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Genesis 41

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1 And it was, from the end of two·​·years of days, and Pharaoh dreamed, and behold, he stood by the river.

2 And behold, from the river there came·​·up seven cows, beautiful in appearance and nourished in flesh; and they pastured in the sedge.

3 And behold, seven other cows came·​·up after them out·​·of the river, evil of appearance and thin in flesh, and stood beside the cows upon the lip of the river.

4 And the cows, bad of appearance and thin in flesh, did eat up the seven cows, beautiful of appearance and nourished. And Pharaoh awoke.

5 And he slept and dreamed a second time, and behold, seven ears of grain came·​·up upon one reed, nourished and good.

6 And behold, seven ears thin and scorched by the east·​·wind grew after them.

7 And the thin ears swallowed·​·up the seven nourished and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream.

8 And it was, in the morning, and his spirit was disquieted; and he sent and called all the magicians of Egypt, and all her wise men; and Pharaoh told· them ·of his dream; and no·​·one interpreted these things to Pharaoh.

9 And spoke the prince of the cupbearers with Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my sins today.

10 Pharaoh was·​·enraged against his servants, and put me under guard in the house of the prince of the guards, me and the prince of the bakers;

11 and we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed a man according·​·to the interpretation of his dream.

12 And there was with us there a Hebrew lad, servant to the prince of the guards; and we recounted to him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to a man according·​·to his dream he did interpret.

13 And it was, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he returned to my position, and him he hanged.

14 And Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they hurried him* from the pit; and he trimmed his hair, and changed his raiment, and came to Pharaoh.

15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it; and I have heard concerning thee, saying, thou hearest a dream to interpret it.

16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, Not to me; God shall answer peace to Pharaoh.

17 And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, In my dream behold, I stood on the lip of the river;

18 and behold, from the river there came·​·up seven cows, nourished in flesh and beautiful of form; and they pastured in the sedge.

19 and behold, seven other cows came·​·up afterwards, poor and very bad in form, and slender in flesh; they were as I have not seen in all the land of Egypt for badness;

20 and the slender and bad cows did eat·​·up the first seven nourished cows;

21 and they came·​·in to their inward·​·parts, and it was not known that they had come·​·in to their inward·​·parts; and their appearance was bad, as in the beginning. And I awoke.

22 And I saw in my dream, and behold, seven ears came·​·up upon one reed, full and good;

23 and behold, seven ears, shriveled, thin, and scorched by the east·​·wind, grew up after them;

24 and the thin ears swallowed·​·up the seven good ears; and I say it to the magicians; and no·​·one tells it to me.

25 And Joseph said to Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh, it is one; what God is doing He has told to Pharaoh.

26 The seven good cows, they are seven years, and the seven good ears, they are seven years; the dream, it is one.

27 And the seven slender and evil cows that came·​·up after them, they are seven years, and the seven empty ears scorched with the east·​·wind shall be seven years of famine.

28 This is the word*, that I spoke to Pharaoh; what God does He has caused Pharaoh to see.

29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty in all the land of Egypt;

30 and there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume·​·all the land;

31 and the plenty shall not ·be known in the land from the faces of that famine after it, for it shall be very heavy.

32 And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh two·​·times, for the word is established by God, and God is hastening to do it.

33 And now let Pharaoh see a man with understanding and wisdom, and put him over the land of Egypt.

34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and take the fifth of the land of Egypt in the seven years of plenty.

35 And let them bring·​·together all the food of those good years that come, and pile·​·up grain under the hand of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them guard it.

36 And the food shall be for a deposit for the land for the seven years of the famine that shall be in the land of Egypt; and the land shall not be cut·​·off in the famine.

37 And the word was·​·good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.

38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, Shall we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God?

39 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has caused thee to know all this, there is no·​·one so with understanding and wisdom as thou.

40 Thou shalt be over my house, and upon thy mouth shall all my people kiss; only in the throne will I be·​·greater than thou.

41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have put thee over all the land of Egypt.

42 And Pharaoh removed his ring from upon his hand, and put it upon the hand of Joseph, and clothed him in garments of fine·​·linen, and set a necklace of gold upon his neck;

43 and he had him ride in the second chariot that he had; and they proclaimed before him, Abrech*; and he put him over all the land of Egypt.

44 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and besides thee shall no man lift·​·high his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.

45 And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-paneach; and he gave him Asenath the daughter of Potiphera priest of On for a woman; and Joseph went·​·out over the land of Egypt.

46 And Joseph was a son of thirty years when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went·​·out from before Pharaoh, and passed into all the land of Egypt.

