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Genesis 16

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1 Abrams Hustru Saraj fødte ham intet Barn. Men Saraj havde en Ægyptisk Trælkvinde ved Navn Hagar;

2 og Saraj sagde til Abram: "HE EN har jo nægtet mig Børn; gå derfor ind til min Trælkvinde, måske kan jeg få en Søn ved hende!" Og Abram adlød Saraj.

3 Så tog Abrams Hustru Saraj sin Trælkvinde, Ægypterinden Hagar, efter at Abram havde boet ti År i Kana'ans Land, og gav sin Mand Abram hende til Hustru;

4 og han gik ind til Hagar, og hun blev frugtsommelig. Men da hun så, at hun var frugtsommelig, lod hun hånt om sin Herskerinde.

5 Da sagde Saraj til Abram: "Min Krænkelse komme over dig! Jeg lagde selv min Trælkvinde i din Favn, og nu hun ser, at hun skal føde, lader hun hånt om mig; HE EN være Dommer mellem mig og dig!"

6 Abram svarede Saraj: "Din Trældkvinde er i din Hånd, gør med hende, hvad du finder for godt!" Da plagede Saraj hende, så hun flygtede for hende.

7 Men HE ENs Engel fandt hende ved Vandkilden i Ørkenen, ved Kilden på Vejen til Sjur;

8 og han sagde: "Hvorfra kommer du, Hagar, Sarajs Trælkvinde, og hvor går du hen?" Hun svarede: "Jeg flygter for min Herskerinde Saraj!"

9 Da sagde HE ENs Engel til hende: "Vend tilbage til din Herskerinde og find dig i hendes Mishandling!"

10 Og HE ENs Engel sagde til hende: "Jeg vil gøre dit Afkom så talrigt, at det ikke kan tælles."

11 Og HE ENs Engel sagde til hende: "Se, du er frugtsommelig, og du skal føde en Søn, som du skal kalde Ismael, thi HE EN har hørt, hvad du har lidt;

12 og han skal blive et Menneske Vildæsel, hvis Hånd er mod alle, og alles Hånd mod ham, og han skal ligge i Strid med alle sine Frænder!"

13 Så gav hun HE EN, der havde talet til hende, Navnet: Du er en Gud, som ser; thi hun sagde: "Har jeg virkelig her set et Glimt af ham, som ser mig?"

14 Derfor kaldte man Brønden Be'er-lahaj-ro'i; den ligger mellem Kadesj og Bered.

15 Og Hagar fødte Abram en Søn, og Abram kaldte Sønnen, Hagar fødte ham, Ismael.

16 Abram var seks og firsindstyve År gammel, da Hagar fødte ham Ismael.

   


The Project Gutenberg Association at Carnegie Mellon University

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1900

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1900. 'Go in now to my servant-girl' means a joining to the more exterior man. This too is clear from what has been stated already - that the rational part of man's mind is conceived and begotten from the internal man as its father and from the exterior as its mother. Man's very life springs from the internal man, which cannot have any communication with the external, other than a very obscure communication, until the formation of recipient vessels belonging to the memory has been effected by means of cognitions and knowledge.

[2] The influx of the internal man occurs as an influx into the cognitions and factual knowledge that are present in the exterior man - affection being the means. Meanwhile, before they are present, a communication does indeed exist, but solely through those affections that control the external man; so that not more than very general stirrings and certain appetites occur there, and also certain blind inclinations such as reveal themselves in small children. But this life grows by degrees more definite as vessels are formed in the memory by means of cognitions and in the inner memory by rational concepts. As these vessels are formed and arranged into a sequence - into such a sequence in fact that they stand mutually related to one another like blood relatives and relatives by marriage, or like communities and families - so the correspondence is perfected of the external man with the internal man, and even better so through rational concepts, which are intermediate.

[3] But if the cognitions by means of which those vessels are formed are not truths, a lack of congruity still exists, for the celestial and spiritual things belonging to the internal man do not discover any correspondence for themselves except within truths. Such truths constituting the organic forms of the two memories 1 are the genuine vessels into which the celestial things of love and the spiritual things of faith may be introduced fittingly; for when they are so introduced they are arranged by the Lord according to the pattern and image of the communities of heaven, that is, of the Lord's kingdom - insomuch that the person becomes, in miniature, heaven or the Lord's kingdom, as also in the Word the minds of those people are called in whom the celestial things of love and the spiritual things of faith are present. But these matters have been stated for the benefit of those minds that like to go more deeply.

Footnotes:

1. i.e. the interior memory and the exterior memory, see 2469ff.

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