The Bible

 

Genesis 12

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1 Now the Lord said to Abram, Go out from your country and from your family and from your father's house, into the land to which I will be your guide:

2 And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing:

3 To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on him who does you wrong will I put my curse: and you will become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.

4 So Abram went as the Lord had said to him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went away from Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their goods and the servants which they had got in Haran, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan.

6 And Abram went through the land till he came to Shechem, to the holy tree of Moreh. At that time, the Canaanites were still living in the land.

7 And the Lord came to Abram, and said, I will give all this land to your seed; then Abram made an altar there to the Lord who had let himself be seen by him.

8 And moving on from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, he put up his tent, having Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east: and there he made an altar and gave worship to the name of the Lord.

9 And he went on, journeying still to the South.

10 And because there was little food to be had in that land, he went down into Egypt.

11 Now when he came near to Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, Truly, you are a fair woman and beautiful to the eye;

12 And I am certain that when the men of Egypt see you, they will say, This is his wife: and they will put me to death and keep you.

13 Say, then, that you are my sister, and so it will be well with me because of you, and my life will be kept safe on your account.

14 And so it was that when Abram came into Egypt, the men of Egypt, looking on the woman, saw that she was fair.

15 And Pharaoh's great men, having seen her, said words in praise of her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's house.

16 And because of her, he was good to Abram, and he had sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants and women-servants, and camels.

17 And the Lord sent great troubles on Pharaoh's house because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

18 Then Pharaoh sent for Abram, and said, What have you done to me? why did you not say that she was your wife?

19 Why did you say that she was your sister? so that I took her for my wife: now, take your wife and go on your way.

20 And Pharaoh gave orders to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and all he had.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1450

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1450. 'He removed from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel' means the Lord's fourth state when He was a boy. This becomes clear from what comes before and after, thus also from the train of thought itself, namely this: The Lord had first of all to be endowed from infancy with the celestial things of love - the celestial things of love consisting in love towards Jehovah and love towards the neighbour, and in innocence itself present in those loves. From these, as from the very sources of life, flows every single thing, for all other things are simply derivatives. These celestial things are implanted in a person chiefly in the state of infancy through to childhood, and in fact independently of cognitions; for they flow in from the Lord and stir that person with affection before he knows what love is or what affection is, as the infant state shows, and after that the state of early childhood. Those things with man are the 'remnants' that have been referred to several times which are implanted by the Lord and stored away for use in his later life. For these matters, see 468, 530, 560, 561, 660, 661. Since the Lord was born as any other is born, He too was introduced according to order into celestial things, step by step from infancy on into childhood, and after that into cognitions. These things as experienced by the Lord are described in the present verse, and represented in those that follow by Abram's sojourning in Egypt.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #660

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660. That 'a flood' means a deluge of evil and falsity is clear from what has been stated already about the descendants of the Most Ancient Church being possessed with filthy desires and immersing doctrinal matters concerning faith in them. This immersing led to false persuasions within them which annihilated all truth and good and simultaneously closed off the road for remnants and so made it impossible for them to do their work. It was inevitable therefore that these men would destroy themselves. When the road for remnants has been closed off a person is no longer human, for he can no longer be protected by angels but is wholly and completely possessed by evil spirits who long and desire to do nothing else but annihilate man. It was this that led to the death of the people who existed before the Flood, a death described by 'a flood' or utter deluge. Indeed the influx of delusions and desires from evil spirits is not unlike a flood. Consequently in various places in the Word that influx is called a flood or a deluge, as in the Lord's Divine mercy will be seen in the preliminary remarks to the next chapter. 1

Footnotes:

1. i.e. in 705

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