The Bible

 

Genesis 13

Study

   

1 og Abram drog atter med sin Hustru og al sin Ejendom fra Ægypten op til Sydlandet, og Lot drog med ham.

2 Abram var meget rig på kvæghjorde, Sølv og Guld;

3 og han vandrede fra Lejrplads til Lejrplads og nåede fra Sydlandet til Betel, til det Sted, hvor hans Teltlejr havde stået første Gang, mellem Betel og Aj,

4 til det Sted, hvor han forrige Gang havde rejst et Alter; og Abram påkaldte der HE ENs Navn.

5 Og Lot, der drog med Abram, ejede ligeledes Småkvæg, Hornkvæg og Telte.

6 Men Landet formåede ikke at rumme dem, så de kunde bo sammen; thi deres Hjorde var for store til, at de kunde bo sammen.

7 Da opstod der Strid mellem Abrams og Lots Hyrder; det var dengang Kana'anæerne og Perizziterne boede i Landet.

8 Abram sagde derfor til Lot: "Der må ikke være Strid mellem os to eller mellem mine og dine Hyrder, vi er jo Frænder!

9 Ligger ikke hele Landet dig åbent? Skil dig hellere fra mig; vil du til venstre, så går jeg til højre, og vil du til højre, så går jeg til venstre!"

10 Da så Lot sig omkring, og da han så, at hele Jordanegnen (det var før HE EN ødelagde Sodoma og Gomorra) var vandrig som HE ENs Have, som Ægyptens Land, hen ad Zoar til,

11 valgte han sig hele Jordanegnen. Så brød Lot op og drog østerpå, og de skiltes,

12 idet Abram slog sig ned i Kana'ans Land, medens Lot slog sig ned i Jordanegnens Byer og drog med sine Telte fra Sted til Sted helt hen til Sodoma.

13 Men Mændene i Sodoma var ugudelige og store Syndere mod HE EN.

14 Efter at Lot havde skilt sig fra Abram, sagde HE EN til denne: "Løft dit Blik og se dig om der, hvor du står, mod Nord, mod Syd, mod Øst og mod Vest;

15 thi hele det Land, du ser, vil jeg give dig og dit Afkom til evig Tid,

16 og jeg vil gøre dit Afkom som Jordens Støv, så at det lige så lidt skal kunne tælles, som nogen kan tælle Jordens Støv.

17 Drag nu gennem Landet på Kryds og tværs, thi dig giver jeg det!"

18 Så drog Abram fra Sted til Sted med sine Telte og kom til Mamres Lund i Hebron, hvor han slog sig ned og byggede HE EN et Alter.

   


The Project Gutenberg Association at Carnegie Mellon University

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1540

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

1540. THE INTERNAL SENSE

As has been stated, narratives in the Word that draw on true history began with the previous chapter. Down to that point, or rather down to Eber, they were made-up history. The continuation of the Abram story here means in the internal sense the Lord and in particular His life as it was at first before His External Man had been joined to His Internal to the point of their functioning as a unit, that is, before His external Man as well had become celestial and Divine. The historical details are what represent the Lord, while the actual words mean those things that are being represented. But because they are historical descriptions the mind of the reader. inevitably dwells upon them, especially nowadays when the majority, indeed almost everybody, does not believe in the existence of an internal sense at all, let alone within individual words. And perhaps they will still not acknowledge the existence of it even though it has been shown so clearly up to this point. There is the further reason that the internal sense seems to be so withdrawn from the sense of the letter that it is scarcely recognizable. Yet they can know of it merely from the consideration that historical records by themselves cannot ever constitute the Word, for there is no more of the Divine in them when they are separated from the internal sense than in any other historical narrative. It is the internal sense that makes it Divine. The fact that the internal sense is the Word itself is clear from many things that have been revealed, such as "Out of Egypt have I called My son" Matthew 2:15, besides many others like this. The Lord Himself also, after the Resurrection, taught the disciples what had been written concerning Himself in Moses and the Prophets, Luke 24:27, thus that nothing has been written in the Word which does not have regard to Him, to His kingdom, and to the Church. These are the spiritual and celestial things of the Word, but the sense of the letter consists for the most part of worldly, bodily, and earthly images which cannot possibly constitute the Word of the Lord. Nowadays people are such that they do not perceive anything except matters of this sort. They scarcely know what spiritual and celestial things are. It was different with the member of the Most Ancient Church or of the Ancient Church. If he were living today and reading the Word he would not pay any attention to the sense of the letter, which he would regard as nothing at all, but only to the internal sense. Members of those Churches are utterly amazed that anyone perceives the Word in any other way. All the books of the ancients therefore were written in such a fashion that they had a different import in the interior sense from what they had in the letter.

  
/ 10837  
  

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