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 #482

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482. Until now nobody has known what the years and the numbers of years occurring in this chapter mean in the internal sense. People who stay within the sense of the letter imagine that they are no more than chronological years. But none of the content from here down to Chapter 12 is history as it seems to be in the sense of the letter, for every single detail contains something of a different nature. What applies to names applies to numbers as well. In the Word the number three occurs frequently, and so does the number seven; and in every instance they mean something holy or inviolable as regards those states which the periods of time or whatever else that is mentioned embody or represent. This applies as much to the shortest as to the longest time-intervals; for just as parts makeup the whole, so do the shortest make up the longest. For a similarity must exist in order that a whole may emerge satisfactorily out of the parts, or that which is largest out of that which is smallest.

[2] As in Isaiah,

Jehovah has now spoken, saying, In three years, according to the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab will be rendered worthless. Isaiah 16:14.

In the same prophet,

The Lord said to me, Within yet a year, according to the years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar will be brought to an end. Isaiah 21:6.

Here both the shortest as well as the longest time-intervals are meant. In Habakkuk,

O Jehovah, I have heard Your fame; I was afraid. O Jehovah, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years do You make it known. Habakkuk 3:2.

Here 'the midst of the years' stands for the Lord's Coming. If the intervals are shorter this stands for every coming of the Lord, as when a person is being regenerated; but if longer it stands for the rising anew of the Lord's Church. It is also called in Isaiah 'the year of the redeemed', The day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come. Isaiah 63:4.

So too 'the thousand years' for which Satan is to be bound, Revelation 20:2-3, 7, and 'the thousand years' associated with the first resurrection, Revelation 20:4-6. These in no way mean a thousand years but the states associated with them. For just as 'days, as shown 'already, are interpreted as a state, so too are 'years', and the states are described by the number of the years. From this it becomes clear that periods of time in this chapter also embody states, for every Church experienced a different state of perception from the next, according to differences of disposition resulting from inherited and acquired characteristics.

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