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Genesis 21

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1 And Jehovah visited Sarah, as He had said; and Jehovah did to Sarah as He had spoken.

2 And Sarah conceived and gave·​·birth·​·to a son for Abraham for his old·​·age, at the appointed·​·time, of which God had spoken with him.

3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, to whom Sarah gave·​·birth for him, Isaac.

4 And Abraham circumcised Isaac his son, a son of eight days, as God had commanded him.

5 And Abraham was a son of a hundred years when Isaac his son was·​·born to him.

6 And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me, everyone that hears will laugh with me.

7 And she said, Who would have stated to Abraham, Sarah shall nurse sons? For I have given·​·birth to a son for his old·​·age.

8 And the child was growing·​·up, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast, on the day when Isaac was weaned.

9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking*.

10 And she said to Abraham, Drive·​·out this maidservant and her son; for the son of this maidservant shall not possess with my son, with Isaac.

11 And the word was· exceedingly ·evil in the eyes of Abraham, on account of his son.

12 And God said to Abraham, Let it not be·​·evil in thine eyes on·​·account·​·of the lad, and on·​·account·​·of thy maidservant; all that Sarah says to thee, hearken to her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

13 And also the son of the maidservant I will set for a nation, because he is thy seed.

14 And Abraham rose·​·early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave them to Hagar, and set them on her shoulder, and the child, and sent· her ·away; and she went and strayed in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

15 And the water was·​·all·​·gone from the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

16 And she went and sat by herself, withdrawing herself a distance of about a bowshot from his presence; for she said, Let me not see the death of the child; and she sat away from his presence; and she lifted up her voice, and wept.

17 And God heard the voice of the lad, and the angel of God called to Hagar out·​·of the heavens, and said to her, What ails thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad, where he is.

18 Arise, lift the lad, and make· thy hand ·firm with him, for I will set him for a great nation.

19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave· the lad ·drink.

20 And God was with the lad, and he was growing·​·up, and he dwelt in the wilderness, and became a shooter of the bow.

21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother took for him a wife from the land of Egypt.

22 And it was at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the commander of his army said to Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou art doing.

23 And now promise to me here by God, that thou wilt not do·​·falsely to me, nor to my son, nor to my grandson; according·​·to the mercy that I have done with thee, thou shalt do with·​·me, and with the land in which thou hast sojourned.

24 And Abraham said, I will promise.

25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech, on account of the well of waters which Abimelech’s servants had taken·​·by·​·robbery.

26 And Abimelech said, I know not who has done this thing, and even thou didst not tell me, and even I did not hear of it, until today.

27 And Abraham took flock and herd, and gave to Abimelech, and the two of them cut a covenant.

28 And Abraham stood seven ewe-lambs of the flock by·​·themselves.

29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, What are these seven ewe-lambs, these which thou hast stood by themselves?

30 And he said, For these seven ewe-lambs thou shalt take from my hand, so·​·that it may be a testimony for me that I have dug this well.

31 Therefore he called that place Beer-sheba*, for there the two of them promised.

32 And they cut a covenant in Beer-sheba; and Abimelech arose, and Phichol the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines.

33 And he planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of Jehovah, the God of eternity.

34 And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.

   


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

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Abraham

  
Représentation d'Abraham, by Joseph Villiet

Abraham (or Abram, as he was named in the beginning of his story) was the ancestor of all the Children of Israel, through his son Isaac, and of the Arabs, through his son Ishmael.

Abraham represents the Divine good or love. His story foreshadows the life of Jesus, and our spiritual lives, too.

His life can be usefully seen as being divided into three periods. The first period includes the unknown early years from his birth in Ur, and his later move to Haran with his father Terah. The second section starts with Abram's being called by Jehovah to go to Canaan. It includes the adventures he had there, and continues until the events of the 17th chapter of Genesis where he is said to be 99 years old, rich, and powerful - but without a son by his wife Sarai. Once again the Lord appears to him, promises that his progeny will become a great nation, institutes the rite of circumcision, and changes his name to Abraham, adding the "ah" sound from Jehovah. The third and last period of his life sees the birth of Isaac, the death of Sarah (whose name was also changed), and the finding of a wife for Isaac from among Abraham's relatives back in Mesopotamia. Abraham is said to be 175 years old when he dies, as recorded in the 25th chapter of Genesis.

What we are here interested in is the deep representation of Abraham because he prophesies or foreshadows the inmost part of Jesus' life after He is born to Mary centuries after the man Abraham lived on the earth. Abraham represents the Divine good or love. The internal sense of the Word tells us that God himself provided the life into an ovum within Mary, so she could provide a natural body and a natural heredity from the Jewish religion, while the soul of Jesus was kept as a direct possessor of divine life. During Jesus' early life, probably up to adolescence, Jesus lived out those representative actions of Abraham in the innermost parts of his mind and spirit. Abraham as he pastured his sheep and ran his large household had no idea at all that this was true, and early in Jesus' life He didn't realize it either. There must have been perceptions as Jesus grew up, witness his visit to the temple when He was 12, but not a complete understanding until He was fully grown. And further, it isn't only Abraham. When Abraham dies, the representation attaches to Isaac, who represents the rational level of the mind, and then to both Jacob and Esau who represent the natural mind as to truth and good in the mind respectively. And then the trials of the twelve tribes, the kings, and all the sayings of the prophets become that same representation. So Jesus could say to the two disciples that He met on the road to Emmaus, "O fools and slow of heart... and beginning at Moses and all the Prophets He expounded to them in all the scriptures all the things concerning Himself." (The following references are chronologic as Abraham gets older, and are in biblical sequence.) And furthermore, the progress of mental and spiritual life in each one of us is a dim and finite image of that represented by Abraham's life if, that is, we are trying to follow the Lord's laws and precepts to love one another. We too have within us a journey to the land of Canaan, a hardworking sojourn in Egypt, a struggle in the wilderness, and a Saul, a David, and an Ahab. We have our home-grown Amalekites and Philistines. The whole of the Old Testament is a picture of how our spiritual life works.

In Genesis 20:7, Abraham signifies celestial truth, or doctrine from a celestial origin. (Arcana Coelestia 2533)

In Genesis 12:4, As ABRAHAM he represents the Lord as to His Human and Divine Essence; as ABRAM he represents the Lord as to His human essence only. (Arcana Coelestia 1426)

In Genesis 17:5, The name was changed by adding the letter H, so that the Divine Human could he represented, for H is the only letter which involves the Divine: it means I AM, or BEING. (Arcana Coelestia 1416[2])

(Odkazy: Genesis 17, 25)