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Genesis 9

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1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.

6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.

11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.

19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.

20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:

21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #857

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857. That 'the waters were going down and abating' means that falsities started to be dispersed is clear from the actual words themselves and from what has been stated just above, at verse 3, where it is said that 'the waters receded, going back and forth', whereas in this verse it is said that 'the waters were going down and abating'. The latter as well as the former means fluctuations between truth and falsity, though the present statement means that those fluctuations were becoming less pronounced. As has been stated, during the fluctuations that follow temptation a person does not know what truth is, but as the movements gradually come to an end so the light of truth appears. The reason for this is that as long as a person's state is such, the internal man cannot function, that is, the Lord cannot function by way of the internal into the external. The internal contains remnants, which are affections for good and for truth deriving from it, which have been dealt with already. The external contains evil desires, and falsities deriving from these. As long as these external things have not been subdued and done away with, no road is open for goods and truths to pass from the internal, that is, from the Lord by way of the internal.

[2] A further purpose of temptations therefore is that the external side of a person may be subdued and so made subservient to the internal. This may become clear to anyone from the fact that as soon as a person's loves are assaulted and crushed, as they are in times of misfortune, sickness, and mental illness, his evil desires start to subside. And as they subside he begins to talk of more devout things. But as soon as he goes back to his previous state, his external man takes control again and he gives scarcely any thought to such matters. It is similar in the final hour of death when bodily things start to fade. From these considerations anyone may see what the internal man is and what the external man, also what remnants are, and how too the desires and pleasures that belong to the external man hinder the Lord's functioning by way of the internal man. From this also anyone may discern what temptations, that is, the inward pains termed the pricks of conscience, accomplish; they take place so that the external man may become subservient to the internal. The external man is made subservient solely to ensure that affections for good and truth are not hindered, halted, and stifled by evil desires and by falsities deriving from them. The subsidence of evil desires and falsities is here described by 'the waters going down and abating'.

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