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Genesis 7

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1 And Jehovah said to Noah, Go into the ark, thou and all thy house; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

2 Of all clean beasts thou shalt take to thee by sevens, a male and its female; but of the beasts that are not clean two, a male and its female.

3 Also of the fowl of the heavens by sevens, male and female; to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth.

4 For in yet seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living being which I have made will I destroy from the ground.

5 And Noah did according to all that Jehovah had commanded him.

6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was on the earth.

7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.

8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowl, and of everything that creeps on the ground,

9 there came two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

12 And the pour of rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 On the same day went Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

14 they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and all fowl after its kind -- every bird of every wing.

15 And they went to Noah, into the ark, two and two of all flesh, in which was the breath of life.

16 And they that came, came male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And Jehovah shut him in.

17 And the flood was forty days on the earth. And the waters increased, and bore up the ark; and it was lifted up above the earth.

18 And the waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark went on the face of the waters.

19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth; and all the high mountains that are under all the heavens were covered.

20 Fifteen cubits upward the waters prevailed; and the mountains were covered.

21 And all flesh that moved on the earth expired, fowl as well as cattle, and beasts, and all crawling things which crawl on the earth, and all mankind:

22 everything which had in its nostrils the breath of life, of all that was on the dry [land], died.

23 And every living being was destroyed that was on the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and fowl of the heavens; and they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah alone remained, and what was with him in the ark.

24 And the waters prevailed on the earth a hundred and fifty days.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #794

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794. 'And the waters grew stronger and stronger over the earth' means that persuasions of falsity increased in this way. This is clear from what has been stated and shown just above about waters, namely that 'the waters of the flood' or inundations means falsities. Here since falsities, or persuasions of falsity, increased still more it is said that 'the waters grew stronger and stronger', which in the original language is the superlative degree. Falsities are false assumptions and persuasions of falsity, which increased enormously among the people before the Flood, as is clear from what has been stated concerning them already. Persuasions increase enormously when people immerse truths in evil desires, that is, make those truths support self-love and love of the world. Indeed in those circumstances they pervert those truths, and in a thousand ways force them to agree. For what person is there who, having adopted a false assumption, or made one for himself, does not confirm it from the many facts he knows, even indeed from the Word? Is there any heresy which does not in like manner take hold of confirmatory ideas, and which does not force things that do not agree, and in different ways explain and distort them so that they disagree no longer?

[2] Take for example someone who adopts the assumption that faith alone saves without the good works of charity. Can he not weave an entire system of doctrine from the Word and yet not care in the slightest, not even pay attention to, or indeed notice what the Lord has said about a tree being known by its fruit, and about the tree that does not bear good fruit being cut down and thrown into the fire, Matthew 7:16-20; 12:33? What could be more appealing than living after the flesh and at the same time being saved by merely knowing what is true and not having to perform any good action at all? Every evil desire which a person fosters constitutes the life of his will, and every false assumption or persuasion constitutes the life of his understanding. The life of his will and that of his understanding make one when truths, or doctrinal matters concerning faith, are immersed in evil desires. Everybody in this way forms a soul for himself so to speak, and of such a nature does his life become after death. Consequently nothing is of greater importance to man than knowing what the truth is. When he knows what the truth is, and knows it so well that it cannot be perverted, it cannot then be steeped in evil desires and have deadly effect. What more ought anyone to have at heart than his life which lasts for ever? If he destroys his soul during his lifetime, does he not destroy it for ever?

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