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Genesis 37

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1 And Jacob dwelt in the land in which his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.

2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought to his father their evil report.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors.

4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.

6 And he said to them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:

7 For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and behold, your sheaves stood around and made obeisance to my sheaf.

8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? and they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words.

9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more: and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.

10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said to him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

12 And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

13 And Israel said to Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send thee to them. And he said to him, Here am I.

14 And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it is well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him from the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

15 And a certain man found him, and behold he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?

16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.

17 And the man said, They have departed hence: for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan.

18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near to them, they conspired against him to slay him.

19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer is coming.

20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit; and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

21 And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him from their hands: and said, Let us not kill him.

22 And Reuben said to them, Shed no blood; cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might deliver him from their hands, to bring him back to his father.

23 And it came to pass when Joseph had come to his brethren, that they stripped Joseph of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him.

24 And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty; there was no water in it.

25 And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry them down to Egypt.

26 And Judah said to his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood.

27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother, our flesh: and his brethren were content.

28 Then there passed by Midianites, merchants; and they drew and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.

29 And Reuben returned to the pit; and behold, Joseph was not in the pit: and he rent his clothes.

30 And he returned to his brethren, and said, The child is not: and I, whither shall I go?

31 And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood:

32 And they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it is thy son's coat or not.

33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him: Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.

34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days.

35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave to my son mourning: Thus his father wept for him.

36 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 4674

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4674. 'And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father' means that this showed up the essential nature of those people. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the Divine Spiritual or Divine Truth from the Lord, dealt with in 4286, 4675; 1 from the meaning of 'father' as good, dealt with in 3703, 3704, in this case the good of the Ancient Church, which is represented by 'Jacob', as will be seen at the end of this chapter; and from the meaning of 'a bad report' as faults and blemishes in those meant by 'Joseph's brothers' who, it was stated above in 4671, are members of the Church who turn aside from goodness and truth. From all this one may see what these words mean in the proximate internal sense, namely that the faults and blemishes meant by 'Joseph's brothers' were brought into focus, that is, were shown up by Divine Truth when this was directed by the good of the Ancient Church to look at them. Or what amounts to the same, the essential nature of those people was thereby shown up by it.

[2] As regards the falsities and evils of the Church - that is, of people in the Church - they are not seen by those people, because from falsities one cannot see falsities, nor from evils see evils. For false assumptions altogether darken truths, and a life of evil snuffs them out. Both of these - false assumptions and a life of evil - make falsities look like truths and truths like falsities, and good look like evil and evil like good, as experience abundantly makes plain. But the Church, or its members, are seen completely differently in heaven, for in heaven Divine Truth from the Lord is present, and Divine Truth constitutes the light there. Within that light the essential nature of those people is revealed, for the soul or spirit of every one is present in some community, whether it is one of angels or of devils. His thought exists there, but his speech and actions exist among men in their associating with one another.

[3] Further evidence that the essential nature of members of the Church is shown up by Divine Truth, that is, within Divine Light, is provided by the following: Before casting themselves into hell evil spirits recently arrived from the world desire more strongly than anyone else to be accepted into heaven. They believe that it is merely a matter of being accepted and that anyone, irrespective of what he is really like, may by grace be admitted into heaven. They are sometimes told that the Lord refuses heaven to none and that they can be admitted if they feel able to live there. Some are even taken up to the first communities situated in the outskirts of heaven. But when these get there they start to be seized with pain and to be almost suffocated, because of the strain placed on the life of their thought and will - the life of their thought consisting of false assumptions and the life of their will of the evil life they led in the world. And when they look at themselves in the light there they see themselves as devils, some being corpse-like, some monster-like. For this reason they cast themselves down headlong from that community, passing from the light there into a hellish mist, where they start to breathe again as they had done previously and where they are deluded into thinking they look like spirits who are not evil ones. This is the way they get to know what they are like essentially. From this it is now plain how one is to understand the explanation that this - Divine Truth - showed up the essential nature of those people.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. This reference appears to be incorrect. Probably 4592 or 4669 is intended.

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