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Genesis 19

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1 And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth.

2 And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way. And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the street.

3 But he made his request more strongly, so they went with him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made unleavened bread, of which they took.

4 But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town;

5 And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them.

6 And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him.

7 And he said, My brothers, do not this evil.

8 See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof.

9 And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in.

10 But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again.

11 But the men who were outside the door they made blind, all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with looking for the door.

12 Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all out of this place;

13 For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town.

14 And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place, for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But his sons-in-law did not take him seriously.

15 And when morning came, the angels did all in their power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town.

16 But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on them, and put them outside the town.

17 And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction.

18 And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord;

19 See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death;

20 This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe.

21 And he said, See, I have given you your request in this one thing more: I will not send destruction on this town.

22 Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar.

23 The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.

25 And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land.

26 But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord:

28 And looking in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the lowland, he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of an oven.

29 So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living.

30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar to the mountain, and was living there with his two daughters, for fear kept him from living in Zoar: and he and his daughters made their living-place in a hole in the rock.

31 And the older daughter said to her sister, Our father is old, and there is no man to be a husband to us in the natural way:

32 Come, let us give our father much wine, and we will go into his bed, so that we may have offspring by our father,

33 And that night they made their father take much wine; and the older daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.

34 And on the day after, the older daughter said to the younger, Last night I was with my father; let us make him take much wine this night again, and do you go to him, so that we may have offspring by our father.

35 And that night again they made their father take much wine; and the younger daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.

36 And so the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

37 And the older daughter had a son, and she gave him the name Moab: he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38 And the younger had a son and gave him the name Ben-ammi: from him come the children of Ammon to this day.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #7519

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7519. Ashes of the furnace. That this signifies of exciting the falsities of cupidities through presence with those who infest, is evident from the signification of “ashes of the furnace,” as being the falsities of cupidities (of which below). That it denotes excitation by presence with those who infest, is evident from what follows in this verse, for it is said that “Moses sprinkled it toward heaven in the eyes of Pharaoh.” By “in the eyes” is signified presence, and by “Pharaoh” are signified those who infest (as often shown).

[2] How the case is with these things cannot be known without revelation, for they are such as take place in the other life, and are not known in the world. So long as evil or infernal spirits are removed and separated from heaven, that is, from the good of love and the truth of faith which are there, they do not know that they are in evils and falsities, for they then believe falsities to be truths, and evils to be goods; but as soon as heaven comes nearer to them, that is, some heavenly society, they notice the falsities and evils; for the truth of faith which then flows in causes them to notice the falsities; and the good of love which flows in causes them to notice the evils; and the nearer that heaven comes, or the more presently there inflows its good of love and truth of faith (seeing that they cannot endure these), the more grievously are they reproached by their own evils and falsities.

[3] From all this it can now be seen why it was commanded that Moses should take ashes of the furnace and sprinkle them toward heaven, and that he should do this in the eyes of Pharaoh; also why it was commanded that he, and not Aaron, should sprinkle the ashes toward heaven. For by ashes being sprinkled toward heaven is signified the influx of heaven; by this being done in the eyes of Pharaoh is signified in the presence of those who infest; that Moses was to do this, and not Aaron, is because the truth proceeding immediately from the Divine presents this effect with the evil; Moses being the truth which proceeds immediately from the Divine, and Aaron that which proceeds mediately (n. 7010). From all this it is evident what is meant in the internal sense by the contents of this verse and of that next following, namely, that there would be excited filthy and loathsome things of cupidities together with blasphemies, which are signified by the “sore breaking forth in pustules.” These things are excited when Divine truth flows in, and heaven comes nearer.

[4] Everyone can see that such things would never have been commanded by Jehovah to Moses unless there were a heavenly secret therein; that is to say, that Moses should take ashes of the furnace and sprinkle them toward heaven. Such means of producing the effect would never have been ordered by Jehovah unless they had contained something heavenly, to which these means correspond. From this can be seen the nature of the Word, that it is crowded with secret things, but with such as do not stand forth in the sense of the letter.

[5] That “ashes of the furnace” signify falsities of cupidities, is because they are from burnt things; and “burning,” as also “fire” itself, in the Word, in a good sense, signify the good of heavenly affections; but in the opposite sense, the evil of infernal cupidities. That “fire” has this signification see n. 934, 1861, 2446, 4906, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324; and that “burning” denotes the evil of cupidities, n. 1297, 5215; hence it is that “ashes” signify falsities, for falsities are from the evils of cupidities. And as the evils of cupidities are signified by “fire,” they are also signified by a “furnace,” which is the containant, and this frequently involves the same as that which it contains.

[6] That a “furnace” has this signification is evident from these passages:

Behold, the day cometh, burning as a furnace; and all the proud, and everyone that worketh wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall set them on fire, it shall leave them neither root nor branch (Malachi 4:1); where “burning as a furnace” denotes the cupidities of evil; “setting them on fire,” a kindling with cupidities.

[7] In Genesis:

Abraham looked toward the faces of Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward the faces of all the land of the plain, and he saw, and the smoke of the land went up, as the smoke of a furnace (Genesis 19:28); where “the smoke of a furnace” denotes falsities from the evils of cupidities, for “Sodom” denotes the evil of cupidities from the love of self, and “Gomorrah” the falsity thence derived (see n. 2220, 2245, 2322).

In John:

There went up a smoke out of the pit of the abyss, as the smoke of a furnace (Revelation 9:2); where “the smoke of a furnace” in like manner denotes falsities from evils of cupidities; “the pit of the abyss” denotes hell.

[8] In Matthew:

The Son of man shall send His angels, who shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall send them into the furnace of fire (Matthew 13:41-42); where “the furnace of fire” denotes the evils of cupidities; for the fire of cupidities is what is meant in the Word by the “fire of hell;” moreover, loves are nothing else than the fires of life, and cupidity is what is continuous of love.

[9] In Nahum:

Draw thee waters for the siege, strengthen thy fortress; go into the mire, and tread the clay, repair the brick kiln; there shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off (Nah. 3:14-15); where “going into the mire” denotes into falsity; “treading the clay,” evil (n. 6669); “the brick kiln,” or “furnace for brick,” denotes the falsities which they invent, and which are injected by the evil (n. 1296, 6669, 7113); “fire” denotes the cupidity of evil (n. 1861, 2446, 5071, 5215, 6832, 7324); “the sword” denotes falsity (n. 4499).

[10] In Jeremiah:

Take great stones in thy hand, and hide them in clay in the furnace for brick which is at the door of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the eyes of the men of Judah; and say unto them, Behold I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and I will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid, so that he may spread his tent over them; he shall come and shall smite the land of Egypt (Jeremiah 43:9-11);

what these words signify cannot be known without the internal sense; “great stones” denote falsities; the “furnace for brick” denotes the cupidity of falsity from evil; “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon” denotes the devastator of truth and good; “his throne and tent being set over these stones” denotes that he will cause falsities to reign; “the land of Egypt which he will smite” denotes the natural mind.

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