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Genesis 35

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

2 Then Jacob said to 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 Beth-el; and I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

4 And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and the ear-rings 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 on the cities that were round 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 Beth-el) he and all the people that were with him.

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

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

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

10 And God said to 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 to him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a multitude of nations shall spring from thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins.

12 And the land which I gave to 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 spoke with him, Beth-el.

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

17 And it came to pass when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to 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 Beth-lehem.

20 And Jacob set a pillar on her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to 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 first-born, 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, who were born to him in Padan-aram.

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

28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years.

29 And Isaac expired and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 3870

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3870. 'That I was hated' means the state of faith if there is no will corresponding to it. This is clear from the meaning of 'hated' as not loved, for this is the state of faith if the will does not correspond to it. The subject in the internal sense is the advance of a person's regeneration from what is external to what is internal, that is, from the truth of faith towards the good of charity. Truth which is the truth of faith is external, and good which is the good of charity is internal. So that it may be living, truth which is the truth of faith must be introduced into the will so as to receive life there. For truth which issues from knowledge is not living, only truth which issues from the will. Through the new will which the Lord creates in man life flows in from Him. The life which comes first manifests itself in obedience, this being the first degree of the will. The life which comes second manifests itself in the affection for doing what is true, this being a more advanced degree of the will, which is arrived at when delight and blessing are felt in the doing of what is true. Unless faith advances in this way truth does not become truth but something separated from life. Sometimes it becomes the corroboration of falsity, sometimes persuasive belief, and so something debased, for it couples itself to man's evil affection or desire, that is, to the will that is properly his own and the reverse of charity. Such is the faith which is believed to be true faith by many at the present day; they believe that this faith is able - of itself, without the works of charity - to save a person.

[2] But this faith - that is to say, faith separated from charity and therefore contrary to charity - is represented later on by Reuben's lying with Bilhah his father's concubine, Genesis 35:22, and by the expression of disgust by Jacob, who by then was named Israel, in the following words,

Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the beginning of my power. Unstable as water, may you not excel, for you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it. He went up to my couch. Genesis 49:3-4.

Also described in that chapter, by means of Simeon and Levi, is the contrariety to charity of the will and affection that go with this faith, namely faith separated from charity, in the following words,

Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. Into their secret place let my soul not come; in their assembly let not my glory be united; for in their fury they killed a man, and in their wilfulness they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their fury, for it is fierce, and their anger, for it is severe. I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel. Genesis 49:5-7.

That faith separated from charity is described in this case by Simeon and Levi will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown later on.

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