3902. Genesis 30

1. And Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob [any children], and Rachel was jealous of her sister, and said to Jacob, Give me sons; if you do not, I am dead.

2. And Jacob flared up in anger against Rachel, and he said, Am I in God's place, who is withholding from you the fruit of the womb?

3. And she said, Behold, my maidservant Bilhah; go [in] to her, and let her bear [a child] upon my knees, and I too shall be built up from her.

4. And she gave him Bilhah her servant-girl as his wife, and Jacob went [in] to her.

5. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

6. And Rachel said, God has judged me, and also has heard my voice, and has given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dan.

7. And Bilhah, Rachel's servant-girl, conceived again and bore a second son to Jacob.

8. And Rachel said, With the wrestlings of God I have wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed. And she called his name Naphtali.

9. And Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, and she took Zilpah her servant-girl, and gave her to Jacob as his wife.

10. And Zilpah, Leah's servant-girl, bore Jacob a son.

11. And Leah said, A troop comes! And she called his name Gad.

12. And Zilpah, Leah's servant-girl, bore a second son to Jacob.

13. And Leah said, In my blessedness! for the daughters will call me blessed. And she called his name Asher.

14. And Reuben went in the days of the wheat harvest and found dudaim in the field, and brought them to Leah his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, Give me now some of your son's dudaim.

15. But she said to her, Is it a small thing for you to have taken my husband? And will you take also my son's dudaim? And Rachel said, Therefore he will lie with you this night [in return] for your son's dudaim.

16. And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, You must come [in] to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's dudaim. And he lay with her that night.

17. And God hearkened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

18. And Leah said, God has given me my reward, because I gave my servant-girl to my husband. And she called his name Issachar.

19. And Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

20. And Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry; once again my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons. And she called his name Zebulun.

21. And afterwards she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.

22. And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her and opened her womb.

23. And she conceived and bore a son, and she said, God has taken away ¹ my reproach.

24. And she called his name Joseph, saying, May Jehovah add to me another son.

25. And it happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, Send me away and let me go to my own place and to my own land.

26. Give me my womenfolk and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you.

27. And Laban said to him, If now I have found grace in your eyes have learned from experience, and Jehovah has blessed me for your sake.

28. And he said, Indicate your wages to me, and I will give them.

29. And [Jacob] said to him, You know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me.

30. For you had few before I came, and they have increased into a multitude; and Jehovah has blessed you since I set foot here. And now, when shall I, even I, provide for my own house?

31. And he said, What shall I give you? And Jacob said, You shall not give me anything; if you will do this one thing for me, I will return, feed, and guard your flock.

32. I will pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted member of the flock, and every black one among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the she-goats; and that will be my wages.

33. And my righteousness will answer for me on the morrow, when you come [to look] over my wages that are before you; every one that is not speckled and spotted among the she-goats, and black among the lambs, is one stolen by me.

34. And Laban said, Behold, let it be according to your word.

35. And he removed on that day the variegated and spotted he-goats, and all the speckled and spotted she-goats, every one that had white in it, and every black one among the lambs; and he gave them into the hand of his sons.

36. And he put three days' journey between himself and Jacob; and Jacob was feeding the rest of Laban's flocks.

37. And Jacob took for himself fresh rods of poplar, and hazel and plane, and stripped white strips on them - an exposing of the white which was on the rods.

38. And he set the rods which he had stripped in runners, in the troughs of water where the flocks came to drink, in front of the flocks; and they came on heat as they came to drink.

39. And the flocks came on heat at the rods, and the flocks brought forth variegated, speckled, and spotted ones.

40. And Jacob singled out the lambs, and set the faces of the flock towards the variegated, and every black one in Laban's flock; and he put his own droves apart and did not put them near Laban's flock.

41. And so it was, whenever those came on heat - those of the flock which came together first - that Jacob put the rods before the eyes of the flock in the runners, so that they would come on heat at the rods.

42. And before [the eyes of those of] the flock which came together later he did not put [the rods] in. And those which came together later were Laban's, and those which came together first were Jacob's.

