The Bible

 

تكوين 13

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1 فصعد ابرام من مصر هو وامرأته وكل ما كان له ولوط معه الى الجنوب.

2 وكان ابرام غنيا جدا في المواشي والفضة والذهب.

3 وسار في رحلاته من الجنوب الى بيت ايل. الى المكان الذي كانت خيمته فيه في البداءة بين بيت ايل وعاي.

4 الى مكان المذبح الذي عمله هناك اولا. ودعا هناك ابرام باسم الرب

5 ولوط السائر مع ابرام كان له ايضا غنم وبقر وخيام.

6 ولم تحتملهما الارض ان يسكنا معا. اذ كانت املاكهما كثيرة. فلم يقدرا ان يسكنا معا.

7 فحدثت مخاصمة بين رعاة مواشي ابرام ورعاة مواشي لوط. وكان الكنعانيون والفرزّيون حينئذ ساكنين في الارض.

8 فقال ابرام للوط لا تكن مخاصمة بيني وبينك وبين رعاتي ورعاتك. لاننا نحن اخوان.

9 أليست كل الارض امامك. اعتزل عني. ان ذهبت شمالا فانا يمينا وان يمينا فانا شمالا

10 فرفع لوط عينيه ورأى كل دائرة الاردن ان جميعها سقي قبلما اخرب الرب سدوم وعمورة كجنة الرب كارض مصر. حينما تجيء الى صوغر.

11 فاختار لوط لنفسه كل دائرة الاردن وارتحل لوط شرقا. فاعتزل الواحد عن الآخر.

12 ابرام سكن في ارض كنعان ولوط سكن في مدن الدائرة ونقل خيامه الى سدوم.

13 وكان اهل سدوم اشرارا وخطاة لدى الرب جدا

14 وقال الرب لابرام بعد اعتزال لوط عنه. ارفع عينيك وانظر من الموضع الذي انت فيه شمالا وجنوبا وشرقا وغربا.

15 لان جميع الارض التي انت ترى لك اعطيها ولنسلك الى الابد.

16 واجعل نسلك كتراب الارض. حتى اذا استطاع احد ان يعد تراب الارض فنسلك ايضا يعدّ.

17 قم امش في الارض طولها وعرضها. لاني لك اعطيها.

18 فنقل ابرام خيامه واتى واقام عند بلوطات ممرا التي في حبرون. بنى هناك مذبحا للرب

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1540

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1540. THE INTERNAL SENSE

As has been stated, narratives in the Word that draw on true history began with the previous chapter. Down to that point, or rather down to Eber, they were made-up history. The continuation of the Abram story here means in the internal sense the Lord and in particular His life as it was at first before His External Man had been joined to His Internal to the point of their functioning as a unit, that is, before His external Man as well had become celestial and Divine. The historical details are what represent the Lord, while the actual words mean those things that are being represented. But because they are historical descriptions the mind of the reader. inevitably dwells upon them, especially nowadays when the majority, indeed almost everybody, does not believe in the existence of an internal sense at all, let alone within individual words. And perhaps they will still not acknowledge the existence of it even though it has been shown so clearly up to this point. There is the further reason that the internal sense seems to be so withdrawn from the sense of the letter that it is scarcely recognizable. Yet they can know of it merely from the consideration that historical records by themselves cannot ever constitute the Word, for there is no more of the Divine in them when they are separated from the internal sense than in any other historical narrative. It is the internal sense that makes it Divine. The fact that the internal sense is the Word itself is clear from many things that have been revealed, such as "Out of Egypt have I called My son" Matthew 2:15, besides many others like this. The Lord Himself also, after the Resurrection, taught the disciples what had been written concerning Himself in Moses and the Prophets, Luke 24:27, thus that nothing has been written in the Word which does not have regard to Him, to His kingdom, and to the Church. These are the spiritual and celestial things of the Word, but the sense of the letter consists for the most part of worldly, bodily, and earthly images which cannot possibly constitute the Word of the Lord. Nowadays people are such that they do not perceive anything except matters of this sort. They scarcely know what spiritual and celestial things are. It was different with the member of the Most Ancient Church or of the Ancient Church. If he were living today and reading the Word he would not pay any attention to the sense of the letter, which he would regard as nothing at all, but only to the internal sense. Members of those Churches are utterly amazed that anyone perceives the Word in any other way. All the books of the ancients therefore were written in such a fashion that they had a different import in the interior sense from what they had in the letter.

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