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Genesis 47

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1 Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, have come from the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.

2 And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them to Pharaoh.

3 And Pharaoh said to his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers.

4 They said moreover to Pharaoh, We have come to sojourn in the land: for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

5 And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren have come to thee:

6 The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell; and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.

7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

8 And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How old art thou?

9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, nor have they attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

11 And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

12 And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread according to their families.

13 And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very distressing, so that the land of Egypt, and all the land of Canaan, fainted by reason of the famine.

14 And Joseph gathered all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

15 And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence: for the money faileth.

16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will Give you for your cattle, if money hath failed.

17 And they brought their cattle to Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses; and he fed them with bread, for all their cattle, for that year.

18 When that year was ended, they came to him the second year, and said to him, We will not hide from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not aught left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies and our lands:

19 Why shall we die before thy eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.

20 And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's.

21 And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.

22 Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them by Pharaoh, and ate their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.

23 Then Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.

24 And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part to Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.

25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants.

26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's.

27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions in it and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.

28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was a hundred and forty seven years.

29 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt:

30 But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying-place. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.

31 And he said, Swear to me: and he swore to him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 6367

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6367. Judah is a lion’s whelp. That this signifies innocence with innate forces, is evident from the signification of a “lion,” as being the good of love and the truth thence derived in their power (of which in what follows); thus a “lion’s whelp” denotes innocence with forces. The reason why it is said “with innate forces” is that “Judah” here is the celestial of love, and the celestial of love is in the will part (see n. 895, 927, 4493, 5113), thus it has innate forces; for man is born into the things of the will part; hence they of the Most Ancient Church, which was celestial, were born into the good of love insofar as they had good in their will. From this then it is that the forces are said to be “innate.” The reason why a “lion’s whelp” denotes innocence, is that a “lion” denotes the good of celestial love, and a “whelp” is as it were its infant, thus is innocence.

[2] That a “lion” denotes the good of celestial love and the derivative truth, in its power, and also that in the opposite sense it denotes the evil of the love of self in its power, is evident from passages in the Word where a “lion” is mentioned. That it denotes the good of celestial love is evident in John:

Behold the lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath conquered to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof (Revelation 5:5);

here the Lord is called a “lion” from the omnipotence belonging to His Divine love and the Divine truth thence derived. In other passages in the Word, Jehovah or the Lord is compared to a “lion,” as in Hosea:

They shall go after Jehovah; He shall roar like a lion; for He shall roar, and the sons shall come with honor from the sea (Hos. 11:10).

[3] In Isaiah:

Thus said Jehovah unto me, Like as when the lion roareth, and the young lion over his prey, if a fullness of shepherds come running upon him, he is not dismayed at their voice, and is not afflicted by their tumult; so shall Jehovah Zebaoth come down to fight upon Mount Zion and upon the hill thereof (Isaiah 31:4);

here the omnipotence of Divine good is compared to a “lion,” and the omnipotence of the Divine truth thence derived is compared to a “young lion,” for it is said that “Jehovah Zebaoth shall come down to fight upon Mount Zion and upon the hill thereof;” for “Mount Zion” signifies the good of Divine love, and the “hill thereof,” the Divine truth thence derived (see n. 795, 796, 1430, 4210).

[4] For the same reason the four animals in Ezekiel and in John, by which are meant cherubs, had the faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle.

In Ezekiel:

The likeness of the faces of the four animals: the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right side had they four; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; and they four had the face of an eagle (Ezekiel 1:10; 10:14).

And in Revelation:

Before the throne were four animals full of eyes before and behind. And the first animal was like a lion, and the second animal like a calf, the third animal had a face as a man, the fourth animal was like a flying eagle (Revelation 4:6-7).

That these animals were cherubs is said in Ezekiel 10, and is also plain from the description of them in John, namely, that they had eyes before and behind; for by “cherubs” are signified the Lord’s foresight and providence (n. 308); that they had the face of a lion was from the omnipotence of Divine truth from Divine good, which is of providence. It was similar with the cherubs about the new temple, in Ezekiel 41:19.

[5] That the celestial, who are in power from good and the derivative truth, which are from the Lord, are meant by “lions,” is evident in David:

There is no want to them that fear Jehovah. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they that seek Jehovah shall not want any good (Psalms 34:9-10).

Again:

The lions roar after their prey, and to seek their food from God. The sun ariseth, they are gathered together, and lay them down in their habitations (Psalms 104:21-22).

And in the prophecy of Balaam:

At that time it shall be said to Jacob and Israel, What hath God wrought! Behold the people shall rise up as an old lion, and as a young lion shall he lift himself up; he shall not rest until he eat the prey (Numbers 23:23-24).

[6] And again:

When Balaam saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes, he said, He boweth down, he coucheth as a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up? (Numbers 24:2, 9).

It is the celestial that is here described, because it was the celestial order that the tribes represented by their encampment which Balaam saw in spirit when he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes (see n. 6335). This order is from the Divine good through the Divine truth from the Lord, and in this order is all power, here denoted by the “lion which boweth down and coucheth.”

[7] In Micah:

The remains of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who if he go through, treadeth down and scattereth, and there is none rescuing. Let thy hand be exalted over thine enemies, and let all thy foes be cut off (Mic. 5:8-9); where the “lion” and “young lion” denote celestial good and celestial truth, which are the “remains of Jacob.” The meaning is similar in Isaiah 21:8; Jeremiah 25:38; Ezekiel 32:2; Zech. 11:3. The like was represented by the lions at the ivory throne of Solomon, two at the sides of the throne, and twelve upon the six steps (1 Kings 10:18-20); also by the lions upon the borders of the ten bases of brass (1 Kings 7:29, 36).

[8] That in the opposite sense a “lion” signifies the evil of the love of self in its power, is plain from the following passages:

No lion shall be there, and no ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but they shall go free; thus the redeemed of Jehovah shall return and shall come to Zion with singing (Isaiah 35:9-10).

In Jeremiah:

Why is Israel become a prey? The young lions roar against him, they utter their voice, they reduce his land to a waste (Jeremiah 2:14-15).

Again:

The lion cometh up from his bramble, and the destroyer of the nations hath journeyed, he went forth from his place to reduce the land into a waste (Jeremiah 4:7).

Again:

They have not known the way of Jehovah, the judgment of their God. Wherefore a lion out of the forest hath smitten them, and a wolf of the plains will lay them waste (Jeremiah 5:4, 6).

And in Nahum:

Where is the habitation of the lions, and the pasture of the young lions; where the lion stalked, the old lion, the lion’s whelp, and none made afraid? The lion seizeth enough for his whelps, and strangleth for His old lionesses, and filleth his caves with prey, and his habitations with ravin. Behold I am against thee, saith Jehovah Zebaoth, and I will burn her chariot in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth (Nah. 2:11-13);

speaking of Nineveh. In the above passages a “lion” denotes the power possessed by the evil of the love of self when it destroys and lays waste; and so in Jeremiah 12:8; 49:19; 50:17, 44; 51:38; Ezekiel 19:2-11; 33:2; Joel 1:6; Zeph. 3:3; Psalms 57:5; 58:6; 91:13; Revelation 13:2.

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