The Bible

 

Genesis 28

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1 Da kaldte Isak Jakob til sig og velsignede ham, idet han bød ham: "Du må ikke tage dig en Hustru blandt Kana'ans Døtre.

2 Drag til Paddan-Aram, til din Morfader Betuels Hus, og tag dig der en af din Morbroder Labans Døtre til Hustru!

3 Gud den Almægtige velsigne dig og gøre dig frugtbar og give dig et talrigt Afkom, så du bliver til Stammer i Hobetal.

4 Han give dig og dit Afkom med dig Abrahams Velsignelse, så du får din Udlændigheds Land i Eje, det, Gud skænkede Abraham!"

5 Så lod Isak Jakob fare, og han drog til Paddan-Aram, til Aramæeren Laban, Betuels Søn, som var Broder til ebekka, Jakobs og Esaus Moder.

6 Men Esau fik at vide, at Isak havde velsignet Jakob og sendt ham til Paddan-Aram for at tage sig en Hustru der, og at han, da han velsignede ham, havde pålagt ham ikke at tage sig en Hustru blandt Kana'ans Døtre,

7 og at Jakob havde adlydt sin Fader og Moder og var draget til Paddan-Aram.

8 Da skønnede Esau, at Kana'ans Døtre vakte hans Fader Isaks Mishag,

9 og han gik til Ismael og tog Mahalat, en Datter af Abrahams Søn Ismael og Søster til Nebajot, til Hustru ved Siden af sine andre Hustruer.

10 Så drog Jakob bort fra Be'ersjeba og vandrede ad Karan til.

11 På sin Vandring kom han til det hellige Sted og overnattede der, da Solen var gået ned; og han tog en af Stenene på Stedet og brugte den som Hovedgærde og lagde sig til, Hvile der.

12 Da drømte han, og se, på Jorden stod en Stige, hvis Top nåede til Himmelen, og se, Guds Engle steg op og ned ad den;

13 og HE EN stod foran ham og sagde: "Jeg er HE EN, din Fader Abrahams og Isaks Gud! Det Land, du hviler på, giver jeg dig og dit Afkom;

14 dit Afkom skal blive som Jordens Støv, og du skal brede dig mod Vest og Øst, mod Nord og Syd; og i dig og i din Sæd skal alle Jordens Slægter velsignes;

15 se, jeg vil være med dig og vogte dig, hvorhen du end går og føre dig tilbage til dette Land; thi jeg vil ikke forlade dig, men opfylde alt, hvad jeg har lovet dig!"

16 Da Jakob vågnede af sin Søvn, sagde han: "Sandelig, HE EN er på dette Sted, og jeg vidste det ikke!"

17 Og han blev angst og sagde: "Hvor forfærdeligt er dog dette Sted! Visselig, her er Guds Hus, her er Himmelens Port!"

18 Tidligt næste Morgen tog Jakob den Sten, han havde brugt som Hovedgærde rejste den som en Stenstøtte og gød Olie over den.

19 Og han kaldte dette Sted Betel; før hed Byen Luz.

20 Derpå gjorde Jakob følgende Løfte: "Hvis Gud er med mig og vogter mig på den Vej, jeg skal vandre, og giver mig Brød at spise og Klæder at iføre mig,

21 og hvis jeg kommer uskadt tilbage til min Faders Hus, så skal HE EN være min Gud,

22 og denne Sten, som jeg har rejst som en Støtte, skal være Guds Hus, og af alt, hvad du giver mig, vil jeg give dig Tiende!"

   


The Project Gutenberg Association at Carnegie Mellon University

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #24

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24. (v) THE PLURALITY OF GODS IN ANCIENT TIMES, AS WELL AS TODAY, WAS ENTIRELY THE RESULT OF A FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND THE DIVINE BEING.

It was shown above (8) that the oneness of God is inwardly impressed upon the mind of every person, since this idea forms the core of all the influences from God which affect the soul of man. But the reason why it has failed to come down into men's understanding is the lack of the pieces of knowledge which a person should have to enable him to climb up to meet God. For everyone needs to prepare the way for God, that is, to prepare himself to receive God, and pieces of knowledge are the means to this end. The following are the missing pieces of knowledge which prevent the understanding from penetrating to the point at which it can see that God is one and there can only be a single Divine Being, who is the source of all natural phenomena.

(1) The fact that no one up to now has known anything about the spiritual world, the home of spirits and angels, and the place where every person comes after death.

(2) Equally, that the spiritual world possesses a sun, which is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in its midst.

(3) That from that sun radiate heat, which is in essence love, and light, which is in essence wisdom.

(4) That as a result everything in that world is spiritual, working on the internal man and making up his will and understanding.

(5) That Jehovah God has given rise by this sun of His not only to the spiritual world and all the innumerable spiritual and substantial things in it, but also to the natural world with all the innumerable natural things in it, which are composed of matter.

(6) That up to now no one has known the difference between the spiritual and the natural, nor what the spiritual is in essence.

(7) Nor that there are three degrees of love and wisdom, which form the basis of the arrangement of the heavens of angels.

(8) That the human mind is divided into the same number of degrees, to enable it after death to be lifted into one of the three heavens, depending upon the way a person has lived and at the same time what he has believed.

(9) And finally that not a jot of all this could have come into being except from the Divine Being which is God in itself, and thus the first principle and beginning from which everything comes. These pieces of knowledge have up to now been missing, yet it is through them that a person must climb up and get to know the Divine Being.

[2] We say that a person climbs up, but it must be understood that it is God who lifts him up. A person has a free choice in acquiring knowledge; and he seems to get this for himself from the Word by means of the understanding, and thus smooths the path for God to come down and lift him up. The pieces of knowledge which enable the human understanding to climb, while God holds it in His hand and guides it, can be compared to the steps of the ladder seen by Jacob, which was set up on earth so that its top reached heaven and angels climbed up by means of it, and Jehovah stood above it (Genesis 28:12-13).

It is quite different when those pieces of knowledge are lacking, or a person treats them with contempt. Then the lifting of the understanding can be compared to a ladder erected from the ground to a first floor window of a magnificent palace, where men live, but not to the second floor windows where the spirits are, much less to the third floor windows where the angels are. The result is that such a person cannot escape from the atmospheres and material objects of the natural world, which occupy his eyes, ears and nose. From these he cannot help acquiring atmospheric and material ideas about heaven and the Being and Essence of God. Thought along these lines does not allow a person to make up his mind at all about God, whether He exists or not, or whether there is one God or several; much less, what His Being and Essence are like. It was this which led to the plurality of gods in ancient times, and still does to-day.

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