The Bible

 

Genesis 7

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1 And Jehovah said to Noah, Go into the ark, thou and all thy house; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

2 Of all clean beasts thou shalt take to thee by sevens, a male and its female; but of the beasts that are not clean two, a male and its female.

3 Also of the fowl of the heavens by sevens, male and female; to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth.

4 For in yet seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living being which I have made will I destroy from the ground.

5 And Noah did according to all that Jehovah had commanded him.

6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was on the earth.

7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.

8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowl, and of everything that creeps on the ground,

9 there came two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

12 And the pour of rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 On the same day went Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

14 they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and all fowl after its kind -- every bird of every wing.

15 And they went to Noah, into the ark, two and two of all flesh, in which was the breath of life.

16 And they that came, came male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And Jehovah shut him in.

17 And the flood was forty days on the earth. And the waters increased, and bore up the ark; and it was lifted up above the earth.

18 And the waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark went on the face of the waters.

19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth; and all the high mountains that are under all the heavens were covered.

20 Fifteen cubits upward the waters prevailed; and the mountains were covered.

21 And all flesh that moved on the earth expired, fowl as well as cattle, and beasts, and all crawling things which crawl on the earth, and all mankind:

22 everything which had in its nostrils the breath of life, of all that was on the dry [land], died.

23 And every living being was destroyed that was on the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and fowl of the heavens; and they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah alone remained, and what was with him in the ark.

24 And the waters prevailed on the earth a hundred and fifty days.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #904

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904. And God spake unto Noah. That this signifies the presence of the Lord with the man of this church, is evident from the internal sense of the Word. The Lord speaks with every man, for whatever a man wills and thinks that is good and true, is from the Lord. There are with every man at least two evil spirits and two angels. The evil spirits excite his evils, and the angels inspire things that are good and true. Every good and true thing inspired by the angels is of the Lord; thus the Lord is continually speaking with man, but quite differently with one man than with another. With those who suffer themselves to be led away by evil spirits, the Lord speaks as if absent, or from afar, so that it can scarcely be said that He is speaking; but with those who are being led by the Lord, He speaks as more nearly present; which may be sufficiently evident from the fact that no one can ever think anything good and true except from the Lord.

[2] The presence of the Lord is predicated according to the state of love toward the neighbor and of faith in which the man is. In love toward the neighbor the Lord is present, because He is in all good; but not so much in faith, so called, without love. Faith without love and charity is a separated or disjoined thing. Wherever there is conjunction there must be a conjoining medium, which is nothing else than love and charity, as must be evident to all from the fact that the Lord is merciful to everyone, and loves everyone, and wills to make everyone happy to eternity. He therefore who is not in such love that he is merciful to others, loves them, and wills to make them happy, cannot be conjoined with the Lord, because he is unlike Him and not at all in His image. To look to the Lord by faith, as they say, and at the same time to hate the neighbor, is not only to stand afar off, but is also to have the abyss of hell between themselves and the Lord, into which they would fall if they should approach nearer, for hatred to the neighbor is that infernal abyss which is between.

[3] The presence of the Lord is first possible with a man when he loves the neighbor. The Lord is in love; and so far as a man is in love, so far the Lord is present; and so far as the Lord is present, so far He speaks with the man. Man knows no otherwise than that he thinks from himself, whereas he has not a single idea, nor even the least bit of an idea, from himself; but he has what is evil and false through evil spirits from hell, and what is good and true through angels from the Lord. Such is the influx with man, from which is his life and the interaction of his soul with the body. From these things it is evident what is meant by the words “God spake unto Noah.” His “saying” to anyone means one thing (as Genesis 1:29; 3:13-14, 17; 4:6, 9, 15; 6:13; 7:1), and His “speaking” means another. Here, His speaking to Noah denotes being present, because the subject is now the regenerated man, who is gifted with charity.

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