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Genesis 34

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1 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, to whom she gave·​·birth for Jacob, went·​·out to see the daughters of the land.

2 And Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the chief of the land, saw her, and took her, and lay with her, and pressured her.

3 And his soul stuck to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spoke upon the heart of the damsel.

4 And Shechem said to Hamor his father, saying, Fetch me this girl for a woman.

5 And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field; and Jacob was·​·silent until they came.

6 And Hamor the father of Shechem went·​·out to Jacob to speak with him.

7 And the sons of Jacob came from the field as they heard it, and the men were grieved, and they were· very ·incensed, because he had done folly in Israel, in lying with Jacob’s daughter, and so it should not be done.

8 And Hamor spoke with them, saying, Shechem my son, his soul delights in your daughter; give her, I pray, to him for a woman.

9 And make·​·marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to you.

10 And you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you; dwell ye, and range through it trading, and have·​·possession in it.

11 And Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what you say to me I will give.

12 Multiply on me exceedingly a dowry and a gift, and I will give as you say to me; and give me the damsel for a woman.

13 And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister.

14 And they said to them, We are· not ·able do this word, to give our sister to a man that has a foreskin, because this would be a reproach to us.

15 Surely in this will we consent to you, if you be as we to circumcise of you every male.

16 And we will give our daughters to you, and will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will be for one people.

17 And if you will not hearken to us to circumcise, then we will take our daughter and go.

18 And their words were·​·good in the eyes of Hamor, and in the eyes of Shechem the son of Hamor.

19 And the lad delayed not to do the word, for he delighted in the daughter of Jacob; and he was honored above all the house of his father.

20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and spoke to the men of their city, saying,

21 These men are peaceable with us, and let them dwell in the land, and range through it trading, and behold the land is broad in spaces before them; let us take their daughters to us for women, and let us give our daughters to them.

22 Surely in this will the men consent to us to dwell with us, to be for one people, in every male being circumcised of us, as they are circumcised.

23 Their livestock, and what they had bought, and all their beast, will they not be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.

24 And they hearkened to Hamor and to Shechem his son, all who went·​·out of the gate of his city; and they circumcised every male, all who went·​·out of the gate of his city.

25 And it was, on the third day, when they were·​·in·​·pain, that the two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, brothers of Dinah, took a man his sword, and came upon the city confidently, and killed every male.

26 And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son by the mouth of the sword, and took Dinah from the house of Shechem, and went·​·out.

27 The sons of Jacob came upon those who were slain, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

28 Their flocks and their herds and their donkeys, and what was in the city, and what was in the field, they took;

29 and all their belongings, and all their infants, and their women, they took·​·captive and plundered, and all that was in the house.

30 And Jacob said to Simeon and to Levi, You have troubled me, to make me stink among the dweller of the land, among the Canaanite and among the Perizzite; and I am as mortals in number*, and they will be gathered against me, and will smite me, and I shall be blotted·​·out, I and my house.

31 And they said, Shall he make our sister as a harlot?

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 4439

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4439. 'Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter' means a wrongful joining together, that is to say, a wrongful joining to the affection for truth which the external Church represented here by 'Jacob' possessed. This is clear from the meaning of 'defiling' as a wrongful joining together, for by 'marriages' is meant a rightful joining together, 4434, and therefore by the defilement of them a wrongful one, concerning which see 4433; from the representation of 'Dinah' as the affection for all things of faith, also the Church arising from that affection, dealt with in 4427; and from the representation of 'Jacob', who at this point is the external Ancient Church. The reason why Jacob' at this point means the external Ancient Church is that such a Church was to have been established among his descendants, and would in fact have been. established if those descendants had received the interior truths which existed among the Ancients. Jacob's representation of that Church at this point is also evident from the train of thought in this chapter, for he had no part in his sons' plan to smite the city and kill Hamor and Shechem, a deed which was also the reason for his telling Simeon and Levi,

You have brought trouble on me, by making me stink to the inhabitant of the land. Verse 30; and in the prophetical utterance he made before his death,

Into their secret place let my soul not come; in their congregation let not my glory be united; for in their anger they killed a man, and in their pleasure they hamstrung an ox. Genesis 49:6.

And there are very many other places in the Word besides these in which 'Jacob' represents the external Ancient Church, 422, 4286. The reason why 'Jacob' represents that Church is that in the highest sense he represents the Lord's Divine Natural, to which the external Church corresponds. His sons however mean his descendants who annihilated truth known to the Ancients as this existed among themselves, and in so doing destroyed that which was to constitute the Church, so that only that which was the representative of it remained with them, 4281, 4288, 4289, 4303.

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