Bible

 

Genesis 43

Studie

   

1 And the famine became heavy in the land.

2 And it was as they completed eating what they purchased which they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, Return, purchase for us a·​·little food.

3 And Judah said to him, saying, Testifying the man did testify to us, saying, You shall not see my face without your brother with you.

4 If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go·​·down and purchase food for thee.

5 And if thou wilt not send him, we will not go·​·down; for the man said to us, You shall not see my face without your brother with you.

6 And Israel said, Why did you do·​·evil to me, to tell the man whether you had yet a brother?

7 And they said, Asking, the man asked as to us and as to our birth, saying, Is your father still alive? Have you a brother? And we told him upon the mouth of these words. Knowing could we know that he would say, Bring· your brother ·down?

8 And Judah said to Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; and we will live, and not die, both we and thou, and our infants.

9 I will be·​·surety for him; from my hand shalt thou seek him; if I bring him not to thee, and place him before thee, then I shall be sinning to thee all the days.

10 For if· we had ·not lingered, surely we would have now returned these two·​·times.

11 And their father Israel said to them, If this be so, then do this: take of the song* of the land in your vessels, and bring·​·down to the man a gift·​·offering, a·​·little balm and a·​·little honey, aromas and stacte, pistachios and almonds.

12 And take double the silver in your hands, and the silver that was returned in the mouth of your bags, return it in your hand; perhaps it was an error.

13 And receive your brother*, and arise, and return to the man.

14 And God Shaddai give you compassions before the man, and send you your other brother and Benjamin. And I, as I have been bereaved, I shall be bereaved.

15 And the men took this gift, and they took double the silver in their hand, and Benjamin; and rose·​·up, and went·​·down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.

16 And Joseph saw Benjamin with them, and he said to him who was over his house, Bring the men to the house, and butchering, butcher and prepare; for the men shall eat with me at noon.

17 And the man did as Joseph said; and the man brought the men to Joseph’s house.

18 And the men feared, for they were brought·​·into the house of Joseph; and they said, Concerning the word of the silver returned in our bags in the beginning are we brought; to roll down on us, and to fall on us, and to take us for servants, and our donkeys.

19 And they approached the man who was over Joseph’s house, and they spoke to him at* the entrance of the house,

20 and said, In·​·me*, my lord, coming·​·down we came·​·down in the beginning to purchase food;

21 and it was, when we came to the inn and we opened our bags, and behold, a man’s silver in the mouth of his bag, our silver in its weight; and we have returned it back in our hand.

22 And other silver have we brought·​·down in our hand to purchase food; we know not who put our silver in our bags.

23 And he said, Peace be to you, fear not; your God and the God of your father gave you a concealed gift in your bags; your silver came to me. And he brought· Simeon ·out to them.

24 And the man brought the men to Joseph’s house, and gave water, and they bathed their feet; and he gave their donkeys fodder.

25 And they prepared the gift·​·offering against the coming of Joseph at noon; for they heard that they should eat bread there.

26 And Joseph came to the house, and they brought him the gift·​·offering which was in their hand to the house, and bowed· themselves ·down to him to the earth.

27 And he asked them as to their peace, and said, Is there peace with your father, the old one of whom you talk? Is he still living?

28 And they said, There is peace to thy servant our father; he is yet alive. And they bent·​·themselves, and bowed· themselves ·down.

29 And he lifted·​·up his eyes, and saw Benjamin his brother, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your youngest brother, of whom you said to me? And he said, God be·​·gracious·​·to thee, my son.

30 And Joseph made·​·haste, for his compassions* did yearn toward his brother; and he sought to weep, and he came to the bed chamber, and wept there.

31 And he bathed his faces, and went·​·out, and he held·​·himself·​·back, and said, Set on bread.

32 And they set on for him alone, and for them alone, and for the Egyptians who did eat with him, alone; because the Egyptians are· not ·able to eat bread with the Hebrews; because this is an abomination to the Egyptians.

33 And they sat before him, the firstborn according·​·to his birthright, and the youngest being·​·youngest; and the men were amazed, a man to his companion.

34 And he carried out portions* from with him* to them; and he multiplied Benjamin’s portion above the portions of them all, five measures*. And they drank and drank·​·largely with him.

   


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

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 5650

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

5650. 'So that he may come down on us and fall on us' means that for this reason they were subjected to its absolute power and control. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming down on someone' as considering him blameworthy; and from the meaning of 'falling on someone' as making him subject to one's own power and control, which in this case is absolute since the statement 'take us as slaves, and our asses' follows after this. The implications of all this are as follows: Before the natural man is joined to the spiritual, or the external man to the internal, he is left to consider whether he wants the strong desires that spring from self-love and love of the world, also such ideas as he has used to defend those desires, to be done away with, and whether he wants to surrender dominion to the spiritual or internal man. He is left to consider this so that he may choose in freedom what he pleases. When the natural man without the spiritual contemplates this possibility he rejects it; for he loves his strong evil desires for the reason that he loves himself and the world. Such a contemplation fills him with anxiety and he imagines that if those desires are done away with his life would be finished; for he locates everything in the natural or external man. Alternatively he imagines that after they have been done away with he will be left with no power of his own and that all his thought, will, and action will come to him through heaven, so that he will no longer have any responsibility for these. Once the natural man has been left to himself in this condition, he draws back and becomes resistant. But when some light flows from the Lord through heaven into his natural he starts to think differently. That is to say, he now refers the spiritual man to have dominion, for then he is able to think what is true and to will what is good and so is able to enter heaven, which is not possible if the natural man has dominion. And when he considers that all the angels in the whole of heaven are like this and as a consequence experience joy defying description, he goes to war with the natural man and at length wishes to make the same subject to the spiritual. This is the condition into which someone who is to be regenerated is brought, so that he can in freedom turn where he wills; and insofar as he does in freedom turn in that direction he is being regenerated. All these matters are the things under consideration here in the internal sense.

  
/ 10837  
  

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