Bible

 

Genesis 9

Studie

   

1 And God blessed Noaḥ and his sons, and said to them, Be·​·fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth.

2 And let the fear of you and the terror* of you be on every animal of the earth, and on every fowl of the heavens; to everything that the ground makes to creep forth, and to all the fish of the sea, into your hand let them be given.

3 Every creeping thing that lives shall be for you for food; as the green herb have I given it all to you.

4 Only the flesh with its soul, its blood, you shall not eat.

5 And surely your blood I will require of your souls; from the hand of every wild·​·animal I will require it; and from the hand of man, from the hand of a man his brother, I will require the soul of man.

6 Whoever sheds man’s blood in man*, his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God made He man.

7 And you, be· ye ·fruitful, and multiply; crawl forth on the earth, and multiply in it.

8 And God said to Noaḥ, and to his sons with him, saying,

9 And I, behold, I raise·​·up My covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

10 and with every living soul that is with you, even to the fowl, to the beast, and to every wild·​·animal of the land with you; of all that go·​·out of the ark, as·​·to every wild·​·animal of the land.

11 And I will raise·​·up my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut·​·off any·​·more by the waters of the flood; neither shall there be any·​·more a flood to destroy the earth.

12 And God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I give between Me and you and every living soul that is with you, for the generations of an age;

13 I have put My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

14 And it shall be, in clouding Myself with a cloud on the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud,

15 and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living soul among all flesh; and the waters shall no more be for a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will see it, to remember the eternal covenant between God and every living soul among all flesh that is upon the earth.

17 And God said to Noaḥ, This is the sign of the covenant which I have raised·​·up between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.

18 And the sons of Noaḥ, who went·​·out from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; and Ham, he is the father of Canaan.

19 These three were the sons of Noaḥ; and from these was scattered all the earth.

20 And Noaḥ began to be a man of the ground, and he planted a vineyard;

21 and he drank from the wine and was·​·drunken; and he was uncovered in the midst of his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

23 And Shem and Japheth took the raiment, and set it upon the shoulders of the two of them, and walked backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not the nakedness of their father.

24 And Noaḥ awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.

25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.

26 And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem; and Canaan shall be a servant to him.

27 May God enlarge Japheth, and he shall reside in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be a servant to him.

28 And Noaḥ lived after the flood three hundred years and fifty years.

29 And all the days of Noaḥ were nine hundred years and fifty years; and he died.

   


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

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 1032

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

1032. That 'and I will establish My covenant with you' means the Lord's presence with all people who have charity, and refers to 'those going out of the ark' and to 'every wild animal of the earth', that is, to people inside the Church and to those outside of it, is clear from what has been stated just above. With regard to the Lord also entering into a covenant with, that is, joining Himself by means of charity to people outside of the Church who are called gentiles, the position is this: The member of the Church imagines that all outside of the Church who are called gentiles cannot be saved because they do not possess any cognitions of faith and do not therefore know the Lord at all. Churchmen say that without faith and without knowledge of the Lord there is no salvation, and so all who are outside of the Church stand condemned. Indeed many such persons possessing some doctrine, even those embracing heresy, imagine that all outside of the Church, that is, all who do not feel as they do, are not saved. But the reality is altogether different. The Lord has mercy towards the whole human race, and wishes to save and draw to Himself all people throughout the universe.

[2] The Lord's mercy is infinite and will not let itself be limited to the few who are inside the Church. Instead it reaches out to all in the whole wide world. No one can be blamed because he has been born outside of the Church and so has no knowledge of matters of faith. Nor is anybody in any way condemned for having no faith in the Lord because he does not know Him. What right-thinking person is ever going to say that the greater part of the human race will perish in eternal death just because they have not been born in Europe whose inhabitants are relatively few? And what right-thinking person is going to say that the Lord would allow such a large number of people to be born so as to perish in eternal death? That would be contrary to the Divine and contrary to mercy. And in any case people outside of the Church, called gentiles, lead a far more upright life than those inside the Church do, and they embrace far more readily that which true faith teaches. This matter becomes clearer still from souls in the next life.

[3] From the so-called Christian world come the worst people of all, those in whom deadly hatred of the neighbour and deadly hatred of the Lord prevail. More than anybody else in the whole world they are adulterers. But this is not true of all other parts of the world; for a large number of those who have worshipped idols have an attitude of mind that finds hatred and adultery abhorrent, and they fear Christians for being such and for wishing to subject everybody else to torture. Indeed gentiles are such that when taught by angels about truths of faith and that the Lord rules over all, they have no difficulty in listening and have no difficulty in being endued with faith, and so casting aside their idols. Consequently those gentiles who have led an upright life, and have done so in mutual charity and in innocence, are regenerated in the next life. While they are living in the world the Lord is present with them in their charity and innocence, for no charity or innocence exists at all except that which comes from the Lord. The Lord also confers on them, according to the religion they have, a conscience for what is right and good, and instills innocence and charity into that conscience. And when innocence and charity exist in conscience they allow themselves without difficulty to be endued with the truth of faith deriving from good. The Lord Himself has said all this in Luke,

Someone said to Jesus, Lord, are those who are saved few? He said to them, You will see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrust out. On the other hand men will come from the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God. And, behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last. Luke 13:23, 28-30.

'Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' here are used to mean all who dwell in love, as shown already.

  
/ 10837  
  

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