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Genesis 9

Lernen

   

1 And God gave his blessing to Noah and his sons, and said, Be fertile, and have increase, and make the earth full.

2 And the fear of you will be strong in every beast of the earth and every bird of the air; everything which goes on the land, and all the fishes of the sea, are given into your hands.

3 Every living and moving thing will be food for you; I give them all to you as before I gave you all green things.

4 But flesh with the life-blood in it you may not take for food.

5 And for your blood, which is your life, will I take payment; from every beast I will take it, and from every man will I take payment for the blood of his brother-man.

6 Whoever takes a man's life, by man will his life be taken; because God made man in his image.

7 And now, be fertile and have increase; have offspring on the earth and become great in number.

8 And God said to Noah and to his sons,

9 Truly, I will make my agreement with you and with your seed after you,

10 And with every living thing with you, all birds and cattle and every beast of the earth which comes out of the ark with you.

11 And I will make my agreement with you; never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters; never again will the waters come over all the earth for its destruction.

12 And God said, This is the sign of the agreement which I make between me and you and every living thing with you, for all future generations:

13 I will put my bow in the cloud and it will be for a sign of the agreement between me and the earth.

14 And whenever I make a cloud come over the earth, the bow will be seen in the cloud,

15 And I will keep in mind the agreement between me and you and every living thing; and never again will there be a great flow of waters causing destruction to all flesh.

16 And the bow will be in the cloud, and looking on it, I will keep in mind the eternal agreement between God and every living thing on the earth.

17 And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the agreement which I have made between me and all flesh on the earth.

18 And the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan.

19 These three were the sons of Noah and from them all the earth was peopled.

20 In those days Noah became a farmer, and he made a vine-garden.

21 And he took of the wine of it and was overcome by drink; and he was uncovered in his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father unclothed, and gave news of it to his two brothers outside.

23 And Shem and Japheth took a robe, and putting it on their backs went in with their faces turned away, and put it over their father so that they might not see him unclothed.

24 And, awaking from his wine, Noah saw what his youngest son had done to him, and he said,

25 Cursed be Canaan; let him be a servant of servants to his brothers.

26 And he said, Praise to the Lord, the God of Shem; let Canaan be his servant.

27 May God make Japheth great, and let his living-place be in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.

28 And Noah went on living three hundred and fifty years after the great flow of waters;

29 all the years of his life were nine hundred and fifty: and he came to his end.

   

Kommentar

 

Cover

  

In Genesis 38:14, this signifies truth obscured that pretends to be from good. (Arcana Coelestia 4859) The "high mountains being covered" (Genesis 7:19) signifies that all the good things of charity were extinguished.

(Verweise: Arcana Coelestia 795)

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Arcana Coelestia #4859

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4859. 'And covered herself with a veil' means the truth was rendered obscure. This is clear from the meaning of 'covering oneself (that is, covering one's face) with a veil' as concealing and so rendering obscure truth which pretended to spring from good, as immediately above in 4858. Tamar did this so that she might become joined to Judah. For when brides first approached their bridegrooms they used to cover themselves with a veil, as one reads of Rebekah doing when she came to Isaac, Genesis 24:65, by which appearances of truth were meant, see 3207. 'A wife' means truth and 'a husband' good; but because truth as it really is does not show itself before it is joined to its good, therefore - to represent this reality - brides used to cover themselves with a veil when seen for the first time by their husbands. Here Tamar acted in a similar way, for she supposed that Shelah, Judah's son, should be her husband. But because she had not been given to him she then supposed that his father should perform the duty of a husband's brother instead. Therefore she covered herself with a veil as a bride would do. She did not cover herself as a whore would have done, though Judah supposed that this was what she was because in those times whores were likewise accustomed to cover their faces, as is evident from verse 15. The reason Judah supposed she was that kind of woman was that the Jewish nation, which is there meant by 'Judah', rated the internal truths of the representative Church as low as a whore. Therefore Judah was joined to her as though she were a whore; but Tamar's joining to him was not like that. Because internal truths could not be seen by that nation in any other way than this, the words used here 'she covered herself with a veil' therefore mean that truth was rendered obscure. The fact that the truth of the Church has been rendered obscure to members of that nation is also represented at the present day in their synagogues when they cover themselves with shawls or veils.

[2] Something similar was also represented by the skin on Moses' face shining when he came down from Mount Sinai, so that he covered himself with a veil every time he spoke to the people, Exodus 34:28-end. Moses represented the Word that is called the Law, see Preface to Chapter 18; and that is why sometimes the expression 'the Law and the Prophets' is used, as in Matthew 5:17; 11:13; 22:36, 40, and sometimes 'Moses and the Prophets', as in Luke 16:29, 31; 24:27, 44. The skin shining on his face represented the inner reality of the Word, for 'the face' means that which is internal, 358, 1999, 2434, 3527, 4066, 4796, 4797; for being spiritual, that inner reality dwells in the light of heaven. The veiling of his face every time he spoke to the people represented the fact that for members of that nation internal truth was covered and thus was rendered obscure so that they would not be exposed to any light at all from it.

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