The Bible

 

Genesis 10

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1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: these are the sons which they had after the great flow of waters

2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.

3 And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah.

4 And the sons of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, the Kittim and the Dodanim.

5 From these came the nations of the sea-lands, with their different families and languages.

6 And the sons of Ham: Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan.

7 And the sons of Cush: Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raamah and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

8 And Cush was the father of Nimrod, who was the first of the great men of the earth.

9 He was a very great bowman, so that there is a saying, Like Nimrod, a very great bowman.

10 And at the first, his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

11 From that land he went out into Assyria, building Nineveh with its wide streets and Calah,

12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah, which is a very great town.

13 And Mizraim was the father of the Ludim and Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim;

14 And Pathrusim and Casluhim and Caphtorim, from whom came the Philistines.

15 And Canaan was the father of Zidon, who was his oldest son, and Heth,

16 And the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite,

17 And the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite,

18 And the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite; after that the families of the Canaanites went far and wide in all directions;

19 Their country stretching from Zidon to Gaza, in the direction of Gerar; and to Lasha, in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim.

20 All these, with their different families, languages, lands, and nations, are the offspring of Ham.

21 And Shem, the older brother of Japheth, the father of the children of Eber, had other sons in addition.

22 These are the sons of Shem: Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram.

23 And the sons of Aram: Uz and Hul and Gether and Mash.

24 And Arpachshad became the father of Shelah; and Shelah became the father of Eber.

25 And Eber had two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, because in his time the peoples of the earth became separate; and his brother's name was Joktan.

26 And Joktan was the father of Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah

27 And Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah

28 And Obal and Abimael and Sheba

29 And Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.

30 And their country was from Mesha, in the direction of Sephar, the mountain of the east.

31 These, with their families and their languages and their lands and their nations, are the offspring of Shem.

32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, in the order of their generations and their nations: from these came all the nations of the earth after the great flow of waters.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1205

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1205. That 'the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites' were just so many nations, who also mean just so many different forms of idolatry, and that those nations mean forms of idolatry, is clear from many places in the Word, for they were inhabitants of the land of Canaan who on account of their idolatry were rejected and partially destroyed. In the internal sense of the Word however it is not those nations that are meant but the forms of idolatry themselves - in general as they exist anywhere at all, and in particular among the Jews. For people who make worship consist solely in externals and have no wish at all to learn of internals, and who when instructed reject them, incline very much to all these forms of idolatry, as is all too clear in the case of the Jews. internal worship alone holds within it the bonds that keep a person back from idolatry, and once those bonds cease to exist there is nothing to hold him back. There are however not only external forms of idolatry but also interior. Into external forms of idolatry rush those people who possess external worship devoid of internal, and into interior forms those people rush possessing external worship whose interiors are foul. These forms of idolatry are likewise meant by these nations. Interior forms of idolatry are just so many falsities and evil desires which they love and adore and which thus take the place of the gods and idols which existed among gentile nations. It would take too long to explain here however which particular falsities and evil desires they are that people adore and which are meant by these nations - by the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. In the Lord's Divine mercy this will be discussed in the places where these names occur.

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