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1 Mosebok 16

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1 Och Sarai, Abrams hustru, hade icke fött barn åt honom. Men hon hade en egyptisk tjänstekvinna, som hette Hagar;

2 och Sarai sade till Abram: »Se, HERREN har gjort mig ofruktsam, så att jag icke föder barn; gå in till min tjänstekvinna, kanhända skall jag få avkomma genom henne.» Abram lyssnade till Sarais ord;

3 och Sarai, Abrams hustru, tog sin egyptiska tjänstekvinna Hagar och gav henne till hustru åt sin man Abram, sedan denne hade bott tio år i Kanaans land.

4 Och han gick in till Hagar, och hon blev havande. När hon nu såg att hon var havande, ringaktade hon sin fru.

5 Då sade Sarai till Abram: »Den orätt mig sker komme över dig. Jag själv lade min tjänstekvinna i din famn, men då hon nu ser att hon är havande, ringaktar hon mig. HERREN döme mellan mig och dig.»

6 Abram sade till Sarai: »Din tjänstekvinna är ju i din hand, gör med henne vad du finner för gott.» När då Sarai tuktade henne, flydde hon bort ifrån henne.

7 Men HERRENS ängel kom emot henne vid en vattenkälla i öknen, den källa som ligger vid vägen till Sur.

8 Och han sade: »Hagar, Sarais tjänstekvinna, varifrån kommer du, och vart går du?» Hon svarade: »Jag är stadd på flykt ifrån min fru Sarai.»

9 Då sade HERRENS ängel till henne: »Vänd tillbaka till din fru, och ödmjuka dig under henne.»

10 Och HERRENS ängel sade till henne: »Jag skall göra din säd mycket talrik, så att man icke skall kunna räkna den för dess myckenhets skull.»

11 Ytterligare sade HERRENS ängel till henne: »Se, du är havande och skall föda en son; honom skall du giva namnet Ismael, därför att HERREN har hört ditt lidande.

12 Och han skall bliva lik en vildåsna; hans hand skall vara emot var man, och var mans hand emot honom; och han skall ligga i strid med alla sina bröder

13 Och hon gav HERREN, som hade talat med henne, ett namn, i det hon sade: »Du är Seendets Gud.» Hon tänkte nämligen: »Har jag då verkligen här fått se en skymt av honom som ser mig ?»

14 Därav kallades brunnen Beer-Lahai-Roi; den ligger mellan Kades och Bered.

15 Och Hagar födde åt Abram en son; och Abram gav den son som Hagar hade fött åt honom namnet Ismael.

16 Och Abram var åttiosex år gammal, när Hagar födde Ismael åt Abram.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 3246

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3246. 'And to the concubines' sons, whom Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts' means that places in the Lord's spiritual kingdom were allotted to spiritual people adopted by the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'the concubines' sons' as those who are spiritual, to be dealt with below; from the representation of 'Abraham' here as the Lord's Divine Human (so that the words 'whom Abraham had' mean that they - those who were spiritual - were adopted by the Lord's Divine Human); and from the meaning of 'the gifts which Abraham gave them' as allotted places in the Lord's spiritual kingdom.

[2] From what has been shown several times already about those who constitute the Lord's spiritual kingdom and who are called the spiritual, as in 3235 and elsewhere, it becomes clear that they are not sons of the marriage itself of good and truth, but of a certain covenant not so conjugial. They are indeed descended from the same father but not from the same mother, that is, from the same Divine Good but not from the same Divine Truth. Indeed with those who are celestial, since they are the product of the marriage itself of good and truth, good exists and truth rooted in that good. They never make investigations into what the truth may be but have a perception of it from good. Nor in conversation do they say more than this regarding what is true, 'Yes, that is so', in keeping with the Lord's teaching in Matthew,

Let your words be Yes, yes; No, no; anything beyond this is from evil. 1 Matthew 5:37.

But those who are spiritual, since they are the product of a covenant not so conjugial, do not have any perception from which they can know what is true. Instead they call that the truth which parents and teachers have told them to be the truth. Consequently with them there is no marriage of good and truth. Nevertheless that which they believe to be the truth for the reason just given is adopted by the Lord as truth when goodness of life exists with them; see 1832. This now explains why the spiritual are here called 'the concubines' sons', which is used to mean all the sons of Keturah mentioned already, and also those descended from Hagar, dealt with shortly below in verses 12-18.

[3] In former times - to enable both those who are celestial and those who are spiritual to be represented in marriages - a man was allowed to have a concubine in addition to a wife. That concubine was given to the husband by his wife (uxor), in which case the concubine was called his wife (mulier), or was said to have been given to him as a wife (mulier), as when Hagar the Egyptian was given to Abraham by Sarah, Genesis 16:3, when the servant-girl Bilhah was given to Jacob by Rachel, Genesis 30:4, and when the servant-girl Zilpah was given to Jacob by Leah, Genesis 30:9. In those cases they are called 'wives' (mulier), but elsewhere concubines, as is Hagar the Egyptian in the present verse, Bilhah in Genesis 35:22, and even Keturah herself in 1 Chronicles 1:32.

[4] The reason why those men of old had concubines in addition to a wife, as not only Abraham and Jacob did, but also their descendants, such as Gideon, Judges 8:31; Saul, 2 Samuel 3:7; David, 2 Samuel 5:13; 15:16; Solomon, 1 Kings 11:3, was that they were permitted to do so for the sake of the representation. That is to say, the celestial Church was represented by the wife, and the spiritual Church by the concubine. They were permitted to do so because they were the kind of men with whom conjugial love did not exist; so that to them marriage was not marriage but merely copulation for the sake of begetting off-spring. With such persons those permissions were possible without any harm being done to love or consequently to the conjugial covenant. But such permissions are never possible among people with whom good and truth are present and who are internal people, or potentially so. For as soon as good and truth, and internal things, exist with the human being, such permissions come to an end. This is why Christians are not allowed, as the Jews were, to take a concubine in addition to a wife, and why such is adultery. Regarding the adoption of those who are spiritual by the Lord's Divine Human, see what has been stated and shown already on the same subject in 2661, 2716, 2833, 2834.

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1. or from the evil one

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