The Bible

 

Genesis 2

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1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven.

5 And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth: and there was not a man to till the ground;

6 but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

8 And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9 And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pishon: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Cush.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth in front of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16 And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

18 And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.

19 And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20 And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a help meet for him.

21 And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof:

22 and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #9408

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9408. And as the substance of heaven in respect to cleanness. That this signifies the shining through of the angelic heaven, is evident from the signification of “heaven,” as being the angelic heaven (of which in what follows); and from the signification of the “cleanness,” or purity, of “the substance,” when said of heaven, as being its shining through. It shall be briefly stated what is meant by the shining through of the angelic heaven in connection with the Word. The angelic heaven is said to shine through when truth Divine shines through. For the whole heaven is nothing but a receptacle of truth Divine, because every angel is a reception of it in particular; thus all the angels, or the whole heaven, are so in general. From this, heaven is called “the habitation of God,” and also “the throne of God,” because by “habitation” is signified the truth Divine that proceeds from the Lord received in the inmost heaven, which relatively is good (n. 8269, 8309); and by “throne” is signified truth Divine from the Lord received in the middle heaven (n. 5313, 6397, 8625, 9039). As it is truth Divine such as in the heavens which shines through from the sense of the letter of the Word, therefore it is the angelic heaven which shines through; for the Word is Divine truth accommodated to all the heavens; and it consequently conjoins the heavens with the world, that is, angels with men (n. 2143, 7153, 7381, 8920, 9094, 9212, 9216, 9357, 9396). From all this it is evident what is meant by the shining through of the angelic heaven.

[2] That in the internal sense “heaven” denotes the angelic heaven, is from correspondence, and also from the appearance. Hence it is that when mention is made in the Word of “the heavens,” and also of “the heavens of heavens,” in the internal sense are meant the angelic heavens. For the ancients had no other idea of the visible heaven than that the heavenly inhabitants dwell there, and that the stars are their habitations. Similar also at this day is the idea of the simple, and especially of little children. From this also men look upward to heaven when praying earnestly to God. This also is from correspondence; for in the other life a heaven with stars appears, yet not the heaven that appears to men in the world; but a heaven that appears in accordance with the state of intelligence and wisdom of the spirits and angels. The stars there are knowledges of good and truth; and the clouds which are sometimes seen beneath the heaven are of various signification according to their colors, their translucence, and their movements; the blueness of heaven is truth transparent from good. From all this it can be seen that by “the heavens” are signified the angelic heavens; but by “the angelic heavens” are signified truths Divine, because the angels are receptions of the truth Divine that proceeds from the Lord.

[3] Similar things are signified by “the heavens” in David:

Praise Jehovah ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that are above the heavens (Psalms 148:4).

Sing psalms to the Lord that rideth upon the heaven of heaven which is of old (Psalms 68:32-33).

By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the army of them (Psalms 33:6).

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament declareth the works of His hands (Psalms 19:1).

Jehovah, when Thou wentest forth out of Seir, the earth trembled; the heavens also dripped, the clouds also dripped water (Judg. 5:4).

The horn of the he-goat grew, even to the army of the heavens; and some of the army and of the stars it cast down to the earth, and trampled upon them (Daniel 8:10).

The Lord Jehovih buildeth in the heavens His steps (Amos 9:6).

If there be food in My house I will open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing (Malachi 3:10).

Look forth from the heavens, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy comeliness (Isaiah 63:15).

Blessed of Jehovah be the land of Joseph, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew (Deuteronomy 33:13).

Jesus said, Swear not by the heaven; for it is the throne of God. He that sweareth by the heaven sweareth by the throne of God, and by Him that sitteth thereon (Matthew 5:34; 23:22).

[4] In these passages, and in many others, by “the heavens” are signified the angelic heavens; and as the Lord’s heaven on earth is the church, by “heaven” is also signified the church; as in the following passages. In John::

I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth were passed away (Revelation 21:1).

Behold I create new heavens and a new earth; therefore the former things shall not be remembered, nor come up upon the heart (Isaiah 65:17).

The heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment (Isaiah 51:6).

I clothe the heaven with blackness, and I make sackcloth a covering (Isaiah 50:3).

I will cover the heavens, and I will blacken the stars thereof; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not make her light to shine; and I will blacken all the luminaries of light in the heaven, and will set darkness upon the land (Ezekiel 32:7-8).

After the affliction of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken (Matthew 24:29).

What is here signified by the “sun,” “moon,” “stars,” and “the powers of the heavens,” may be seen above (n. 4056-4060).

In Isaiah:

O Jehovah the God of Israel, Thou alone art the God over all the kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth (Isaiah 37:16).

I am Jehovah, that maketh all things; that spreadeth out the heavens alone; that stretcheth out the earth by Myself (Isaiah 44:24).

Jehovah that createth the heavens, that formeth the earth and maketh it, and prepareth it, He created it not an emptiness (Isaiah 45:18).

[5] That by “heaven and earth” in these and in other passages is signified in the internal sense the church; by “heaven” the internal church, and by “earth” the external church, may be seen above (n. 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4535), from which it is evident that by the “creation” in the first chapters of Genesis, where it is said, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1); “and the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the army of them” (Genesis 2:1) is meant a new church; for the creation there denotes a new regeneration, which is also called a “new creation,” as can be seen from what was shown in the explications at these chapters.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8625

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8625. And he said, Because there is a hand against the throne of Jah. That this signifies because they wish to do violence to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, is evident from the signification of “a hand against anyone,” as being to do violence; and from the signification of “the throne of Jah,” as being the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. That “the throne of Jah” denotes the Lord’s spiritual kingdom is because “a throne” is predicated of the Lord’s royalty; and the Lord’s spiritual kingdom corresponds to His royalty. There are two things which are predicated of the Lord, namely, priesthood and royalty. The celestial kingdom corresponds to His priesthood, and the spiritual kingdom to His royalty; for the Lord is called “Priest” from Divine good, and “King” from Divine truth. This latter, namely, Divine truth, is involved in the name “Christ,” and Divine good in the name “Jesus” (see n. 1728, 2015, 3004, 3009, 6148). “Throne” is predicated of the Lord’s royalty, consequently of His spiritual kingdom, and in like manner “Jah.” (What “throne” signifies, see n. 5213; and what “Jah,” n. 8267)

[2] As regards the subject itself, namely, that they who are represented by Amalek (who are infernal genii that are in the falsity from interior evil) wish to do violence to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, this has been unfolded above (n. 8593, 8622). They who were in the falsity of this evil could not be warded off from those who were of the spiritual church until the Lord came into the world and made the human in Himself Divine. They were then shut up in hell, whence they can never rise up; moreover, the communication which is effected through influx, was quite taken away. For the man of the spiritual church is in obscurity as to the truth of faith, and acknowledges it as truth because the church has said so, and not because he has perceived it to be truth. With these men this truth becomes good, and consequently a matter of conscience. If malignant genii were to flow into their obscurity, they would destroy the conscience in a thousand ways; for they do not act into the truths of faith therein, but into the affections themselves; and wheresoever they notice anything of the affection of good, they pervert it in a moment so secretly that it cannot possibly be noticed. They attack the very ends. In a word, their malignity cannot be described; but it may be compared to an unseen deadly poison, which penetrates to the very marrows. Concerning these genii, of the Lord’s Divine mercy more shall be said from experience at the end of the chapters.

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