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Genesis 17

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1 And Abram was ninety-nine years old, when Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said to him, I [am] the Almighty ùGod: walk before my face, and be perfect.

2 And I will set my covenant between me and thee, and will very greatly multiply thee.

3 And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying,

4 It is I: behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of a multitude of nations.

5 And thy name shall no more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of a multitude of nations have I made thee.

6 And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee.

8 And I give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be a God to them.

9 And God said to Abraham, And [as for] thee, thou shalt keep my covenant, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations.

10 This is my covenant which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee -- that every male among you be circumcised.

11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and [that] shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

12 And at eight days old shall every male in your generations be circumcised among you -- he who is born in the house, and he who is bought with money, any stranger who is not of thy seed.

13 He who is born in thy house, and he who is bought with thy money, must be circumcised; and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

14 And the uncircumcised male who hath not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his peoples: he hath broken my covenant.

15 And God said to Abraham, [As to] Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

16 And I will bless her, and I will give thee a son also of her; and I will bless her, and she shall become nations: kings of peoples shall be of her.

17 And Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall [a child] be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear?

18 And Abraham said to God, Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!

19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall indeed bear thee a son; and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him, for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.

20 And for Ishmael I have heard thee: behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful, and will very greatly multiply him; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to thee at this appointed time in the next year.

22 And he left off talking with him; and God went up from Abraham.

23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money -- every male among the people of Abraham's house -- and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that same day, as God had said to him.

24 And Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son;

27 and all the men of his house, born in his house, or bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #2053

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2053. 'My covenant shall be in your flesh' means conjunction of the Lord with man in his impurity. This is clear from the meaning of 'a covenant' as conjunction, dealt with above, and from the meaning of 'flesh' as man's proprium, also dealt with above, in 2041. How impure the proprium is has also been stated in that paragraph, and has been shown in Volume One, in 141, 150, 154, 210, 215, 694, 731, 874-876, 987, 1047. The implications of 'My covenant in your flesh' being the conjunction of the Lord with man in his impurity are as follows: No pure intellectual truth, which is Divine truth, resides with man. Instead the truths of faith residing with man are appearances of truth to which illusions of the senses attach themselves, and to these in turn falsities, belonging to the desires that go with self-love and love of the world. Such are the truths that reside with man. And how impure they are becomes clear from the fact that such illusions and falsities attach themselves to them.

[2] Nevertheless the Lord joins Himself to man within those very impurities, for with innocence and charity He brings soul and life to these, and in this way forms a conscience. The truths that constitute conscience vary, that is to say, they depend on the religion of the individual. These truths the Lord is unwilling to violate provided they are not contrary to the goods of faith, because the person has taken them to himself and considered them holy. The Lord breaks nobody, but bends him. This becomes clear from the consideration that every type of religious thought in the Church has followers who are being endowed with conscience. The closer its truths get to the genuine truths of faith the better that conscience is. Since it is from the truths of faith such as this that conscience is formed, it is clear that it has been formed in the understanding part of man's mind, for the understanding part is what receives those truths. This part of his mind the Lord has therefore miraculously separated from the will part. This is an arcanum previously unknown, concerning which see what has appeared in Volume One, in 863, 875, 895, 927, 1023. That 'covenant in your flesh' in addition denotes a meaningful sign, namely that of purification, is clear from what has been shown in 2039 about circumcision.

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