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Genesis 48

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1 And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

2 And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh to thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.

3 And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,

4 And said to me, Behold I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee, for an everlasting possession.

5 And now, thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt, before I came to thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.

6 And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.

7 And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan, in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath, the same is Beth-lehem.

8 And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these?

9 And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, to me, and I will bless them.

10 (Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see:) And he brought them near to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.

11 And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and lo, God hath shown me also thy seed.

12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand towards Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel's right hand, and brought them near to him.

14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands by design; for Manasseh was the first-born.

15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who hath fed me all my life long to this day,

16 The angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac: and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he lifted his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.

18 And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father; for this is the first-born; put thy right hand upon his head.

19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.

20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

21 And Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I die; but God shall be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers.

22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 6368

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6368. From the prey my son thou art gone up. That this signifies that from the Lord through what is celestial there is deliverance of many from hell, is evident from the signification of “going up from the prey,” as being deliverance from hell (of which below); and from the representation of Judah, who is here “my son,” as being the Divine celestial (n. 6363). That “to go up from the prey” denotes deliverance from hell is because man of himself is in hell, for his will and thought from his own is nothing but evil and its falsity, by which he has been so bound to hell that he cannot be torn away without violence. This tearing away and deliverance is what is called the “prey;” and because this is done from the Lord’s Divine good, it is said that from the Lord through what is celestial is the deliverance of many from hell.

[2] But be it known that no one can be torn away and delivered from hell unless in the life of the body he has been in spiritual good, that is, in charity through faith; for unless he has been in this good through faith, there is nothing to receive the good which flows in from the Lord; but it flows through, except that which can be fixed somewhere; and therefore these persons cannot be torn away or delivered from hell. For all the states that a man has acquired in the life of the body are retained in the other life, and are filled; with the good the states of good are retained and filled with good, and by means of these states they are elevated into heaven; and with the evil the states of evil are retained and filled with evil, and by means of these states they sink down into hell. This is the meaning of the saying that as a man dies, so he remains. This shows who they are that can be delivered by the Lord from hell by means of the Divine celestial.

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