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Genesis 16

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1 Now Sarai the wife of Abram, had brought forth no children; having a handmaid, an Egyptian, named Agar,

2 She said to her husband: Behold, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: go in unto my handmaid, it may be I may have children of her at least. And when he agreed to her request,

3 She took Agar the Egyptian her handmaid, ten years after they first dwelt in the land of Chanaan, and gave her to her husband to wife.

4 And he went in to her. But she, perceiving that she was with child, despised her mistress.

5 And Sarai said to Abram: Thou dost unjustly with me: I gave my handmaid into thy bosom, and she perceiving herself to be with child, despiseth me. The Lord judge between me and thee.

6 And Abram made answer, and said to her: Behold thy handmaid is in thy own hand, use her its it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai afflicted her, she ran away.

7 And the angel of the Lord having found her, by a fountain of water in the wilderness, which is in the way to Sur in the desert,

8 He said to her: Agar, handmaid of Sarai, whence comest thou? and whither goest thou? And she answered: I flee from the face of Sarai, my mistress.

9 And the angel of the Lord said to her: Return to thy mistress, and humble thyself under her hand.

10 And again he said: I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, and it shall not be numbered for multitude.

11 And again: Behold, said he, thou art with child, and thou shalt bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Ismael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.

12 He shall be a wild man: his hand will be against all men, and all men's hands against him: and he shall pitch his tents over against all his brethren.

13 And she called the name of the Lord that spoke unto her: Thou the God who hast seen me. For she said: Verily here have I seen the hinder parts of him that seeth me.

14 Therefore she called that well, The well of him that liveth and seeth me. The same is between Cades and Bared.

15 And Agar brought forth a son to Abram: who called his name Ismael.

16 Abram was fourscore and six years old when Agar brought him forth Ismael.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #1963

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1963. Abram was a son of eighty years and six years. That this signifies the Lord’s state in respect to the celestial good acquired by means of the combats of temptations, is evident from the signification of “eighty,” in which number is involved much the same as in “forty;” and that these numbers signify temptations has been already shown (n. 730, 862); and from the signification of “six,” as being combat, also explained before (n. 720, 737, 900); and further from the signification of “ten,” as being remains (treated of, n. 576); which remains in the Lord’s case were the possessions of celestial goods by which He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence (n. 1906, at the end). These three numbers are components of the number eighty-six, in which such things are involved, and which thus signifies the Lord’s state in regard to the celestial good acquired by means of the combats of temptations; for all numbers in the Word signify actual things (as before shown, n. 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813). As in this case the numbers mentioned are numbers of years, and as they are also mentioned in historical connection with Abram, it appears as if they were not significative of such things. But there is nothing written in the Word which does not pass into a spiritual and a celestial sense when it passes over to the angels; for angels are in none other than spiritual and celestial ideas, and when the Word is being read by a man, the angels neither know nor perceive what “eighty-six” is, nor do they care of what age Abram was when Hagar bare Ishmael to him; but from such a number, when read, the things involved in the numbers immediately come to them; and the same is the case with all the other expressions, as they have been explained in the internal sense.

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