The Bible

 

Genesis 6

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1 And it came to pass when mankind began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them,

2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and took themselves wives of all that they chose.

3 And Jehovah said, My Spirit shall not always plead with Man; for he indeed is flesh; but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.

4 In those days were the giants on the earth, and also afterwards, when the sons of God had come in to the daughters of men, and they had borne [children] to them; these were the heroes, who of old were men of renown.

5 And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of Man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually.

6 And Jehovah repented that he had made Man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.

7 And Jehovah said, I will destroy Man, whom I have created, from the earth -- from man to cattle, to creeping things, and to fowl of the heavens; for I repent that I have made them.

8 But Noah found favour in the eyes of Jehovah.

9 This is the history of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect amongst his generations: Noah walked with God.

10 And Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was full of violence.

12 And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth.

13 And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is full of violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

14 Make thyself an ark of gopher wood: [with] cells shalt thou make the ark; and pitch it inside and outside with pitch.

15 And thus shalt thou make it: let the length of the ark be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

16 A light shalt thou make to the ark; and to a cubit high shalt thou finish it above. And the door of the ark shalt thou set in its side: [with] a lower, second, and third [story] shalt thou make it.

17 For I, behold, I bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy all flesh under the heavens in which is the breath of life: everything that is on the earth shall expire.

18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt go into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.

19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every [sort] shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep [them] alive with thee: they shall be male and female.

20 Of fowl after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of each shall go in to thee, to keep [them] alive.

21 And take thou of all food that is eaten, and gather [it] to thee, that it may be for food for thee and for them.

22 And Noah did it; according to all that God had commanded him, so did he.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #574

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574. That “flesh” signifies that man had become corporeal, appears from the signification of “flesh” in the Word, where it is used to signify both every man in general, and also, specifically, the corporeal man. It is used to signify every man, in Joel:

I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy (Joel 2:28),

where “flesh” signifies man, and “spirit” the influx of truth and good from the Lord.

In David:

Thou that hearest prayers, unto Thee shall all flesh come (Psalms 65:2),where “flesh” denotes every man.

In Jeremiah:

Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm (Jeremiah 17:5),

where “flesh” signifies man, and “arm” power.

In Ezekiel:

That all flesh may know (Ezekiel 21:4-5).

In Zechariah:

Be silent, all flesh, before Jehovah (Zechariah 2:13),

where “flesh” denotes every man.

[2] That it signifies specifically the corporeal man, is evident from Isaiah:

The Egyptian is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not spirit (Isaiah 31:3),

signifying that their memory-knowledge [scientificum] is corporeal; “horses” here and elsewhere in the Word denoting the rational.

Again:

He shall withdraw to the right hand, and shall be hungry; and he shall devour on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied; they shall eat everyone the flesh of his own arm (Isaiah 9:20),

signifying such things as are man’s own, which are all corporeal. In the same:

He shall consume from the soul, and even the flesh (Isaiah 10:18),

where “flesh” signifies corporeal things.

Again:

The glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; the voice said, Cry; and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass (Isaiah 40:5-6),

“flesh” here signifies every man who is corporeal.

[3] In the same:

In fire will Jehovah dispute, and with His sword with all flesh, and the slain of Jehovah shall be multiplied (Isaiah 66:16),

where “fire” signifies the punishment of cupidities; the “sword” the punishment of falsities; and “flesh” the corporeal things of man.

In David:

God remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away, and cometh not again (Psalms 78:39),

speaking of the people in the wilderness desiring flesh, because they were corporeal; their desiring flesh represented that they desired only things corporeal (Numbers 11:32-33, 34).

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