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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 # 4430

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4430. 'And Shechem saw her' means truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Shechem' as truth, in this case the truth received by the Church from ancient times. The reason why 'Shechem' has this representation is that remnants of the Church still existed with the nation to which Shechem belonged. The fact that his nation was one of the upright nations is evident from the genuineness behind the things that Hamor and Shechem said to Jacob and his sons, verses 8-12, and from the deference that was shown by them in order that Shechem might marry Dinah, verses 18-24, on account of which they represented the truth of the Church. Furthermore the city of Shechem was Abram's first stopping-place when he came from Syria into the land of Canaan, Genesis 12:6, and was now also Jacob's first stopping-place when he too came from Syria, where he stretched his tent, made booths, and set up an altar, Genesis 33:17-20. It has been shown frequently that the journeys or wanderings of Abraham and Jacob represented advances into the truths of faith and the goods of love - in the highest sense, the Lord's own advances, and in the relative sense those made by the person who is being regenerated by the Lord. Hence 'Shechem' meant the first degree of light, 1440, 1441, and therefore interior truth since this is the first degree of light.

[2] But in the present chapter the subject in the internal sense is the way in which the descendants of Jacob annihilated this first degree of light or interior truth residing with them. In this sense, which is the internal historical sense, 'the sons of Jacob' means all his descendants, for the internal sense of the Word deals solely with the things that belong to the Lord's kingdom, and so those that belong to His Church. Jacob's actual sons did not constitute any Church but their descendants did, though not until after they had come out of Egypt, and in actual fact not until they entered the land of Canaan.

[3] Furthermore regarding this city named after Shechem, it was called Salem in ancient times, as is clear in the previous chapter,

Jacob came to Salem, the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan. Genesis 32:18.

'Salem' means serenity, and 'the city of Shechem' the interior truths of faith; and a person comes into a state of serenity when he arrives at those truths, see 4393. But later on the same city was called Shechem, as may be seen in Joshua,

The bones of Joseph which the children of Israel caused to be brought up out of Egypt they buried in Shechem, in the part of the field which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitahs. Joshua 24:32.

And in the Book of Judges,

Gaal the son of Ebed said to the citizens of Shechem, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal. and Zebul is his commander? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; and why shall we serve him? Judges 9:28.

[4] The same city after that was called 'Sychar', as is evident in John,

Jesus came into a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to Joseph his son; Jacob's well was there. John 4:5-6.

From these places, as well as from others where it is mentioned, it is evident that this city means interior truth. It is also clear in Hosea,

Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity; it is stained with blood; and as troops wait for a man so the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem, for they have committed villainy. In the house of Israel I have seen a foul thing. Hosea 6:8-10.

Here 'they murder on the way to Shechem' means that they annihilate truths, including interior ones, and so annihilate all truths. The annihilation of interior truth is also meant by the reference to Abimelech's destruction of that city and sowing it with salt, Judges 9:45.

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