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Genesis 33

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1 And Jacob lifted·​·up his eyes, and saw, and behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he halved the children over to Leah, and over to Rachel, and over to the two handmaids.

2 And he set the handmaids and their children first, and Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph behind.

3 And he himself passed·​·on before them, and bowed· himself ·down to the earth seven times, until he approached, even·​·to his brother.

4 And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept.

5 And he lifted·​·up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are these to thee? And he said, The children with whom God has graced thy servant.

6 And the handmaids approached, they and their children, and they bowed· themselves ·down.

7 And Leah also and her children approached, and they bowed· themselves ·down; and afterwards Joseph and Rachel approached, and bowed· themselves ·down.

8 And he said, Who to thee are all these camps whom I encounter? And he said, To find grace in the eyes of my lord.

9 And Esau said, I have much, my brother; be to thee what is to thee.

10 And Jacob said, No, I pray, if, I pray, I have found grace in thine eyes, then take my gift from my hand; for because that I have seen thy faces as seeing the faces of God, and thou hast been·​·well·​·pleased with me.

11 Take, I pray, my blessing that is brought to thee; because God has been·​·gracious·​·to me, and because I have all. And he urged him, and he took it.

12 And he said, Let us journey and go, and I will go in·​·front·​·of thee.

13 And he said to him, My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flock and the herd with me are sucklings, and if they push· them ·on in one day, then all the flock will·​·die.

14 Let my lord, I pray, cross·​·over before his servant, and I will proceed* slowly as·​·to the foot steps of the work* that is before me, and to the foot steps of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir.

15 And Esau said, Let me now place with thee some from the people who are with me. And he said, Why is this? Let me find grace in the eyes of my lord.

16 And Esau returned in that day to his way, to Seir.

17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built for himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock; therefore he called the name of the place Succoth.

18 And Jacob came to Salem*, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, in his coming from Paddan-aram, and encamped to the faces of the city.

19 And he bought the part of the field, where he had stretched·​·out his tent, from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred kesitah.

20 And he set·​·up there an altar, and he called it El-Elohe-Israel.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 4352

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4352. 'And fell on his neck' means a second joining together involving everything included within that universal embodiment of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'falling on the neck' as a closer joining together since it is a closer kind of embrace. Furthermore 'the neck' in the internal sense means the influx and communication of interior things with exterior, and therefore means a joining together of them, see 3542, 3603. The reason why this is a joining together of everything - or with everything - within that universal embodiment of truth is that Jacob, to whom 'his' refers here, means the universal embodiment of every kind of truth, 4346.

[2] The joining together of good and truths within the natural is described here, and the nature of that joining together is as follows: Good flows by way of the internal man into the external man, where it joins itself to the truths which have been introduced by way of the external man. For the good which flows in by way of the internal man is the good of love; indeed no good exists, spiritual or celestial, which is not the good of love. Love is the source of such good and the reason why it is called good with man. It is the actual love present within good and going with good that effects any joining together. Unless love were present within and at hand no joining together would ever be possible, for love is nothing other than a spiritual joining together since it is love that brings it about. This love comes from nowhere else than the Lord, for He is the fountain and source of all celestial and spiritual love, and therefore of all good which flows from that love. That love is twofold, celestial and spiritual. Celestial love is love to the Lord, while spiritual love is love to the neighbour and is called charity. These are the kinds of love from which all celestial or spiritual good is derived and which join themselves to truths which are called the truths of faith. For the truths of faith regarded without love are mere sounds devoid of any life; but through love, and so through being joined to the good of love, they receive life. From this it becomes clear that no measure of faith at all exists except with those who have the good of love in them, and that faith exists insofar as love is present.

[3] And since no measure of faith at all exists except with those who have the good of love within them, neither therefore does any confidence or trust exist with them. With people other than those who have love and charity, trust or confidence which is called the trust or confidence of faith is either spurious or else the kind that can exist even with devil-spirits when subject to fear or to anguish, or else to false persuasion resulting from self-love and love of the world. However, even though at the present day faith without the good works of charity has been made the bringer of salvation, people in a remote way still see that the truths of faith have no power to save because those truths are known also by the evil. Therefore they recognize confidence or trust, to which they give the name faith. They call it faith without being aware of what it really is, or that such is possible even with the evil, or that no spiritual confidence exists if it does not flow in by way of the good of love and charity. They are unaware of the fact that such spiritual confidence does not flow in when a person is subject to fear or anguish, or to false persuasion resulting from self-love and love of the world, but when he is in a state of freedom. Nor are they aware that spiritual confidence does not exist in people other than those with whom good has been joined to truths and become deeply rooted during the course of their lives prior to this, and so does not exist in cases of illness, misfortune, danger to life, or when death is at hand. If this confidence or trust which shows itself in a case of compulsion could save a person, then every mortal human being would be saved, for every one is brought with ease to that confidence; indeed there are none to whom the Lord - who desires the salvation of all - would not grant it. But regarding the confidence or trust which is called faith - what it is, the nature of it, and whom it exists with - this must in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed elsewhere.

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