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.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #1175

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1175. That by “Nimrod” are signified those who made internal worship external, and that “Nimrod” thus signifies such external worship, may be seen from what follows. It must be here stated, beforehand, what is meant by making internal worship external. It was said and shown above that internal worship, which is from love and charity, is worship itself; and that external worship without this internal worship is no worship. To make internal worship external is to make external worship essential, rather than internal, which is the reverse of the former, being as if it was said that internal worship without external is no worship, while the truth is that external worship without internal is no worship. Such is the religion of those who separate faith from charity, in that they set the things which are of faith before those which are of charity, or the things which are of the knowledges of faith before those which are of the life, thus formal things before essential ones. All external worship is a formality of internal worship, for internal worship is the very essential; and to make worship consist of that which is formal, without that which is essential, is to make internal worship external. As for example, to hold that if one should live where there is no church, no preaching, no sacraments, no priesthood, he could not be saved, or could have no worship; when yet he can worship the Lord from what is internal. But it does not follow from this that there ought not to be external worship.

[2] To make the matter yet more clear, take as a further example the setting up as the essential itself of worship the frequenting of churches, going to the sacraments, hearing sermons, praying, observing feasts, and many other things which are external and ceremonial, while, talking about faith, men persuade themselves that these are sufficient-all of which are formal things of worship. It is quite true that those who make worship from love and charity the essential, act in the same way, that is, they frequent churches, go to the sacraments, hear sermons, pray, observe feasts, and the like, and this very earnestly and diligently; but they do not make the essential of worship consist in these things. In the external worship of these men there is what is holy and living, because there is internal worship in it; but in the external worship of those referred to before there is not what is holy and not what is living. For the very essential itself is what sanctifies and vivifies the formal or ceremonial; but faith separated from charity cannot sanctify and vivify worship, because the essence and life are absent. Such worship is called “Nimrod;” and it is born of the knowledges which are “Cush,” as these are born from faith separated from charity, which faith is “Ham.” From “Ham,” or faith separated, through the knowledges which belong to faith separated, no other worship can possibly be born. These are the things that are signified by “Nimrod.”

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