Bible

 

Genesis 46

Studie

   

1 And Israel journeyed, and all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and sacrificed sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

2 And God said to Israel in the visions of the night, and He said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Behold me.

3 And He said, I am God; the God of thy father; fear not from going·​·down to Egypt, for I will there set thee for a great nation.

4 I will go·​·down with thee toward Egypt; and I will cause thee to go·​·up, even to go·​·up; and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.

5 And Jacob rose·​·up from Beer-sheba; and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their infants, and their women, in the carts which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

6 And they took their livestock, and their acquisition which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him;

7 his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters, and all his seed, brought he with him into Egypt.

8 And these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt, of Jacob and of his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.

9 And the sons of Reuben: Enoch, and Pallu, and Hezron, and Carmi.

10 And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.

11 And the sons of Levi: Gershon and Kohath, and Merari.

12 And the sons of Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Perez, and Zeraḥ; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Perez were Hezron and Chamul.

13 And the sons of Issachar: Tola, and Puwah, and Iob, and Shimron.

14 And the sons of Zebulun: Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel.

15 These are the sons of Leah, to whom she gave·​·birth for Jacob in Paddan-aram, and his daughter Dinah; all the souls of his sons and of his daughters were thirty and three.

16 And the sons of Gad: Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli.

17 And the sons of Asher: Imnah, and Ishvah, and Ishvi, and Beriah, and Serah their sister; and the sons of Beriah: Cheber, and Malchiel.

18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and to these she gave·​·birth for Jacob, sixteen souls.

19 The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife: Joseph and Benjamin.

20 And to Joseph was·​·born* in the land of Egypt Manasseh and Ephraim, to whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, gave·​·birth for him.

21 And the sons of Benjamin: Bela, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard.

22 These are the sons of Rachel, who were·​·born to Jacob; all the souls were fourteen.

23 And the sons of Dan: Hushim.

24 And the sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem.

25 These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and to these she gave·​·birth for Jacob; all the souls were seven.

26 All the souls that came with Jacob to Egypt, that came·​·forth from his thigh, besides the women of the sons of Jacob, all the souls were sixty and six.

27 And the sons of Joseph, who were·​·born to him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came to Egypt, were seventy.

28 And he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to go* before him to Goshen; and they came to the land of Goshen.

29 And Joseph harnessed his chariot, and went·​·up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen; and he was seen of him, and fell upon his necks, and wept upon his necks a long while.*

30 And Israel said to Joseph, Let me die, after that I have seen thy faces, that thou art yet alive.

31 And Joseph said to his brothers, and to his father’s house, I will go·​·up, and will tell Pharaoh, and will say to him, My brothers, and my father’s house, who were in the land of Canaan, are come to me;

32 and the men are shepherds of the flock, for they are men of livestock; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.

33 And it may be that Pharaoh will call you, and will say, What are your works?

34 And you shall say: Thy servants have been men of livestock from our youth and even until now, both we, and our fathers; so·​·that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd of the flock is an abomination of Egypt.

   


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

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 6047

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

6047. 'And it may be, that Pharaoh may call you' means if the natural in which the Church's factual knowledge resides wishes to be joined to you. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling to oneself' as wishing to be joined to, for the call to them, made with affection, to live in his land and become a single nation together with his subjects is the expression of a wish to be joined to them; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the natural in which the Church's factual knowledge resides, as above in 6042. Pharaoh's call to them means the response made to the introduction and joining together, that is to say, the joining of the Church's factual knowledge to truths and forms of good in the natural. For every joining together requires such a response and therefore agreement on both sides.

