The Bible

 

Genesis 35

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1 And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto the ùGod that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

2 And Jacob said to his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments;

3 and we will arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar to the ùGod that answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way that I went.

4 And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hand, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth that [is] by Shechem.

5 And they journeyed; and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

6 And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.

7 And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el; because there God had appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

8 And Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died; and she was buried beneath Bethel, under the oak; and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.

9 And God appeared to Jacob again after he had come from Padan-Aram, and blessed him.

10 And God said to him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel.

11 And God said to him, I am the Almighty ùGod: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee; and kings shall come out of thy loins.

12 And the land that I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

13 And God went up from him in the place where he had talked with him.

14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had talked with him, a pillar of stone, and poured on it a drink-offering, and poured oil on it.

15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God had talked with him, Beth-el.

16 And they journeyed from Bethel. And there was yet a certain distance to come to Ephrath, when Rachel travailed in childbirth; and it went hard with her in her childbearing.

17 And it came to pass when it went hard with her in her childbearing, that the midwife said to her, Fear not; for this also is a son for thee.

18 And it came to pass as her soul was departing -- for she died -- that she called his name Benoni; but his father called him Benjamin.

19 And Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which [is] Bethlehem.

20 And Jacob erected a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to [this] day.

21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent on the other side of Migdal-Eder.

22 And it came to pass when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine; and Israel heard of it. And the sons of Jacob were twelve.

23 The sons of Leah: Reuben -- Jacob's firstborn -- and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun.

24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant: Dan and Naphtali.

26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob that were born to him in Padan-Aram.

27 And Jacob came to Isaac his father to Mamre -- to Kirjath-Arba, which is Hebron; where Abraham had sojourned, and Isaac.

28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years.

29 And Isaac expired and died, and was gathered to his peoples, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4563

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4563. 'Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died' means that hereditary evil was cast out. This is clear from the meaning of 'dying' as the end or something ceasing to be such as it has been, dealt with in 494, 3253, 3259, 3276, and here therefore, since the subject is hereditary evil, that this was cast out; and from the representation of 'Deborah, who was Rebekah's nurse' as hereditary evil. Inasmuch as she nourishes and suckles an infant, 'a nurse' strictly speaking means the instilling of innocence by means of what is celestial-spiritual, for 'milk' means that which is celestial-spiritual, 2184, and the infant whom she suckles means innocence, 430, 1616, 2126, 2305, 2306. But in this verse 'Deborah, Rebekah's nurse' means that which was received from the mother and nourished from infancy. This was the hereditary evil from the mother which the Lord fought against, as may be seen from what has been shown regarding that heredity, 1414, 1444, 1573, which heredity He cast out, so that at length He was not Mary's son, 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036.

[2] It is well known that a person derives evil from both parents and that this evil is called hereditary evil. He is therefore born with that evil, but it does not show itself until he grows up and acts from his understanding and his will based on his understanding. In the meantime it lies hidden, especially during early childhood. Now because in the Lord's mercy no one can come to be blamed for his hereditary evil, only for the evil of his own doing, 966, 2308, and hereditary evil cannot become evil of his own doing until he acts from his own understanding and his own will, young children are therefore guided by the Lord by means of young children and angels. It is for this reason that they are seen to live in a state of innocence; yet hereditary evil lies hidden within each particular thing they do, 2300, 2307, 2308. This hereditary evil even provides them with nourishment, that is, it acts like a nurse until they reach the age of discretion, 4063. Then, if they are being regenerated, they are brought by the Lord into the state of a new infancy, and at length into heavenly wisdom, and so into genuine infancy, which innocence is; for genuine infancy, or innocence, dwells within wisdom, 2305, 3183. The difference is that the innocence of infancy is present outwardly and hereditary evil inwardly, whereas the innocence of wisdom is present inwardly and evil - hereditary and that of the person's own doing - outwardly. From these considerations, and many others mentioned previously, it is evident that hereditary evil serves so to speak as nourishment from earliest infancy to the age of the new infancy. This explains why 'a nurse' means hereditary evil, as well as meaning the instillation of innocence by means of that which is celestial-spiritual.

[3] Since the arrangement or ordering of truths by good within the Lord's Natural, and consequently the progression towards aspects more interior, 4536, is the subject in the internal sense of this chapter therefore the casting out of hereditary evil is dealt with too. This is the reason why in this verse the death of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, and her burial under an oak tree are recorded, which are matters that would be too unimportant to interrupt the sequence of events described here if they did not embody the kind of the things that have been mentioned.

[4] The actual arcanum meant specifically by Rebekah's nurse cannot as yet be disclosed. One must first know about the nature of the influx of the rational into the natural, which is an influx from the good of the rational directly into the good of the natural, and an influx from the good of the rational indirectly by way of the truth there into the good of natural truth. 'Rebekah' is the truth of the rational, 3012, 3013, 3077, whereas 'Isaac' is the good of the rational, 3012, 3194, 3210. 'Esau' is the good of the natural resulting from direct influx from the good of the rational, meant by 'Isaac', and 'Jacob' is the good - that is, the good of natural truth - resulting from an indirect influx through the truth of the rational, meant by 'Rebekah'. Regarding this indirect and direct influx see 3314, 3573. This must be known first before anyone can have specific knowledge of the arcanum why 'Rebekah's nurse' means and describes hereditary evil here. It is from such knowledge about influx that one is able to see the nature of that hereditary evil.

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