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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 # 4760

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4760. And they brought Joseph into Egypt. That this signifies consultation from memory-knowledges, is evident from the signification of “Egypt” as being memory-knowledges (seen. 1164-1165, 1186, 1462); and when Divine truth is brought to these it is to consult them; for by Joseph as before shown is represented Divine truth. What is meant by consultation about Divine truth from memory-knowledges shall be briefly described. To consult memory-knowledges about Divine truth is to see from them whether it is so. But this is done in one way by those who are in the affirmative that truth is truth, and who when they consult memory-knowledges, confirm the truth by them, and thus strengthen their faith; and in another way by those who are in the negative, who when they consult memory-knowledges cast themselves still more into falsities; for with these the negative rules, but with the former the affirmative. Moreover, this is according to the intellectual faculty of every man. If those who have not a higher, that is, an interior insight, consult memory-knowledges, they do not see the confirmation of truth in them, and they are therefore carried by the memory-knowledges into the negative; but those who have a higher, that is, an interior insight, see confirmations, and if in no other way, still by correspondences.

[2] Take for example the truth that man lives after death. When those who are in the negative as to this being true consult memory-knowledges, they confirm themselves against it by innumerable considerations, such as that brute animals equally live, have sensation, and act, and in many things more acutely than man; and that thought, which man has above the brutes, is a thing which he obtains by coming to maturity later; and that man is this kind of animal; and by a thousand other considerations. Thus it is evident that if those who are in the negative consult memory-knowledges, they cast themselves still more into falsities, so that at last they believe nothing whatever relating to eternal life.

[3] But when those who are in the affirmative as to the truth that man lives after death consult memory-knowledges, they confirm themselves by them, and this also by things innumerable; for they see that everything in nature is below man, and that the brute animal acts from instinct, while man acts from reason, and that brutes cannot but look downward, while man can look upward, and by thought comprehend the things of the spiritual world, and also be affected by them, and even by love be conjoined with God Himself, and thus appropriate to himself life from the Divine; and that it is in order that he may be led and elevated thither that he comes to maturity so late. Moreover, man sees confirmations in everything else that belongs to nature, and at last sees in universal nature a representative of the heavenly kingdom.

[4] It is as is well known a common thing for the learned to have less belief in a life after death than the simple, and in general to see Divine truths less clearly than the simple. The reason of this is that they consult memory-knowledges (of which they possess a greater abundance than others) from a negative standpoint, and thereby destroy in themselves insight from what is higher or interior; and when this is destroyed, they no longer see anything from the light of heaven, but only from the light of the world; for memory-knowledges are in the light of the world, and if these are not illuminated by the light of heaven they induce darkness, however different it may appear to themselves. For this reason it was that the simple believed in the Lord, but not the scribes and Pharisees who were the learned in the Jewish nation, as is evident from these words in John:

Many of the multitude when they heard these words said, This is truly the Prophet. Others said, This is the Christ [Messias]. The Pharisees answered them, Hath any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him? (John 7:40-41, 47-48).

And in Luke:

Jesus said, I confess to Thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and intelligent, but hast revealed them unto babes (Luke 10:21);

“babes” denote the simple. Also in Matthew:

Therefore speak I to them by parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand (Matthew 13:13).

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