The Bible

 

Genesis 34

Study

   

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 #4464

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

4464. 'Only on this [condition] will we consent to you: If you will be as we are' means acceptance of their semblance of religion. This is clear from the meaning of 'consenting' as acceptance, and from the meaning of 'being as they are' as being interested only in external things and not in internal ones, for they would in that case have been as they were, see just above in 4459. There it was shown - in 4459 - what an interest only in external things is and what an interest in internal ones is. Here the reason why a person ought to be interested in internal ones is going to be stated. Anyone who reflects may see that man has communication with heaven by means of internal things, for the whole of heaven dwells within internal things. Unless a person is in heaven as regards his thoughts and affections, that is, as regards the thoughts in his understanding and the affections in his will, he cannot go to heaven after death, since he has no communication with it at all. During his lifetime a person secures that communication by means of truths in his understanding and goods in his will, and unless he secures it then he cannot do so subsequently, since his mind cannot be opened after death to interior things if it has not been opened to them during his lifetime.

[2] Man is not immediately conscious of the fact that a spiritual sphere surrounds him, the nature of which is determined by the life of his affections. That sphere the angels are able to perceive more clearly than any aroma reaching the keenest sense of smell in the world. If in his life he has been interested only in external things, that is to say, in the pleasures that are gained from hatred against the neighbour, from consequent revenge and cruelty, from committing adultery, from self-aggrandizement and consequent contempt for others, from unseen acts of robbery, from avarice, from deceit, and from luxuriousness, and other vices like these, the spiritual sphere which surrounds him is as offensive as the aroma in the world coming from dead bodies, dung, stinking refuse, and other things such as these. Anyone who has been leading a life like this takes that sphere with him after death; and being entirely surrounded by that sphere he cannot exist anywhere else than in hell where such spheres belong. Concerning spheres in the next life and their origins, see 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1519, 1695, 2401, 2489.

[3] People however who are interested in internal things - that is to say, who have taken delight in expressing good-will and charity towards the neighbour, and most of all who have found blessedness in love to the Lord - have a pleasing and lovely sphere surrounding them, which is the heavenly sphere itself; and for that reason they are in heaven. All the spheres which are perceived in the next life have their origin in the loves and in the affections deriving from those loves which have governed them. Such spheres have their origins as a consequence in their life, for their loves and affections derived from these loves constitute their life itself. And because they have their origins in their loves and affections derived from these they have their origins in the intentions and the ends in view which cause a person to will and to act in the way he does. For everyone has as his end in view that which he loves, and therefore a person's ends determine what his life is and constitute the essential nature of it; and this is the main source of the sphere around him. That sphere is perceived most perfectly in heaven the reason being that the sphere emanating from ends in view exists throughout the whole of heaven. These considerations show what someone is like whose interest is in internal things and what someone is like whose interest is in external ones, and why a person ought not to be interested only in external things but to be interested in internal ones also.

[4] But someone who is interested only in external things pays no attention to internal ones - no matter how skillful he may be in the conduct of public affairs and no matter how great a reputation he has earned for being learned - because he is the kind of person who does not believe in the existence of anything which he does not see with his eyes or feel by touch, and therefore does not believe in heaven or in hell. And if he were told that he was going to enter the next life immediately after death, where he will see, hear, speak, and enjoy a sense of touch more perfectly than when in the body he would reject it as an absurdity or sheer fantasy, when in actual fact that happens to be the truth. His reaction would be the same if anyone were to tell him that the soul or spirit which lives after death is the real person and not the body which he carries around in the world.

[5] From this it follows that those who are interested only in external things pay no attention at all to what is said concerning internal things, when yet it is these that make people blessed and happy in the kingdom which they are going to enter and in which they are going to live for ever. Such unbelief is present in most Christians, as I have been allowed to know from those to whom I have spoken who have entered the next life from the Christian world. For in the next life they are not able to conceal what they have thought since thoughts are laid completely bare there; nor are they able to conceal what ends they have had in view, that is, what they have loved, for this reveals itself through the sphere surrounding them.

  
/ 10837  
  

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2401

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

2401. 'And said, Rise up, go out of this place' means that they were not to remain in a state of evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'rising up' and 'going out', and also of 'place'. 'Rising up' occurs often in the Word, being one of the common expressions found there, but little thought is given to what else it may mean. In the internal sense however it entails, as it does here, being raised up from evil to good, for the mind is raised up when it draws back from evil, 2388. 'Going out' means drawing back or not remaining, while 'place' means a state of evil, 2393. From this it is evident what the meaning is here.

[2] The character of people who possess cognitions of truth but at the same time lead a life of evil has been stated frequently already - that as long as they lead a life of evil they believe nothing; for to will evil and consequently to do it, and at the same time in faith to acknowledge truth, is not possible. From this it is also evident that a person cannot be saved by thinking and speaking what is true, nor even what is good, if he wills nothing but evil, and as a consequence of what he wills does nothing but evil. Man's will itself is what lives on after death, and not so much his thinking apart from that which flows from his will.

[3] Since therefore a person's character after death is determined by what he wills, one can see what he is able to think about the truths of faith he has absorbed, indeed taught, seeing that these condemn him. He is in this case so disinclined to think from them that he avoids them altogether. Indeed insofar as he is allowed, he curses them, as the devil's crew do. People who have not been taught about the life after death may imagine that they will find it easy at that time to receive faith when they see that the Lord governs the whole of heaven, and when they hear that heaven is loving Him and the neighbour. But evil people are as far removed from being able to receive faith, that is, from having the will to believe, as hell is from heaven. They are in fact totally immersed in evil and in falsity derived from this. From their mere arrival itself or presence it is recognized and perceived that they are against the Lord and against the neighbour and so against what is good and consequently against what is true. There is an unmentionable sphere which emanates from the life of their will and so of their thinking, 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504.

[4] If it were possible for people to believe and become good merely by receiving instruction in the next life no one would be left in hell; for no matter how many, the Lord desires to raise them all up to heaven towards Himself. For His mercy is infinite since it is Divine mercy itself and is indeed directed towards the whole human race, and so towards the evil as well as the good.

  
/ 10837  
  

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