Die Bibel

 

Genesis 35

Lernen

   

1 And God saith unto Jacob, `Rise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar to God, who appeared unto thee in thy fleeing from the face of Esau thy brother.'

2 And Jacob saith unto his household, and unto all who [are] with him, `Turn aside the gods of the stranger which [are] in your midst, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments;

3 and we rise, and go up to Bethel, and I make there an altar to God, who is answering me in the day of my distress, and is with me in the way that I have gone.'

4 And they give unto Jacob all the gods of the stranger that [are] in their hand, and the rings that [are] in their ears, and Jacob hideth them under the oak which [is] by Shechem;

5 and they journey, and the terror of God is on the cities which [are] round about them, and they have not pursued after the sons of Jacob.

6 And Jacob cometh in to Luz which [is] in the land of Canaan (it [is] Bethel), he and all the people who [are] with him,

7 and he buildeth there an altar, and proclaimeth at the place the God of Bethel: for there had God been revealed unto him, in his fleeing from the face of his brother.

8 And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, dieth, and she is buried at the lower part of Bethel, under the oak, and he calleth its name `Oak of weeping.'

9 And God appeareth unto Jacob again, in his coming from Padan-Aram, and blesseth him;

10 and God saith to him, `Thy name [is] Jacob: thy name is no more called Jacob, but Israel is thy name;' and He calleth his name Israel.

11 And God saith to him, `I [am] God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply, a nation and an assembly of nations is from thee, and kings from thy loins go out;

12 and the land which I have given to Abraham and to Isaac -- to thee I give it, yea to thy seed after thee I give the land.'

13 And God goeth up from him, in the place where He hath spoken with him.

14 And Jacob setteth up a standing pillar in the place where He hath spoken with him, a standing pillar of stone, and he poureth on it an oblation, and he poureth on it oil;

15 and Jacob calleth the name of the place where God spake with him Bethel.

16 And they journey from Bethel, and there is yet a kibrath of land before entering Ephratha, and Rachel beareth, and is sharply pained in her bearing;

17 and it cometh to pass, in her being sharply pained in her bearing, that the midwife saith to her, `Fear not, for this also [is] a son for thee.'

18 And it cometh to pass in the going out of her soul (for she died), that she calleth his name Ben-Oni; and his father called him Benjamin;

19 and Rachel dieth, and is buried in the way to Ephratha, which [is] Bethlehem,

20 and Jacob setteth up a standing pillar over her grave; which [is] the standing pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.

21 And Israel journeyeth, and stretcheth out his tent beyond the tower of Edar;

22 and it cometh to pass in Israel's dwelling in that land, that Reuben goeth, and lieth with Bilhah his father's concubine; and Israel heareth.

23 And the sons of Jacob are twelve. Sons of Leah: Jacob's first-born Reuben, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun.

24 Sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

25 And sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maid-servant: Dan and Naphtali.

26 And sons of Zilpah, Leah's maid-servant: Gad and Asher. These [are] sons of Jacob, who have been born to him in Padan-Aram.

27 And Jacob cometh unto Isaac his father, at Mamre, the city of Arba (which [is] Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac have sojourned.

28 And the days of Isaac are a hundred and eighty years,

29 and Isaac expireth, and dieth, and is gathered unto his people, aged and satisfied with days; and bury him do Esau and Jacob his sons.

   

Aus Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #4588

studieren Sie diesen Abschnitt

  
/ 10837  
  

4588. 'That the midwife said to her, Do not be afraid' means perception received from the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' in the historical narratives of the Word as perception, dealt with in 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509, and from the meaning of 'the midwife' as the natural. The reason 'the midwife' here means the natural is that when anyone undergoes interior temptations, that is, when the interior man undergoes temptations, the natural is like a midwife. For unless the natural assists no birth of interior truth is possible, since it is the natural that receives interior truths into its bosom once these are born; indeed it is the natural that enables them to push their way out. The same applies to instances of spiritual birth, in that reception must take place wholly within the natural. This is the reason why, when a person is being regenerated, the natural is first of all made ready to receive, and to the extent it is then able to receive, interior truths and goods are able to emerge and multiply. This also explains why, if the natural man has not been made ready during the life of the body to receive the truths and goods of faith, that person cannot receive them in the next life and so cannot be saved. This is the implication of the common saying 'As the tree falls, so it must lie', meaning, What a person is when he dies, so he comes to be. For a person has with him in the next life his whole natural memory, that is, the memory belonging to his external man, though he is not allowed to use it in that life, 2469-2494. In the next life therefore that memory serves as the groundwork on which interior truths and goods rest; but if that groundwork is not able to support the goods and truths which flow into it from within, interior goods and truths are either annihilated, or perverted, or cast aside. From all this it may be seen that the natural is like a midwife.

[2] The likeness of the natural to a midwife, inasmuch as it is a recipient when the interior man gives birth, becomes clear also from the internal sense of what is recorded concerning the midwives who, contrary to Pharaoh's orders, allowed the sons of the Hebrew women to live. This is described in Moses as follows,

The king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrew women, and he said, When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the stools, if it is a son you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter she shall be allowed to live. And the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt told them, but allowed the sons to live. And the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them Why have you done this thing and allowed the sons to live? And the midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are lively; before the midwife reaches them they have given birth. And God did well to the midwives; and the people multiplied and became extremely numerous. And it happened because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses. Exodus 1:15-21.

'The daughters and sons' to whom the Hebrew women gave birth represent the goods and truths of a new Church; 'the midwives' represent the natural, inasmuch as this is the recipient of goods and truths; 'the king of Egypt' represents factual knowledge in general, 1164, 1165, 1186, that wipes out truths, as happens when factual knowledge enters into matters of faith by a wrong path, which it does when nothing except that dictated by sensory experience and factual knowledge is believed. The fact that 'the midwives' in that passage means receptions of truth, within the natural, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be corroborated when the contents of that chapter in Exodus come up for explanation.

  
/ 10837  
  

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