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Genesis 6

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1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,

2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all whom they chose.

3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.

4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them: the same became mighty men, who were of old, men of renown.

5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6 And the LORD repented that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping animal, and the fowls of the air; for I repent that I have made them.

8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 The earth also was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with violence.

12 And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt: for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

13 And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them: and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

14 Make thee an ark of gopher-wood: rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

15 And this is the fashion in which thou shalt make it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in its side: with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

17 And behold, I, even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life, from under heaven: and every thing that is on the earth shall die.

18 But with thee will I establish my covenant: and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.

19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee: they shall be male and female.

20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping animal of the earth after its kind, two of every sort shall come to thee, to keep them alive.

21 And take thou to thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.

22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 655

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655. The window that was to be finished to a cubit above' means the understanding part of the mind. This may become clear to anyone from what has been stated so far, and also from the fact that when the subject is the construction of the ark and 'the ark' means the member of the Church, the understanding part cannot be compared to anything other than 'a window above'. Similar examples occur in the Word in which man's understanding part, that is, his internal sight - whether reason is present or mere reasoning - is called a 'window', as in Isaiah,

O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I will make your suns (windows) of ruby, and your gates into carbuncle stones, and all your border into pleasant stones. Isaiah 54:11-12.

Here the word 'suns' is used instead of the word 'windows' because of the light sent in or through. 'Suns' or 'windows' here are intellectual concepts springing indeed from charity, which is why they are likened to a ruby. 'Gates' are rational concepts deriving from these, and 'border' is factual knowledge and sensory evidence. Here the subject is the Lord's Church.

[2] All the windows of the Temple in Jerusalem had the same representation; the highest represented intellectual concepts, the middle rational concepts, while the lowest represented facts and sensory evidence, for there were three storeys, 1 Kings 6:4, 6, 8. Similarly the windows of the New Jerusalem, in Ezekiel 40:16, 22, 25, 33, 36.

In Jeremiah,

Death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the young child from the street and young men from the lanes. Jeremiah 9:21.

Here middle-storey windows are meant, which is to say that rational concepts are being destroyed. 'The young child in the street' is new-born truth. Since 'windows' means intellectual concepts and rational concepts, which are matters of truth, the same also means reasonings, which are matters of falsity, as in the same prophet,

Woe to him who builds his house in unrighteousness, and his upper rooms not in judgement, who says, I will build myself a wide house and spacious upper rooms, and he cuts out windows for himself, panelling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion. Jeremiah 22:13-14.

The 'windows' stands for false assumptions. In Zephaniah,

Herds of beasts will lie down in the midst of her, every wild beast of that nation. Both the spoonbill and the qippod 1 will lodge in her pomegranates. 2 A voice will sing in the window, vastation will be on the threshold. Zephaniah 2:14.

This refers to Asshur and Nineveh. 'Asshur' stands for the understanding, here when it has been laid waste, while 'a voice singing in the windows' stands for reasonings based on false notions.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The meaning of this Hebrew word is uncertain.

2. The original Hebrew word is thought to describe capitals shaped like pomegranates.

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