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Genesis 34

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1 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

2 And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

3 And his soul cleaved to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spoke kindly to the damsel.

4 And Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel for a wife.

5 And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter (now his sons were with his cattle in the field:) and Jacob held his peace till they had come.

6 And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to commune with him.

7 And the sons of Jacob came from the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel, in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done.

8 And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you give her to him for a wife.

9 And make ye marriages with us: give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to you.

10 And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein.

11 And Shechem said to her father, and to her brethren, Let me find favor in your eyes, and what ye shall say to me, I will give.

12 Ask me never so much dower and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say to me: but give me the damsel for a wife.

13 And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, (because he had defiled Dinah their sister,)

14 And they said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised: for that would be a reproach to us:

15 But in this will we consent to you: If ye will be as we are, that every male of you shall be circumcised;

16 Then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.

17 But if ye will not hearken to us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone.

18 And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamor's son.

19 And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter: and he was more honorable than all the house of his father.

20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying,

21 These men are peaceable with us, therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein: for the land, behold, it is large enough for them: let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.

22 Only herein, will the men consent to us to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us shall be circumcised, as they are circumcised.

23 Will not their cattle, and their substance, and every beast of theirs be ours? only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.

24 And to Hamor and to Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city: and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.

25 And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.

26 And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out.

27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city; because they had defiled their sister.

28 They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field.

29 And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives they took captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.

30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites, and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they will assemble themselves against me, and slay me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.

31 And they said, Should he deal with our sister, as with a harlot?

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 4449

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4449. 'His soul longs for your daughter; give her, I beg you, to him for a wife' means a longing to be joined to this new Church which in outward appearance was similar to the Ancient Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'the soul's longing' as a longing; from the representation of Dinah, to whom 'daughter' refers here, as the affection for truth, and therefore as the Church, for a Church is a Church by virtue of its affection for truth - such a Church being meant here by a new Church; and from the meaning of 'giving her for a wife' as a joining together, dealt with in 4434.

[2] As regards that new Church which was established among the descendants of Jacob being in outward appearance similar to the Ancient Church, it should be realized that the statutes, judgements, and laws which were prescribed through Moses for the Israelite and Jewish nation were no different from the statutes, judgements, and laws which existed in the Ancient Church, such as those concerning betrothals and marriages, concerning slaves, concerning the living creatures which were suitable for food and those which were not suitable, concerning cleansings, festivals, tabernacles, the perpetual fire, and many other things; also concerning altars, burnt offerings, sacrifices, libations, that had been received in the second Ancient Church which began with Eber. The fact that all of these were known before they were prescribed for that nation is quite evident from the historical descriptions of the Word.

[3] Take merely altars, burnt offerings, and sacrifices. Of Balaam it is recorded that he ordered them to build seven altars and to offer on them burnt offerings and sacrifices of young bulls and rams, Numbers 23:1-2, 14-15, 29. Besides this, it is said of the nations in many places, that their altars were to be destroyed; and of the prophets of Baal whom Elijah slew, that they offered sacrifices. These facts make it clear that sacrifices which were prescribed for the descendants of Jacob were not new; nor were the rest of the statutes, judgements, and laws. But because these things became idolatrous among the nations - in particular through their use of those things to worship some profane god, which resulted in them turning representatives of Divine things to what is of hell, in addition to the many: practices which they added to these - those same things were reinstated so that the representative worship of the Ancient Church might be restored. From this it becomes clear that this new Church which was established among Jacob's descendants was in outward appearance similar to the Ancient Church.

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 9229

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9229. 'And men of holiness shall you be to Me' means a state of life then composed of good. This is clear from the meaning of 'men of holiness' as those who are led by the Lord, for the Divine which emanates from the Lord is holiness itself, 6788, 7499, 8127 (end), 8302, 8806. Consequently those who receive that emanation in faith and also in love are called holy ones. Anyone who imagines that a person is holy from any other source, or that anything present with a person is holy apart from that which comes and is received from the Lord is very much mistaken; for that which is the person's own, and is called his proprium, is evil.

The human proprium is nothing but evil, see 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 987, 1047, 4328, 5660, 5786, 8480, 8944.

To the extent that a person can be withheld from his proprium, the Lord can be present with him, and therefore to the same extent holiness resides with him, 1023, 1044, 1581, 2256, 2388, 2406, 2411, 8206, 8393, 8988 (end), 9014.

[2] The truth that the Lord is the Only Holy One, and that nothing is holy except that which emanates from the Lord, and so that which a person receives from the Lord, is evident from everywhere in the Word, as in John,

I make Myself holy, that they also may be made holy in the truth. John 17:19.

'Making Himself holy' means making Himself Divine by His own power. Consequently those who receive Divine Truth emanating from the Lord in faith and life are said to be 'made holy in the truth'.

[3] This also explains why after the Resurrection, when the Lord spoke to the disciples, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit, John 20:22. 'Breathing on (or into)' was a sign that represented the imparting of life through faith and love, as also in Genesis,

Jehovah breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man (homo) became a living soul. Genesis 2:7.

Other examples like this may be seen elsewhere, such as Psalms 33:6; 104:29-30; Job 32:8; 33:4; John 3:8. Therefore also the Word is said to be inspired because it comes from the Lord, and those who wrote the Word have been called 'inspired'. Breathing, and so breathing on or inspiring, corresponds to the life of faith, see 97, 1119, 1120, 3883-3896. This explains why the term spirit in the Word is derived from the word for wind, and holiness from the Lord is called Jehovah's wind, 8286, and why the Holy Spirit is the holiness emanating from the Lord, 3704, 4673 (end), 5307, 6788, 6982, 6993, 8127 (end), 8302, 9199.

