Bible

 

Genesis 35

Studie

   

1 And God said to Jacob, Arise, go·​·up to Bethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar to God, who was seen of thee when thou didst run·​·away from before Esau thy brother.

2 And Jacob said to his house, and to all who were with him, Remove the gods of the foreigner which are in the midst of you, and clean yourselves, and change your raiment;

3 and let us arise, and go·​·up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my adversity, and was with·​·me in the way which I walked.

4 And they gave to Jacob all the gods of the foreigner which were in their hand, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob concealed them under the oak which was by Shechem.

5 And they journeyed; and a terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

6 And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, this is Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.

7 And he built there an altar, and called the place El-bethel*; for there the gods* were revealed to him when he ran·​·away from before his brother.

8 And Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under the oak; and he called the name of it Allon-bacuth.

9 And God was seen of Jacob yet·​·again when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him.

10 And God said to him, Thy name is Jacob; thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name; and He called his name Israel.

11 And God said to him, I am God Shaddai; be·​·fruitful and multiply; a nation and an assembly of nations shall be from thee, and kings shall go·​·forth from thy loins.

12 And the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

13 And God went·​·up from over him in the place where He spoke with him.

14 And Jacob set·​·up a pillar in the place in which He spoke with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured·​·out a poured·​·offering on it, and poured oil on it.

15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.

16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was still a tract of land to come toward Ephrath; and Rachel gave·​·birth, and it was hard for her’ in giving·​·birth.

17 And it was, when it was hard for her in her giving·​·birth, that the midwife said to her, Fear not, for this also is a son for thee.

18 And it was, when her soul was going·​·out that she was·​·about·​·to·​·die; and she called his name Benoni; and his father called him Benjamin.

19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way toward Ephrath, this is Bethlehem.

20 And Jacob set·​·up a pillar over her grave; this is the pillar of the grave of Rachel even·​·until today.

21 And Israel journeyed, and stretched·​·out his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

22 And it was, when Israel inhabited this land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah the concubine of his father, and Israel heard. And the sons of Jacob were twelve:

23 the sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun;

24 the sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin;

25 and the sons of Bilhah Rachel’s handmaid, Dan and Naphtali;

26 and the sons of Zilpah Leah’s handmaid, Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who was·​·born* to him in Paddan-aram.

27 And Jacob came to Isaac his father to Mamre Kiriath-arba, this is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned*

28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred years and eighty years.

29 And Isaac expired and died, and was gathered to his people, old and sated of days; and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him.

   


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

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 4603

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

4603. 'The sons of Jacob were twelve' means a state in which all things were now present in the Divine Natural. This is clear from the representation of 'Jacob' as the Divine Natural, often dealt with already; and from the meaning of 'twelve' as all, and when used in reference to the sons of Jacob, or to the tribes named after these, as all aspects of truth and good, dealt with in 2089, 2129, 2130, 3272, 3858, 3913, 3939. The subject so far has been the way in which the Lord made his Natural within Him Divine, for 'Jacob' has represented the Natural; but now the subject becomes the joining of the Divine Natural to the Rational. This joining together is represented by Jacob's coming to Isaac, for 'Isaac' represents the Lord's Divine Rational. This explains why all the sons of Jacob are listed once again, since every aspect of truth and good had to be present within the Natural before it could be fully joined to the Rational. The reason for this particular listing of them is the service which the natural renders the rational as the receptacle for it. But one should recognize that Jacob's sons are now mentioned in a different order from before; the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah - Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher - are mentioned last, though in actual fact these were born before Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. The reason for this difference is that at this point the subject is the order in which truths and goods exist within the Natural when this has been made Divine, for it is the state belonging to the subject under discussion that determines the order in which their names appear, see 3862, 3926, 3939.

  
/ 10837  
  

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