The Bible

 

Genesis 12

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1 And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of they father's house, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed.

3 I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and IN THEE shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed:

4 So Abram went out as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went forth from Haran.

5 And he took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the substance which they had gathered, and the souls which they had gotten in Haran: and they went out to go into the land of Chanaan. And when they were come into it,

6 Abram passed through the country into the place of Sichem, as far as the noble vale: now the Chanaanite was at that time in the land.

7 And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: To thy seed will I give this land. And he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

8 And passing on from thence to a mountain, that was on the east side of Bethel, he there pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east; he built there also an altar to the Lord, and called upon his name.

9 And Abram went forward, going, and proceeding on to the south.

10 And there came a famine in the country; and Abram went down into Egypt, to sojourn there: for the famine was very grievous in the land.

11 And when he was near to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife: I know that thou art a beautiful woman:

12 And that when the Egyptians shall see thee, they will say: She is his wife: and they will kill me, and keep thee.

13 Say, therefore, I pray thee, that thou art my sister: that I may be well used for thee, and that my soul may live for thy sake.

14 And when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman that she was very beautiful.

15 And the princes told Pharao, and praised her before him: and the woman was taken into the house of Pharao.

16 And they used Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep and oxen, and he asses, and menservants and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.

17 But the Lord scourged Pharao and his house with most grievous stripes for Sarai, Abram's wife.

18 And Pharao called Abram, and said to him: What is this that thou hast done to me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife.

19 For what cause didst thou say, she was thy sister, that I might take her to my wife? Now therefore, there is thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

20 And Pharao gave his men orders concerning Abram: and they led him away, and his wife, and all that he had.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1434

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1434. 'And Lot his brother's son' means truth that has been learned through the senses, thus the first that was implanted in the Lord in childhood. This is clear from the meaning of 'Lot', dealt with in the previous verse, as sensory perception, and from the meaning of 'son' as truth, dealt with already in 264, 489, 491, 533; and also from the meaning of 'brother' too as the truth of faith, 367. Thus it is truth learned through the senses that is meant here, for in the internal sense no attention is paid to the representative persons or expressions, only to the meanings which these carry within them. In heaven they do not know who 'Lot' is, only the characteristic represented by him. Nor do they know what 'son' is, only the spiritual state which relatively is like a son. Nor do they know what 'brother' is except from the kind of brotherhood that exists in heaven. As regards truth learned through the senses, it is the first truth to implant itself, for in childhood the power of judgement does not go any higher than the senses. Truth learned through the senses consists in seeing all earthly and worldly things as having been created by God, in seeing every single thing as having a purpose, and in seeing in every single one some likeness of the kingdom of God. Such truth is implanted in none but the celestial man, and since the Lord alone was a celestial man, these and similar truths acquired through the senses were implanted in Him in earliest childhood. In this way He was made ready to receive celestial things.

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