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Genesis 35

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1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:

3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.

7 And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

8 But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.

9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him.

10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.

14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.

15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.

17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.

18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.

19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.

20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.

21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

22 And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

23 The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:

24 The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:

25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:

26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan-aram.

27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

28 And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.

29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 4576

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4576. 'And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you' means Divine Good when made over [to the Natural] as its own. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' as good (for in the internal sense the land of Canaan, understood by 'the land' here, means the Lord's kingdom and consequently the Church, which is the Lord's kingdom on earth, 1607, 3481, 3705, 4447, 4517. And as these are meant good is meant, for good is the essential element in the Lord's kingdom and in the Church. But in the highest sense the land of Canaan means the Lord's Divine Good, for the good which exists in the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth originates in the Lord); from the representation of 'Abraham and Isaac' as the Lord's Divine, 'Abraham' being the Divine itself and 'Isaac' the Divine Human, in particular the Lord's Divine Rational (regarding Abraham, see 1989, 2011, 3245, 3251, 3439, 3703, 4206, 4207, and Isaac, 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 2774, 3012, 3194, 3210, 4180); and from the meaning of 'giving it (the land) to you' as making over to the Natural as its own, for Jacob, to whom 'you' refers here, represents the Lord's Divine Natural, as has often been shown. From all this it is evident that 'the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you' means Divine Good when made over [to the Natural] as its own.

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

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Bethlehem

  
Joseph and Mary arrive in Bethlehem, by William Brassey Hole

There is a strong relationship between Ephrath and Bethlehem in the Bible; they might be two different names for the same town, or it’s possible Ephrath describes a district which includes Bethlehem.

Whatever the case, they play key roles in the Bible. Bethlehem is well-known as the birthplace of Jesus, of course, but was also the birthplace of David and of Benjamin, and Benjamin’s mother Rachel was buried there. The reason for this is that Ephrath and Bethlehem (and Benjamin, incidentally) represent a key element of our spiritual wiring, an element that makes it possible for us to have a spiritual life.

At the deepest levels, our identity, our humanity, is a matter of love – what we love makes us who and what we are. But that love is locked away inside us; it’s not something we can share with others directly. To share it, we have to give it a form – and giving it a form means we are actually turning it into ideas, into truth. As truth it can be shared, and if we’re lucky the people receiving it will be able to run the process in reverse, feeling and internalizing the love contained in that truth.

This process, however, involves two sort of “quantum leaps.” Love is an internal thing, and truth is an external thing (or as Swedenborg puts it, love is celestial in nature and truth is spiritual in nature), and internal things and external things are separate, on two different planes of existence. To express love as truth takes a special process, and to receive love from truth does as well. That’s where Bethlehem comes in.

Bethlehem (and Ephrath and Benjamin) represent what Swedenborg calls “the spiritual of the celestial.” This is where the celestial element – love – can push toward taking a form, can become as “truth-like” as possible. It is matched by something called “the celestial of the spiritual,” where the spiritual element – truth – can become as “love-like” as possible. Through these intermediaries love can jump the gap, kind of like nerve impulses crossing synapses, or like magnetic fields drawing two magnets together. It is the only way we can get love into useful forms, and only way we can share it.

This explains why Joseph could not reveal himself to his brothers in Egypt until Benjamin was with them – Joseph represents the celestial of the spiritual, and needed to be paired with the spiritual of the celestial to communicate. It also explains why the Lord had to be born in Bethlehem: He came in human form so that His perfect, infinite, divine love could be put in form as truth and shared with us. That had to be done by putting an internal, celestial thing – His love – into an external, spiritual form – His truth. That could only happen through the spiritual of the celestial, which is Bethlehem.