The Bible

 

创世记 14

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1 当暗拉非作示拿,亚略作以拉撒,基大老玛作以拦,提达作戈印的时候,

2 他们都攻打所多玛比拉、蛾摩拉比沙、押玛示纳、洗扁善以别,和比拉;比拉就是琐珥。

3 这五都在西订会合;西订就是

4 他们已经事奉基大老玛十二年,到十三年就背叛了。

5 十四年,基大老玛和同盟的在亚特律加宁,杀败了利乏音人,在哈麦杀败了苏西人,在沙微基列亭杀败了以米人,

6 在何利人的西珥杀败了何利人,一直杀到靠近旷野的伊勒巴兰。

7 他们回到安密巴,就是加低斯,杀败了亚玛力全地的人,以及在哈洗逊他玛的亚摩利人。

8 於是所多玛王、蛾摩拉王、押玛王、洗扁王,和比拉王(比拉就是琐珥)都出来,在西订摆阵,与他们交战,

9 就是与以拦基大老玛、戈印提达、示拿暗拉非、以拉撒亚略交战;乃是与五交战。

10 西订有许多石漆坑。所多玛和蛾摩拉逃跑,有掉在坑里的,其馀的人都往逃跑

11 四王就把所多玛和蛾摩拉所有的财物,并一切的粮食都掳掠去了;

12 又把亚伯兰的侄儿罗得和罗得的财物掳掠去了。当时罗得正所多玛

13 有一个逃出的人告诉希伯来人亚伯兰亚伯兰正住在亚摩利人幔利的橡树那里。幔利和以实各并亚乃都是弟兄,曾与亚伯兰联盟。

14 亚伯兰见他侄儿(原文作弟兄)被掳去,就率领他家里生养的精练壮丁一十八人,直追到但,

15 便在夜间,自己同仆人分队杀败敌人,又追到大马色左边的何把,

16 将被掳掠的一切财物夺回来,连他侄儿罗得和他的财物,以及妇女、人民也都夺回来

17 亚伯兰杀败基大老玛和与他同盟的回来的时候,所多玛出来,在沙微迎接他;沙微就是

18 又有撒冷王麦基洗德带着饼和酒出来迎接;他是至神的祭司。

19 他为亚伯兰祝福:愿的主、至的神赐福与亚伯兰

20 的神把敌人交在你里,是应当称颂的!亚伯兰就把所得的拿出十分之一来,麦基洗德。

21 所多玛王对亚伯兰:你把人口我,财物你自己拿去罢!

22 亚伯兰所多玛:我已经向─至的神耶和华起誓:

23 凡是你的东西,就是一根线、一根鞋带,我都不拿,免得你:我使亚伯兰富足!

24 只有仆人所的,并与我同行的亚乃、以实各、幔利所应得的分,可以任凭他们拿去。

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1661

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1661. 'And so it was in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim' means just so many kinds of apparent goods and truths which are not in themselves goods and truths, and which were present with the Lord's external Man. This becomes clear from the meaning of all these in the internal sense, and also from what follows. For the subject is the Lord's conflict against evils and falsities, here His first conflict which came during His childhood and earliest adolescence. That conflict He first entered into and endured after He had been endowed with knowledge and cognitions, hence the expression 'in the days of' these kings.

[2] Nobody can possibly fight against evils and falsities until he knows what evil and falsity are, not therefore until he has received instruction. A person does not know what evil is, still less what falsity is, before he is capable of understanding and of forming judgements for himself, which is the reason why a person does not enter into temptations until he has reached the age of maturity. Thus everyone is tempted in adult life, but the Lord was tempted even in childhood.

[3] Everyone fights first of all from the goods and truths he has received by means of cognitions, and it is from them and by means of them that he forms judgements concerning evils and falsities. Everyone furthermore when he first starts to fight imagines that these goods and truths from which he fights are his own, that is, he ascribes them to himself, and at the same time ascribes to himself the power by which he resists. This is allowed because a person cannot at the time know anything different. Before anyone has been regenerated he cannot possibly know, so as to be able to say that he knows, acknowledges, and believes, that no good or truth at all comes from self, but that everything good and true comes from the Lord; nor can he possibly know that he is unable by his own power to resist any evil or falsity. Indeed he does not know that evil spirits are activating and implanting the evils and falsities, still less that he is in communication with hell by means of evil spirits, and that hell presses on him like the sea against every part of a dike, which he can by no means resist by his own strength. Yet because he cannot do otherwise, until he has been regenerated, than imagine that he resists by his own strength, this too is permitted; and in this condition he is admitted into conflicts, or temptations. Subsequently however he becomes more and more enlightened.

[4] When a person's state is such that he imagines that good and truth originate in himself and that the power to resist is his own, the goods and truths from which he fights against evils and falsities are not really goods and truths, however much they appear to be so, for they have that which is his own within them, and he places self-merit in victory, boasting as though it were he that had overcome evil and falsity, when in fact it is the Lord alone who fights and overcomes. That this is indeed so none can know except those who are being regenerated by means of temptations.

[5] Because the Lord in earliest childhood was led into very serious conflicts against evils and falsities it was inevitable that at that time even He should think that way. This happened both because it was according to Divine order that His Human Essence should through continuous conflicts and victories be brought to the Divine Essence and united to it, and because the goods and truths from which He fought against evils and falsities belonged to the External Man. And because those goods and truths were not completely Divine they are for that reason called appearances of good and truth. His Divine Essence brought the Human Essence to itself in this way in order that it might overcome by its own power. The arcana here however are more than can possibly be described. In short, in those first conflicts the goods and truths residing with the Lord from which He fought were permeated by things inherited from the mother, and insofar as they were permeated by things inherited from the mother they were not Divine. Gradually however, as He overcame evil and falsity they were purified and made Divine.

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