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Genesis 29

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1 And Jacob continued his journey, and went into the land of the children of the east.

2 And he looked, and behold, there was a well in the fields, and behold there, three flocks of sheep were lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks, and a great stone was at the mouth of the well.

3 And when all the flocks were gathered there, they rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again on the mouth of the well in its place.

4 And Jacob said to them, My brethren, whence are ye? And they said, Of Haran are we.

5 And he said to them, Do ye know Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We do know [him].

6 And he said to them, Is he well? And they said, [He is] well; and behold, there comes Rachel his daughter with the sheep.

7 And he said, Behold, it is yet high day; it is not time that the cattle should be gathered together; water the sheep, and go, feed [them].

8 And they said, We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and we water the sheep.

9 While he was still speaking to them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

10 And it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the sheep of Laban his mother's brother.

11 And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept.

12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was a brother of her father, and that he was Rebecca's son; and she ran and told her father.

13 And it came to pass when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house; and he told Laban all these things.

14 And Laban said to him, Thou art indeed my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him a month's time.

15 And Laban said to Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou serve me for nothing? tell me, what shall be thy wages?

16 And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger, Rachel.

17 And the eyes of Leah were tender; but Rachel was of beautiful form and beautiful countenance.

18 And Jacob loved Rachel, and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.

19 And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man: abide with me.

20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they were in his eyes as single days, because he loved her.

21 And Jacob said to Laban, Give [me] my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.

22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.

23 And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in to her.

24 And Laban gave to her Zilpah, his maidservant, to be maidservant to Leah his daughter.

25 And it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done to me? Have I not served thee for Rachel? Why then hast thou deceived me?

26 And Laban said, It is not so done in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn.

27 Fulfil the week [with] this one: then we will give thee the other one also, for the service that thou shalt serve me yet seven other years.

28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled the week [with] this one, and he gave him Rachel his daughter to be his wife.

29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, Bilhah, his maidservant, to be her maidservant.

30 And he went in also to Rachel; and he loved also Rachel more than Leah. And he served with him yet seven other years.

31 And when Jehovah saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.

32 And Leah conceived, and bore a son, and called his name Reuben; for she said, Because Jehovah has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.

33 And she again conceived, and bore a son, and said, Because Jehovah has heard that I am hated, he has therefore given me this one also; and she called his name Simeon.

34 And she again conceived, and bore a son, and said, Now this time will my husband be united to me, for I have borne him three sons; therefore was his name called Levi.

35 And she again conceived, and bore a son, and said, This time will I praise Jehovah; therefore she called his name Judah. And she ceased to bear.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #3833

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3833. 'And so it was in the evening' means when the state was still obscure. This is clear from the meaning of 'the evening' as an obscure state, dealt with in 3056. Furthermore feasts held in the evening, that is, suppers, meant nothing else among the ancients who had appropriate religious observances than the introductory state which comes before an actual joining together, which is obscure compared with that state when the joining together has taken place. Indeed when a person is being introduced into truth and from this into good, everything he learns at that time is obscure. But once good is joined to him and he regards truth from the standpoint of good, everything he learns becomes clear to him, gradually and increasingly so. For he is now no longer in doubt about whether something exists or whether it is true but knows that it exists and is true.

[2] Once a person has reached this state he starts to know countless things, for he now proceeds from the good and truth which he believes and perceives. He proceeds so to speak from the central point out to the peripheral regions; and in the measure that he proceeds from such good and truth, he sees in the same measure the things round about, and gradually more and more widely since he is constantly pushing out and extending the boundaries. Thereafter he also begins from each subject situated in the space within those boundaries, and from those subjects as new centres he pushes out new peripheral regions; and so on in the spaces within these. Consequently the light of truth radiating from good increases enormously and becomes one expanse of light, for he is now bathed in the light of heaven which shines from the Lord. But to people who are prone to doubt and who question whether something exists and is true, those countless, indeed limitless things are not visible at all. To them every single one is totally obscure. Those things are scarcely seen by them as a single whole which definitely exists, only as a single whole whose very existence they are uncertain of. Such is the condition into which human wisdom and intelligence has fallen at the present day. Being able to reason cleverly whether something exists is now the mark of a wise man, and being able to reason that it does not exist is the mark of one wiser still.

[3] Take for example the question whether in the Word an internal sense exists which such people call the mystical sense. Until they believe in the existence of it they cannot know a single one of the countless things existing within that sense, so many that they fill the whole of heaven in unending variety. Take as another example one who reasons about whether Divine Providence is merely universal and does not extend to specific details. That person cannot know the countless arcana which have to do with Providence, as many in number as the occurrences in everyone's life from start to finish and in the world from its creation to its end, and even for ever. Take as yet another example one who reasons whether good can exist in anyone, seeing that the will of man is fundamentally depraved. He cannot possibly be aware of all the arcana that have to do with regeneration, nor even that a new will is implanted by the Lord and the arcana concerning this. And the same is so with everything else. From this one may recognize what obscurity surrounds such people and that they do not even see, let alone reach, the outskirts of wisdom.

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