Die Bibel

 

Genesis 32

Lernen

   

1 And Jacob went on his way; and the angels of God met him.

2 And when Jacob saw them he said, This is the camp of God. And he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

3 And Jacob sent messengers before his face to Esau his brother, into the land of Seir, the fields of Edom.

4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak to my lord, to Esau: Thy servant Jacob speaks thus -- With Laban have I sojourned and tarried until now;

5 and I have oxen, and asses, sheep, and bondmen, and bondwomen; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favour in thine eyes.

6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother, to Esau; and he also is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.

7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid, and was distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the sheep and the cattle and the camels, into two troops.

8 And he said, If Esau come to the one troop and smite it, then the other troop which is left shall escape.

9 And Jacob said, God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Jehovah, who saidst unto me: Return into thy country and to thy kindred, and I will do thee good,

10 -- I am too small for all the loving-kindness and all the faithfulness that thou hast shewn unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two troops.

11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, [and] the mother with the children.

12 And thou saidst, I will certainly deal well with thee, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

13 And he lodged there that night; and took of what came to his hand a gift for Esau his brother --

14 two hundred she-goats, and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes, and twenty rams;

15 thirty milch camels with their colts; forty kine, and ten bulls; twenty she-asses, and ten young asses.

16 And he delivered [them] into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself; and he said to his servants, Go on before me, and put a space between drove and drove.

17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meets thee, and asks thee, saying, Whose art thou, and where goest thou, and whose are these before thee?

18 -- then thou shalt say, Thy servant Jacob's: it is a gift sent to my lord, to Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.

19 And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, According to this word shall ye speak to Esau when ye find him.

20 And, moreover, ye shall say, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will propitiate him with the gift that goes before me, and afterwards I will see his face: perhaps he will accept me.

21 And the gift went over before him; and he himself lodged that night in the camp.

22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok;

23 and he took them and led them over the river, and led over what he had.

24 And Jacob remained alone; and a man wrestled with him until the rising of the dawn.

25 And when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the joint of his thigh; and the joint of Jacob's thigh was dislocated as he wrestled with him.

26 And he said, Let me go, for the dawn ariseth. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.

27 And he said to him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.

28 And he said, Thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast wrestled with God, and with men, and hast prevailed.

29 And Jacob asked and said, Tell [me], I pray thee, thy name. And he said, How is it that thou askest after my name? And he blessed him there.

30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel -- For I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved.

31 And as he passed over Peniel, the sun rose upon him; and he limped upon his hip.

32 Therefore the children of Israel do not eat of the sinew that is over the joint of the thigh, to this day; because he touched the joint of Jacob's thigh -- the sinew.

   

Aus Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #4384

studieren Sie diesen Abschnitt

  
/ 10837  
  

4384. 'Until I come to my lord, to Seir' means until they - the truth meant by 'Jacob' and the good meant by 'Esau' - could be joined together. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'Seir' as the joining of spiritual things to celestial ones within the natural, that is, the joining of truth which belongs to faith to good which belongs to charity. Good to which truth has been joined within the natural, and in the highest sense the Lord's Divine Natural as regards good joined to truth there, is what is meant strictly speaking by 'Seir' in the following places in the Word: In Moses' prophecy concerning the children of Israel,

Jehovah came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir upon them; He shone from Mount Paran, and came out of myriads of holiness. Deuteronomy 33:2-3.

In Balaam's prophecy,

I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near. A star will arise out of Jacob, and a sceptre will rise up out of Israel. And Edom will be an inheritance, and Seir will be an inheritance, of His enemies - with Israel doing valiantly. Numbers 24:17-18.

In the Song of Deborah and Barak,

O Jehovah, when You went forth from Seir, when You set out from the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the mountains flowed down, this Sinai before Jehovah God of Israel. Judges 5:4-5.

In Isaiah,

One is calling to me from Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, Morning comes, and also the night. Isaiah 21:11-12.

See 4240 for these texts referring to Seir, as well as others quoted there.

  
/ 10837  
  

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

Kommentar

 

Jacob or Israel (the man)

  

Jacob is told twice that his name will now be Israel. The first time is when he wrestles with an angel on his journey to meet Esau, and the angel tells him that his name will be changed. After he is reconciled with Esau, they go their separate ways. Jacob moves to Shechem and then on to Bethel, where he builds an altar to the Lord. The Lord appears to him there, renews the covenant He first made with Abraham and again tells him that his name will be Israel (Genesis 35). The story goes on to tell of Benjamin's birth and Rachel's death in bearing him, and then of Jacob's return to Isaac and Isaac's death and burial. But at that point the main thread of the story leaves Israel and turns to Joseph, and Israel is hardly mentioned until after Joseph has risen to power in Egypt, has revealed himself to his brothers and tells them to bring all of their father's household down to Egypt. There, before Israel dies, he blesses Joseph's sons, plus all his own sons. After his death he is returned to the land of Canaan for burial in Abraham's tomb. In the story of Jacob and Esau, Jacob represents truth, and Esau good. Jacob's stay in Padan-Aram, and the wealth he acquired there, represent learning the truths of scripture, just as we learn when we read the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. The change of name from Jacob to Israel represents the realization that what we learn should not simply be knowledge, but should be the rules of our life, to be followed by action. This action is the good that Esau has represented in the story up to that time, but after the reconciliation between Jacob and Esau, Jacob as Israel now represents the truth and the good, together. It is interesting that even after his name change Jacob is rarely called Israel. Sometimes he is called one and sometimes the other, and sometimes he is called both Jacob and Israel in the same verse (Genesis 46:2, 5, & 8 also Psalm 14:7). This is because Jacob represents the external person and Israel the internal person, and even after the internal person comes into being, we spend much of our lives living on the external level.

(Verweise: Arcana Coelestia 4274, 4292, 4570, 5595, 6225, 6256, Genesis 2:5, 46:8)