[4] So also it says in John 1:33 that the Lord baptizes with the Holy Spirit, and in Luke 3:16 that He baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 'Baptizing' in the internal sense means regenerating, 4255, 5120 (end), 9088; 'baptizing with the Holy Spirit' means regenerating by means of the good of faith; and 'baptizing with fire' means regenerating by means of the good of love, 'fire' being the good of love, see 934, 4906, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324. In John,

Who is not going to fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. Revelation 15:4.

In Luke the angel telling Mary about the Lord said,

That which is holy will be born from you. Luke 1:35.

And in Daniel,

I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and behold, a vigilant and holy one came down from heaven. Daniel 4:13.

In these places 'that which is holy' and 'a holy one' stand for the Lord.

[5] Because the Lord alone is holy He is called in the Old Testament the Holy One of Israel, the Redeemer, the Saviour, and the Regenerator, as in Isaiah 1:4; 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7; 29:19; 30:11-12, 15; 31:1; 37:23; 41:14, 16, 20; 43:3, 14; 45:11; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5; 55:5; 60:9, 14; Jeremiah 50:29; 51:5; Ezekiel 39:7; Psalms 71:22; 78:41; 89:18. This is why the Lord in heaven, and consequently heaven itself, is called the dwelling-place of holiness, Jeremiah 25:30; 31:23; 1 Isaiah 63:15; the sanctuary, 2 Ezekiel 11:16; 24:21; and also the mountain of holiness, Psalms 3:4. It is also why the middle of the tent [of meeting], where the ark containing the law was, was called The Holy of Holies, Exodus 26:33-34; for the law in the ark in the middle of the tent [of meeting], represented the Lord in respect of the Word. For the law is the Word, 6752, 7463.

[6] All this shows why it is that the angels are called holy in Matthew 25:31; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; Psalms 149:1; Daniel 8:13; also the prophets, Luke 1:70; and the apostles too, Revelation 18:20. Not that they are holy by their own virtue but that the Lord, who alone is holy and the only source of holiness, makes them so. For truths are meant by 'the angels', because they are those who receive truth from the Lord, 1925, 4085, 4295, 4402, 7268, 7873, 8192, 8301; teachings which present the truth that comes through the Word from the Lord are meant by 'the prophets', 2534, 7269; and all the truths and forms of the good of faith in their entirety which come from the Lord are meant by 'the apostles', 3488, 3858 (end), 6397.

[7] Consecrations 3 among the Israelite and Jewish people took place in order that the Lord who alone was holy might be represented, and in order that holiness, which He alone is the source of, might be represented. This is the reason for the consecration of Aaron and his sons, Exodus 29:1ff; Leviticus 8:10-11, 13, 30; the consecration of their garments, Exodus 29:21ff; the consecration of the altar in order that it might be most holy, 4 Exodus 29:37ff; the consecration of the tent of meeting, the ark of the Testimony, the table, all the vessels, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering and its vessels, and the laver and its base, Exodus 30:26ff.

[8] The truth that the Lord is the real Holiness that was represented is evident also from the Lord's words in Matthew when they are seen in the internal sense,

Fools and blind! Which of the two is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold holy? And which of the two is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy? Matthew 23:17-19.

'The temple' represented the Lord Himself, and so did 'the altar', while 'the gold' was a sign of the good that comes from the Lord, and 'the gift' or a sacrifice was a sign of things constituting faith and charity that come from the Lord.

The Lord was represented by 'the temple', see 2777, 3720, and by 'the altar', 2777, 2811, 4489, 8935, 8940. 'Gold' was a sign of good that comes from the Lord, 1551, 1552, 5658, and 'a sacrifice' a sign of worship springing from faith and charity that come from the Lord, 922, 923, 2805, 2807, 2830, 6905, 8680, 8682, 8936.

[9] From all this it is now evident why it is that the children of Israel were called a holy people in Deuteronomy 26:19 and elsewhere, or as in the present verse men of holiness. That is to say, they were so called because every single aspect of their worship represented Divine realities that are the Lord's, and celestial and spiritual things of His kingdom and Church. On this account they were called holy in a representative sense; they themselves were not holy on that account, because representatives had regard to the holy things that were represented, not to the person who represented them, see 665, 1097 (end), 1361, 3147, 3881 (end), 4208, 4281, 4288, 4293, 4307, 4444, 4500, 6304, 7048, 7439, 8588, 8788, 8806.

[10] On that account also was Jerusalem called holy, and Zion the mountain of holiness in Zechariah 8:3 and elsewhere, as well as in Matthew,

And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of dead holy ones were raised; and coming out of their tombs after the Lord's resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. Matthew 27:52-53.

Here Jerusalem is called 'the holy city', when in fact, quite to the contrary, it was unholy because the Lord was crucified there at that time, for which reason it is called 'Sodom and Egypt' in John,

Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Revelation 11:8.

Yet it is called holy, because it means the Lord's kingdom and the Church, 402, 2117, 3654. The appearance of 'dead holy ones' there, an event witnessed by some in vision, was a sign of the salvation of people who belonged to the spiritual Church, and of the raising of those people to the Holy Jerusalem, which is heaven - the people who had been kept up to that time on the lower earth, spoken of in 6854, 6914, 7091, 7828, 7932, 8049, 8054, 8159, 8321.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1Jeremiah 31:23 refers to a dwelling-place of righteousness [and] mountain of holiness, to be exact

2. i.e. an especially holy place

3. i.e. dedicating persons or things to holy functions or purposes

4. literally, the holiness of holinesses

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