43. And the man became very very prosperous, ² and he had many flocks, and servant-girls and slaves, and camels and asses.

CONTENTS

The previous chapter dealt, through Jacob's four sons by Leah, with the state of the Church, that is, of the person who is becoming the Church, as regards the ascent from truth which is the truth of faith towards good which is the good of love. The present chapter deals - through Jacob's sons by the servant-girls of Rachel and Leah, and through those also by Leah and lastly Rachel - with the means by which natural truth becomes joined to spiritual good, and also with the order in which this is effected with one who is being regenerated.

Footnotes:

2762. The origin of 'a horse' meaning the understanding part of the mind lies nowhere else than in representatives in the next life. Frequently there, in the world of spirits, horses which display great variety are seen, and also people seated on horses. And whenever they are seen the understanding is meant by them. Such representatives are of constant occurrence among spirits. It is because the horse is a representative of the understanding that when horses are mentioned in the Word the spirits and angels present with man know instantaneously that it is the understanding which is being spoken of. It is also why, when spirits from some other planet who have been endowed with intelligence and wisdom are raised up from the world of spirits into heaven, horses shining as though they consisted of fire appear, which I also have seen when those people were carried up.

[2] This experience has made clear to me what is meant by the fiery chariot and the fiery horses which Elisha saw when Elijah went up with the whirlwind into heaven, and what also by Elisha's shout at that time,

My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and its riders. 2 Kings 2:11-12, and by the same spoken by Joash king of Israel to Elisha when the latter was dying,

My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and its riders. 2 Kings 13:14.

In the Lord's Divine mercy it will be shown elsewhere that Elijah and Elisha represented the Lord as to the Word. That is to say, it will there be shown that the doctrine of love and charity drawn from the Word is meant by 'the fiery chariot', and the doctrine of faith deriving from these by 'the fiery horses'. The doctrine of faith is the same as an understanding of the Word as to its inner content, which is the internal sense.

[3] As regards chariots and horses being seen in heaven among spirits and angels, this is evident not only from the fact that they were seen by the prophets, such as by Zechariah (1:8-10; 6:1-7) and by others, but also by Elisha's servant, of whom the following is said in the Book of Kings,

Jehovah opened the eyes of Elisha's servant, and he saw; and behold the mountain was full of horses, and there were fiery chariots surrounding Elisha. 2 Kings 6:17.

Furthermore, where the intelligent and wise dwell in the world of spirits, chariots and horses are constantly making their appearance, the reason being, as has been stated, that chariots and horses represent the things that belong to wisdom and intelligence. People who have been awakened after death and are entering the next life see represented to them a young man seated on a horse, who then dismounts. The meaning of this is that before they can enter heaven they have to be furnished with cognitions of good and truth - see Volume One, in 187, 188. The fact that chariots and horses meant those things was fully known in the Ancient Church, as becomes clear also from the Book of Job, a book of the Ancient Church, where these words occur,

God has made him forget wisdom and given him no share in intelligence. After raising himself on high he laughs at the horse and its rider. Job 39:17-19.

[4] The meaning of 'a horse' as the understanding spread from the Ancient Church to the wise in surrounding regions, and even into Greece. As a consequence of this, when describing the sun, which meant love, 2441, 2495, they placed the god of their wisdom and intelligence there in the sun, and gave him a chariot and four fiery horses. And when they described the god of the sea - the sea meaning knowledge in general, 28, 2120 - they gave horses to him also. And when they described the upsurge of knowledge from the understanding they portrayed it as a flying horse which with its hoof broke open a fountain where the virgins who were the branches of knowledge dwelt. And by the Trojan horse nothing else was meant than a device of their understanding for destroying city walls. Even today, when the understanding is being described, it is quite usual, drawing on the custom received from those people of old, to portray the understanding as a flying horse or Pegasus, and to portray learning as a fountain. Yet scarcely anyone knows that 'a horse' in the mystical sense means the understanding, and 'a fountain' truth, let alone that those images with a spiritual meaning spread to the gentiles from the Ancient Church.