The Bible

 

創世記 8

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1 記念挪亞和挪亞方舟裡的一切走牲畜勢漸落。

2 淵源和上的窗戶都閉塞了,上的大雨也止住了。

3 水從上漸退。過了一五十,水就漸消。

4 十七日,方舟停在亞拉臘上。

5 水又漸消,到十初一日,頂都現出來了。

6 過了四十,挪亞開了方舟的窗戶,

7 放出一隻烏鴉去;那烏鴉飛來飛去,直到上的都乾了。

8 他又放出一隻鴿子去,要水從地上退了沒有。

9 但遍上都是水,鴿子不著落,就回到方舟挪亞那裡,挪亞伸鴿子接進方舟

10 他又等了,再把鴿子從方舟放出去。

11 到了晚上鴿子回到他那裡,嘴裡叼著一個新擰下橄欖子,挪亞就知道上的水退了。

12 他又等了,放出鴿子去,鴿子就不再回來了。

13 到挪亞零一歲,正初一日,上的水都乾了。挪亞撤去方舟的蓋觀,便見地面上乾了。

14 到了二二十日,就都乾了。

15 對挪亞

16 你和你的妻子、兒子、兒婦都可以出方舟。

17 在你那裡凡有血的活物,就是飛牲畜,和一切爬在上的昆蟲,都要帶出來,叫他在上多多滋生,大大興旺。

18 於是挪亞和他的妻子、兒子、兒婦都出來了。

19 一切走、昆蟲、飛,和上所有的動物,各從其類,也都出了方舟。

20 挪亞為耶和華築了一座,拿各類潔淨的牲畜、飛獻在上為燔祭。

21 耶和華那馨之氣,就:我不再因人的緣故咒詛地(人從小時裡懷著惡念),也不再按著我才行的滅各種的活物了。

22 還存留的時候,稼穡、寒暑、冬夏、晝夜就永不停息了。

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #37

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37. As for the statement that 'the lights will be for signs, and for set times, and for days, and for years', this contains more arcana than can be presented at this point, though no arcanum at all is visible in the sense of the letter. For now only this can be said: Change in spiritual and celestial things takes place both on general and on particular scales, and is comparable to changes that take place through the day and through the year. Changes through the day are from morning to midday, from then on to evening, and through the night to the morning. Changes in the year similar, from spring to summer, from then on to autumn, and through winter to spring. These bring changes in temperature and amount of daylight, and so in the fertility of the earth. Compared to such changes are the changes that take place in spiritual and celestial things. Life without changes and variations would lead to sameness, and so no life at all. Good and truth would not be recognized and identified, let alone perceived. In the Prophets such changes are called 'ordinances', as in Jeremiah,

[Thus] said Jehovah who gives the sun for light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for light by night, These ordinances will not depart from before Me. Jeremiah 31:35-36.

And in the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah, If I have not established My covenant of day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth . . . Jeremiah 33:25.

But these things will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with at Genesis 8:12.

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