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Genesis 15

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1 After these things the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward.

2 And Abram said, Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me? seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus.

3 And Abram said, Lo, to me thou hast given no seed, and behold, a son of my house will be mine heir.

4 And behold, the word of Jehovah [came] to him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that will come forth out of thy body shall be thine heir.

5 And he led him out, and said, Look now toward the heavens, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said to him, So shall thy seed be!

6 And he believed Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him [as] righteousness.

7 And he said to him, I am Jehovah who brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give thee this land to possess it.

8 And he said, Lord Jehovah, how shall I know that I shall possess it?

9 And he said to him, Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.

10 And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the half of each opposite its fellow; but the birds he did not divide.

11 And the birds of prey came down on the carcases; and Abram scared them away.

12 And as the sun was just going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, a horror, a great darkness, fell upon him.

13 And he said to Abram, Know assuredly that thy seed will be a sojourner in a land [that is] not theirs, and they shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.

14 But also that nation which they shall serve I will judge; and afterwards they shall come out with great property.

15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

16 And [in the] fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

17 And it came to pass when the sun had gone down, and it was dark, that behold, there was a smoking furnace, and a flame of fire which passed between those pieces.

18 On the same day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates;

19 the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

20 and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim,

21 and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

   

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #1837

Studere hoc loco

  
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1837. The sun was going down. That this signifies the time and the state before the consummation, is evident from the signification of “the sun.” In the internal sense “the sun” signifies the Lord, and thence it signifies the celestial things which are of love and charity, consequently love itself and charity (spoken of above, n. 30-38, and n. 1053). From this it is evident that the “going down of the sun” denotes the last time of the church, which is called the consummation, when there is no longer any charity. The Lord’s church is also compared to the times of the day; its first period to the rising of the sun, or to the dawn and the morning; its last to the setting of the sun, or to the evening and the shades then prevailing, for the two things are similarly circumstanced. The church is also compared to the times of the year; its first period to the spring, when all things are in bloom; that which is before the last to the autumn, when they begin to become inactive. It is even compared to the metals; its first period is called golden; its last, iron and clay; as in Daniel (2:31-33). From all this it is evident what is signified by “the going down of the sun,” namely, that it signifies the time and the state before the consummation, seeing that the sun had not yet set. In what follows, the state of the church when the sun has set is treated of, in that there was then thick darkness and the smoke of a furnace, and that a torch of fire passed between the pieces.

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