The Bible

 

Genesis 9

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1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens; With all wherewith the ground teemeth, and all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered.

3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; As the green herb have I given you all.

4 But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

5 And surely your blood, [the blood] of your lives, will I require; At the hand of every beast will I require it. And at the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man.

6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: For in the image of God made he man.

7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you. Of all that go out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.

11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud,

15 and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.

19 These three were the sons of Noah: and of these was the whole earth overspread.

20 And Noah began to be a husbandman, and planted a vineyard:

21 and he drank of the wine, and was drunken. And he was uncovered within his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him.

25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

26 And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant.

27 God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant.

28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: And he died.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1033

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1033. With regard to a conscience of what is right and good being given to Gentiles according to their religion, the case is this, Conscience, in general, is either true, spurious, or false. True conscience is that which is formed by the Lord of the truths of faith. When a man has been gifted with this, he fears to act contrary to the truths of faith, because he would thus act contrary to conscience. This conscience no one can receive who is not in the truths of faith, and therefore there are not very many in the Christian world who receive it, for each one sets up his own dogma as the truth of faith. But still those who are being regenerated receive conscience together with charity, for the very ground of conscience is charity. Spurious conscience is that which is formed with Gentiles from their religious worship into which they have been born and educated, to act contrary to which is to them to act contrary to conscience. When their conscience has been founded in charity and mercy, and in obedience, they are in such a state that they can receive true conscience in the other life, and they also do receive it; for they love nothing before and beyond the truth of faith. False conscience is that which is formed, not from internal but from external things, that is, not from charity but from the love of self and of the world. For there are those who seem to themselves to act contrary to conscience when they act against the neighbor, and also seem to themselves to be then inwardly pained; and yet it is for the reason that they perceive in their thought that their life, honor, fame, wealth, or gain, is thus imperiled, and therefore they themselves are injured. Some inherit such a softness of heart, some acquire it; but it is a false conscience.

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