The Bible

 

Genesis 16

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1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had given him no children; and she had a servant, a woman of Egypt whose name was Hagar.

2 And Sarai said to Abram, See, the Lord has not let me have children; go in to my servant, for I may get a family through her. And Abram did as Sarai said.

3 So after Abram had been living for ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian servant, and gave her to Abram for his wife.

4 And he went in to Hagar and she became with child, and when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any respect for her master's wife.

5 And Sarai said to Abram, May my wrong be on you: I gave you my servant for your wife and when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any respect for me: may the Lord be judge between you and me.

6 And Abram said, The woman is in your power; do with her whatever seems good to you. And Sarai was cruel to her, so that she went running away from her.

7 And an angel of the Lord came to her by a fountain of water in the waste land, by the fountain on the way to Shur.

8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am running away from Sarai, my master's wife.

9 And the angel said to her, Go back, and put yourself under her authority.

10 And the angel of the Lord said, Your seed will be greatly increased so that it may not be numbered.

11 And the angel of the Lord said, See, you are with child and will give birth to a son, to whom you will give the name Ishmael, because the ears of the Lord were open to your sorrow.

12 And he will be like a mountain ass among men; his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him, and he will keep his place against all his brothers.

13 And to the Lord who was talking with her she gave this name, You are a God who is seen; for she said, Have I not even here in the waste land had a vision of God and am still living?

14 So that fountain was named, fountain of Life and Vision: it is between Kadesh and Bered.

15 And Hagar gave birth to a child, the son of Abram, to whom Abram gave the name of Ishmael.

16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1941

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1941. 'And it will not be numbered for multitude' means being multiplied immeasurably. This is clear without explanation. By these words is meant the truth which in this manner will increase immeasurably from good. Because with the Lord, who is the subject here in the internal sense, all things are Divine and Infinite, these matters as they apply to Him cannot be put into words. Consequently, so that some idea may be obtained of what the multiplication of truth from good entails, it must be spoken of as it applies to man. In his case, if governed by good, that is, by love and charity, seed from the Lord is made fruitful and is multiplied to such an extent that it cannot be numbered for multitude. That fruitfulness and multiplication is not very much during his life in the body, but in the next life it is unbelievably increased, for as long as he lives in the body it is seed Lying in ground of a bodily nature, among an entangled and dense mass of factual knowledge and bodily delights, and also cares and anxieties. But once these have been cast off, as happens when he passes over into the next life, the seed is set free from those things and starts to grow, just like the seed of a tree which, when it comes up out of the ground, grows into a small tree, then into a large tree, and is after that multiplied into a garden of trees. For all knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, and the forms of delight and happiness that go with them, are in a similar way made fruitful and are multiplied, and are thereby for ever increasing. And they begin from the smallest of seeds, as the Lord teaches in Matthew 13:31, by reference to the grain of mustard seed. This becomes quite clear from the knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom that angels possess, which during the time they were men had been to them beyond words.

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