Bibliorum

 

Genesis 7:2

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2 Võta enesele kõigist puhtaist loomadest seitse paari, isane ja emane; ja loomadest, kes puhtad ei ole, kaks - isane ja emane.

Commentarius

 

Mountain

  

The Lord's love is the sun of heaven, and it is natural for us to look above ourselves to the sun of this world in thinking about the Lord. It follows, then, that to be closer to the Lord we would climb into the highest places -- and indeed, people have been worshiping on mountains for ages. In fact, even steeples on modern churches are symbolic mountains. It makes sense, then, that a mountain in the Bible represents love to the Lord, the highest, purest love we human beings can experience. Mountains can also represent the desire for good that comes from the love of the Lord. Hills, meanwhile, represent a love of other people and a caring for them, and when "mountains" is used in the plural it generally represents both loves.

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #746

Studere hoc loco

  
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746. 'Everything that creeps over the ground' means the sensory part and every associated delight. This too has been stated and shown already. The most ancient people compared and likened man's sensory powers and his delights that go with these to reptiles and creeping things, and also called them such, for they are the most exterior things of all. They creep so to speak over the surface of man and must not be allowed to climb any higher.

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