The Bible

 

Genesis 33

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1 Then Jacob, lifting up his eyes, saw Esau coming with his four hundred men. So he made a division of the children between Leah and Rachel and the two women-servants.

2 He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph at the back.

3 And he himself, going before them, went down on his face to the earth seven times till he came near his brother.

4 Then Esau came running up to him, and folding him in his arms, gave him a kiss: and the two of them were overcome with weeping.

5 Then Esau, lifting up his eyes, saw the women and the children, and said, Who are these with you? And he said, The children whom God in his mercy has given to your servant.

6 Then the servants and their children came near, and went down on their faces.

7 And Leah came near with her children, and then Joseph and Rachel, and they did the same.

8 And he said, What were all those herds which I saw on the way? And Jacob said, They were an offering so that I might have grace in my lord's eyes.

9 But Esau said, I have enough; keep what is yours, my brother, for yourself.

10 And Jacob said, Not so; but if I have grace in your eyes, take them as a sign of my love, for I have seen your face as one may see the face of God, and you have been pleased with me.

11 Take my offering then, with my blessing; for God has been very good to me and I have enough: so at his strong request, he took it.

12 And he said, Let us go on our journey together, and I will go in front.

13 But Jacob said, My lord may see that the children are only small, and there are young ones in my flocks and herds: one day's over-driving will be the destruction of all the flock.

14 Do you, my lord, go on before your servant; I will come on slowly, at the rate at which the cattle and the children are able to go, till I come to my lord at Seir.

15 And Esau said, Then keep some of my men with you. And he said, What need is there for that, if my lord is pleased with me?

16 So Esau, turning back that day, went on his way to Seir.

17 And Jacob went on to Succoth, where he made a house for himself and put up tents for his cattle: for this reason the place was named Succoth.

18 So Jacob came safely from Paddan-aram to the town of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and put up his tents near the town.

19 And for a hundred bits of money he got from the children of Hamor, the builder of Shechem, the field in which he had put up his tents.

20 And there he put up an altar, naming it El, the God of Israel.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #4347

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4347. And bowed himself to the earth seven times. That this signifies the submission of all things, is evident from the signification of “bowing one’s self to the earth,” as being an effect of humiliation (n. 2153), consequently submission. The highest degree of submission is signified by “seven times,” and the submission of all things by “Jacob’s bowing himself;” for Jacob represents the universal of all things (as stated just above, n. 4346).

[2] As regards humiliation and submission, few know why this must be in presence of the Divine when man is in worship; and consequently they do not know what it effects. They who are not in the knowledge of interior things cannot believe otherwise than that the Divine wills the humiliation and submission of man, as a man does who is in the lust of glory; and consequently that the Divine wills glory therefrom, and is affected with the glory which man ascribes to Him. But the case is altogether different. The Divine is not in any affection of glory, for what glory has the Divine from man? But He wills humiliation and submission, not for His own, but for man’s sake. For when man is in humiliation he feels aversion for the evil and falsity in him (n. 2327, 2423, 3994), and thus removes them, and on their removal the Divine can flow in with good and truth. Everyone may be aware of this in himself. He who is of elated mind is in the love of self, and not only sets himself above others, but also cares nothing for the Divine, and consequently rejects the influx of good, and thence its conjunction with truths. This is the genuine reason for man’s humiliation before the Divine.

[3] It is therefore manifest that good cannot be conjoined with truths, thus that man cannot be regenerated, unless he humbles and submits himself. Humiliation and submission are predicated of truths because truths flow in through the external man, but good through the internal; and the things that inflow through the external man are attended with fallacies and the consequent falsities with their affections; whereas this is not the case with the things that inflow through the internal man, because it is the Divine that flows in through this, and comes to meet truths, in order that they may be conjoined. From this it is now manifest what is meant by the submission of all things, which is signified by Jacob’s “bowing himself to the earth seven times, until he drew near even unto his brother.”

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