Bibliorum

 

创世记 8

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1 记念挪亚和挪亚方舟里的一切走牲畜势渐落。

2 渊源和上的窗户都闭塞了,上的大雨也止住了。

3 水从上渐退。过了一五十,水就渐消。

4 十七日,方舟停在亚拉腊上。

5 水又渐消,到十初一日,顶都现出来了。

6 过了四十,挪亚开了方舟的窗户,

7 放出一只乌鸦去;那乌鸦飞来飞去,直到上的都乾了。

8 他又放出一只鸽子去,要水从地上退了没有。

9 但遍上都是水,鸽子不着落,就回到方舟挪亚那里,挪亚伸鸽子接进方舟

10 他又等了,再把鸽子从方舟放出去。

11 到了晚上鸽子回到他那里,嘴里叼着一个新拧下橄榄子,挪亚就知道上的水退了。

12 他又等了,放出鸽子去,鸽子就不再回来了。

13 到挪亚零一岁,正初一日,上的水都乾了。挪亚撤去方舟的盖观,便见地面上乾了。

14 到了二二十日,就都乾了。

15 对挪亚

16 你和你的妻子、儿子、儿妇都可以出方舟。

17 在你那里凡有血的活物,就是飞牲畜,和一切爬在上的昆虫,都要带出来,叫他在上多多滋生,大大兴旺。

18 於是挪亚和他的妻子、儿子、儿妇都出来了。

19 一切走、昆虫、飞,和上所有的动物,各从其类,也都出了方舟。

20 挪亚为耶和华筑了一座,拿各类洁净的牲畜、飞献在上为燔祭。

21 耶和华那馨之气,就:我不再因人的缘故咒诅地(人从小时里怀着恶念),也不再按着我才行的灭各种的活物了。

22 还存留的时候,稼穑、寒暑、冬夏、昼夜就永不停息了。

   

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #857

Studere hoc loco

  
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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.

Bibliorum

 

Genesis 8

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1 God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.

2 The deep's fountains and the sky's windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

3 The waters receded from the earth continually. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters decreased.

4 The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat's mountains.

5 The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

6 It happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,

7 and he sent forth a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth.

8 He sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground,

9 but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ship; for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship.

10 He stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ship.

11 The dove came back to him at evening, and, behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.

12 He stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she didn't return to him any more.

13 It happened in the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried.

14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15 God spoke to Noah, saying,

16 "Go out of the ship, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you.

17 Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth."

18 Noah went forth, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him.

19 Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.

20 Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21 Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done.

22 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."