The Bible

 

創世記 24

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1 亞伯拉罕年紀老邁,向在一切事上耶和華都賜福給他。

2 亞伯拉罕對管理他全業最老的僕人:請你把放在我大腿

3 我要叫你指著耶和華起誓,不要為我兒子娶這迦南中的女子為妻。

4 你要往我本本族去,為我的兒子以撒娶一個妻子

5 僕人對他:倘若女子不肯跟我到這方來,我必須將你的兒子帶回你原出之麼?

6 亞伯拉罕對他:你要謹慎,不要帶我的兒子回那裡去。

7 耶和華上的曾帶領我離開父家和本族的,對我說話,向我起誓:我要將這你的後裔。他必差遣使者在你面前,你就可以從那裡為我兒子娶一個妻子

8 倘若女子不肯跟你來,我使你起的誓就與你無干了,只是不可帶我的兒子回那裡去。

9 僕人就把放在他亞伯拉罕的大腿,為這事向他起誓。

10 僕人從他人的駱駝裡取了駱駝,並帶些他人各樣的財物,起身往米所波大米去,到了拿鶴的城。

11 天將晚,眾女子出來打的時候,他便叫駱駝跪在城外的那裡。

12 耶和華─我亞伯拉罕的阿,求你施恩給我亞伯拉罕,使我今日遇見好機會。

13 我現今站在井旁,城內居民的女子們正出來打

14 我向那一個女子:請你拿下水瓶來,給我水,他若:請!我也給你的駱駝,願那女子就作你所預定給你僕人以撒的妻。這樣,我便知道你施恩給我人了。

15 話還沒有說完,不料,利百加肩頭上扛著水瓶出來。利百加是彼土利所生的;彼土利是亞伯拉罕兄弟拿鶴妻子密迦的兒子

16 那女子容貌極其俊美,還是處女,也未曾有親近他。他到井旁,打滿了瓶,又上來。

17 僕人跑上前去迎著他,:求你將瓶裡的給我一點喝。

18 女子:我!就急忙拿瓶來,托在上給他

19 女子給他了,就:我再為你的駱駝打水,叫駱駝足。

20 他就急忙把瓶裡的水倒在裡,又跑到旁打水,就為所有的駱駝打上水來。

21 定睛看他,一句話也不,要曉得耶和華賜他通達的道路沒有。

22 駱駝足了,那就拿一個環,重半舍客勒,兩個鐲,重舍客勒,給了那女子,

23 :請告訴我,你是誰的女兒?你父親家裡有我們住宿的地方沒有?

24 女子:我是密迦與拿鶴之子彼土利的女兒;

25 我們家裡足有糧,也有住宿的地方

26 就低頭向耶和華下拜,

27 耶和華─我亞伯拉罕的是應當稱頌的,因他不斷地以慈愛誠實待我人。至於我,耶和華上引領我,直走到我人的兄弟家裡。

28 女子跑回去,照著這些告訴他母親和他家裡的人。

29 利百加有一個哥哥,名叫拉班,看見金環,又看見金鐲在他妹子的手上,並聽見他妹子利百加的話,說那對我如此如此說。拉班就跑出來往井旁去,到那跟前,見他仍站在駱駝旁邊的井旁那裡,

30 a

31 便對他:你這蒙耶和華賜福的,請進,為甚麼站在外邊?我已經收拾了房屋,也為駱駝預備了地方

32 就進了拉班的家。拉班卸了駱駝,用料餵上,拿和跟隨的

33 把飯擺在他面前,叫他,他卻:我不,等我明白我的事情再。拉班:請

34 :我是亞伯拉罕的僕人

35 耶和華大大地賜福人,使他昌大,又賜羊群牛群、僕婢、駱駝,和

36 人的妻子撒拉年老的時候人生了一個兒子;我人也將一切所有的都了這個兒子

37 人叫我起誓說:你不要為我兒子娶迦南的女子為妻。

38 你要往我父家、我本族那裡去,為我的兒子娶一個妻子

39 我對我:恐怕女子不肯跟我來。

40 他就:我所事奉的耶和華必要差遣他的使者與你同去,叫你的道路通達,你就得以在我父家、我本族那裡,給我的兒子娶一個妻子

41 只要你到了我本族那裡,我使你起的誓就與你無干。他們若不把女子交你,我使你起的誓也與你無干。

42 我今日到了井旁,便耶和華─我亞伯拉罕的阿,願你叫我所行的道路通達。

43 我如今站在井旁,對那一個出來打的女子:請你把你瓶裡的給我一點喝;

