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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 # 6306

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6306. 'Which I took out of the hand of the Amorite' means because of the victory over evil. This is clear from the representation of 'the Amorite' as evil, dealt with in 1857; and from the meaning of 'taking out of the hand' as acquiring through victory. As regards 'the Amorites', it should be recognized that they mean evil, just as 'the Canaanites' and all the other nations in the land that are mentioned in the Word mean various kinds of evil and also of falsity. Such things were represented by the nations when the children of Israel were taking possession of the land of Canaan. The reason for this was that whenever the children of Israel represented the things of heaven those nations represented the things of hell; thus the land of Canaan represented every state that exists in the next life. Also, because the nations represented the things of hell they were utterly destroyed; and entrance into any treaty with those who might remain was forbidden.

[2] The action of the children of Israel, of their taking possession of and dwelling in the land of those who represented the hells, was representative. It represented what happened around the time of the Lord's Coming, when spirits from hell had possession of a large part of heaven but He, by coming into the world and making the human within Himself Divine, cast them out of there and down into hell, and thereby delivered heaven from them, which He then gave as an inheritance to those who belonged to His spiritual kingdom.

[3] The representation of the Amorite nation as evil in general is evident from the places where it is referred to, as in Ezekiel, Thus said the Lord Jehovih to Jerusalem, 1 Your tradings and your births are of the land of the Canaanite. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. Ezekiel 16:3, 45.

'Father' in the internal sense means the Church's good, or in the contrary sense evil, and 'mother' means the Church's truth, or in the contrary sense falsity; and this is why it is said, 'Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite'.

[4] In Amos,

I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and whose strength was like the oaks. I led you in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. Amos 2:9-10.

Here also 'the Amorite' stands for evil, for the evil of self-love is described by 'the height of the cedars' and 'the strength of an oak'. The reason why 'the Amorite' means evil in general is that the entire land of Canaan was called 'the land of the Amorite'; for it says, 'I led you in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite'. In addition the second Book of Kings says,

Manasseh king of Judah did what was evil, greater than all the evil which the Amorites did, who were before him. 2 Kings 21:11.

[5] 'With my sword' means through truth engaged in conflict. This is clear from the meaning of 'sword' as truth engaged in conflict, dealt with in 2799, 4499.

'And my bow' means received from doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'bow' as doctrine, dealt with in 2686, 2709.

[6] The words used here, 'the portion which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow' were, it is quite evident, uttered by Israel on account of the internal sense; for Jacob did not take that portion from the Amorite with sword or bow. He bought it from the sons of Hamor, as is evident from Genesis 33, where these words occur, Jacob came to Salem, the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, as he was coming from Paddan Aram; and he encamped towards the face of the city. And he bought the portion of the field where he had stretched his tent, from the hand of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitahs. Genesis 33:18-19.

The fact that this field was the portion he gave to Joseph is clear 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; and they had become an inheritance for the children of Joseph. Joshua 24:32.

From this it is evident that the portion had been bought, and that this is what was given to Joseph. Nor was the city of Shechem nearby meant, the city in which Simeon and Levi killed every male and which they took with the sword, Genesis 34. This is made clear by the fact that Jacob detested what they did and for that reason cursed Simeon and Levi, completely dissociating himself from the crime. He said,

Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of violence are their swords. 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. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was hard. 2 I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. Genesis 49:5-7.

From all this it may now be seen that the words 'the portion which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow' were uttered by him, when the spirit of prophecy rested on him, for the sake of the internal sense.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The Latin means O Jerusalem but the Hebrew means to Jerusalem, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse (and possibly in his rough draft here).

2. i.e. cruel

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