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Genesis 37

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1 And Jacob dwelleth in the land of his father's sojournings -- in the land of Canaan.

2 These [are] births of Jacob: Joseph, a son of seventeen years, hath been enjoying himself with his brethren among the flock, (and he [is] a youth,) with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph bringeth in an account of their evil unto their father.

3 And Israel hath loved Joseph more than any of his sons, for he [is] a son of his old age, and hath made for him a long coat;

4 and his brethren see that their father hath loved him more than any of his brethren, and they hate him, and have not been able to speak [to] him peaceably.

5 And Joseph dreameth a dream, and declareth to his brethren, and they add still more to hate him.

6 And he saith unto them, `Hear ye, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:

7 that, lo, we are binding bundles in the midst of the field, and lo, my bundle hath arisen, and hath also stood up, and lo, your bundles are round about, and bow themselves to my bundle.'

8 And his brethren say to him, `Dost thou certainly reign over us? dost thou certainly rule over us?' and they add still more to hate him, for his dreams, and for his words.

9 And he dreameth yet another dream, and recounteth it to his brethren, and saith, `Lo, I have dreamed a dream again, and lo, the sun and the moon, and eleven stars, are bowing themselves to me.'

10 And he recounteth unto his father, and unto his brethren; and his father pusheth against him, and saith to him, `What [is] this dream which thou hast dreamt? do we certainly come -- I, and thy mother, and thy brethren -- to bow ourselves to thee, to the earth?'

11 and his brethren are zealous against him, and his father hath watched the matter.

12 And his brethren go to feed the flock of their father in Shechem,

13 and Israel saith unto Joseph, `Are not thy brethren feeding in Shechem? come, and I send thee unto them;' and he saith to him, `Here [am] I;'

14 and he saith to him, `Go, I pray thee, see the peace of thy brethren, and the peace of the flock, and bring me back word;' and he sendeth him from the valley of Hebron, and he cometh to Shechem.

15 And a man findeth him, and lo, he is wandering in the field, and the man asketh him, saying, `What seekest thou?'

16 and he saith, `My brethren I am seeking, declare to me, I pray thee, where they are feeding?'

17 And the man saith, `They have journeyed from this, for I have heard some saying, Let us go to Dothan,' and Joseph goeth after his brethren, and findeth them in Dothan.

18 And they see him from afar, even before he draweth near unto them, and they conspire against him to put him to death.

19 And they say one unto another, `Lo, this man of the dreams cometh;

20 and now, come, and we slay him, and cast him into one of the pits, and have said, An evil beast hath devoured him; and we see what his dreams are.'

21 And Reuben heareth, and delivereth him out of their hand, and saith, `Let us not smite the life;'

22 and Reuben saith unto them, `Shed no blood; cast him into this pit which [is] in the wilderness, and put not forth a hand upon him,' -- in order to deliver him out of their hand, to bring him back unto his father.

23 And it cometh to pass, when Joseph hath come unto his brethren, that they strip Joseph of his coat, the long coat which [is] upon him,

24 and take him and cast him into the pit, and the pit [is] empty, there is no water in it.

25 And they sit down to eat bread, and they lift up their eyes, and look, and lo, a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, and their camels bearing spices, and balm, and myrrh, going to take [them] down to Egypt.

26 And Judah saith unto his brethren, `What gain when we slay our brother, and have concealed his blood?

27 Come, and we sell him to the Ishmaelites, and our hands are not on him, for he [is] our brother -- our flesh;' and his brethren hearken.

28 And Midianite merchantmen pass by and they draw out and bring up Joseph out of the pit, and sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty silverlings, and they bring Joseph into Egypt.

29 And Reuben returneth unto the pit, and lo, Joseph is not in the pit, and he rendeth his garments,

30 and he returneth unto his brethren, and saith, `The lad is not, and I -- whither am I going?'

31 And they take the coat of Joseph, and slaughter a kid of the goats, and dip the coat in the blood,

32 and send the long coat, and they bring [it] in unto their father, and say, `This have we found; discern, we pray thee, whether it [is] thy son's coat or not?'

33 And he discerneth it, and saith, `My son's coat! an evil beast hath devoured him; torn -- torn is Joseph!'

34 And Jacob rendeth his raiment, and putteth sackcloth on his loins, and becometh a mourner for his son many days,

35 and all his sons and all his daughters rise to comfort him, and he refuseth to comfort himself, and saith, `For -- I go down mourning unto my son, to Sheol,' and his father weepeth for him.

