Arcana Coelestia #470
470. 'The book of the generations' is a record of those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church. This is quite clear from what follows, for from here down to Eber in Chapter 11 the names used nowhere mean actual persons but real things. In most ancient times the human race was divided into houses, families, and nations. A house consisted of husband and wife together with their children, and also other members of their family who were the servants. A family consisted of a number of such houses, many or few, who dwell in close proximity to one another, but not together. A nation consisted of a number of families, many or few.
Genesis 6
1
It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
2
that God's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.
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Yahweh said, "My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years."
4
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came in to men's daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5
Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
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Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
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Yahweh said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
8
But Noah found favor in Yahweh's eyes.
9
This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
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Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11
The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
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God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
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God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14
Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
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This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship will be three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
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You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.
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I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
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But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
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Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
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Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come to you, to keep them alive.
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Take with you of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them."
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Thus Noah did. According to all that God commanded him, so he did.
