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Genesis 11

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1 And the whole earth is of one pronunciation, and of the same words,

2 and it cometh to pass, in their journeying from the east, that they find a valley in the land of Shinar, and dwell there;

3 and they say each one to his neighbour, `Give help, let us make bricks, and burn [them] thoroughly:' and the brick is to them for stone, and the bitumen hath been to them for mortar.

4 And they say, `Give help, let us build for ourselves a city and tower, and its head in the heavens, and make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth.'

5 And Jehovah cometh down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men have builded;

6 and Jehovah saith, `Lo, the people [is] one, and one pronunciation [is] to them all, and this it hath dreamed of doing; and now, nothing is restrained from them of that which they have purposed to do.

7 Give help, let us go down, and mingle there their pronunciation, so that a man doth not understand the pronunciation of his companion.'

8 And Jehovah doth scatter them from thence over the face of all the earth, and they cease to build the city;

9 therefore hath [one] called its name Babel, for there hath Jehovah mingled the pronunciation of all the earth, and from thence hath Jehovah scattered them over the face of all the earth.

10 These [are] births of Shem: Shem [is] a son of an hundred years, and begetteth Arphaxad two years after the deluge.

11 And Shem liveth after his begetting Arphaxad five hundred years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

12 And Arphaxad hath lived five and thirty years, and begetteth Salah.

13 And Arphaxad liveth after his begetting Salah four hundred and three years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

14 And Salah hath lived thirty years, and begetteth Eber.

15 And Salah liveth after his begetting Eber four hundred and three years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

16 And Eber liveth four and thirty years, and begetteth Peleg.

17 And Eber liveth after his begetting Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

18 And Peleg liveth thirty years, and begetteth Reu.

19 And Peleg liveth after his begetting Reu two hundred and nine years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

20 And Reu liveth two and thirty years, and begetteth Serug.

21 And Reu liveth after his begetting Serug two hundred and seven years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

22 And Serug liveth thirty years, and begetteth Nahor.

23 And Serug liveth after his begetting Nahor two hundred years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

24 And Nahor liveth nine and twenty years, and begetteth Terah.

25 And Nahor liveth after his begetting Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

26 And Terah liveth seventy years, and begetteth Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 And these [are] births of Terah: Terah hath begotten Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran hath begotten Lot;

28 and Haran dieth in the presence of Terah his father, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.

29 And Abram and Nahor take to themselves wives; the name of Abram's wife [is] Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife [is] Milcah, daughter of Haran, father of Milcah, and father of Iscah.

30 And Sarai is barren -- she hath no child.

31 And Terah taketh Abram his son, and Lot, son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, wife of Abram his son, and they go out with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go towards the land of Canaan; and they come unto Charan, and dwell there.

32 And the days of Terah are two hundred and five years, and Terah dieth in Charan.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 1306

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1306. That “a tower” is the worship of self, is evident from the signification of “a tower.” The worship of self exists when a man exalts himself above others even to the point of being worshiped. And therefore the love of self, which is arrogance and pride, is called “height,” “loftiness,” and “being lifted up;” and is described by all things that are high. As in Isaiah:

The eyes of man’s pride shall be humbled, and the loftiness of men shall be brought low, and Jehovah Himself alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of Jehovah of Armies is upon everyone proud and high and upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be humbled; and upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan; and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every lofty tower, and upon every fenced wall (Isaiah 2:11-18); concerning the love of self, which is described by the “cedars,” “oaks,” “mountains,” “hills,” and “tower” that are “high” and “lifted up.”

[2] Again:

There shall be rivers, streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers shall fall (Isaiah 30:25);

in like manner denoting the love of self, and the exalting of self in worship. And again:

Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not; Asshur hath founded it in tziim; they will set up their watchtowers, they will raise up their palaces, he will make it a ruin (Isaiah 23:13);

said of Tyre and its vastation; “watchtowers,” expressed by another word, denote the phantasies therefrom.

In Ezekiel:

I will cause many nations to come up against thee, O Tyre, and they shall ruin the walls of Tyre, and destroy her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and will make her the dryness of a rock (Ezekiel 26:3-4).

The signification being similar.

[3] The love of self in worship, or the worship of self, is called a “tower,” for the reason that a “city” signifies a doctrine (as before shown, n. 402) and cities were formerly fortified with towers, in which there were watchmen; and there were also towers on the borders, which for this reason were called “towers of watchmen” (2 Kings 9:17; 17:9; 18:8), and “watchtowers” (Isaiah 23:13). And besides, when the church of the Lord is compared to a “vineyard,” those things which belong to worship and to its conservation are compared to a “winepress” and to “a tower in the vineyard,” as is evident in Isaiah 5:1-2; Matthew 21:33; Mark 12:1.

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