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Genesis 30

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1 And Rachel saw that she did not give·​·birth for Jacob, and Rachel was·​·zealous against her sister; and she said to Jacob, Give to me sons; and if not, I am·​·dead.

2 And Jacob was·​·fierce with anger against Rachel, and he said, Am I in· God’s ·stead, who withholds from thee the fruit of the belly?

3 And she said, Behold, my maidservant Bilhah; go·​·in to her, and she shall give·​·birth upon my knees, and I shall be built up, even I, from her.

4 And she gave to him Bilhah her handmaid for a woman, and Jacob came to her.

5 And Bilhah conceived, and gave·​·birth·​·to a son for Jacob.

6 And Rachel said, God has made·​·judgment for me, and also has heard my voice, and has given me a son; therefore she called his name Dan.

7 And she conceived yet·​·again, and Bilhah Rachel’s handmaid gave·​·birth·​·to a second son for Jacob.

8 And Rachel said, With the strugglings of God have I struggled with my sister, also I have prevailed; and she called his name Naphtali.

9 And Leah saw that she had stood still from giving·​·birth; and she took Zilpah her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob for a woman.

10 And Zilpah Leah’s handmaid gave·​·birth·​·to a son for Jacob.

11 And Leah said, A troop comes; and she called his name Gad.

12 And Zilpah Leah’s handmaid gave·​·birth·​·to a second son for Jacob.

13 And Leah said, In my happiness am I; for the daughters will make· me ·happy; and she called his name Asher.

14 And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found dudaim* in the field, and brought them to Leah his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray, of the dudaim of thy son.

15 And she said to her, Is it a·​·little matter that thou hast taken my man, and wouldest thou take also the dudaim of my son? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee tonight in·​·return·​·for the dudaim of thy son.

16 And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went·​·out to meet him, and said, Thou must come to me, for hiring I have hired thee with the dudaim of my son; and he lay with her that night.

17 And God hearkened to Leah, and she conceived and gave·​·birth·​·to a fifth son for Jacob.

18 And Leah said, God has given my wage, which I gave my handmaid for my man; and she called his name Issachar.

19 And Leah conceived yet·​·again, and gave·​·birth·​·to a sixth son for Jacob.

20 And Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry; this time will my man cohabit with me, for I have given·​·birth·​·to six sons for him; and she called his name Zebulun.

21 And afterwards, she gave·​·birth·​·to a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

22 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.

23 And she conceived, and gave·​·birth·​·to a son, and said, God has gathered my reproach.

24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, Let Jehovah add to me another son.

25 And it was, as Rachel had given·​·birth·​·to Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, Send· me ·away, and I will go to my place and to my land.

26 Give me my women, and my children, for whom I have served thee, and I will go; for thou knowest my service, with which I have served thee.

27 And Laban said to him, If, I pray, I have found grace in thine eyes, I have experienced it, and Jehovah has blessed me because·​·of thee.

28 And he said, Designate to me thy wage, and I will give it.

29 And he said to him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy livestock has been with me.

30 For thou hadst little before me, and it has broken·​·forth into a multitude, and Jehovah has blessed thee at my foot; and now when shall I also be doing something for my own house?

31 And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me anything; if thou wilt do for me this word, I will return, and shepherd and keep thy flock.

32 I will pass·​·through all thy flock today, removing from thence every speckled and spotted animal·​·of·​·the·​·flock, and every black animal·​·of·​·the·​·flock among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wage.

33 And my justice shall answer for me on the day of tomorrow, because thou come upon my wage before thee; every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the lambs, stolen is this with me.

34 And Laban said, Behold, would·​·that it be according·​·to thy word.

35 And he removed in that day the he-goats that were mottled and spotted, and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, all that had white in it, and all the black among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

36 And he set a way of three days between himself and Jacob; and Jacob pastured the remainder of the flock of Laban.

37 And Jacob took for himself a stick of fresh poplar, and hazel and the plane·​·tree, and peeled white peelings on them, laying·​·bare the white that was upon the sticks.

