Die Bibel

 

Genesis 35

Lernen

   

1 And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto the ùGod that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

2 And Jacob said to his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments;

3 and we will arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar to the ùGod that answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way that I went.

4 And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hand, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth that [is] by Shechem.

5 And they journeyed; and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

6 And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.

7 And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el; because there God had appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

8 And Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died; and she was buried beneath Bethel, under the oak; and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.

9 And God appeared to Jacob again after he had come from Padan-Aram, and blessed him.

10 And God said to him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel.

11 And God said to him, I am the Almighty ùGod: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee; and kings shall come out of thy loins.

12 And the land that I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

13 And God went up from him in the place where he had talked with him.

14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had talked with him, a pillar of stone, and poured on it a drink-offering, and poured oil on it.

15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God had talked with him, Beth-el.

16 And they journeyed from Bethel. And there was yet a certain distance to come to Ephrath, when Rachel travailed in childbirth; and it went hard with her in her childbearing.

17 And it came to pass when it went hard with her in her childbearing, that the midwife said to her, Fear not; for this also is a son for thee.

18 And it came to pass as her soul was departing -- for she died -- that she called his name Benoni; but his father called him Benjamin.

19 And Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which [is] Bethlehem.

20 And Jacob erected a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to [this] day.

21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent on the other side of Migdal-Eder.

22 And it came to pass when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine; and Israel heard of it. And the sons of Jacob were twelve.

23 The sons of Leah: Reuben -- Jacob's firstborn -- and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun.

24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant: Dan and Naphtali.

26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob that were born to him in Padan-Aram.

27 And Jacob came to Isaac his father to Mamre -- to Kirjath-Arba, which is Hebron; where Abraham had sojourned, and Isaac.

28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years.

29 And Isaac expired and died, and was gathered to his peoples, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

   

Aus Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #4605

studieren Sie diesen Abschnitt

  
/ 10837  
  

4605. 'Reuben, Jacob's firstborn' means the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the firstborn' as faith, dealt with in 352, 367, 2435, 3325; also from the representation of 'Jacob' as the good of natural truth, dealt with in 4538, and from that of 'Reuben' as the essential nature of faith. For in the genuine sense 'Reuben' means the truth of faith, 3861, 3866, but after the truth of faith has become good he means the good of faith. Furthermore faith essentially is charity, and so the truth of faith essentially is the good of faith, because it cannot have any existence at all unless it springs from charity - that is, truth cannot have any real existence unless it springs from good. This being so, once a person has been regenerated good occupies the first place, or is the firstborn, see 3325, 3494. This is the reason why 'Reuben, Jacob's firstborn' at this point means the good of faith. A similar instance of this meaning occurs in Moses,

May Reuben live and not die; and his mortal men will be [few in] numbers. Deuteronomy 33:6.

The reason 'Reuben' here means the good of faith is that in the Prophecy of Moses regarding the sons of Jacob, Reuben is placed first and Judah second, thus in a different ordering in this prophecy from that of Jacob in Genesis 49. For, as stated above at the end of 4603, the order in which their names appear is determined by the state belonging to the subject under discussion.

[2] Similarly in John,

I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed out of every tribe - twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Gad. Revelation 7:4-5.

In this case Judah is mentioned first, Reuben second, and Gad third. These three in this place make up a first group; and because the Lord's kingdom is the subject here, 'Judah' means celestial good such as exists in the inmost or third heaven, 'Reuben' spiritual good, which is the same as the good of faith, such as exists in the second or middle heaven, and 'Gad' the good of the natural, such as exists in the first heaven. But a different meaning is found in the prophecy of Deborah and Barak,

Princes in Issachar were with Deborah; and as was Issachar, so was Barak, into the valley he was sent under his command 1 - into the divisions of Reuben great decrees of the heart. Why do you dwell between two burdens to hear the hissings of the droves? - towards the divisions of Reuben great searchings of the heart. Judges 5:15-16.

Unless he knows what 'Issachar', 'Deborah', 'Barak', and 'Reuben' represent, and what 'princes', 'the valley', 'a division', 'decrees of the heart', 'two burdens' and 'the hissings of the droves' mean, no one can know what these words are used to mean. But 'Reuben', it is evident, means faith here.

Fußnoten:

1. literally, at his feet

  
/ 10837  
  

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