The Bible

 

Genesis 35

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1 In the meantime God said to Jacob: Arise, and go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar to God, who appeared to thee when thou didst flee from Esau thy brother.

2 And Jacob having called together all his household, said: Cast away the strange gods that are among you, and be cleansed and change your garments.

3 Arise, and let us go up to Bethel, that we may make there an altar to God: who heard me in the day of my affliction, and accompanied me in my journey.

4 So they gave him all the strange gods they had, and the earrings which were in their ears: and he buried them under the turpentine tree, that is behind the city of Sichem.

5 And when they were departed, the terror of God fell upon all the cities round about, and they durst not pursue after them as they went away.

6 And Jacob came to Luza, which is in the land of Chanaan, surnamed Bethel: he and all the people that were with him.

7 And he built there an altar, and called the name of that place, The house of God: for there God appeared to him when he fled from his brother.

8 At the same time Debora the nurse of Rebecca died, and was buried at the foot of Bethel under an oak: and the name of that place was called, The oak of weeping.

9 And God appeared again to Jacob, after he returned from Mesopotamia of Syria, and he blessed him,

10 Saying: Thou shalt not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called him Israel.

11 And said to him: I am God Almighty, increase thou and be multiplied. Nations and peoples of Nations shall be from thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins.

12 And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee.

13 And he departed from him.

14 But he set up a monument of stone, in the place where God had spoken to him: pouring drink offerings upon it, and pouring oil thereon:

15 And calling the name of that place Bethel.

16 And going forth from thence, he came in the springtime to the land which leadeth to Ephrata: wherein when Rachel was in travail,

17 By reason of her hard labor she began to be in danger, and the midwife said to her: Fear not, for thou shalt have this son also.

18 And when her soul was departing for pain, and death was now at hand, she called the name of her son Benoni, that is, The son of my pain: but his father called him Benjamin, that is, The son of the right hand.

19 So Rachel died, and was buried in the highway that leadeth to Ephrata, that is Bethlehem.

20 And Jacob erected a pillar over her sepulcher: this is the pillar of Rachel's monument, to this day.

21 Departing thence, he pitched his tent beyond the Flock tower.

22 And when he dwelt in that country, Ruben went, and slept with Bala, the concubine of his father: which he was not ignorant of. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

23 The sons of Lia: Ruben the firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Juda, and Issachar, and Zebulon.

24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

25 The sons of Bala, Rachel's handmaid: Dan and Naphthali.

26 The sons of Zelpha, Lia's handmaid: Gad and Aser: these are the sons of Jacob, that were born to him in Mesopotamia of Syria.

27 And he came to Isaac his father in Mambre, the city of Arbee, this is Hebron: Wherein Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years.

29 And being spent with age he died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3870

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3870. That I was hated. That this signifies a state of faith if the will be not correspondent thereto, is evident from the signification of “being hated,” as being not loved, for such is the state of faith if the will does not correspond to it. In the internal sense the subject treated of is the progress of man’s regeneration from external to internal; that is, from the truth of faith to the good of charity. The truth of faith is external, and the good of charity is internal. In order that the truth of faith may live, it must be introduced into the will, that it may there receive life; for truth does not live from knowing, but from willing. Life flows in from the Lord through the new willing that He creates in man. The first life manifests itself by obedience, which is the first of the will; the second by the affection of doing the truth, which is the progression of the will, and which exists when delight and bliss are perceived in doing the truth. Unless there takes place such a progress of faith, truth does not become truth, but becomes a separate affair from life, sometimes confirmative of falsity, and sometimes persuasive of it, thus a foul affair; for it couples itself with the man’s evil affection, or cupidity; that is, with his own proper will, which is contrary to charity. Such is the faith that by many at this day is believed to be faith, and to save without the works of charity.

[2] But this faith, which is separate from charity, and therefore contrary to charity, is represented in what follows by Reuben, in that he lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine (Genesis 35:22), and concerning which Jacob, then Israel, expresses his detestation in the words:

Reuben, my firstborn, thou art my might, and the beginning of my strength; light as water thou shalt not excel, because thou wentest up on thy father’s bed, then defiledst thou it; he went up on my couch (Genesis 49:3-4

The will and affection of this faith, namely, that which is separated from charity, as being contrary to charity, is also described in the same chapter by Simeon and Leviticus in these words:

Simeon and Leviticus are brethren; weapons of violence are their swords; let not my soul come into their secret; into their assembly let not my glory unite itself; for in their fury they slew a man, and in their will they unstrung an ox. Cursed be their fury, for it was fierce; and their anger, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel (Genesis 49:5-7).

That it is faith separate from charity which is here described by “Simeon and Levi,” will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be shown in what follows.

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