38 And he placed the sticks which he had peeled in the troughs*, in the place of giving· water ·to·​·drink, in which the flock came to drink, opposite the flock; and they grew·​·warm when they came to drink.

39 And the flocks grew·​·warm at the sticks, and the flocks gave·​·birth·​·to mottled, speckled, and spotted.

40 And Jacob separated the lambs, and put the faces of the flock toward the mottled and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his droves for himself alone, and put them not by the flock of Laban.

41 And it was when all the flock that first came·​·together* grew·​·warm, that Jacob set the sticks before the eyes of the flock in the troughs, to grow·​·warm at the sticks.

42 And to the flock that came together later he did not set them; and those that came together later were Laban’s, and those that came together first were Jacob’s.

43 And the man broke·​·forth into a multitude very exceedingly, and he had many flocks, and handmaids, and menservants, and camels, and donkeys.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 5704

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5704. 'The firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth' means in conformity with the order truths take beneath good. This is clear from the meaning of 'taking seats according to birthright, and according to youth' as in conformity with the order truths take beneath good. The sons of Israel represent the truths known to the Church existing in their proper order, see the explanation at Chapters 29, 30 of Genesis, and therefore taking their seats according to their order of birth means in conformity with the order truths take. But the truths known to the Church, which 'the sons of Israel' represent, do not come to be arranged into any kind of proper order except through Christian good, that is, through the good of charity towards the neighbour and of love to the Lord. For good has the Lord within it, and therefore has heaven within it. Good consequently has life within it, making it a force that is active and filled with life. But truth devoid of good cannot possibly have any life within it. Good arranges truths into order in keeping with itself, as is quite evident from every kind of love, including self-love and love of the world, and so such love as gives rise to vengeance, hatred, and other evils like these. People governed by those loves call evil good because they take delight in evil. This so-called good of theirs imposes a certain kind of order on those falsities which to them are truths - a kind of order that enables these falsities to lend support to it, till at length all those falsities, which they call truths, are arranged into an order that becomes a sequence of false beliefs. But this order is the kind of order that exists in hell, whereas the order in which truths are ranged beneath the good of heavenly love is the kind that exists in heaven. This also explains why a person with whom the latter kind of order resides, that is, a person who has been regenerated, is called a miniature heaven and also is heaven in the smallest form of all that it can take; for his interiors correspond to the heavens.

[2] The fact that good is what brings order to truths is evident from order as it exists in the heavens. All the communities there are ranged in conformity with the order in which truths that are received from the Lord exist beneath good. For [in His own Being] the Lord is nothing else than Divine Good, while Divine Truth, which does not exist within Him, goes forth from Him. And it is in conformity with this Divine Truth ranged beneath Divine Good that all the communities of heaven have been arranged into order. As regards the Lord's being nothing else than Divine Love whereas Divine Truth does not exist within Him but goes forth from Him, this can be illustrated by a comparison made with the sun of this world. The sun is nothing else than fire, while its light does not exist within it but goes forth from it. What is more, objects in the world dependent on light, such as plants, are subject to the order imparted to them by the heat that goes forth from the fire of the sun and exists within the light of the sun, as is evident in springtime and summertime. For since the Whole natural order is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, so is this whole situation involving the sun representative. The sun represents the Lord; its fire represents His Divine Love; the heat from it represents the good that flows from this Love, and its light the truths that constitute faith. And since they have these representations, 'the sun' is also used in the spiritual sense of the Word to mean the Lord, 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 3636, 3643, 4321 (end), 5097, 5377, 'fire' to mean love, 934, 4906, 5071, 5215, so that the sun's fire in a representative sense is Divine Love, while the heat from that fire is good flowing from Divine love. As regards 'light' meaning truth, see 2776, 3138, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3339, 3636, 3643, 3862, 3993, 4302, 4409, 4413, 4415, 4526, 5219, 5400.

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