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Genesis 15

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1 Now when these things were done, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.

2 And Abram said: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go without children: and the son of the steward of my house is this Damascus Eliezer.

3 And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and lo my servant, born in my house, shall be my heir.

4 And immediately the word of the Lord came to him, saying: He shall not be thy heir: but he that shall come out of thy bowels, him shalt thou have for thy heir.

5 And he thought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars, if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed be.

6 Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.

7 And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to gibe thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it.

8 But he said: Lord God, whereby may I know that I shall possess it?

9 And the Lord answered, and said: Take me a cow of three years old, and a she goat of three years, and a ram of three years, a turtle also, and a pigeon.

10 And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the two pieces of each one against the other; but the birds he divided not.

11 And the fowls came down upon carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

12 And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror seized upon him.

13 And it was said unto him: Know thou beforehand that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their own, and they shall bring them under bondage, and afflict them four hundred years.

14 But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after this they shall come out with great substance.

15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age.

16 But in the fourth generation they shall return hither: for as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full until this present time.

17 And when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and there appeared a smoking furnace and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions.

18 That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates.

19 The Cineans and Cenezites, the Cedmonites,

20 And the Hethites, and the Pherezites, the Raphaim also,

21 And the Amorrhites, and the Chanaanits, and the Gergesites, and the Jebusites.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #1846

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1846. And they shall afflict them. That this signifies their severe temptations, may be seen from the signification of “afflicting,” or of “affliction,” as being persecution, consequently temptation. In the Word of the Lord nothing else is signified by “affliction.” As in Isaiah:

I will purge thee, and not with silver; I will choose thee in the furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10),

“affliction” denoting temptation.

In Moses:

Thou shalt remember all the way by which Jehovah thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that He might afflict thee, to tempt thee. Jehovah, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not, that He might afflict thee, and that He might tempt thee, to do thee good at thy latter end (Deuteronomy 8:2, 16);

to “afflict” manifestly denotes to tempt.

[2] In the same:

When the Egyptians did evil unto us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard servitude; and we cried unto Jehovah, the God of our fathers, and Jehovah heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression (Deuteronomy 26:6-7).

Here we find the same things as in the present verse: that they “served” and were “afflicted,” by which in like manner are signified the temptations of the faithful, as likewise by their afflictions in the wilderness, by which also there were represented the temptations of the Lord.

[3] As in Isaiah:

He was despised, a man of sorrows, and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. But truly He hath borne our diseases, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:3-4).

By these words are signified the Lord’s temptations; by His “bearing our sicknesses, and carrying our sorrows,” is not meant that the faithful are to undergo no temptations, nor is it meant that He took their sins upon Himself, and so bore them; but it means that by the combats and victories of temptations He overcame the hells, and in this way would alone, even as to His Human Essence, endure the temptations of the faithful.

[4] Temptations are also called by the Lord “afflictions;” as in Mark:

They that are sown upon stony places, when they have heard the Word have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; afterwards, when affliction and persecution arise because of the Word, straightway they are offended (Mark 4:16-17).

“Affliction” here manifestly denotes temptation; to “have no root in themselves” is to have no charity, for in this is faith rooted, and they who have not the support of this root yield in temptations.

In John:

In the world ye have affliction; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

“Affliction” here denotes temptation.

[5] In Matthew:

Nation shall be stirred up against nation and kingdom against kingdom; all these things are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up unto affliction. Then shall be great affliction, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world. Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun shall be darkened (Matthew 24:7-9, 21, 29).

Here the consummation of the age, or the last times of the church, are treated of; “affliction” denotes temptations, both external and internal, the external being persecutions from the world, and the internal being persecutions from the devil. That there will be no charity, is signified by “nation being stirred against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;” also by “the sun,” that is, the Lord and love and charity, being “darkened.”

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