The Bible

 

Genesis 35

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1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, who appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments:

3 and let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

4 And they gave unto Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hand, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

5 And they journeyed: and a terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan (the same is Beth-el), he and all the people that were with him.

7 And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el; because there God was revealed unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

8 And Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried below Beth-el under the oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bacuth.

9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him.

10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

12 and the land which I gave unto Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

13 And God went up from him in the place where he spake with him.

14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spake with him, a pillar of stone: and he poured out a drink-offering thereon, and poured oil thereon.

15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el.

16 And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was still some distance to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor.

17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; for now thou shalt have another son.

18 And it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.

19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same is Beth-lehem).

20 And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave: the same is the Pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.

21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

22 And it came to pass, while Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

23 The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's first-born, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun;

24 the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;

25 and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid: Dan and Naphtali;

26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid: Gad and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, that were born to him in Paddan-aram.

27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre, to Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and fourscore years.

29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, old and full of days: and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #3255

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3255. 'He was gathered to his peoples' means that these things involving Abraham [were completed]. This is clear from the meaning of 'being gathered to his peoples' as his ceasing to be the subject any longer. In fact being gathered to his peoples means taking leave of those among whom he had been until then, passing over to his own, and so here ceasing to represent. Among the ancients it was customary when somebody was dying to speak of his being gathered to his fathers or to his peoples. By this they meant that he was in the process of going to his parents, blood relatives, and relatives by marriage in the next life. This saying had come down to them from the most ancient people who were celestial, for while they were living on earth they were simultaneously present with angels in heaven and so knew all about this. That is to say, they knew that all who are governed by the same good meet and remain together in the next life, as do all who are governed by the same truth. They spoke of the former as being 'gathered to their fathers', but of the latter as being 'gathered to their peoples'; for with them 'fathers' meant goods, 2803, and 'peoples' truths, 1259, 1260. Furthermore because a like good was present in those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church they now live together in heaven, 1115; and so too do many of those live together who belonged to the Ancient Church and in whom a like truth dwelt, 1125, 1127.

[2] What is more, while he lives in the body a person's soul is always present in some community of spirits in the next life, 1277, 2379 - one who is evil in a community of hellish spirits, one who is good in a community of angels. Accordingly, everyone is present in a community consisting of the kind of people with whom he agrees so far as good and truth, or evil and falsity, are concerned. And into that same community a person comes when he dies, 687. These are the things that were meant among the ancients by their being gathered to their fathers, or gathered to their peoples, as is said here of Abraham when he breathed his last, and of Ishmael in verse 17 of this same chapter, of Isaac in Genesis 35:29, of Jacob in Genesis 49:29, 33, of Aaron in Numbers 20:24, 26, of Moses in Numbers 27:13; 31:2; Deuteronomy 32:50, and of the first generation which entered the land of Canaan, Judges 2:10. But in the internal sense of the Word when the subject has to do with anyone's life being representative, 'being gathered to his peoples', as stated above, in that case means that he ceases to be dealt with any longer.

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