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Genesis 8

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1 And God remembereth Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle which [are] with him in the ark, and God causeth a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subside,

2 and closed are the fountains of the deep and the net-work of the heavens, and restrained is the shower from the heavens.

3 And turn back do the waters from off the earth, going on and returning; and the waters are lacking at the end of a hundred and fifty days.

4 And the ark resteth, in the seventh month, in the seventeenth day of the month, on mountains of Ararat;

5 and the waters have been going and becoming lacking till the tenth month; in the tenth [month], on the first of the month, appeared the heads of the mountains.

6 And it cometh to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah openeth the window of the ark which he made,

7 and he sendeth forth the raven, and it goeth out, going out and turning back till the drying of the waters from off the earth.

8 And he sendeth forth the dove from him to see whether the waters have been lightened from off the face of the ground,

9 and the dove hath not found rest for the sole of her foot, and she turneth back unto him, unto the ark, for waters [are] on the face of all the earth, and he putteth out his hand, and taketh her, and bringeth her in unto him, unto the ark.

10 And he stayeth yet other seven days, and addeth to send forth the dove from the ark;

11 and the dove cometh in unto him at even-time, and lo, an olive leaf torn off in her mouth; and Noah knoweth that the waters have been lightened from off the earth.

12 And he stayeth yet other seven days, and sendeth forth the dove, and it added not to turn back unto him any more.

13 And it cometh to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first [month], in the first of the month, the waters have been dried from off the earth; and Noah turneth aside the covering of the ark, and looketh, and lo, the face of the ground hath been dried.

14 And in the second month, in the seven and twentieth day of the month, the earth hath become dry.

15 And God speaketh unto Noah, saying, `Go out from the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee;

16 every living thing that [is] with thee, of all flesh, among fowl, and among cattle, and among every creeping thing which is creeping on the earth, bring out with thee;

17 and they have teemed in the earth, and been fruitful, and have multiplied on the earth.'

18 And Noah goeth out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him;

19 every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl; every creeping thing on the earth, after their families, have gone out from the ark.

20 And Noah buildeth an altar to Jehovah, and taketh of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and causeth burnt-offerings to ascend on the altar;

21 and Jehovah smelleth the sweet fragrance, and Jehovah saith unto His heart, `I continue not to disesteem any more the ground because of man, though the imagination of the heart of man [is] evil from his youth; and I continue not to smite any more all living, as I have done;

22 during all days of the earth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, do not cease.'

   

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Arcana Coelestia #865

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865. That 'he sent out a raven, and it went out going back and forth' means that falsities were still giving trouble is clear from the meaning of 'a raven' and from the meaning of 'going back and forth', dealt with in the paragraphs following this. Here the description is of the second state following temptation of the person who is to be regenerated, when the truths of faith start to appear as a first glimmer of light. This is the kind of state in which falsities are continually giving trouble. It is a state resembling the morning twilight when the obscurity of the night is still lingering on. That state is therefore meant here by 'the raven'. The falsities residing with a spiritual man, especially before he has been regenerated, are as thick patches of cloud, the reason being that he is incapable of knowing any truth of faith except from things that have been revealed in the Word where all things are stated in a general way. General statements there are nothing else than patches of cloud, for any one general statement embraces thousands of details, and each detail thousands of finer points. Those finer points constituting details are what light up the general statements. These have never been so revealed to mankind because they are both indescribable and also in-comprehensible, and so can neither be acknowledged nor believed. In fact they are contrary to the illusions of the senses which govern man, and to whose destruction he does not readily consent.

[2] The case is altogether different with the celestial man, who has perception from the Lord. In him details and their finer points can be implanted. Take, for example, the consideration that true marriage is a marriage of one man and one wife; and that such a marriage is representative of the heavenly marriage, and as a consequence can contain heavenly happiness, something that is not possible when one man has several wives. The spiritual man, who knows of this from the Word of the Lord, gives his assent to it and so acquires a conscience which dictates that being married to several wives is a sin. Beyond this his knowledge does not go. The celestial man however perceives thousands of details which so confirm the point that the thought of marriage to several makes him shudder. When the spiritual man's knowledge amounts to simply a general view of things, and his conscience is formed from that general view, and when the general statements of the Word are adapted to the illusions of the senses, it is clear that countless falsities which cannot be dispersed will attach themselves and worm their way in. These falsities are meant here by 'the raven that went out going back and forth'.

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