36 And the Medanites have sold him unto Egypt, to Potiphar, a eunuch of Pharaoh, head of the executioners.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 5828

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5828. 'And I said, He has surely been torn to pieces' means a perception that it was destroyed by evils and falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perception, dealt with often; and from the meaning of 'being torn to pieces as being destroyed by evils and internal good represented by 'Joseph' was destroyed, 5805. 'Being torn to pieces' has this meaning because no other kind of tearing to pieces takes place in the spiritual world than that of good by evils and falsities. It is the same with death and anything having to do with death, by which is meant in the spiritual sense not natural death but spiritual death, which is damnation. No other kind of death occurs in the spiritual world. So too with 'a tearing to pieces'. This does not mean in the spiritual sense the kind of tearing to pieces that wild animals engage in, but the tearing to pieces of good by evils and falsities. Also, in the spiritual sense, 'wild animals that tear to pieces' means evil desires and derivative false ideas; and such ideas are also represented in the next life by wild animals.

[2] The good which constantly comes from the Lord to a person is destroyed by nothing other than evils and derivative falsities, and by falsities and consequent evils. For as soon as that constantly inflowing good, coming by way of the internal man, reaches the external or natural man it encounters evil and falsity, which - acting like wild animals - employ various methods to tear apart and annihilate that good. For that reason the inflow of good by way of the internal man is blocked and halted, and the interior mind through which the inflow comes is consequently closed. Only as much of what is spiritual is allowed through as will enable the natural man to reason and speak, though he does so in terms that are solely earthly, bodily, and worldly, either in opposition to what is good and true, or else in keeping with such but in a false or deceitful way.

[3] It is a universal law that an inflow adjusts itself to the outflow, and if the outflow is blocked, so is the inflow. Through the internal man there is an inflow of good and truth from the Lord, and through the external there should be an outflow, an outflow into life, that is, in the exercise of charity. As long as that outflow is taking place the inflow from heaven, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven, is continuous. If however no outflow takes place but something stands in the way in the external or natural man, namely evil and falsity which tear the inflowing good to pieces and annihilate it, it follows from the universal law mentioned above that the inflow adjusts itself to the outflow. All this being so, the inflow of good holds itself back and accordingly closes the internal through which the inflow comes; and that closing of it leads to stupidity in spiritual matters, which is so great that the person who is like this neither knows nor wishes to know anything at all about eternal life. At length he becomes so senseless that he raises falsity as an obstacle to truth, calling falsities truths and truths falsities, and raises evil as an obstacle to good, regarding evils as forms of good and forms of good as evils. In this way he tears good completely to pieces.

[4] The word 'torn' occurs in various places in the Word, the proper meaning of which is falsities that arise from evils, while that which is destroyed by evils is called 'a carcass'. When however the expression 'torn' is used by itself, both ideas are meant since the one includes the meaning carried by the other. It is different when the one is referred to together with the other, because in that case a distinction is being made. Since what had been torn meant in the spiritual sense what had been destroyed by falsities arising from evils, people were forbidden in the representative Church to eat anything torn. They would never have been forbidden to eat it if that spiritual evil had not been meant in heaven. Apart from this, what evil could have lain in eating flesh torn by a wild animal?

[5] Regarding their not eating anything torn the following is stated in Moses,

The fat of a carcass and the fat of that which has been torn may be put to any use, provided that you do not eat it at all. Leviticus 7:24.

In the same author,

He shall not eat a carcass or that which has been torn, to be defiled by it. I am Jehovah. Leviticus 12:8.

In the same author,

You shall be men who are sanctified to Me; therefore you shall not eat flesh torn in the field, you shall throw it to the dogs. Exodus 21:31.

In Ezekiel,

Ah Lord Jehovih! The prophet says, Behold, my soul has not been polluted, and from my youth even till now I have not eaten any carcass or that which has been torn, so that abominable flesh has not come into my mouth. Ezekiel 4:14.

From these quotations it is evident that it was an abomination to eat what had been torn, not because it had been torn but because a tearing to pieces of good by falsities arising from evils was meant, 'a carcass' on the other hand being the death of good caused by evils.

[6] A tearing to pieces of good by falsities and evils is also meant in the internal sense of the following places in David,

The wicked is like a lion, he desires to tear, and like a young lion who sits in hiding-places. Psalms 17:12.

Elsewhere,

They opened their mouth against me - a lion tearing and roaring. Psalms 22:13.

And in yet another place,

Lest like a lion they seize my soul, tearing it to pieces and there is none to deliver. Psalms 7:1.

'A lion' stands for those who lay waste the Church. Above, where Joseph was the subject - at the point where he was sold by his brothers, and his tunic, which had been dipped in blood, was sent to his father - his father too said at that time,

My son's tunic! An evil wild animal has devoured him; Joseph has been torn to pieces. Genesis 37:33.

'His having been torn to pieces' means being scattered by falsities arising from evils, see 4777.

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