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Genesis 17

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1 And Abram was a son of ninety years and nine years; and Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said to him, I am God Shaddai*; walk thou before Me, and be thou perfect.

2 And I will give My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee very exceedingly.

3 And Abram fell on his faces; and God spoke with him saying:

4 I, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be for a father of a multitude of nations.

5 And thy name shall no more be called Abram; and thy name shall be Abraham, for as the father of a multitude of nations have I given thee.

6 And I will make· thee ·fruitful very exceedingly, and I will make thee into nations, and kings shall go·​·out from thee.

7 And I will raise·​·up My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee, to their generations, for an eternal covenant, to be to thee for God, and to thy seed after thee.

8 And I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an eternal possession; and I will be to them for God.

9 And God said to Abraham, And thou shalt keep My covenant, thou and thy seed after thee, to their generations.

10 This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and thy seed after thee: every male shall be circumcised to you.

11 And you shall cut·​·off the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and you.

12 And a son of eight days shall be circumcised to you, every male in your generations, he that is born of the house, and he that is bought with silver from every son of a foreigner who is not of thy seed.

13 Circumcising he shall be circumcised that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy silver; and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an eternal covenant.

14 And the uncircumcised male, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut·​·off from his peoples; he has made· My covenant ·of·​·none·​·effect.

15 And God said to Abraham, Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, for Sarah is her name.

16 And I will bless her, and will also give to thee a son from her; and I will bless her, and she shall be for nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.

17 And Abraham fell upon his faces, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall one be·​·born to a son of a hundred years? And shall Sarah, who is a daughter of ninety years, give·​·birth?

18 And Abraham said to God, Would·​·that Ishmael might live before Thee!

19 And God said, Indeed Sarah, thy wife, shall give·​·birth to a son for thee, and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will raise·​·up My covenant with him for an eternal covenant, to his seed after him.

20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee; behold I will bless him, and will make· him ·fruitful, and will multiply him very exceedingly; twelve chiefs shall he beget, and I will make him into a great nation.

21 And My covenant will I raise·​·up with Isaac, to whom Sarah shall give·​·birth for thee at this appointed·​·time in the year after.

22 And He completed speaking with him; and God went·​·up from over Abraham.

23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his silver, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in this same day, as God spoke with him.

24 And Abraham was a son of ninety and nine years, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

25 And Ishmael his son was a son of thirteen years, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

26 In this same day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.

27 And all the men of his house, he that was born in the house, and he that was bought with silver from the son of a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 2045

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2045. 'Shall be circumcised among you' means purification. This is clear from the representation and meaning of 'circumcision' as purification from filthy loves, dealt with above in 2039. People who are immersed in self-love and love of the world are quite incapable of believing that they are under the influence of such filthy and unclean loves as in fact they are. Indeed a certain pleasure and delight exists which coaxes, encourages, and allures, and causes them to love that life, to prefer it to every other kind of life, and so to imagine that there is nothing bad about it at all. For whatever encourages anyone's love and resulting life is considered to be good. For this reason also the rational agrees to and produces confirmatory falsities which lead to blindness so great that people see nothing at all of what heavenly love is. And if they did see it they would in their hearts say that it was something wretched, or not really anything at all, or something in the nature of a delusion which takes possession of the mind as it does in sickness.

[2] That the life which belongs to self-love and love of the world, together with its pleasures and delights, is filthy and unclean may become clear to anyone if he is willing to think from the powers of reason which have been given to him. Self-love is the source of all the evils that destroy civilized society. From it, as from a filthy pit, all forms of hatred, revenge, and cruelty stream forth, and indeed of adultery. For anyone who loves himself either holds in contempt or reviles or hates everybody else who does not serve him or who does not further his interests or who fails to show him favour; and in hating he breathes nothing but revenge and cruelty - doing so in the measure that he loves himself. Such love is for these reasons destructive of society and of the human race. That this is its nature, see also what has been stated in Volume One on the same subject, in 693, 694, 760, 1307, 1308, 1321, 1506, 1594, 1691, 1862. That self-love is in the next life utterly filthy and diametrically opposed to the mutual love that constitutes heaven will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on.

[3] And since that love is the source of all hatred, revenge, cruelty, and adultery, it is the source of all things that are called sins, crimes, abominations, and profanations. When therefore self-love is present in a person's rational, and in the desires and delusions of his external man, the influx of heavenly love from the Lord in that case is constantly intercepted, degraded, and defiled. It is like foul excrement which dispels, indeed pollutes, every pleasant odor. It also resembles an object which is constantly converting inflowing rays of light into dark and hideous colours. Or it is like a tiger or a serpent that hisses when fondled and kills with its bite or poison those who feed it. Or else it is like a villain who converts even the best intentions of other people, and sheer acts of kindness, into what is reprehensible and wicked. From this it is clear that those loves - self-love and love of the world - are what were represented and meant by the foreskins that were to be cut off.

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