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Genesis 34

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1 Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

2 Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her.

3 His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady.

4 Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, "Get me this young lady as a wife."

5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came.

6 Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him.

7 The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; a which thing ought not to be done.

8 Hamor talked with them, saying, "The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.

9 Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

10 You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it."

11 Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give.

12 Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife."

13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister,

14 and said to them, "We can't do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us.

15 Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised;

16 then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.

17 But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone."

18 Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son.

19 The young man didn't wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father.

20 Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying,

21 "These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.

22 Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised.

23 Won't their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let us give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us."

24 All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

25 It happened on the third day, when they were sore, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males.

26 They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away.

27 Jacob's sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

28 They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field,

29 and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house.

30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house."

31 They said, "Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?"

   

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Arcana Coelestia #4464

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4464. 'Only on this [condition] will we consent to you: If you will be as we are' means acceptance of their semblance of religion. This is clear from the meaning of 'consenting' as acceptance, and from the meaning of 'being as they are' as being interested only in external things and not in internal ones, for they would in that case have been as they were, see just above in 4459. There it was shown - in 4459 - what an interest only in external things is and what an interest in internal ones is. Here the reason why a person ought to be interested in internal ones is going to be stated. Anyone who reflects may see that man has communication with heaven by means of internal things, for the whole of heaven dwells within internal things. Unless a person is in heaven as regards his thoughts and affections, that is, as regards the thoughts in his understanding and the affections in his will, he cannot go to heaven after death, since he has no communication with it at all. During his lifetime a person secures that communication by means of truths in his understanding and goods in his will, and unless he secures it then he cannot do so subsequently, since his mind cannot be opened after death to interior things if it has not been opened to them during his lifetime.

[2] Man is not immediately conscious of the fact that a spiritual sphere surrounds him, the nature of which is determined by the life of his affections. That sphere the angels are able to perceive more clearly than any aroma reaching the keenest sense of smell in the world. If in his life he has been interested only in external things, that is to say, in the pleasures that are gained from hatred against the neighbour, from consequent revenge and cruelty, from committing adultery, from self-aggrandizement and consequent contempt for others, from unseen acts of robbery, from avarice, from deceit, and from luxuriousness, and other vices like these, the spiritual sphere which surrounds him is as offensive as the aroma in the world coming from dead bodies, dung, stinking refuse, and other things such as these. Anyone who has been leading a life like this takes that sphere with him after death; and being entirely surrounded by that sphere he cannot exist anywhere else than in hell where such spheres belong. Concerning spheres in the next life and their origins, see 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1519, 1695, 2401, 2489.

[3] People however who are interested in internal things - that is to say, who have taken delight in expressing good-will and charity towards the neighbour, and most of all who have found blessedness in love to the Lord - have a pleasing and lovely sphere surrounding them, which is the heavenly sphere itself; and for that reason they are in heaven. All the spheres which are perceived in the next life have their origin in the loves and in the affections deriving from those loves which have governed them. Such spheres have their origins as a consequence in their life, for their loves and affections derived from these loves constitute their life itself. And because they have their origins in their loves and affections derived from these they have their origins in the intentions and the ends in view which cause a person to will and to act in the way he does. For everyone has as his end in view that which he loves, and therefore a person's ends determine what his life is and constitute the essential nature of it; and this is the main source of the sphere around him. That sphere is perceived most perfectly in heaven the reason being that the sphere emanating from ends in view exists throughout the whole of heaven. These considerations show what someone is like whose interest is in internal things and what someone is like whose interest is in external ones, and why a person ought not to be interested only in external things but to be interested in internal ones also.

[4] But someone who is interested only in external things pays no attention to internal ones - no matter how skillful he may be in the conduct of public affairs and no matter how great a reputation he has earned for being learned - because he is the kind of person who does not believe in the existence of anything which he does not see with his eyes or feel by touch, and therefore does not believe in heaven or in hell. And if he were told that he was going to enter the next life immediately after death, where he will see, hear, speak, and enjoy a sense of touch more perfectly than when in the body he would reject it as an absurdity or sheer fantasy, when in actual fact that happens to be the truth. His reaction would be the same if anyone were to tell him that the soul or spirit which lives after death is the real person and not the body which he carries around in the world.

[5] From this it follows that those who are interested only in external things pay no attention at all to what is said concerning internal things, when yet it is these that make people blessed and happy in the kingdom which they are going to enter and in which they are going to live for ever. Such unbelief is present in most Christians, as I have been allowed to know from those to whom I have spoken who have entered the next life from the Christian world. For in the next life they are not able to conceal what they have thought since thoughts are laid completely bare there; nor are they able to conceal what ends they have had in view, that is, what they have loved, for this reveals itself through the sphere surrounding them.

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