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Genesis 33

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1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. And he distributed the children to Leah, and to Rachel, and to the two maidservants:

2 and he put the maidservants and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindmost.

3 And he passed on before them, and bowed to the earth seven times, until he came near to his brother.

4 And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept.

5 And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, Who are these with thee? And he said, The children that God has graciously given thy servant.

6 And the maidservants drew near, they and their children, and they bowed.

7 And Leah also, with her children, drew near, and they bowed. And lastly Joseph drew near, and Rachel, and they bowed.

8 And he said, What [meanest] thou by all the drove which I met? And he said, To find favour in the eyes of my lord.

9 And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; let what thou hast be thine.

10 And Jacob said, No, I pray thee; if now I have found favour in thine eyes, then receive my gift from my hand; for therefore have I seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou hast received me with pleasure.

11 Take, I pray thee, my blessing which has been brought to thee; because God has been gracious to me, and because I have everything. And he urged him, and he took [it].

12 And he said, Let us take our journey, and go on, and I will go before thee.

13 And he said to him, My lord knows that the children are tender, and the suckling sheep and kine are with me; and if they should overdrive them only one day, all the flock would die.

14 Let my lord, I pray thee, pass on before his servant, and I will drive on at my ease according to the pace of the cattle that is before me, and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord, to Seir.

15 And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee [some] of the people that are with me. And he said, What need? Let me find favour in the eyes of my lord.

16 And Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house, and for his cattle he made booths. Therefore the name of the place was called Succoth.

18 And Jacob came safely [to the] city Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan-Aram; and he encamped before the city.

19 And he bought the portion of the field where he had spread his tent, of the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred kesitahs.

20 And there he set up an altar, and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #4384

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4384. 'Until I come to my lord, to Seir' means until they - the truth meant by 'Jacob' and the good meant by 'Esau' - could be joined together. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'Seir' as the joining of spiritual things to celestial ones within the natural, that is, the joining of truth which belongs to faith to good which belongs to charity. Good to which truth has been joined within the natural, and in the highest sense the Lord's Divine Natural as regards good joined to truth there, is what is meant strictly speaking by 'Seir' in the following places in the Word: In Moses' prophecy concerning the children of Israel,

Jehovah came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir upon them; He shone from Mount Paran, and came out of myriads of holiness. Deuteronomy 33:2-3.

In Balaam's prophecy,

I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near. A star will arise out of Jacob, and a sceptre will rise up out of Israel. And Edom will be an inheritance, and Seir will be an inheritance, of His enemies - with Israel doing valiantly. Numbers 24:17-18.

In the Song of Deborah and Barak,

O Jehovah, when You went forth from Seir, when You set out from the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the mountains flowed down, this Sinai before Jehovah God of Israel. Judges 5:4-5.

In Isaiah,

One is calling to me from Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, Morning comes, and also the night. Isaiah 21:11-12.

See 4240 for these texts referring to Seir, as well as others quoted there.

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

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Arcana Coelestia #5595

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5595. 'And Israel said' means a perception received from spiritual good. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perceiving, dealt with already; and from the representation of 'Israel' as spiritual good, dealt with in 3654, 4598. And as 'Israel' represents spiritual good, he also represents the internal Church, 3305, 4286; for that Church is a Church by virtue of its spiritual good. Spiritual good is truth made into good; for truth is made into good when a person leads a life in keeping with that truth. When he does this, truth passes into his will and from there into action and becomes part of his life; and when truth becomes part of his life it is no longer called truth but good. But the will which transforms truth into good is the new will formed in the understanding part of his mind; and that good is called spiritual good. Spiritual good differs from celestial good in that celestial good is implanted in the will part of a person's mind. But this matter has been dealt with quite a number of times before.

[2] The reason why Jacob is not called Jacob now, as he is in Verse Genesis 42:36 of the previous chapter, but Israel is that good is the subject here, whereas truth was the subject in the previous chapter. In the previous chapter the speaker was therefore Reuben, who represents the truth of doctrine taught by the Church, 3861, 3866, 4731, 4734, 4761, 5542; but in the present chapter the speaker is Judah, by whom the good of the Church is represented, 3654, 5583. Good becomes the subject now because this time the joining together is effected of the internal, which is 'Joseph', and the external, which is 'the ten sons of Jacob', through the intermediary, which is 'Benjamin'. That joining of the internal to the external is effected through good.

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