The Bible

 

Genesis 2

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1 And the heavens and the earth and all their host were finished.

2 And God had finished on the seventh day his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it, because that on it he rested from all his work which God had created in making it.

4 These are the histories of the heavens and the earth, when they were created, in the day that Jehovah Elohim made earth and heavens,

5 and every shrub of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for Jehovah Elohim had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground.

6 But a mist went up from the earth, and moistened the whole surface of the ground.

7 And Jehovah Elohim formed Man, dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and Man became a living soul.

8 And Jehovah Elohim planted a garden in Eden eastward, and there put Man whom he had formed.

9 And out of the ground Jehovah Elohim made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; and the tree of life, in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden, to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four main streams.

11 The name of the one is Pison: that is it which surrounds the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is.

12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and the onyx stone are there.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: that is it which surrounds the whole land of Cush.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which flows forward toward Asshur. And the fourth river, that is Euphrates.

15 And Jehovah Elohim took Man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to till it and to guard it.

16 And Jehovah Elohim commanded Man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou shalt freely eat;

17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt certainly die.

18 And Jehovah Elohim said, It is not good that Man should be alone; I will make him a helpmate, his like.

19 And out of the ground Jehovah Elohim had formed every animal of the field and all fowl of the heavens, and brought [them] to Man, to see what he would call them; and whatever Man called each living soul, that was its name.

20 And Man gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but as for Adam, he found no helpmate, his like.

21 And Jehovah Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon Man; and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up flesh in its stead.

22 And Jehovah Elohim built the rib that he had taken from Man into a woman; and brought her to Man.

23 And Man said, This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a Man.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, Man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #7988

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7988. 'That all the hosts of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt' means that those with whom truth and good were present but who had been held back until then were released. This is clear from the meaning of 'going out of the land of Egypt' as being released and delivered from molestations, 'going out' self-evidently meaning being released, while 'the land of Egypt' means molestations, see 7278; and from the meaning of 'the hosts of Jehovah' as the truths and forms of good that the spiritual Church possesses, and so those with whom truth and good are present, dealt with in 3448, 7236. The fact that truths and forms of good are meant by 'the hosts of Jehovah' is clear in Daniel,

There came out one small-sized horn of the he-goat, and it grew exceedingly towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the glorious [land]. And it grew even towards the hosts of heaven, and cast down to the earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them. It drew itself up even towards the prince of the host. And the host was set over the continual [burnt offering] on account of the transgression, because it cast down truth to the earth. At that point I heard a holy one speaking, How long is both the sanctuary and the host being trodden down? He said to me, Up to the evening and morning, two thousand three hundred times; then the sanctuary will be made correct. Daniel 8:9-14.

Here it is plainly evident that 'the hosts' means truths and forms of good, for it says that [the hem] cast down to the earth some of the host and of the stars, and after this that it cast down truth to the earth, and that the host was to be trodden down up to the evening and morning, which is the Lord's Coming.

[2] Since truths and forms of good make up 'the hosts of Jehovah', angels are therefore called His 'hosts' in the first Book of Kings,

Micah the prophet said, I saw Jehovah sitting on His throne, and the entire host of heaven standing beside Him. 1 Kings 22:19.

And in David,

Bless Jehovah, His angels, powerful with strength; bless Jehovah, all His hosts, His ministers. Psalms 103:20-21.

Angels are called 'hosts' by virtue of the truths and forms of good present with them. Not only angels used to be referred to as the hosts of Jehovah but also the lights in the sky - the sun, moon, and stars. And they were referred to as such because 'the sun' was a sign of the good of love, 'the moon' a sign of the good of faith, and 'the stars' a sign of cognitions of goodness and truth. Reference to those lights as 'hosts' is evident in the Book of Genesis,

The heavens and the earth were finished, and all their hosts. Genesis 1:1.

Here 'hosts' is used to mean all the lights in the sky; but in the internal sense, in which the subject at that point is the new creation of a person, 'hosts' is used to mean truths and forms of good.

[3] Likewise in David,

Praise Jehovah, all His angels, praise Him, all His hosts; praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all stars of light. Psalms 148:1, 3.

'Sun' means the good of love, and 'moon' the good of faith, see 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495, 4060, 4696, 5377, 7083; and 'stars' means cognitions of good and truth, 1808, 2120, 2495, 2849, 4697.

[4] One reason why 'sun, moon, and stars' means forms of good and truths is that in heaven the Lord is a Sun to those who are celestial and a Moon to those who are spiritual, 1521, 1529-1531, 3636, 3643, 4300, 4721 (end), 5097, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173; and another reason is that angelic dwelling-places shine like stars, in keeping with the following in Daniel,

Then those who have intelligence will shine like the brightness of the expanse, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and into eternity. Daniel 12:9.

[5] Since angels, by virtue of truths and forms of good, are spoken of as 'the hosts of Jehovah', and also the sun, moon, and stars are called such, and since all truth and good come from the Lord, the Word refers to the Lord as Jehovah Zebaoth, that is, Jehovah of Hosts, 3448. And another reason why it refers to Him in this way is that He fights on a person's behalf against the hells.

From all this one may now see what 'the hosts of Jehovah' is used to mean in the internal sense. The children of Jacob who went out of Egypt were not such, though they represented them. This is evident from their life in Egypt, where they were unacquainted with Jehovah, even with His name before it was made known to Moses from the bramble bush, Exodus 3:13-16; and also they were calf-worshippers no less than the Egyptians were, as may be deduced from Exodus 32. And their life in the wilderness too shows that their character was such that they could not be led into the land of Canaan. Thus they were anything but the hosts of Jehovah.

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