Bible

 

Genesis 45

Studie

   

1 And Joseph could not hold·​·himself·​·back before all who were standing by him; and he called, Cause every man to go·​·out from by me! And there stood not a man with him while Joseph made· himself ·known to his brothers.

2 And he gave·​·over his voice in weeping; and the Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard.

3 And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph; does my father yet live? And his brothers could not answer him; for they were vexed before him.

4 And Joseph said to his brothers, Approach me, I pray. And they approached. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

5 And now be· not ·grieved, neither be·​·incensed in your eyes, that you sold me hither; for God sent me before you for keeping·​·alive.

6 For this two·​·years the famine is in the midst of the land; and there are still five years wherein there will be no plowing and harvest.

7 And God sent me before you to set for you a residue in the land, and to make· you ·live for a great deliverance.

8 And now it is not you who have sent me hither, but God; and He set me for a father to Pharaoh, and for a lord to all his house, and I rule in all the land of Egypt.

9 Hasten ye and go·​·up to my father, and say to him, Thus has said thy son Joseph, God has set me for lord to all Egypt; come·​·down to me, stand not back;

10 and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near to me, thou, and thy sons, and thy sons’ sons, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast;

11 and I will sustain thee there; for there are still five years of famine; lest thou be dispossessed, thou, and thy house, and all that thou hast.

12 And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that with my mouth I am speaking to you.

13 And you shall tell my father all my glory in Egypt, and all that you have seen; and hasten ye and bring·​·down my father hither.

14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s necks and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his necks.*

15 And he kissed all his brothers, and wept upon them; and afterwards his brothers spoke with him.

16 And the voice was heard in the house of Pharaoh, saying, The brothers of Joseph have come; and it was·​·good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants.

17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to thy brothers, This do ye; pack your beasts, and go, go·​·into the land of Canaan;

18 and take your father, and your houses*, and come to me; and I will give you the goodness of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.

19 And now commanded, this do; take for yourselves from the land of Egypt carts for your infants, and for your women, and take·​·up your father, and come.

20 And let not your eye be sparing upon your vessels; for the goodness of the all the land of Egypt, it is for you.

21 And the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them carts, by the mouth of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

22 And to all of them he gave to a man changes of raiment; and to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

23 And to his father he sent according·​·to this manner: ten donkeys bearing what was from the goodness of Egypt, and ten she·​·donkeys bearing grain and bread and nourishment for his father for the way.

24 And he sent his brothers, and they went; and he said to them, Contend not in the way.

25 And they went·​·up out·​·of Egypt, and came·​·into the land of Canaan to Jacob their father.

26 And they told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is ruler in all the land of Egypt. And his heart failed, because he believed them not.

27 And they spoke to him all the words of Joseph, which he spoke to them; and he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to bear him, and the spirit of Jacob their father lived;

28 and Israel said, It is much; Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die.

   


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

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 5955

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

5955. 'And to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver' means that to the intermediary a complete amount of truth from good was imparted. This is clear from the representation of 'Benjamin' as the intermediary, dealt with in 5600, 5631, 5639, 5688, 5822; from the representation of Joseph, the one who 'gave', as internal good, dealt with in 5826, 5827, 5869, 5877; from the meaning of 'three hundred' as a complete amount, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, 2954, 5658. From all this it is evident that 'to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver' means that he imparted to the intermediary a complete amount of truth from good; for the intermediary, represented by 'Benjamin', is interior truth, through an influx into it from the internal celestial, 5600, 5631. The reason why 'three hundred' means a complete amount is that this number is the product of three multiplied by a hundred - 'three' meaning what is complete, 2788, 4495, and 'a hundred' meaning much, 4400. For the meaning held by compound numbers is clear from the simple numbers that are their factors.

[2] 'Three hundred' holds a similar meaning when mentioned elsewhere in the Word, as in Genesis 6:15, where it says that Noah's ark was three hundred cubits long, also in the reference to the three hundred men whom Gideon used to strike a blow at Midian, spoken of in Judges as follows,

The number of those who lapped in their hand to their mouth was three hundred men. Jehovah said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who were lapping I will give Midian into your hand. Gideon divided the three hundred men into three lines of battle, and he put a trumpet into the hand of each one of them, and empty water-pots, and torches in the middle of the water-pots. When they sounded the blast on the three hundred trumpets, Jehovah set the sword of [each] man against his companion and against the whole camp. Judges 7:6-8, 16, 22.

By 'the three hundred men' in this description too a complete amount is meant, and the same is meant by 'three lines of battle' into which the three hundred were divided. And by 'a hundred', the number in each line of battle, is meant much or enough, consequently that there were enough men to stand against Midian. Besides, every detail in this description was representative - the selection of those who lapped the water in their hand; the trumpet given to each man; and the water-pots with the torches inside them. This was so because 'Midian', whom they were opposing, represented truth that was not truth because there was no goodness of life in it. But such details will in the Lord's Divine mercy be explained elsewhere. The fact that numbers too were representative is evident from many other places, for example the number seven in Joshua, when they were going to capture Jericho. The command was given for seven priests to carry seven trumpets of rejoicing in front of the Ark; and on the seventh day they were to go round the city seven times, Joshua 6:4.

  
/ 10837  
  

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