47 And the land made a gathering* by handfuls in the seven years of plenty.

48 And he brought·​·together all the food of the seven years that were in the land of Egypt, and put the food in cities; the food of the field of the city, that which was all around her, he put in the midst of her.

49 And Joseph piled·​·up grain as the sand of the sea, multiplying it exceedingly, until he stopped numbering, for it had no number.

50 And to Joseph was·​·born* two sons before the year of famine came, to whom Asenath the daughter of Potiphera priest of On gave·​·birth for him.

51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh; For God has made me forget all my labor, and all the house of my father.

52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim; For God has made· me ·fruitful in the land of my affliction.

53 And the seven years of plenty, which was in the land of Egypt, were completed.

54 And the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said; and there was famine in all the lands; and in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

55 And all the land of Egypt was·​·hungry, and the people cried to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to all Egypt, Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do.

56 And the famine was on all the faces of the land; and Joseph opened all that was in them*, and rationed to Egypt; and the famine held·​·firm in the land of Egypt.

57 And all the land came to Egypt to purchase, to Joseph; for the famine held·​·firm in all the land.

   


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

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Arcana Coelestia # 5280

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5280. 'And the abundance of corn in the land will not be known' means that no discernment at all regarding the truth present previously will exist there. This is clear from the meaning of 'being known' as being discerned; from the meaning of 'the abundance of corn' as truth that has been multiplied, dealt with above; in 5276, 5278; and from the meaning of 'the land', in this case the land of Egypt, as the natural mind, also dealt with above, in 5276, 5278, 5279. From these meanings it is evident that 'the abundance of corn in the land will not be known means that no discernment at all regarding the truth present previously will exist in the natural.

[2] This verse deals with the final state of desolation, when despair, which comes immediately before regeneration, is experienced; and this being the matter dealt with in this verse, something must be said about the nature of it. Everyone has to be reformed, and to be born anew or regenerated, so that he may enter heaven, No one, unless he is born again, can see the kingdom of God. John 3:3, 5-6.

The human being is born into sin which has increased as it has come down in a long line of descent from ancestors, grandparents, and parents; it has become hereditary and so has been handed down to offspring. At birth a person is born into so many inherited evils which have gradually increased, as described, that he is nothing but sin; therefore unless he undergoes regeneration he remains wholly immersed in sin. But to be regenerated, he must first undergo reformation, which is effected by means of the truths of faith; for he must learn from the Word, and from teaching drawn from it, what good is. Items of knowledge regarding what is good that have been acquired from the Word - that is, from teaching drawn from there - are called the truths of faith; for all truths of faith well up out of good and flow in the direction of good, good being the end they have in view.

[3] This state comes first and is called the state of reformation. Most people within the Church are introduced into it during the period from young childhood through to adolescence, though few are regenerated because most people within the Church learn the truths of faith - or religious knowledge about what is good - for the sake of reputation and position and for the sake of material gain. Since therefore the truths of faith have been introduced through his love of these things, a person cannot be born anew or be regenerated until that love has been removed. To enable such love to be removed that person is launched into a state of temptation, which takes place in the following way: His love of reputation, position, and material gain is activated by the hellish crew, for that crew's desire is to live immersed in the love of those things. But at the same time angels activate affections for what is true and good which were implanted in the state of innocence during early childhood and then stored away interiorly and preserved there for this particular purpose. As a result conflict between evil spirits and angels takes place, and this conflict taking place within a person is experienced by him as temptation. And because the action at this time involves truths and forms of good, the actual truths which were instilled initially are so to speak banished by the falsities infused by the evil spirits - so banished that they are not seen - dealt with above in 5268-5270. And as the person allows himself at this time to be regenerated, the Lord introduces through an internal route the light of truth radiated from good in the natural, in which light the truths are restored there in their proper order.

[4] This is what happens to a person who is being regenerated, but few at the present day are permitted to enter that regenerative state. So far as they allow it to happen, all people, it is true, start to be reformed through the instruction they receive in the truths and forms of good that belong to spiritual life; but as soon as they reach adolescent years they allow the world to distract them. So they turn away into those parts where hellish spirits are, who gradually alienate these people from heaven; the spirits alienate them so completely that they scarcely believe any longer in the existence of heaven. Consequently those people cannot be launched into any spiritual temptation; for if they were they would go under instantly, in which case their latter state would be worse than their former one, Matthew 12:45. From all this one may see the nature of what the internal sense contains here, namely the state of reformation and the state of regeneration. This particular verse however describes the final state in temptation, which is a state of despair - this state being dealt with immediately above in 5279.

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