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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. Nevertheless in this will we consent to you, if ye be as we. That this signifies accession to their religiosity, is evident from the signification of “consenting,” as being accession; and from the signification of “to be as they,” as being that they should be in external things only and not in internal things, for then they would be like them (see just above, n. 4459, where it is shown what it is to be in external things alone, and what it is to be in internal things). It is necessary to state here why man ought to be in internal things. Everyone who reflects is able to know that it is by means of internal things that man has communication with heaven, for the whole heaven is in internal things, and unless a man is in heaven in respect to his thoughts and affections, that is, in respect to the things of his understanding and of his will, he cannot go to heaven after death, because he has no communication with it. This communication is acquired by a man during his bodily life by means of truths that belong to his understanding and goods that belong to his will, and unless he acquires it then he cannot do so afterwards, because after death his mind cannot be opened toward interior things unless it has been opened during the life of the body.

[2] A man is not aware that he is encompassed with a certain spiritual sphere that is in accordance with the life of his affections, and that to the angels this sphere is more perceptible than is the sphere of an odor to the finest sense on earth. If a man’s life has been passed in mere external things, that is to say in the pleasures that come from hatred against his neighbor, from the consequent revenge and cruelty, from adulteries, from the exaltation of self and the attendant contempt for others, from clandestine robberies, from avarice, from deceit, from luxury, and from other like evils, then the spiritual sphere which encompasses him is as foul as is in this world the sphere of the odor from carcasses, dung, stinking garbage, and the like. The man who has lived such a life carries with him after death this foul sphere, and as he is wholly in it he must needs be in hell, the place of spheres of this character. (Concerning the spheres in the other life, and whence they are, see n. 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1519, 1695, 2401, 2489)

[3] But those who are in internal things, that is to say those who have felt delight in benevolence and charity toward the neighbor, and above all those who have felt blessedness in love to the Lord, are encompassed with a grateful and pleasant sphere which is the heavenly sphere itself, and therefore they are in heaven. All the spheres which are perceived in the other life originate from the loves and the derivative affections in which the men have been, consequently from their life, for the loves and derivative affections make the life itself; and as the spheres in question originate from the loves and their derivative affections, they originate from the intentions and ends for the sake of which the man so wills and acts, for everyone has for his end that which he loves, and therefore a man’s ends determine his life and constitute its quality, and this is the main source of his sphere. This sphere is most exquisitely perceived in heaven, because the universal heaven is in the sphere of ends. We can now see of what quality is the man who is in internal things, and also of what quality is he who is in external things, and also the reason why it is necessary to be in internal things and not in external things only.

[4] But these are matters of perfect indifference to the man who is in external things only, no matter how clever he may be as regards the things of civil life, or what may be the reputation for learning he has acquired on account of what he knows, for he is the kind of man who believes in nothing that he cannot see with his eyes and feel with his touch, consequently not in heaven or hell; and if he were told that he will enter the other life immediately after death, and will then see, hear, speak, and enjoy the sense of touch more perfectly than in the body, he would reject the statement as a paradox or fancy, although such is actually the case; and it would be the same if he were told that the soul or spirit which lives after death is the man himself, and not so the body which he carries about in the world.

[5] It follows from this that they who are in external things alone care nothing for what is said of internal things, although it is these which make men blessed and happy in the kingdom into which they are about to come, and in which they will live to eternity. Most Christians are in such unbelief, as I am permitted to know from those who have come from the Christian world into the other life, and with whom I have spoken; for in the other life they cannot conceal what they have thought, because the thoughts there show themselves openly; nor can they conceal what they have had as their ends, that is, what they have loved, because this manifests itself by their sphere.

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