The Bible

 

Postanak 15

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1 Poslije tih događaja Jahve uputi Abramu riječ u ukazanju: "Ne boj se, Abrame, ja sam ti zaštita; a nagrada tvoja bit će vrlo velika!"

2 Abram odgovori: "Gospodine moj, Jahve, čemu mi tvoji darovi kad ostajem bez poroda; kad je mojoj kući nasljednik Eliezer Damaščanin?

3 Kako mi nisi dao potomstva - nastavi Abram - jedan će, eto, od mojih ukućana postati moj baštinik."

4 Ali mu Jahve opet uputi riječ: "Taj neće biti tvoj baštinik, nego će ti baštinik biti tvoj potomak."

5 Izvede ga van i reče: "Pogledaj na nebo i zvijezde prebroj ako ih možeš prebrojiti." A onda doda: "Toliko će biti tvoje potomstvo."

6 Abram povjerova Jahvi, i on mu to uračuna u pravednost.

7 Tada mu on reče: "Ja sam Jahve koji sam te odveo iz Ura Kaldejskoga da ti predam ovu zemlju u posjed."

8 A on odvrati: "Gospodine moj, Jahve, kako ću ja doznati da ću je zaposjesti?"

9 Odgovori mu: "Prinesi mi junicu od tri godine, kozu od tri godine, ovna od tri godine, jednu grlicu i jednog golubića."

10 Sve mu to donese, rasiječe na pole i metnu sve pole jednu prema drugoj; ptica nije rasijecao.

11 Ptice grabežljivice obarale se na leševe, ali ih je Abram rastjerivao.

12 Kad je sunce bilo pri zalazu, dubok san obuzme Abrama, a onda se na nj spusti gust mrak pun jeze.

13 Tada Bog reče Abramu: "Dobro znaj da će tvoji potomci biti stranci u tuđoj zemlji; robovat će i biti tlačeni četiri stotine godina,

14 ali narodu kojem budu služili ja ću suditi; i konačno će izići s velikim blagom.

15 A ti ćeš k ocima svojim u miru poći, u sretnoj starosti bit ćeš sahranjen.

16 Oni će se ovamo vratiti za četvrtog naraštaja, jer mjera se zlodjela amorejskih još nije navršila."

17 Kad je sunce zašlo i pao gust mrak, pojavi se zadimljen žeravnjak i goruća zublja te prođu između onih dijelova.

18 Toga je dana Jahve sklopio Savez s Abramom rekavši: "Potomstvu tvojemu dajem zemlju ovu od Rijeke u Egiptu do Velike rijeke, rijeke Eufrata:

19 Kenijce, Kenižane, Kadmonce,

20 Hetite, Perižane, Refaimce,

21 Amorejce, Kanaance, Girgašane, Jebusejce."

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1854

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1854. 'You will be buried at a good old age' means the enjoyment of all goods by those who are the Lord's. This is clear from the fact that people who die and are buried do not die but pass over from an obscure life into one that is bright. For death of the body is but a continuation and also a perfecting of life, when those who are the Lord's enter for the first time into the enjoyment of all goods. That enjoyment is meant by 'a good old age'. The expressions 'they died', 'were buried', and 'were gathered to their fathers' occur quite often, but they do not carry the same meaning in the internal sense as in the sense of the letter. In the internal sense it is the things which belong to life after death, and which are eternal, that are meant, whereas in the sense of the letter it is those which belong to life in the world and which are temporal.

[2] Consequently, when such expressions occur, those who see into the internal sense, as angels do, have no thoughts of such things as have to do with death and burial but with such as have to do with the continuation of life; for they look upon death as nothing else than a casting off of the things which belong to merely earthly matter and to time, and as the continuing of life proper. Indeed they do not know what death is, for death does not enter into any of their thinking. It is the same with people's ages. By the phrase used here, 'at a good old age', angels have no perception at all of old age; indeed they do not know what old age is, for they themselves are constantly moving towards the life of youth and early manhood. It is life such as this, consequently the celestial and spiritual things belonging to it, that are meant when the expression 'a good old age' and others like it occur in the Word.

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