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Genesis 28

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1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and commanded him, and said to him, Thou shalt not take a woman of the daughters of Canaan.

2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father, and take to thee from thence a woman of the daughters of Laban, thy mother’s brother.

3 And God Shaddai will bless thee, and will make· thee ·fruitful and multiply thee, and thou shalt be for an assembly of peoples.

4 And He will give to thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, to cause thee to possess the land of thy sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.

5 And Isaac sent· Jacob ·away; and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 And Esau saw that Isaac blessed Jacob, and sent him to Paddan-aram, to take for himself from thence a woman, and in blessing him commanded him, saying, Thou shalt not take a woman of the daughters of Canaan.

7 And Jacob hearkened to his father and to his mother, and went to Paddan-aram.

8 And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Isaac his father.

9 And Esau went to Ishmael, and took to himself for a woman, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, over his women*.

10 And Jacob went·​·out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.

11 And he came·​·upon a place, and passed·​·the·​·night there, for the sun had set*; and he took one of the stones of the place, and set it as his headrest, and lay·​·down in that place.

12 And he dreamed, and behold, a stairway* standing·​·on the earth, and its head reaching the heavens; and behold, the angels of God going·​·up and going·​·down on it.

13 And behold, Jehovah standing above it; and He said, I am Jehovah the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land on which thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.

14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt break·​·forth to the sea, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee shall all the families of the ground be blessed, and in thy seed.

15 And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in every place which thou goest, and will return thee to this ground; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee.

16 And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and he said, Surely Jehovah is in this place; and I knew it not.

17 And he feared, and said, How fearsome·​·is this place! This is none other·​·than the house of God, and this is the gate of the heavens.

18 And Jacob got·​·up·​·early in the morning, and took the stone that he had set for his headrest, and set it for a pillar, and poured oil on the head of it.

19 And he called the name of that place Bethel*; nevertheless the name of the city was Luz at the first.

20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with·​·me and will keep me in this way in which I walk, and will give to me bread to eat, and a garment with· which to be ·clothed,

21 and I return in peace to my father’s house, then Jehovah shall be to me for God.

22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be the house of God; and all that Thou shalt give to me, tithing I will tithe it to Thee.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 8945

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8945. 'And you shall not go up to My altar by steps' means not raising themselves to more internal levels, that is, celestial ones. This is clear from the meaning of 'going up by means of steps' as raising oneself to higher or more internal levels (whether you say more internal or higher it amounts to the same thing, since more internal things are seen as higher ones, 2148, 3084, 4210, 4599); and from the meaning of 'altar' as the chief representative of the Lord, dealt with in 921, 2777, 2811. Thus 'going up by steps to My altar' means raising oneself to the Lord, consequently to more internal levels, which are celestial ones; for the Lord's presence is greater on more internal levels. The term 'celestial' is used for things in the inmost heaven, but 'spiritual' for those in the middle heaven. For heaven is divided into two kingdoms - the celestial kingdom and the spiritual kingdom. Those in the celestial kingdom are in the inmost or third heaven, and so are nearest the Lord; for they are governed by love to the Lord, possessing innocence and consequently wisdom in greater measure than all the rest. But those who are in the spiritual kingdom are in the middle or second heaven, and so are more remote from the Lord; and those there am governed by charity towards the neighbour, and through charity dwell with the Lord. Regarding those two kingdoms and the difference between them, see 2048, 2088, 2227, 2507, 2669, 2708, 2715, 2718, 3235, 3246, 3374, 3887, 4448, 4585, 4938, 4939, 5113, 5922, 6367, 6435, 7877.

[2] Let a brief explanation be given of what is implied by raising oneself towards more internal levels, that is, celestial ones, which is meant by 'going up by steps to the altar'. No one in the next life is allowed to be raised into heaven to a level higher than that of the good which governs him. If he is raised to some higher level the foul things about him are revealed, that is, the evils he loves, and the resulting falsities; for the more internal something is, the purer and holier it is in heaven. Those whose state is not so pure are kept in a lower sphere in which impurities go unnoticed or are not apparent; for such people are governed by grosser good and guided by duller truth.

[3] Sometimes it happens that those coming into heaven have a strong desire to go to a more internal heaven, believing that by doing this they will experience greater joy. To the end that this strong desire which clings to them may be removed, they are indeed raised to a more internal heaven. But when they get there they start to feel anguished, on account of those evils they love which are then perceptible to them; they also become visibly disfigured on account of the falsities that spring from the evils residing with them. Having perceived these things they cast themselves down from the more internal heaven, and do not attain a calm and peaceful state until they return to the position they occupied previously. These are the things that are meant by 'you shall not go up to My altar by steps, in order that your nakedness may not be revealed on it'.

[4] The same applies to those below heaven, if they have a strong desire to rise to heaven before they have been prepared for it. When they are raised there they feel torment almost hellish and seem to themselves to be like dead bodies. Their life becomes laboured, like that of those in the throes of death. Therefore they cast themselves down headlong from there, and after that no longer have any desire to rise above the state of life in which they live.

[5] It should be recognized that the Lord refuses heaven to no one in the next life, and that people can be allowed in as often as they wish. Heaven consists of communities of angels, who are governed by the good of love towards the neighbour and of love to the Lord. When introduced into heaven people are let into communities of such angels. But when the sphere of their life, that is, the life of their love, is out of agreement, conflict arises, as a result of which they feel anguished and cast themselves down from there. From this experience they learn about the life of heaven, and about the condition of their own life in comparison. They also learn from it that heaven does not become anyone's simply by his being received or let in, as the common idea is in the world, and also that a person must live in such a way in the world that he becomes fit to be with those in heaven. But see what has already been stated and shown from experience previously regarding these matters, in 3938, 4225, 4226, 4299, 4674, 5057, 5058, 7186, 7519, 8794, 8797. These are the considerations which are meant by the regulation that they must not go up by steps to the altar, in order that their nakedness may not be revealed on it, and also by a similar regulation at Exodus 28:42-43.

[6] The words 'going up by steps' are used because a raising to more internal levels is seen in the world of spirits - where celestial and spiritual realities are presented within forms similar to those in the world - as raising oneself by means of steps. I have often been allowed to see this representative sight. So it was too that in a dream Jacob saw angels going up to the Lord by the steps of a stairway, Genesis 28:12. Therefore also by 'steps' in the Word is meant going up to higher, that is, more internal levels, as in Ezekiel 40:6, 22, 26, 31, 34; and in Amos,

The Lord Jehovih Zebaoth builds His steps in the heavens. Amos 9:6.

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