The Bible

 

創世記 20

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1 亞伯拉罕從那裡向南遷去,寄居在加低斯和書珥中間的基拉耳。

2 亞伯拉罕稱他的妻撒拉為妹子,基拉耳王亞比米勒差人把撒拉取了去。

3 但夜間,,在夢中對亞比米勒:你是個人哪!因為你取了那女人;他原是別人的妻子

4 亞比米勒卻還沒有親近撒拉;他:主阿,連有的國,你也要毀滅麼?

5 那人豈不是自己對我他是我的妹子麼?就是女人也自己:他是我的哥哥。我作這事是心正手潔的。

6 在夢中對他:我知道你作這事是心中正直;我也攔阻了你,免得你得罪我,所以我不容你沾著他。

7 現在你把這妻子歸還他;因為他是先知,他要為你禱告,使你存活。你若不歸還他,你當知道,你和你所有的都必要

8 亞比米勒清起來,召了眾臣僕來,將這些事都說給他們聽,他們都甚懼

9 亞比米勒召了亞伯拉罕來,對他:你怎麼向我這樣行呢?我在甚麼事上得罪了你,你竟使我和我國裡的人陷在罪裡?你向我行不當行的事了!

10 亞比米勒又對亞伯拉罕:你見了甚麼才做這事呢?

11 亞伯拉罕:我以為這地方的人總不懼怕,必為我妻子的緣故殺我。

12 況且他也實在是我的妹子;他與我是同父異母,後來作了我的妻子

13 叫我離開父家、飄流在外的時候,我對他:我們無論走到甚麼地方,你可以對人:他是我的哥哥;這就是你待我的恩典了。

14 亞比米勒把牛、、僕婢賜亞伯拉罕,又把他的妻子撒拉歸還他。

15 亞比米勒又:看哪,我的都在你面前,你可以隨意居住

16 又對撒拉:我哥哥子,作為你在閤家人面前遮羞(原文作眼)的,你就在眾人面前沒有不是了。

17 亞伯拉罕禱告就醫好了亞比米勒和他的妻子,並他的眾女僕,他們便能生育。

18 耶和華亞伯拉罕的妻子撒拉的緣故,已經使亞比米勒家中的婦人不能生育。

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2541

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2541. 'And called his servants' means rational concepts and factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'servants' in the Word, dealt with further on at verse 14, in 2567. Within the person who is in the Lord's kingdom, that is, who is the Lord's kingdom, there are celestial things, spiritual things, rational concepts, factual knowledge, and sensory impressions; and all these are ordered one beneath another. Celestial things and spiritual things hold the primary position and are the Lord's; rational concepts come next in order beneath them and are subservient to them; factual knowledge in turn comes beneath and serves rational concepts; and lastly sensory impressions come beneath and serve factual knowledge. The things which are subservient, or which serve, are in these relationships servants, and in the Word they are called 'servants'. Anyone whose thought is based solely on sensory impressions and factual knowledge is unaware of these things existing in their ordered sequence; and anyone who does know something about them nevertheless has only a very obscure idea because he is still immersed in bodily interests. Angels however have a very distinct idea, for thousands, indeed myriads, of distinct and separate ideas existing with angels do not present themselves to men except as one single obscure idea, as for example with the words that occur here, 'Abimelech called his servants and spoke all these words in their ears; and the men were very much afraid'. In these words angels perceive deeper arcana than man can possibly grasp or is indeed able to believe; that is to say, they perceive how the Lord brought rational concepts and factual knowledge into a condition of obedience, yet in such a way that He did not bring into that condition the rational concepts and the factual knowledge themselves but the affections rising up against the celestial and the spiritual things of doctrine; for it was when those affections had been brought into subjection that rational concepts and factual knowledge were brought into a condition of obedience and at the same time into order. These matters are to angels some of the most common and general; but to man they are perhaps some of the most obscure or are unintelligible.

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