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Genesis 34

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1 Da Dina, den Datter, Jakob havde med Lea, engang gik ud for at besøge Landets Døtre,

2 Sikem, en Søn af Egnens Høvding, Hivviten Hamor, hende og greb hende og lå hos hende; og han krænkede hende;

3 men hans Hjerte hang ved Jakobs Datter Dina, og han elskede Pigen og talte godt for hende;

4 og Sikem sagde til sin Fader Hamor: "Skaf mig den Pige til Hustru!"

5 Jakob hørte, at han havde skændet hans Datter Dina; men da hans Sønner dengang var med hans Kvæg på Marken, tav han, til de kom hjem.

6 Sikems Fader Hamor gik nu til Jakob for at tale med ham.

7 Men da Jakobs Sønner hørte det, kom de hjem fra Marken; og Mændene græmmede sig og var såre opbragte, fordi han havde øvet Skændselsdåd i Israel ved at ligge hos Jakobs Datter; thi sligt bør ikke ske.

8 Og Hamor talte med dem og sagde: "Min Søn Sikems Hjerte hænger ved eders Datter; giv ham hende til Hustru

9 og indgå Svogerskab med os; giv os eders Døtre og gift eder med vore Døtre;

10 tag Ophold hos os, og Landet skal stå eder åbent; slå eder ned og drag frit omkring og saml eder Ejendom der!"

11 Og Sikem sagde til hendes Fader og Brødre: "Måtte jeg finde Nåde for eders Øjne! Alt, hvad I kræver, vil jeg give

12 forlang så høj en Brudesum og Gave, I vil; jeg giver, hvad I kræver, når I blot vil give mig Pigen til Hustru!"

13 Da gav Jakobs Sønner Sikem og hans Fader Hamor et listigt Svar, fordi. han havde skændet deres Søster Dina,

14 og sagde til dem: "Vi er ikke i Stand til at give vor Søster til en uomskåren Mand, thi det holder vi for en Skændsel.

15 Kun på det Vilkår vil vi føje eder, at I bliver som vi og lader alle af Mandkøn iblandt eder omskære;

16 i så Fald vil vi give eder vore Døtre og ægte eders Døtre og bosætte os iblandt eder, så vi bliver eet Folk;

17 men hvis I ikke vil høre os og lade eder omskære, så tager vi vor Datter og drager bort"

18 Deres Tale tyktes Hamor og Sikem, Hamors Søn, god;

19 og den unge Mand tøvede ikke med at gøre således, thi han var indtaget i Jakobs Datter, og han var den, der havde mest at sige i sin Faders Hus

20 og Harnor og hans Søn Siken gik til deres Bys Port og sagde til, Mændene i deres By:

21 "Disse Mænd er os velsindede; lad dem bosætte sig og drage frit om her i Landet, der er jo Plads nok til dem i Landet; deres Døtre vil vi tage til Hustruer og give dem vore Døtre til Hustruer!

22 Men kun på det Vilkår vil Mændene føje os og bosætte sig hos os, så vi kan blive eet Folk, at alle af Mandkøn hos os lader sig omskære, således som de er omskårne.

23 Deres Hjorde og deres Gods og alt deres Kvæg bliver jo dog vort; lad os derfor føje dem, så de kan blive boende hos os!"

24 Så adlød de Hamor og hans Søn Sikem, så mange som færdedes i hans Bys Port, og alle af Mandkøn, alle, som færdedes i hans Bys Port, lod sig omskære.

25 Men Tredjedagen, da de havde Sårfeber, tog Jakobs to Sønner Simeon og Levi, Dinas Brødre, hver sit Sværd, trængte ind i Byen, uden at nogen anede Uråd, og slog alle Mændene ihjel

26 og dræbte Hamor og hans Søn Sikem med Sværdet, tog Dina ud af Sikems Hus og drog bort.

27 Så kastede Jakobs Sønner sig over de faldne og plyndrede Byen, fordi de havde skændet deres Søster;

28 deres Småkvæg, Hornkvæg og Æsler, både hvad der var i Byen og på Markerne, tog de med sig,

29 og al deres Ejendom og alle deres Børn og Kvinder førte de bort som Bytte, og de udplyndrede Byen for alt, hvad der var der.

