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Genesis 19

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1 And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom; and Lot saw, and rose·​·up to meet them, and he bowed· himself ·down with his face to the earth.

2 And he said, Behold, I pray, my lords, turn·​·aside, I pray, to the house of your servant, and pass·​·the·​·night, and bathe your feet; and you shall get·​·up·​·early, and go on your way; and they said, No, for we will pass·​·the·​·night in the avenue.

3 And he urged them exceedingly; and they turned·​·aside to him, and came to his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread; and they did eat.

4 Scarcely had they lain·​·down and the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from a lad and even·​·to an old man, all the people, even from the outermost part*.

5 And they called to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men that came to thee this night? Bring· them ·out to us, that we may·​·know them.

6 And Lot went·​·out to them to the entrance and closed the door behind him.

7 And he said, I pray you, my brothers, do not do·​·evil.

8 Behold now, I have two daughters, who have· not ·known a man; now let me bring· them ·out to you, and you may do to them as is good in your eyes; only to these men do not a thing; for therefore have they come into the shadow of the beams* of my roof.

9 And they said, Move aside!* And they said, Is one come to sojourn, and judging shall he judge? Now will we do·​·evil to thee more than to them. And they pressed* on the man, on Lot, exceedingly; and approached to break the door.

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

11 And the men who were at the entrance of the house they smote with blindness, from small even·​·to great; and they labored* to find the entrance.

12 And the men said to Lot, Hast thou still anyone here? Son-in-law, thy sons, and thy daughters, and whomever thou hast in the city, bring· them ·out of the place.

13 For we will destroy this place, for their cry is· become ·great before Jehovah; and Jehovah has sent us to destroy it.

14 And Lot went·​·out, and spoke to his sons-in-law who were to take his daughters, and said, Arise, go·​·out from this place, for Jehovah will destroy the city. And in the eyes of his sons-in-law he was as one jesting.

15 And as the dawn came·​·up the angels insisted that Lot hasten, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters who are found, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

16 And he lingered; and the men held· his hand ·firmly, and the hand of his wife, and the hand of his two daughters, with the pity* of Jehovah upon him, and they brought· him ·out, and placed him outside the city.

17 And it was, as they were bringing· them ·out outside, that He said, Escape for thy soul; look not back after thee, and stand not in all the plain; Escape towards the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

18 And Lot said to them, No, I pray, my lords.

19 Behold, I pray, thy servant has found grace in thine eyes, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast done with·​·me, to make my soul live, and I am· not ·able to escape to the mountain, lest the evil stick to me, and I die.

20 Behold, I pray, this city is near to flee thither, and it is a little·​·one. Let me, I pray, escape thither; is it not a little·​·one? And my soul shall live.

21 And He said to him, Behold I have accepted thy face* as to this word also, that I will not overturn the city of which thou hast spoken.

22 Hasten, escape thither, for I cannot do a thing until thou be come thither. Therefore he called the name of the city Zoar.

23 The sun was gone·​·out on the earth, and Lot came to Zoar.

24 And Jehovah made·​·it·​·rain on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Jehovah out·​·of the heavens.

25 And He overturned these cities, and all the plain, and all who dwell·​·in the cities, and the growth of the ground.

26 And his wife looked back from after him, and became a statue of salt.

27 And Abraham got·​·up·​·early in the morning, to the place where he had stood before Jehovah.

28 And he gazed on the faces of Sodom and Gomorrah, and on all the faces of the land of the plain, and he saw, and behold the fumes of the land went·​·up, as the fumes of a furnace.

29 And it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out·​·of the midst of the overturning, when He overturned the cities in which Lot dwelt.

30 And Lot went·​·up from Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar; and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.

31 And the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is·​·old, and there is no man in the earth to come to us according·​·to the way of all the earth.

32 Come, let us make· our father ·drink wine, and let us lie with him, and let us make· the seed from our father ·live.

33 And they gave· their father wine ·to·​·drink in that night; and the firstborn came·​·in, and lay with her father; and he knew not when she lay·​·down, and when she arose.

34 And it was on the morrow, and the firstborn said to the younger, Behold, I, lay last·​·night with my father; let us give· him wine ·to·​·drink tonight also, and go· thou ·in and lie with him, and cause the seed from our father to live.

35 And they gave· their father wine ·to·​·drink in that night also; and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he knew not when she lay·​·down nor when she arose.

36 And the two daughters of Lot conceived by their father.

37 And the firstborn gave·​·birth to a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of Moab even·​·to today.

38 And the younger she also gave·​·birth to a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon until today.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 2327

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2327. 'And bowed down with his face towards the ground' means humiliation. This becomes clear without explanation. The reason why in the past, especially in the representative Churches, people would bow so far down that their faces touched the ground, was that 'the face' meant man's interiors, 358, 1999. And they did so down 'to the ground' because 'the dust of the ground' meant that which is profane and condemned, 278. In doing this they represented the fact that of themselves they were profane and condemned. They therefore prostrated themselves face downwards on the ground, indeed they wallowed in dust and ashes, and also cast dust or ashes over their heads, as becomes clear from Lamentations 2:10; Ezekiel 27:30; Micah 1:10; Joshua 7:6; Revelation 18:19; and elsewhere.

[2] By these actions they represented a state of true humility, which can in no way exist unless people acknowledge that of themselves they are profane and condemned, and so of themselves are incapable of looking towards the Lord where everything is Divine and Holy. To the extent therefore that a person acknowledges his own condition he can possess true humility, and when engaged in worship can have real devotion. For all worship must contain humility, and if separated from it no adoration and so no worship at all is present.

[3] The reason a state of humility is vital to worship itself is that insofar as the heart is humbled self-love and all resulting evil come to an end; and insofar as these come to an end good and truth, that is, charity and faith, flow in from the Lord. For what above all else stands in the way of their being received is self-love. Indeed within self-love there lies contempt for all others in comparison with oneself; there lies hatred and revenge if one is not venerated most highly; and there lies mercilessness and cruelty within it, and thus the worst evils of all into which good and truth cannot possibly be introduced, since they are completely opposite.

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