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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 # 755

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755. That by “the six hundredth year, the second month, and seventeenth day” is signified the second state of temptation, follows from what has hitherto been said; for from the sixth verse to (Genesis 7:6-11) this eleventh verse the first state of temptation is treated of, which was temptation as to things of his understanding. And that now the second state is treated of, namely, as to things of the will, is the reason why his age is told again. It was said before that he was “a son of six hundred years” and here that the flood came “in the six-hundredth year of his life, in the second month, and in the seventeenth day.” No one could suppose that by the years of Noah’s age, of which the years, months, and days are specified, a state of temptation as to things of the will is meant. But as has been said, such was the manner of speech and of writing among the most ancient people; and especially were they delighted in being able to specify times and names, and thereby construct a narrative similar to actual history; and in this consisted their wisdom.

[2] Now it has been shown above, at verse 6), that the “six hundred years” signify nothing else than the first state of temptation, and so do the “six hundred years” here; but in order that the second state of temptation might be signified, “months” and “days” are added; and indeed two months or “in the second month” which signifies combat itself, as is evident from the signification of the number “two” in the second verse (Genesis 7:2) of this chapter, where it is shown that it signifies the same as “six” that is, labor and combat, and also dispersion. But the number “seventeen” signifies both the beginning of temptation and the end of temptation, because it is composed of the numbers seven and ten. When this number signifies the beginning of temptation, it involves the days up to seven, or a week of seven days; and that this signifies the beginning of temptation has been shown above, at the fourth verse (Genesis 7:4) of this chapter. But when it signifies the end of temptation (as at Genesis 8:4), then “seven” is a holy number; to which “ten” (which signifies remains) is adjoined, for without remains man cannot be regenerated.

[3] That the number “seventeen” signifies the beginning of temptation, is evident in Jeremiah, when that prophet was commanded to buy a field from Hanamel his uncle’s son, which was in Anathoth; and he weighed him the money, seventeen shekels of silver (Jeremiah 32:9). That this number also signifies the Babylonish captivity, which represents the temptation of the faithful and the devastation of the unfaithful, and so the beginning of temptation and at the same time the end of temptation, or liberation, is evident from what follows in the same chapter-the captivity in the thirty-sixth verse (Jeremiah 32:36), and the liberation in the thirty-seventh (Jeremiah 32:37)and following verses. No such number would have appeared in the prophecy if it had not, like all the other words, involved a hidden meaning.

[4] That “seventeen” signifies the beginning of temptation, is also evident from the age of Joseph, who was a “son of seventeen years” when he was sent to his brothers and sold into Egypt (Genesis 37:2). His being sold into Egypt has a similar signification, as of the Lord’s Divine mercy will be shown in the explication of that chapter. There the historical events are representative, which actually took place as described; but here significative historical incidents are composed, which did not take place as described in the sense of the letter. And yet the actual events involve arcana of heaven, in fact every word of them does so, exactly as do these made-up histories. It cannot but appear strange that this is so, because where any historical fact or statement is presented, the mind is held in the letter and cannot release itself from it, and so thinks that nothing else is signified and represented.

[5] But that there is an internal sense in which the life of the Word resides (and not in the letter, which without the internal sense is dead), must be evident to every intelligent man. Without the internal sense how does any historical statement in the Word differ from history as told by any profane writer? And then of what use would it be to know the age of Noah, and the month and day when the flood took place, if it did not involve a heavenly arcanum? And who cannot see that this saying: “all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the cataracts of heaven were opened” is a prophetical one? Not to mention other like considerations.

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