30 Men Jakob sagde til Simeon og Levi: "I styrter mig i Ulykke ved at lægge mig for Had hos Landets Indbyggere, Kana'anæerne og Perizziterne; thi jeg råder kun over få Folk; samler de sig mod mig og slår mig, så er det ude med mig og mit Hus!"

31 Men de svarede: "Skal han behandle vor Søster som en Skøge!"

   


The Project Gutenberg Association at Carnegie Mellon University

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4462

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4462. 'To give our sister to a man who has a foreskin' means unless they could identify the truth and the good of the Church with representatives and disregard the spiritual entities meant by these. This is clear from the meaning of 'the foreskin' as an external representative - as the sign that they were members of the Church. It was usual therefore to speak of circumcision and the foreskin when they needed to distinguish between those who belonged to the Church and those who did not. For circumcision meant the departure from filthy loves, namely self-love and love of the world, and the acceptance of heavenly loves, which are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, and so an acceptance of the Church. This is why these words mean an acceptance of their semblance of religion and that therefore they identified the truth and the good of the Church with representatives, disregarding the internal things meant by these. For otherwise they would not be like them, as the words that follow show, 'Only on this [condition] will we consent to you: If you will be as we are'. As regards 'circumcision' being the sign of purification from filthy loves, see 2039, 2632, and the expression 'uncircumcised' being used of those who were governed by those loves, 2049, 3412, 3413.

[2] Scarcely anyone at the present day knows what circumcision means specifically, and this therefore must be stated. The genital organs in both sexes mean things associated with the joining together of good and truth. They not only mean them but also in actual fact correspond to them. It has been shown at the ends of chapters that all the organs and members in the human being have a correspondence with spiritual things in heaven, including therefore the organs and members devoted to procreation. These correspond to the marriage of good and truth, from which marriage conjugial love also comes down, see 2618, 2727-2729, 2803, 3132, 4434. Because the foreskin covered the genital organ it corresponded in the Most Ancient Church to the obscuration of good and truth, but in the Ancient Church to the defilement of them. With a person who belonged to the Most Ancient Church, because he was an internal man, good and truth were able to be obscured but not defiled, but with one who belonged to the Ancient Church, because he was in comparison with his predecessor an external man, good and truth were able to be defiled since it is external things, that is to say, external loves, that cause defilement. For this reason those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church had no knowledge of circumcision, only those who belonged to the Ancient Church had it.

[3] In addition circumcision spread from this Church to many nations. It was imposed on Abraham and his descendants not as something new but as the revival of a practice which had been abandoned, it becoming for his descendants the sign that they belonged to the Church. But that nation did not know, and did not wish to know, what it was a sign of, for they identified religion with representatives alone, which are externals. They therefore condemned the uncircumcised as a whole, when yet circumcision was to be merely a sign representative of purification from self-love and love of the world, from which those are purified who have been circumcised spiritually and are called circumcised at heart, as in Moses,

Jehovah God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, so that you will love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 30:6.

In the same author,

You shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and you shall be stiff-necked no longer. Deuteronomy 10:16, 18.

And in Jeremiah,

Break up your fallow ground, and remove the foreskin of your heart. Jeremiah 4:3-4.

[4] People however who are governed by self-love and love of the world are called 'uncircumcised', in spite of their having been circumcised, as in Jeremiah,

Behold, the days are coming in which I will visit every one circumcised in the foreskin - Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut and who dwell in the wilderness, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. Jeremiah 9:25-26.

From this it is also evident that many other nations were circumcised, for it is said 'I will visit every one circumcised in the foreskin', and so, as stated above, that circumcision was not something new, nor was it confined to the descendants of Jacob as a distinguishing feature. The Philistines were not circumcised, and therefore 'the uncircumcised' is generally used to mean the Philistines, 1 Samuel 14:6; 17:26, 36; 31:4; 2 Samuel 1:20; and elsewhere.

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