The Bible

 

Genesis 15

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1 After these things the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward.

2 And Abram said, Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me? seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus.

3 And Abram said, Lo, to me thou hast given no seed, and behold, a son of my house will be mine heir.

4 And behold, the word of Jehovah [came] to him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that will come forth out of thy body shall be thine heir.

5 And he led him out, and said, Look now toward the heavens, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said to him, So shall thy seed be!

6 And he believed Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him [as] righteousness.

7 And he said to him, I am Jehovah who brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give thee this land to possess it.

8 And he said, Lord Jehovah, how shall I know that I shall possess it?

9 And he said to him, Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.

10 And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the half of each opposite its fellow; but the birds he did not divide.

11 And the birds of prey came down on the carcases; and Abram scared them away.

12 And as the sun was just going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, a horror, a great darkness, fell upon him.

13 And he said to Abram, Know assuredly that thy seed will be a sojourner in a land [that is] not theirs, and they shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.

14 But also that nation which they shall serve I will judge; and afterwards they shall come out with great property.

15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

16 And [in the] fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

17 And it came to pass when the sun had gone down, and it was dark, that behold, there was a smoking furnace, and a flame of fire which passed between those pieces.

18 On the same day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates;

19 the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

20 and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim,

21 and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1803

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1803. 'But he who comes out of your own loins' means those in whom love to Him and love towards the neighbour are present. This is clear from the meaning of 'the loins', and of 'going out of the loins' as being born, here those who are being born from the Lord. People who are being born from the Lord, that is, being regenerated by Him, are receiving the Lord's life. As has been stated, the Lord's life is Divine love, that is, a love towards the entire human race, which love is such that His will is to bring eternal salvation, if possible, to the whole of it, that is, to all men. People who do not possess the Lord's love, that is, who do not love their neighbour as themselves, in no sense possess the Lord's life, and so are not in any sense born from Him, that is, they have not 'come out of His loins', and consequently cannot be heirs of His kingdom.

[2] From these considerations it is clear that 'going out of the loins' here means in the internal sense people in whom love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour are present, as in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am Jehovah your God, teaching you to profit, making you go in the way you should walk. O that you had hearkened to My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; and your seed would have been like the sand, and those who have gone out of your loins like its grains. Isaiah 48:17-19.

'Seed like the sand' stands for good, 'those who have gone out of your loins like its grains' for truth. Thus it stands for people in whom love is present, for with them alone does a love of good and truth exist.

[3] In addition the loins in the Word also mean love or mercy, the reason being that the generative organs, especially the mother's womb, represent and so mean chaste conjugial love and the love of children which is derived from that love, as in Isaiah,

The yearning of Your loins and of Your compassion 1 towards me have held themselves back. Isaiah 63:15.

In Jeremiah,

Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me? Is he not a delightful child? Therefore My loins are troubled for him, I will surely have mercy on him. Jeremiah 31:20.

[4] From this it is clear that love itself, or the Lord's mercy itself and compassion towards the human race, are what the internal sense means by 'the loins', and by 'going out of the loins'. Consequently 'those who have gone out of the loins' means people in whom love is present. Concerning the Lord's kingdom as mutual love, see what has appeared already in 548, 549, 684, 693, 694

Footnotes:

1. literally, compassions

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