations is evident from the genuineness behind the things that Hamor and Shechem said to Jacob and his sons, verses 8-12, and from the deference that was shown by them in order that Shechem might marry Dinah, verses 18-24, on account of which they represented the truth of the Church. Furthermore the city of Shechem was Abram's first stopping-place when he came from Syria into the land of Canaan, Genesis 12:6, and was now also Jacob's first stopping-place when he too came from Syria, where he stretched his tent, made booths, and set up an altar, Genesis 33:17-20. It has been shown frequently that the journeys or wanderings of Abraham and Jacob represented advances into the truths of faith and the goods of love - in the highest sense, the Lord's own advances, and in the relative sense those made by the person who is being regenerated by the Lord. Hence 'Shechem' meant the first degree of light, 1440, 1441, and therefore interior truth since this is the first degree of light.

[2] But in the present chapter the subject in the internal sense is the way in which the descendants of Jacob annihilated this first degree of light or interior truth residing with them. In this sense, which is the internal historical sense, 'the sons of Jacob' means all his descendants, for the internal sense of the Word deals solely with the things that belong to the Lord's kingdom, and so those that belong to His Church. Jacob's actual sons did not constitute any Church but their descendants did, though not until after they had come out of Egypt, and in actual fact not until they entered the land of Canaan.

[3] Furthermore regarding this city named after Shechem, it was called Salem in ancient times, as is clear in the previous chapter,

Jacob came to Salem, the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan. Genesis 32:18.

'Salem' means serenity, and 'the city of Shechem' the interior truths of faith; and a person comes into a state of serenity when he arrives at those truths, see 4393. But later on the same city was called Shechem, as may be seen in Joshua,

The bones of Joseph which the children of Israel caused to be brought up out of Egypt they buried in Shechem, in the part of the field which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitahs. Joshua 24:32.

And in the Book of Judges,

Gaal the son of Ebed said to the citizens of Shechem, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal. and Zebul is his commander? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; and why shall we serve him? Judges 9:28.

[4] The same city after that was called 'Sychar', as is evident in John,

Jesus came into a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to Joseph his son; Jacob's well was there. John 4:5-6.

From these places, as well as from others where it is mentioned, it is evident that this city means interior truth. It is also clear in Hosea,

Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity; it is stained with blood; and as troops wait for a man so the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem, for they have committed villainy. In the house of Israel I have seen a foul thing. Hosea 6:8-10.

Here 'they murder on the way to Shechem' means that they annihilate truths, including interior ones, and so annihilate all truths. The annihilation of interior truth is also meant by the reference to Abimelech's destruction of that city and sowing it with salt, Judges 9:45.

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