The Bible

 

Genesis 20

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1 Abraham removed from thence to the south country, and dwelt between Cedes and Sur, and sojourned in Gerara.

2 And he said of Sara his wife: She is my sister. So Abimelech the king of Oerara sent, and took her.

3 And God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and he said to him: Lo thou shalt die for the woman thou hast taken: for she hath a husband.

4 Now Abimelech had not touched her, and he said : Lord, wilt thou slay a nation, that is ignorant and justl

5 Did not he say to me : She is my sister: and she say, He is my brother? in the simplicity of my heart, and cleanness of my hands have I done this.

6 And God said to him: And I know that thou didst it with a sincere heart: and therefore I withheld thee from sinning against me, and I suffered thee not to touch her.

7 Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet: and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: but if thou wilt not restore her, know that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thins.

8 And Abimelech forthwith rising up in the night, called all his servants: and spoke all these words in their hearing, and all the men were exceedingly afraid.

9 And Abimelech called also for Abraham, and said to him: What hast thou done to us? what have we offended thee in, that thou hast brought upon me and upon my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done to us what thou oughtest not to do.

10 And again he expostulated with him, and said, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this?

11 Abraham answered: I thought with myself, saying: Perhaps there is not the fear of God in this place: and they will kill me for the sake of my wife:

12 Howbeit, otherwise also she is truly my sister, the daughter of my father, and not the daughter of my mother, and I took her to wife.

13 And after God brought me out of my father's house, I said to her: I Thou shalt do me this kindness: In every place, to which we shall come, thou shalt say that I am thy brother.

14 And Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and servants and handmaids, and gave to Abraham: and restored to him Sara, his wife.

15 And said: The land is before you, dwell wheresoever it shall please thee.

16 And to Sara he said: Behold I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: this shall serve thee for a covering of thy eyes to all that are with thee, and whithersoever thou shalt go: and remember thou wast taken.

17 And when Abraham prayed, God healed Abimelech and his wife, and his handmaids, and they bore children:

18 For the Lord had closed up every womb of the house of Abimelech on ac- count of Sara, Abraham's wife.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2574

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2574. And unto Sarah he said. That this signifies perception from spiritual truth, is evident from the representation of “Sarah a wife,” as being Divine spiritual truth (see n. 2507), and of the same as a “sister,” as being rational truth (see n. 2508); and from the signification of “saying,” as being to perceive (see n. 2506). Sarah is here addressed as a wife, and also as a sister; as a wife, inasmuch as she had been restored (n. 2569), and as a sister, inasmuch as it is said, “I have given thy brother a thousand of silver;” and that which was said by Abimelech was perceived by Sarah in the former relation; therefore by “saying to Sarah” is signified to perceive from spiritual truth.

[2] It is evident that these things involve deeper arcana than can be set forth to the apprehension; and even if they were set forth merely to some extent, it would be necessary to explain many things first that are as yet unknown; such as what spiritual truth is, and what perception from spiritual truth is; that the Lord alone had perception from spiritual truth; that as the Lord had implanted rational truth in rational good, so had He implanted spiritual truth in celestial good, thus continually the Human in the Divine, so that there might be in everything a marriage of the Human with the Divine, and of the Divine with the Human. These and many more things must come first, before the things in this verse can be unfolded to the apprehension. These things are chiefly adapted to the minds of angels who are in the understanding of such things, and for whom is the internal sense of the Word. To them these things are represented in a heavenly manner, and thereby, and by the things contained in this chapter, it is insinuated how the Lord by degrees cast out the human from the mother, until at last He was no longer her son (that He did not acknowledge her as His mother, is manifest in Matthew 12:46-49; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:20-21; John 2:4); also how He made the Human Divine by His own power, even until He was one with the Father, as He Himself teaches in John 14:6, 8-11, and elsewhere .

[3] These things are presented by the Lord to the angels in clear light by means of myriads of ideas and representations, all ineffable. The reason as before said is that such things are adapted to their minds, and when in them they are in the blessedness of their intelligence and the happiness of their wisdom. Moreover as there are angels who when they were men had conceived an idea of the Lord’s Human as of the human with another man, in order that in the other life these may be able to be with the celestial angels (for there ideas inspired by the affection of good conjoin), such things are dispersed by means of the spiritual sense of the Word, and in this way they are perfected. This shows how precious to the angels is that which is contained in the internal sense of the Word, although perchance it may appear as but of little consequence to man, who has so obscure an idea about such things that it is scarcely any idea at all.

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