Bible

 

Genesis 47

Studie

   

1 Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen.

2 And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

3 And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers.

4 They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

5 And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee:

6 The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.

7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?

9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

11 And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

12 And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to their families.

13 And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.

14 And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

15 And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.

16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will Give you for your cattle, if money fail.

17 And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.

18 When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:

19 Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.

20 And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's.

21 And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.

22 Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.

23 Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.

24 And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.

25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants.

26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's.

27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.

28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.

29 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt:

30 But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.

31 And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head.

   

Komentář

 

Sojourn

  

It is fitting that to “sojourn” in the Bible -- to live in a foreign land -- represents instruction, learning the things represented by that area. This is used quite a bit in the early parts of the Bible, when Abraham and his immediate descendants sojourned in a variety of foreign places. It arises also later in the Old Testament, with the Israelites given rules on how to treat sojourners in their midst.

The sojourner is a person who is willing to learn and accept new spiritual truths. That's in contrast to the term "stranger", as used in the Bible. A stranger has a natural inclination to good, but is not willing to learn spiritual truths. There is a long history of using travel to round out an education, from the 19th-century “world tours” taken by Oxford and Cambridge graduates to the exchange programs and semesters abroad offered in modern school programs. The idea is pretty straightforward: by immersing ourselves in other cultures we can both learn about them and deepen our minds.

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 6119

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

6119. 'And why should we die near by you because the silver is lacking?' means that otherwise spiritual death takes place because of the lack of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'dying' as spiritual death, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the silver lacking' as a lack of truth - 'silver' being factual knowledge that holds truth in it and is appropriate, see 6112. What is implied by the notion that spiritual death takes place when there is a lack of truth is that spiritual life consists in deeds carried out in accordance with truths, consequently in useful services. For people endowed with spiritual life possess a yearning and desire for truths with life in view - that is, their end in view is to lead a life according to those truths - thus with useful services in view. Therefore the extent to which they can absorb truths, in accordance with which useful services are to be rendered, determines how much spiritual life they possess, because it determines how much of the light of intelligence and wisdom they possess. When truths are lacking therefore, as happens when a state of shade arrives - a state meant in the Word by 'evening', 6110 - spiritual life languishes. It languishes because things such as belong to the state of shade, that is, to spiritual death, enter in. When this happens people cannot be kept in the light in which they were before but are returned in part to a state of selfhood. As a consequence there emerges from the shade an image of spiritual death, that is, of damnation.

[2] It is clear from very many places in the Word that 'death' means spiritual death, or damnation; but let simply the following be quoted here: In Isaiah,

With righteousness He will judge the poor, and will reprove with uprightness the wretched of the earth. On the other hand He will smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath 1 of His lips He will make the wicked die. Isaiah 11:4.

This refers to the Lord. 'The rod of His mouth' and 'the breath of His lips stand for Divine Truth, the source of judgement. 'Dying' stands for suffering damnation. In the same prophet, He Will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord Jehovih will wipe away tears from upon all faces. Isaiah 15:8.

In the same prophet,

The dead will not live, the Rephaim will not rise. To that end You have visited them, You have wiped them out. Isaiah 16:14.

In the same prophet,

Your dead will live, my corpse will rise again. Isaiah 26:19.

In the same prophet,

You have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we have shaped a vision. Your covenant with death will be annulled, and your vision with hell will not stand. Isaiah 28:15, 18.

[3] In Jeremiah,

You look for light, but He will turn it into the shadow of death, He will place it in thick darkness. Jeremiah 13:16.

In Ezekiel,

You have desecrated Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for crusts of bread, to slay souls that ought not to die and to bestow life on souls that ought not to live. Ezekiel 13:19, 22.

In Hosea,

Out of the hand of hell I will redeem them, from death I will deliver them. I will be your plagues, O death; I will be your destruction, O hell! Hosea 13:14.

In David,

You lift me up from the gates of death. Psalms 9:13.

In the same author,

Lighten my eyes, lest perhaps I sleep [the sleep of] death. Psalms 13:3.

In the same author,

The cords of death encompassed me, and the cords of hell. Psalms 18:4-5.

In the same author,

Like sheep they will be placed in hell, death will feed them. Psalms 49:14.

In John,

I have the keys of hell and of death. Revelation 1:18.

In the same book,

He who overcomes will not suffer harm in the second death. Revelation 1:11.

[4] In the same book,

I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive; but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen what remains, which is at the point of death. Revelation 3:1-2.

In Matthew,

The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light; and for those sitting in the region and shadow of death, the light has arisen. Matthew 4:16.

In John,

He who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me will have eternal life, and will not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life. John 5:24.

In the same gospel,

I am going away and you will seek Me, but you will die in your sin. I have said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. If anyone keeps My word he will not ever see death. John 8:21, 14, 51-52.

Because 'death' meant damnation those who belonged to the representative Church were forbidden to touch the dead. If they did touch them they were unclean and had to be cleansed, Ezekiel 44:25; Leviticus 15:31; 21:2-3; 22:8; Numbers 6:6-12; 19:11-end.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. or the spirit

  
/ 10837  
  

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