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Genesis 7

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1 And Jehovah saith to Noah, `Come in, thou and all thy house, unto the ark, for thee I have seen righteous before Me in this generation;

2 of all the clean beasts thou dost take to thee seven pairs, a male and its female; and of the beasts which are not clean two, a male and its female;

3 also, of fowl of the heavens seven pairs, a male and a female, to keep alive seed on the face of all the earth;

4 for after other seven days I am sending rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and have wiped away all the substance that I have made from off the face of the ground.'

5 And Noah doth according to all that Jehovah hath commanded him:

6 and Noah [is] a son of six hundred years, and the deluge of waters hath been upon the earth.

7 And Noah goeth in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, unto the ark, from the presence of the waters of the deluge;

8 of the clean beasts and of the beasts that [are] not clean, and of the fowl, and of every thing that is creeping upon the ground,

9 two by two they have come in unto Noah, unto the ark, a male and a female, as God hath commanded Noah.

10 And it cometh to pass, after the seventh of the days, that waters of the deluge have been on the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, in this day have been broken up all fountains of the great deep, and the net-work of the heavens hath been opened,

12 and the shower is on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 In this self-same day went in Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, sons of Noah, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, unto the ark;

14 they, and every living creature after its kind, and every beast after its kind, and every creeping thing that is creeping on the earth after its kind, and every fowl after its kind, every bird -- every wing.

15 And they come in unto Noah, unto the ark, two by two of all the flesh in which [is] a living spirit;

16 and they that are coming in, male and female of all flesh, have come in as God hath commanded him, and Jehovah doth close [it] for him.

17 And the deluge is forty days on the earth, and the waters multiply, and lift up the ark, and it is raised up from off the earth;

18 and the waters are mighty, and multiply exceedingly upon the earth; and the ark goeth on the face of the waters.

19 And the waters have been very very mighty on the earth, and covered are all the high mountains which [are] under the whole heavens;

20 fifteen cubits upwards have the waters become mighty, and the mountains are covered;

21 and expire doth all flesh that is moving on the earth, among fowl, and among cattle, and among beasts, and among all the teeming things which are teeming on the earth, and all mankind;

22 all in whose nostrils [is] breath of a living spirit -- of all that [is] in the dry land -- have died.

23 And wiped away is all the substance that is on the face of the ground, from man unto beast, unto creeping thing, and unto fowl of the heavens; yea, they are wiped away from the earth, and only Noah is left, and those who [are] with him in the ark;

24 and the waters are mighty on the earth a hundred and fifty days.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 987

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987. 'Upon every beast of the earth' means the desires that belong to the lower mind. This is clear from the meaning of 'beast' in the Word, where beasts mean either affections or else evil desires. Affections for what is good are meant by gentle, useful, and clean beasts, while affections for what is evil, that is, evil desires, are meant by savage, useless, and unclean ones - see 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 776. Because here they mean evil desires they are called 'beasts of the earth', not beasts of the field. As for a regenerate person's rule over evil desires, it should be recognized that people err very greatly and are in no sense regenerate who believe they are able to rule over evils from themselves. For a human being is nothing but evil, he is one mass of evils, and his whole will consists solely in evil. This was stated in the previous chapter - 'the imagination of man's heart is evil from his childhood', 8:21. I have been shown by actual experience that a man or a spirit, and even an angel, regarded in himself, that is, as to his entire proprium, is vilest excrement, and left to himself breathes out nothing but hatred, revenge, cruelty, and most filthy adultery. These are the things that are his own, and are the things which constitute his will.

[2] This matter also becomes clear to anyone if he reflects, merely from the consideration that when a person is born he is the lowest thing alive among all wild animals and beasts. And when he grows up and becomes responsible for his own actions he would rush into every kind of ungodliness but for external legal restraints and the restraints he imposes on himself to the end that he may become pre-eminent and very wealthy. He would not rest content until he had made everyone throughout the world subject to himself and had raked in the wealth of everyone in it. He would spare no one except those who surrendered to him as his mere slaves. Such is the nature of everyone, though those people do not recognize it who do not have the opportunity and ability to behave in that way, or who are subject to the restraints mentioned above. But once the opportunity and ability have been provided and the restraints have been loosened, they would plunge themselves, as far as they were able, into such actions. Wild animals never demonstrate natures such as this, but are born into a certain natural order. Those that are savage beasts of prey do inflict harm on other animals, yet only in self-defence; and their devouring of other creatures is so that they may satisfy their hunger. And once that is satisfied they harm none. The human being however is altogether different. From this it is clear what man's proprium is and what his will is.

[3] Since a person is just so much evil and excrement, it is clear that he cannot possibly from himself rule over evil. To say that evil can rule over evil is an utter contradiction. And this applies not only to ruling over evil but also over hell, for everybody is in communication with hell by means of evil spirits, and it is from that source that the evil residing with him is activated. From these considerations anyone may know, and he who is mentally normal may conclude, that it is the Lord alone who rules over evil residing with man and over hell residing with him. So that the evil residing with a person, that is, hell which is trying moment by moment to force its way into him and destroy him eternally, may be overpowered, a person is regenerated by the Lord and has a new will conferred on him, which is conscience, and through which the Lord alone works everything good. These considerations are matters of faith, that is to say, the considerations that man is nothing but evil and that everything good comes from the Lord. A person ought therefore not merely to know them but also acknowledge and believe them. If he does not acknowledge and believe during his lifetime, it is demonstrated to him convincingly in the next life.

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