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Genesis 20

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1 And Abraham journeyed from thence towards the south country, and dwelt between Kadash and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.

2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she is my sister: And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, on account of the woman whom thou hast taken: for she is a man's wife.

4 But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou also slay a righteous nation?

5 Said he not to me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself Said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart, and innocence of my hands have I done this.

6 And God said to him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore I suffered thee not to touch her.

7 Now therefore restore to the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou shalt not restore her, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine.

8 Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were greatly afraid.

9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, What has thou done to us? and in what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds to me that ought not to be done.

10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing?

11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.

12 And yet indeed she is my sister: she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt show to me; At every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.

14 And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and men-servants, and women-servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored to him Sarah his wife.

15 And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee.

16 And to Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, to all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved.

17 So Abraham prayed to God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maid-servants, and they bore children.

18 For the LORD had made barren all the females of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 2554

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2554. 'They will kill me on account of my wife' means that this being so the celestial things of faith would perish also if they were to think that spiritual truth alone could be joined to celestial good. This is clear from the meaning of 'killing' as perishing, and from the meaning of 'a wife' as spiritual truth joined to celestial good, dealt with in 2507. This is a second reason why the Lord's thought was such - that Divine Good, called celestial good here, is united as by marriage to Divine Truth, called spiritual truth here, 2508. And although Divine Good is united in this manner to Divine Truth alone, it nevertheless flows into lower truths and joins itself to them, but not as by marriage; for it flows into rational truths, which are merely appearances of truth, and joins itself to them. Indeed it flows as well into factual and sensory truths which are little more than illusions and joins itself to these. If it did not do so no one at all could possibly have been saved. For these matters, see Volume One, in 1831, 1832. To enable Divine Good to be joined to rational truths and to factual and sensory truths, and so to enable a person to be saved, was another reason for the Lord's Coming into the world, for unless the Lord's Human had been made Divine, Divine Good could not possibly be joined to those truths. But through Him they are so joined.

[2] In addition to this arcanum, there are many other arcana within these words, 'They will kill me on account of my wife', which mean that such being so the celestial things of faith would perish if men were to think that spiritual truth alone could be joined to celestial good. One arcanum within them is that when people had no respect for spiritual truth, celestial good would thereby perish, for once spiritual truth is rejected celestial good perishes. Another arcanum is that unless it had been declared that they were to worship the Father - though there is no other way to Him except through the Son, and 'he who sees the Son sees the Father', John 14:8-12 - it would not have been accepted. And there are other arcana in them besides these.

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