[2] The subject here is the joining together of the Church's truths and its factual knowledge; but one needs to know in what way they should become joined. The joining together must not start with factual knowledge which is then used to look into the truths of faith; for a person's factual knowledge comes from sensory impressions, thus from the world, the source of countless illusions. It must start with the truths of faith; that is to say, one should proceed in the following way. First of all one should get to know what the Church teaches; then one should discover from the Word whether such teaching is the truth. For things are true not because they are what leaders of the Church have so declared and their followers uphold. If that were so one would have to say that the teachings of any Church or religion were the truth simply because they are those of a person's native soil and are those into which he was born. Thus not only the teachings of Papists or Quakers would be true but also those of Jews and of Mohammedans too since their Church leaders have so declared and their followers uphold it. From all this it is evident that one should search the Word and there see whether what the Church teaches is the truth. When an affection for truth motivates the search a person receives light from the Lord so that he may discern, though unaware of the source of his enlightenment, what the truth is and may be assured of it in the measure that he is governed by good. But if the truths discerned by him are at variance with the teachings of the Church, let him beware of creating a disturbance in the Church.

[3] Once he has become assured and so affirms from the Word that the Church's teachings are truths of faith, let him then employ any fact he knows, whatever the name or nature of it, to corroborate them. For now that he is thoroughly affirmative in his attitude towards the truth he welcomes facts that accord with them and casts away those which because of the misconceptions present within them do not accord. The facts are used in support of his faith. No one therefore should be forbidden to search the Scriptures if motivated by a desire to know whether the teachings of the Church in which he was born are true; for in no other way can he ever become enlightened. Nor should he be forbidden after that to use factual knowledge to support his beliefs; but let him not do so before that. This and no other is the way in which the truths of faith should be joined to factual knowledge - not only the facts known to the Church but also any other kinds of facts. But very few at the present day proceed in this way, for the majority of people who read the Word are not motivated by a desire for truth when they read it but by a desire to endorse the teachings of the Church in which they were born, no matter what those teachings may be like.

[4] The Word contains a description of the Lord's kingdom in which the spiritual domain, the domain of reason, and the domain of factual knowledge exist joined together; but in that description names that serve to mean those domains are used - Israel, Asshur, and Egypt. 'Israel' describes the spiritual domain, 'Asshur' the domain of reason, and 'Egypt' that of factual knowledge, in the following words in Isaiah,

On that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Jehovah at its border; and it will be for a sign and a witness to Jehovah Zebaoth in the land of Egypt, for they will cry out to Jehovah because of the oppressors, and He will send a saviour and prince to them, and he will deliver them. And Jehovah will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Jehovah on that day and will offer sacrifice and minchah, and will make a vow to Jehovah and perform it. On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Asshur, and Asshur will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Asshur, and Egypt will serve Asshur. 1 On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Asshur, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom Jehovah Zebaoth will bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Asshur the work of My hands, and Israel My heritage. Isaiah 19:18-25.

[5] Anyone may see that in this quotation the country Egypt is not meant, or Asshur, or even Israel, but that some other thing is meant by each of them. 'Israel' is used to mean the spiritual domain of the Church, see 3654, 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5837; 'Asshur' to mean the domain of reason, 119, 1186; and 'Egypt' to mean the domain of factual knowledge, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 4749, 4964, 4966, 5700, 6004, 6015. The existence of the three joined together in the member of the Church is described in the prophet by the words 'there will be a highway from Egypt to Asshur, and Asshur will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Asshur, and Egypt will serve Asshur. On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Asshur, a blessing in the midst of the earth'. For to be a member of the Church a person must of necessity be a spiritual person, and also a rational one whom factual knowledge will serve. From all this it may now be evident that factual knowledge should not on any account be cast aside from the truths of faith but should be joined to them. But one should go the primary way, that is, the way that begins with faith, not the secondary way, that is, the one that begins with factual knowledge. See also what has been shown in 128-130, 195, 196, 232, 233, 1226, 1911, 2568, 2588, 4156, 4760, 5510, 5700.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The Hebrew of this text in Isaiah may be read in two different ways - serve Asshur or serve with Asshur. Most English versions of Isaiah prefer the second of these .

  
/ 10837  
  

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