The Bible

 

Genesis 7

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1 Derpå sagde HE EN til Noa: Gå ind i Arken med hele dit Hus, thi dig har jeg fundet retfærdig for mine Øjne i denne Slægt.

2 Af alle rene Dyr skal du tage syv Par, Han og Hun, og af alle urene Dyr eet Par, Han og Hun,

3 ligeledes af Himmelens Fugle syv Par, Han og Hun, for at de kan forplante sig på hele Jorden.

4 Thi om syv Dage vil jeg lade det regne på Jorden i fyrretyve Dage og fyrretyve Nætter og udslette alle Væsener, som jeg har gjort, fra Jordens Flade."

5 Og Noa gjorde ganske som HE EN havde pålagt ham.

6 Noa var 600 År gammel, da Vandfloden kom over Jorden.

7 Noa gik med sine Sønner, sin Hustru og sine Sønnekoner ind i Arken for at undslippe Flodens Vande.

8 De rene og de urene Dyr, Fuglene og alt, hvad der kryber på Jorden,

9 gik Par for Par ind i Arken til Noa, Han og Hundyr, som Gud havde pålagt Noa.

10 Da nu syv Dage var omme, kom Flodens Vande over Jorden;

11 i Noas 600de Leveår på den syttende Dag i den anden Måned, den Dag brast det store Verdensdybs Kilder, og Himmelens Sluser åbnedes,

12 og egnen faldt over Jorden i fyrretyve Dage og fyrretyve Nætter.

13 Selvsamme Dag gik Noa ind i Arken og med ham hans Sønner Sem, Kam og Jafet, hans Hustru og hans tre Sønnekoner

14 og desuden alle vildtlevende Dyr efter deres Arter, alt Kvæg efter dets Arter, alt Kryb på Jorden efter dets Arter og alle Fugle efter deres Arter, alle Fugle, alt, hvad der har Vinger;

15 af alt Kød, som har Livsånde, gik Par for Par ind i Arken til Noa;

16 Han og Hundyr af alt Kød gik ind, som Gud havde påbudt, og HE EN lukkede efter ham.

17 Da kom Vandfloden over Jorden i fyrretyve Dage, og Vandet steg og løftede Arken, så den hævedes over Jorden.

18 Og Vandet steg og stod højt over Jorden, og Arken flød på Vandet;

19 og Vandet steg og steg over Jorden, så de højeste Bjerge under Himmelen stod under Vand;

20 femten Alen stod Vandet over dem, så Bjergene stod helt under Vand.

21 Da omkom alt Kød, som rørte sig på Jorden, Fugle, Kvæg, vildtlevende Dyr og alt Kryb på Jorden og alle Mennesker;

22 alt, i hvis Næse det var Livets Ånde, alt, hvad der var på det faste Land, døde.

23 Således udslettedes alle Væsener, der var på Jordens Flade, Mennesker, Kvæg, Kryb og Himmelens Fugle; de udslettedes af Jorden, og tilbage blev kun Noa og de, der var hos ham i Arken.

24 Vandet steg over Jorden i 150 Dage.

   


The Project Gutenberg Association at Carnegie Mellon University

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #784

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784. The implications of 'Jehovah closed the way behind him' meaning that man no longer had the kind of communication with heaven that the member of the celestial Church had had are as follows: The state of the Most Ancient Church was such that men had an inward communication with heaven, and so by way of heaven with the Lord. They were governed by love to the Lord, and people who are governed by love to the Lord are like angels, the only difference being that they are clothed with a [physical] body. Their interiors were unconcealed and lay open all the way from the Lord. But it was different with this new Church. It was governed not by love to the Lord, but in and through faith, by charity towards the neighbour. They could not have, as the most ancient people had, any inward communication, only external. It would take too long however to discuss the nature of these two kinds of communication. Everybody has a communication of some kind, including the wicked, through the angels residing with them, though there are different degrees of it, from fairly close to quite remote. Without it a person could not exist. The degrees of communication are unending. A spiritual man cannot possibly have the kind of communication that a celestial man has, the reason being that the Lord dwells in love, and less so in faith. This is what the present statement means about Jehovah closing the way behind him.

[2] Since those times heaven has never been open in the way it was for the member of the Most Ancient Church. Many people in later times have indeed talked to spirits and angels - for example, Moses, Aaron, and others - but they did so in a completely different way. This, in the Lord's Divine mercy, will be dealt with later on. The reason why heaven has been closed is a very deep arcanum, as also is the reason why it is so closed nowadays that no one knows even of the existence of spirits, let alone that angels are residing with him. He imagines that when he is not with fellow men in the world and when thinking all by himself he is completely alone. In fact however he is constantly in the company of spirits who observe and perceive very accurately what a person is thinking and what he intends and devises, as accurately and clearly as if this manifested itself for all the world to see. Of this man is not at all directly conscious, so closed is heaven to him. Nevertheless it is utterly true. The reason he is not conscious of it is that if heaven were not in this way closed to him at a time when faith is non-existent with him, still less the truth of faith, and charity even less, he would stand in very great danger. This was the meaning also of Jehovah God's casting man out and causing cherubim to dwell at the east end of the Garden of Eden, with a flaming sword turning about to guard the way to the tree of life, 1 dealt with already in Chapter 3:14. See also 301-307.

Footnotes:

1. literally, of lives

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