44 他若:你只管,我也為你的駱駝打水;願那女子就作耶和華給我兒子所預定的妻。

45 裡的話還沒有完,利百加就出來,肩頭上扛著水瓶,到井旁打水。我便對他:請你給我水喝。

46 他就急忙從肩頭上拿瓶來,:請!我也給你的駱駝。我便了;他又給我的駱駝了。

47 我問他:你是誰的女兒?他:我是密迦與拿鶴之子彼土利的女兒。我就把環子戴在他鼻子上,把鐲子戴在他兩上。

48 隨後我低頭向耶和華下拜,稱頌耶和華─我亞伯拉罕的;因為他引導我走合式的道路,使我得著我兄弟的孫女,給我人的兒子為妻。

49 現在你們若願以慈愛誠實待我人,就告訴我;若不然,也告訴我,使我可以或向左,或向右。

50 拉班和彼土利回答:這事乃出於耶和華我們不能向你歹。

51 看哪,利百加在你面前,可以將他帶去,照著耶和華的,給你人的兒子為妻。

52 亞伯拉罕的僕人見他們這,就向耶和華俯伏在

53 當下僕人拿出器、器,和衣服利百加,又將寶物送哥哥和他母親

54 僕人和跟從他的人吃了了,住了一夜。早晨起來,僕人就:請打發我回我人那裡去罷。

55 利百加的哥哥和他母親:讓女子同我們,至少十,然他可以去。

56 僕人耶和華既賜給我通達的道路,你們不要耽誤我,請打發我走,回我人那裡去罷。

57 他們我們把女子來問問他,

58 了利百加來,問他:你和這同去麼?利百加:我去。

59 於是他們打發妹子利百加和他的母,同亞伯拉罕的僕人,並跟從僕人的,都走了。

60 他們就給利百加祝福:我們的妹子阿,願你作萬人的母!願你的後裔得著仇敵的城

61 利百加和他的使女們起來,駱駝,跟著那僕人僕人就帶著利百加走了。

62 那時,以撒,剛從庇耳•拉海•萊回

63 天將晚,以撒在田間默想,舉目一,見來了駱駝

64 利百加舉目以撒,就急忙下了駱駝

65 問那僕人:這田間走來迎接我們的是誰?僕人:是我的。利百加就拿帕子蒙上臉。

66 僕人就將所辦的一切事都告訴以撒

67 以撒便領利百加進了他母親撒拉的帳棚,娶了他為妻,並且他。以撒自從他母親不在了,這才得了安慰

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8002

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8002. 'A stranger and a hired servant shall not eat it' means that those who are prompted by a merely natural inclination to do good, and those who do it for the sake of gain, shall not be together with them. This is clear from the meaning of 'a stranger' as those who are prompted to do good by a merely natural inclination, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'a hired servant' as those who do good for the sake of gain, also dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'not eating it' as not being together with them, dealt with immediately above in 8001. 'A stranger' means those who are prompted by a merely natural inclination to do good because strangers were newcomers from other peoples. They were inhabitants, dwelling with the Israelites and Jews in one house; and 'dwelling with' means sharing in the same good. But since, as has just been said, they were from peoples outside the Church the good that is meant is not a kind of good that is prominent in the Church but is the kind to be found outside the Church. And this is called natural good because it is a product of the hereditary inclinations that a person is born with. With some people such good may also be the product of poor health or debility of mind. This is what one should understand when the good done by those meant by 'strangers' is mentioned.

[2] This kind of good is completely different from the good prominent in the Church, for by means of the Church's kind of good conscience is established in a person; and conscience is the level on which the angels come in and which brings him into company with them. Natural good cannot provide any such level for angels to enter. Those whose good is natural do good in the dark, led by blind instinct, not in the light of truth, under the influence of heaven. In the next life therefore they are carried away like chaff by the wind, by anyone and everyone, whether evil or good, but especially by an evil person who knows how to add a certain amount of charm and persuasion to his arguments. Nor can angels at this time guide them away, for angels operate through the truths and forms of the good of faith; they enter in on the level formed within a person out of those truths and forms of the good of faith. From all this it is evident that those who are prompted by a merely natural inclination to do good cannot be integrated among angels. Regarding these people and their lot in the next life, see 3470, 3471, 3518, 4988, 4992, 5032, 6208, 7197.

[3] The fact that 'strangers' are those who are not in their own land nor in their own house but are those staying in a foreign land is clear in Moses,

The land shall [not] be sold outright, for the land is Mine; but you are sojourners and strangers with Me. Leviticus 25:23.

In David,

Hear my prayers, O Jehovah; do not be silent at my tears. For I am a sojourner with You, a stranger as all my fathers were. Psalms 39:12.

And in the Book of Genesis,

Abraham said to the sons of Heth, I am a sojourner and a stranger among you; give me possession of a grave. Genesis 13:3-4.

'A sojourner', like 'a stranger', means a newcomer and inhabitant from another land; but 'a sojourner' means those who were taught and accepted the Church's truths, whereas those who were not taught them because they were unwilling to accept them are meant by 'strangers'.

[4] As for hired servants, they were people who worked for wages; they were servants, but not ones who had been bought. The fact that they were called 'hired', see Leviticus 19:13; 25:4-6; Deuteronomy 24:14-15. Because hired servants were those who worked for wages they mean in the internal sense those who do good for the sake of gain in the world, and in a yet more internal sense those who do good for the sake of reward in the next life, thus those who wish to earn merit through works.

