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Genesis 28

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1 Then Isaac sent for Jacob, and blessing him, said, Do not take a wife from among the women of Canaan;

2 But go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and there get yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

3 And may God, the Ruler of all, give you his blessing, giving you fruit and increase, so that you may become an army of peoples.

4 And may God give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed, so that the land of your wanderings, which God gave to Abraham, may be your heritage.

5 So Isaac sent Jacob away: and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramaean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 So when Esau saw that Isaac had given Jacob his blessing, and sent him away to Paddan-aram to get a wife for himself there, blessing him and saying to him, Do not take a wife from among the women of Canaan;

7 And that Jacob had done as his father and mother said and had gone to Paddan-aram;

8 It was clear to Esau that his father had no love for the women of Canaan,

9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

10 So Jacob went out from Beer-sheba to go to Haran.

11 And coming to a certain place, he made it his resting-place for the night, for the sun had gone down; and he took one of the stones which were there, and putting it under his head he went to sleep in that place.

12 And he had a dream, and in his dream he saw steps stretching from earth to heaven, and the angels of God were going up and down on them.

13 And he saw the Lord by his side, saying, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: I will give to you and to your seed this land on which you are sleeping.

14 Your seed will be like the dust of the earth, covering all the land to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south: you and your seed will be a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.

15 And truly, I will be with you, and will keep you wherever you go, guiding you back again to this land; and I will not give you up till I have done what I have said to you.

16 And Jacob, awaking from his sleep, said, Truly, the Lord is in this place and I was not conscious of it.

17 And fear came on him, and he said, This is a holy place; this is nothing less than the house of God and the doorway of heaven.

18 And early in the morning Jacob took the stone which had been under his head, and put it up as a pillar and put oil on it.

19 And he gave that place the name of Beth-el, but before that time the town was named Luz.

20 Then Jacob took an oath, and said, If God will be with me, and keep me safe on my journey, and give me food and clothing to put on,

21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace, then I will take the Lord to be my God,

22 And this stone which I have put up for a pillar will be God's house: and of all you give me, I will give a tenth part to you.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #3677

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3677. The brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. That this signifies the affinity from the mother with the good of truth which is “Jacob” and with the truth of good which is “Esau,” is evident from the representation of Rebekah, as being the Lord’s Divine rational as to Divine truth (of which frequently above); and from the representation of Jacob, as being the good of truth, or the good which is from truth in the natural; and from the representation of Esau, as being the truth of good, or the good from which is truth in the natural (see a bove, n. 3669). And because all the goods and truths that are in the natural or external man are conceived and born of the rational or internal man; that is, of the good of the rational as a father, and of the truth thereof as a mother (n. 3314, 3573, 3616), therefore by the above words is signified the affinity from the mother with the good of truth which is “Jacob” and with the truth of good which is “Esau.”

[2] Moreover they are circumstanced in precisely the same way; but to explain these things to the apprehension is very difficult, because even the most general facts in regard to the subject are at this day unknown-as for instance, what spiritual good is and what its truth, and that there are innumerable genera of good and its truth, and still more innumerable species, also that they are conjoined with each other by degrees as it were of consanguinity and affinity. These most general things being unknown, a description of the degrees and affinities would fall into mere shade, and the more so because the learned of the day do not desire to know such things, for they love to stray in the mere shell; and to dispute, not concerning the quality of such things, but whether they exist or not; and so long as they are in this state they desire to know nothing whatever concerning these innumerable kinds of good and truth.

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