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Genesis 17

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1 And after he began to be ninety and nine years old, the Lord appeared to him: and said unto him: I am the Almighty God: walk before me, and be perfect.

2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee: and I will multiply thee exceedingly.

3 Abram tell flat on his face.

4 And God said to him: I AM, and my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father. of many nations.

5 Neither shall thy name be called any more Abram: but thou shalt be called Abraham: because I have made thee a father of many nations.

6 And I will make thee increase, exceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and between thy sad after thee in their generations, by a perpetual covenant: to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee.

8 And I will give to thee, and to thy seed, the land of thy sojournment, all the land of Chanaan for a perpetual possession, and I will be their God.

9 Again God said to Abraham: And thou therefore shalt keep my covenant, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

10 This is my covenant which you shall observe, between me and you, and thy seed after thee: All the male kind of you shall be circumcised:

11 And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, that it may be for a h sign of the covenant between me and you.

12 An infant of eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations: he that is born in the house, as well as the bought servant shall be circumcised, and whosoever is not of your stock:

13 And my covenant shall be in your flesh for a perpetual covenant.

14 The male, whose dash of his foreskin shall not be circumcised, that soul shall be destroyed out of his people: because he hath broken my covenant.

15 God said also to Abraham: Sarai thy wife thou shalt not call Sarai, but Sara.

16 And I will bless her, and of her I will give thee a son, whom I will bless, and he shell become nations, and kings of people shall spring from him.

17 Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, saying in his heart: Shall a son, thinkest thou, be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sara that is ninety years old bring forth?

18 And he said to God: O that Ismael may live before thee.

19 And God said to Abraham: Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for a perpetual covenant, and with his seed after him.

20 And as for Ismael I have also heard thee. Behold, I will bless him, and increase, and multiply him exceedingly: he shall beget twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation.

21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sara shall bring forth to thee at this time in the next year.

22 And when he had left oil speaking with him, God went up from Abraham.

23 And Abraham took Ismael his son, and all that were born in his house: and all whom he had bought, every male among the men of his house: and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin forthwith the very same day, as God had commanded him.

24 Abraham was ninety and nine years old, when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin.

25 And Ismael his son was full thirteen years old at the time of his circumcision.

26 The selfsame day was Abraham circumcised and Ismael his son.

27 And all the men of his house, as well they that were born in his house, as the bought servants and strangers were circumcised with him.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #2093

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2093. 'Whom Sarah will bear to you' means Divine Truth joined to Divine Good from which it will come forth into being. This is clear from the representation of 'Sarah' as Divine Truth, dealt with already in 2063, 2081, and from the representation of 'Abraham' as Divine Good, dealt with in 2063 and in various places elsewhere.

[2] The manner in which the Lord's first rational was conceived and born has been stated in the previous chapter where Ishmael, who represented that rational, was the subject. This chapter and the next deal with that Rational which was made Divine by the Lord, something He achieved through the marriage-like conjunction of Divine Good with Divine Truth. The only possible way the first rational can be conceived is by the influx of the Internal Man into the External Man's affection for knowledge. Nor can it be born from anything other than the affection for knowledge, an affection represented by 'Hagar, Sarai's servant-girl', as shown in the previous chapter, in 1896, 1902, 1910, and elsewhere in that chapter.

[3] But the second or Divine Rational is not conceived and born in the same way but by the conjunction of Truth in the Internal Man with Good in the same, and the resulting influx. In the Lord's case this was achieved by His own power derived from the Divine itself, that is, from Jehovah. As stated in various places already, His Internal Man was Jehovah. And Good itself, represented by 'Abraham', belonged to the Internal Man, as also did Truth itself, represented by 'Sarah'. Both were on that account Divine, and from them both the Lord's Divine Rational was conceived and born. Indeed it was conceived and born from the influx of good into truth, and so by means of truth, for the principal element in the rational is truth, as stated above in 2072. Hence the statement here 'whom Sarah will bear to you', which means Divine Truth joined to Good from which it will come into being, and at verse 17 above the statement 'Sarah a daughter of ninety years' means that Truth joined to Good will accomplish this.

[4] With all human beings, since each has been created in the likeness and image of God, something similar yet not comparable takes place, in that his first rational too is conceived and born through the influx of his internal man into the life of his external man's affection for knowledge, but his second rational results from the influx of good and truth from the Lord by way of his internal man. This second rational he receives from the Lord when he is being regenerated, for at that time he senses within his rational what the good and truth of faith are. The internal man with anyone is above his rational, and is the Lord's. This is dealt with in 1889, 1940.

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