[5] Those who do good solely for the sake of gain in the world cannot possibly be integrated among angels, since their final objective for doing it is the world, that is, affluence and prestige, not heaven, that is, the blessedness and happiness of their souls. The final objective is what gives direction to actions and what gives them their specific character. Those who do good solely for the sake of gain are described by the Lord as follows in John,

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life 1 for the sheep. But a hired servant, he who is not the shepherd, whose sheep are not his own, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf seizes them, and scatters the sheep. But the hired servant flees because he is a hired servant. John 10:11-13.

And in Jeremiah,

A very beautiful heifer was Egypt; destruction has come from the north. Her hired servants are like calves of the stall, 2 for they also have turned about, fled away together, and not made a stand, because the day of their ruin has come upon them. Jeremiah 46:20-21.

[6] A law forbidding strangers and hired servants to share in holy things along with those belonging to the Church is stated in Moses as follows,

No outsider shall eat what is holy; a stranger staying with a priest, or a hired servant, shall not eat what is holy. Leviticus 22:10.

And a law which allowed people to buy from the sons of strangers slaves who would serve them for evermore appears in the same book,

You shall buy a male or a female slave from the nations that are around you. And also from the sons of strangers sojourning among you - from them you shall buy, and from their families which are with you, even if they were born in your land, in order that they may be your possession. And you may pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you to inherit as a possession. Forever you shall be their masters. Leviticus 25:44-46.

'The sons of strangers' means factual knowledge acquired with the aid of merely natural light. The necessity for spiritual truths to dominate that knowledge is meant by the law that slaves should be bought from the sons of strangers as possessions for evermore.

[7] People however who do good for the sake of reward in the next life, people who are also meant by 'hired servants', differ from those spoken about immediately above, in that they have life and happiness in heaven as their final objective. But this objective turns and alters the direction of their Divine worship away from the Lord towards themselves, as a consequence of which they want things to go well only for themselves, not for others except insofar as these want the same for them. When this is so self-love resides in their every desire, not love of the neighbour; that is, they do not have any genuine charity. Nor can these people be integrated among angels, for angels utterly loathe both the word and the notion of reward or repayment. The Lord teaches in Luke that one ought to do what is good without reward as the objective,

Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing from it; then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Highest. Luke 6:32-35; 14:12-14.

Regarding the nature of good deeds performed to earn merit, see 1110, 1111, 1774, 1835, 1877, 2027, 2273, 2340, 2373, 2400, 3816, 4007 (end), 4174, 4943, 6388-6390, 6392, 6393, 6478.

[8] The reason why the Lord says so many times that those who do good will have their reward in heaven - as in Matthew 5:11-12; 6:1-2, 26; 10:41-42; 20:1-16; Mark 9:41; Luke 6:23, 35; 14:14; John 4:36 - is that before a person has been regenerated he cannot help thinking about reward. But it is different once he has been regenerated. Then he is indignant if anyone thinks that he does good to his neighbour for the sake of reward; for he feels delight and bliss in the doing of good, but not in repayment. In the internal sense 'reward' is the delight belonging to the affection that goes with charity, see 3816, 3956, 6388, 6478.

Footnotes:

1. literally, soul

2. i.e. mercenaries who are like fat bulls

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

The Bible

 

Exodus 12

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1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

2 "This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.

3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household;

4 and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats:

6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.

7 They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.

8 They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.

9 Don't eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.

10 You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.

11 This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh's Passover.

12 For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh.

13 The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.

15 "'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

16 In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no kind of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.

17 You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this same day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.

18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty first day of the month at evening.

19 Seven days shall there be no yeast found in your houses, for whoever eats that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a foreigner, or one who is born in the land.

20 You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.'"

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, "Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover.

22 You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.

23 For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two doorposts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.

24 You shall observe this thing for an ordinance to you and to your sons forever.

25 It shall happen when you have come to the land which Yahweh will give you, according as he has promised, that you shall keep this service.

26 It will happen, when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this service?'

27 that you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of Yahweh's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses.'" The people bowed their heads and worshiped.

28 The children of Israel went and did so; as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

29 It happened at midnight, that Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of livestock.

30 Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

31 He called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, "Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Yahweh, as you have said!

32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!"

33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, "We are all dead men."

34 The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.

35 The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing.

36 Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. They despoiled the Egyptians.

37 The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, besides children.

38 A mixed multitude went up also with them, with flocks, herds, and even very much livestock.

39 They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt; for it wasn't leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and couldn't wait, neither had they prepared for themselves any food.

40 Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years.

41 It happened at the end of four hundred thirty years, even the same day it happened, that all the armies of Yahweh went out from the land of Egypt.

42 It is a night to be much observed to Yahweh for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of Yahweh, to be much observed of all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

43 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it,

44 but every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then shall he eat of it.

45 A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat of it.

46 In one house shall it be eaten; you shall not carry forth anything of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall you break a bone of it.

47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

48 When a stranger shall live as a foreigner with you, and will keep the Passover to Yahweh, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one who is born in the land: but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.

49 One law shall be to him who is born at home, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you."

50 All the children of Israel did so. As Yahweh commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

51 It happened the same day, that Yahweh brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.