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Genesis 42

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1 Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, "Why do you look at one another?"

2 He said, "Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die."

3 Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

4 But Jacob didn't send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers; for he said, "Lest perhaps harm happen to him."

5 The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

6 Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph's brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth.

7 Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, "Where did you come from?" They said, "From the land of Canaan to buy food."

8 Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn't recognize him.

9 Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, "You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land."

10 They said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.

11 We are all one man's sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies."

12 He said to them, "No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!"

13 They said, "We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more."

14 Joseph said to them, "It is like I told you, saying, 'You are spies!'

15 By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go forth from here, unless your youngest brother comes here.

16 Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies."

17 He put them all together into custody for three days.

18 Joseph said to them the third day, "Do this, and live, for I fear God.

19 If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.

20 Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won't die." They did so.

21 They said one to another, "We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn't listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us."

22 Reuben answered them, saying, "Didn't I tell you, saying, 'Don't sin against the child,' and you wouldn't listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required."

23 They didn't know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them.

24 He turned himself away from them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes.

25 Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to restore each man's money into his sack, and to give them food for the way. So it was done to them.

26 They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there.

27 As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack.

28 He said to his brothers, "My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!" Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

29 They came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying,

30 "The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country.

31 We said to him, 'We are honest men. We are no spies.

32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.'

33 The man, the lord of the land, said to us, 'By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way.

34 Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.'"

35 It happened as they emptied their sacks, that behold, each man's bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.

36 Jacob, their father, said to them, "You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me."

37 Reuben spoke to his father, saying, "Kill my two sons, if I don't bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again."

38 He said, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol."

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 5165

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5165. 'And he restored the chief of the cupbearers to his supervision over [Pharaoh's] drink' means that the sensory impressions belonging to the understanding part were accepted and made subordinate. This is clear from the representation of 'the chief of the cupbearers' as in general the sensory impressions subject to the understanding part, dealt with above; and from the meaning of 'restoring to his supervision over [Pharaoh's] drink' as restoring to order beneath the understanding part. 'Restoring to a position' means restoring to order so as to occupy the lowest position, see 5125; but here a restoration to supervision over the drink is spoken of because that supervision and the kinds of drink that were the objects of it, such as wine, new wine, strong drink, and water, have reference to things of the understanding, as also do giving to drink and actual drinking, 3069, 3168, 3772, 4017. From this it is evident that 'restoring the chief of the cupbearers to his supervision over [Pharaoh's] drink' means a restoration to order of the sensory impressions belonging to the understanding, and thus the acceptance and subordination of them.

[2] Those sensory impressions are accepted and made subordinate when they minister to and serve interior things as the means both to the realization of these in actions and to the acquisition of insights into them. For within the sensory impressions present in his exterior natural a person can see interior things, in much the same way as he sees people's affections within their faces and even more interior affections within their eyes. Without an interior face or mirror such as this no one is able, while living in the body, to engage in any thought at all about things that are above the senses; for what he sees within the sensory impressions may be likened to someone's recognition of other people's affections and thoughts within their faces, without the payment of any attention by him to their actual faces. Or it may be likened to someone listening to another speaking; he pays no attention to the words the speaker uses, only to the meaning of what is uttered by him. The actual words that are used are a mirror in which the inner meaning can be seen. The same is so with the exterior natural; if this did not serve interior things as a mirror in which they see themselves as if in a looking-glass, a person could not engage in any thought at all. This being so, the mirror is formed first - in earliest childhood onwards. But these are matters about which people have no knowledge because what is going on inside a person is not evident unless one stops to reflect on. what takes place inwardly.

[3] The nature of the exterior natural is plainly evident in the next life, for the faces of spirits and of angels are shaped by and in conformity with it. In the light of heaven interior things, especially intentions and ends in view, shine through those faces. If love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour have formed the interiors, then these cause a brightness to shine in the face, and the face itself is a visual form of love and charity. But if self-love and love of the world, and therefore all kinds of hatred, revenge, cruelty, and the like, have formed the interiors, these cause a devilish appearance to be manifested in the face, and the face itself is a visual form of hatred, revenge, and cruelty. From this one may see what the exterior natural is and the use it serves, also what it is like when made subject to interior things, and what it is like when these are made subject to itself.

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

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Servant

  

“Servant” literally means “a person who serves another," and its meaning is similar in reference to its spiritual meanings of the Bible. Our lives in their most outward form -- the physical actions we take and the thoughts and feelings directly connected to them -- are in a way “servants” to our deeper, more hidden, internal thoughts and desires. So in most cases, “servants” in the Bible represent things we're doing and thinking on that outward, external level. Servants can have good masters or evil ones, obviously, and a servant doing good work in service of an evil master is actually making the world a more evil place. So the precise meaning of a given servant in the Bible depends on the nature of the master he or she is serving. Finally, when the Bible is addressing the Lord's own spiritual development, “servant” represents the Lord's most outward aspect: the human body he inherited from Mary, with all its frailties and potential for temptation.