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Genesis 47:18

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18 And when that year was ended, they came to him in the second year, and said, We may not keep it from our lord's knowledge that all our money is gone, and all the herds of cattle are my lord's; there is nothing more to give my lord but our bodies and our land;

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #6150

Studere hoc loco

  
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6150. 'And ate their fixed portion which Pharaoh had given them' means that they did not make any forms of good their own beyond what had been decreed. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own, dealt with in 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 3872, 4745; and from the meaning of 'fixed portion' as that which has been decreed, as immediately above in 6149, so that 'eating a fixed portion' means not making any forms of good one's own beyond what has been decreed. This decree was made by the natural, represented by 'Pharaoh'. that is, in the natural under the control of the internal, see also immediately above in 6149.

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