The Bible

 

Genesis 28

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1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, saying: Take not a wife of the stock of Chanaan:

2 But go, and take a journey to Mesopotamia of Syria, to the house of Bathuel thy mother's father, and take thee a wife thence of the daughters of Laban thy uncle.

3 And God almighty bless thee, and make thee to increase, and multiply thee: that thou mayst be a multitude of people.

4 And give the blessings of Abrabam to thee, and to thy seed after thee: that thou mayst possess the land of thy sojournment, which he promised to thy grandfather.

5 And when Isaac had sent him away, he took his journey and went to Mesopotamia of Syria to Laban the son of Bathuel the Syrian, brother to Rebecca his mother.

6 And Esau seeing that his father had blessed Jacob, and had sent him into Mesopotamia of Syria, to marry a wife thence; and that after the blessing he had charged him, saying: Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Chanaan:

7 And that Jacob obeying his parents was gone into Syria:

8 Experiencing also that his father was not well pleased with the daughters of Chanaan:

9 He went to Ismael, and took to wife, besides them he had before, Maheleth the daughter of Ismael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nabajoth.

10 But Jacob being departed from Bersabee, went on to Haran.

11 And when he was come to a certain place, and would rest in it after sunset, he took of the stones that lay there, and putting under his head, slept in the same place.

12 And he saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven: the angels also of God ascending and descending by it;

13 And the Lord leaning upon the ladder, saying to him: I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land, wherein thou sleepest, I will give to thee and to thy seed.

14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth: thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and IN THEE and thy seed all the tribes of the earth SHALL BE BLESSED.

15 And I will be thy keeper whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee back into this land: neither will I leave thee, till I shall have accomplished all that I have said.

16 And when Jacob awaked out of sleep, he said: Indeed the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.

17 And trembling he said: How terrible is this place! this is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven.

18 And Jacob, arising in the morning, took the stone, which he had laid under his head, and set it up for a title, pouring oil upon the top of it.

19 And he called the name of the city Bethel, which before was called Luza.

20 And he made a vow, saying: If God shall be with me, and shall keep me in the way by which I walk, and shall give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,

21 And I shall return prosperously to my father's house: the Lord shall be my God:

22 And this stone, which I have set up for a title, shall called the house of God: and of all things that thou shalt give to me, I will offer tithes to thee.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3741

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3741. CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE GRAND MAN AND CORRESPONDENCE THEREWITH.

The heavenly kingdom presents the form of one man, for the reason that all the things therein correspond to the Only Lord-that is, to His Divine Human-who alone is Man (see n. 49, 288, 565, 1894). From correspondence with Him, and from being an image and likeness of Him, heaven is called the Grand Man. From the Divine of the Lord come in heaven all the celestial things which are of good, and all the spiritual things which are of truth. All the angels there are forms (that is, substances formed according to the reception) of the Divine things which are from the Lord. The Divine things of the Lord as received by the angels are what are called things celestial and spiritual, because in them the Divine life, together with the Divine light thence derived, come forth and are modified as in their recipients.

[2] From this it is that the forms and material substances with man are also of the same nature, but in a lower degree, because grosser and more composite. That these also are forms recipient of celestial and spiritual things, is very evident from signs that are clearly visible; as from thought, which flows into the organic forms of the tongue, and produces speech; from the affections of the mind, which present themselves visible in the face; and from the will, which by the muscular forms flows into actions; and so on. Thought and will, which produce such effects, are spiritual and celestial, whereas the forms or substances which receive them and carry them into act, are material; and it is evident that these latter have been formed altogether for the reception of the former, and thus it is evident that the latter are from the former, and that unless they were from them, they could not have come forth such as they are.

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