The Bible

 

Genesis 9

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1 And God blessed Noe and his sons. And he said to them: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth.

2 And let the fear and dread of you be upon all the beasts of the earth, and upon all the fowls of the air, and all that move upon the earth: all the fishes of the sea are delivered into your hand.

3 And every thing that moveth and liveth shall be meat for you: even as the green herbs have I delivered them all to you:

4 Saving that flesh with blood you shall not eat.

5 For I will require the blood of your lives at the hand of every beast, and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man, and of his brother, will I require the life of man.

6 Whosoever shall shed man's blood, his blood shall be shed: for man was made to the image of God.

7 But increase you and multiply, and go upon the earth, and fill it.

8 This also said God to Noe, and to his sons with him,

9 Behold I will establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you:

10 And with every living soul that is with you, as well in all birds as in cattle and beasts of the earth, that are come forth out of the ark, and in all the beasts of the earth.

11 I will establish my covenant with you, and all flesh shall be no more destroyed with the waters of a flood, neither shall there be from henceforth a flood to waste the earth.

12 And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I will give between me and you, and to every living soul that is with you, for perpetual generations.

13 I will set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be the sign of a covenant between me, and between the earth.

14 And when I shall cover the sky with clouds, my bow shall appear in the clouds:

15 And I will remember my covenant with you, and with every living soul that beareth flesh: and there shall no more be waters of a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 And the bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, and shall remember the everlasting covenant, that was made between God and every living soul of all flesh which is upon the earth.

17 And God said to Noe: This shall be the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh upon the earth.

18 And the sons of Noe who came out of the ark, were Sem, Cham, and Japheth: and Cham is the father of Chanaan.

19 These three are the sons of Noe: and from these was all mankind spread over the whole earth.

20 And Noe, a husbandman, began to till the ground, and planted a vineyard.

21 And drinking of the wine was made drunk, and was uncovered in his tent.

22 Which when Cham the father of Chaanan had seen, to wit, that his father's nakedness was uncovered, he told it to his two brethren without.

23 But Sem and Japheth put a cloak upon their shoulders, and going backward, covered the nakedness of their father: and their faces were turned away, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

24 And Noe awaking from the wine, when he had learned what his younger son had done to him,

25 He said: Cursed be Chaanan, a servant of servants, shall he be unto his brethren.

26 And he said: Blessed be the Lord God of Sem, be Chanaan his servant.

27 May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Sem, and Chanaan be his servant.

28 And Noe lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years:

29 And all his days were in the whole nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1077

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1077. The reason the people who are here called 'Ham' and 'Canaan', that is, who separate faith from charity and who in so doing focus worship solely on external things, cannot know what conscience is and where it originates, must be discussed briefly. Conscience is formed by means of the truths of faith, for what a person has heard, acknowledged, and believed constitutes conscience with him. After that, acting contrary to those things is for him acting contrary to conscience, as may become quite clear to anyone. Consequently unless it is the truths of faith that he hears, acknowledges, and believes, he cannot possibly have a true conscience. For it is by means of the truths of faith, with the Lord working within charity, that a person is regenerated, and so by means of them receives conscience. Conscience is also the new person himself. From this it is clear that truths of faith are the means by which this is achieved, that is, by which a person lives according to the things faith teaches, its fundamental teaching being to love the Lord above all things and the neighbour as oneself. If he does not live according to those truths, what is faith but something hollow, and an audible sound, or something separated from heavenly life, in which, once separated, there is nothing saving? For to believe that a person can still be saved no matter how he lives, provided he has faith, is to say that he is saved even though he has no charity and even though he has no conscience. It amounts to saying that, provided he has faith, even though he does not have it until the last hour of life, he can be saved, despite spending his time hating, getting revenge, plundering, and committing adultery, in short, doing everything contrary to charity and conscience. Let such people, when governed by an assumption as false as this, ponder what truth of faith exists that can form their conscience. Will it not be that which is false? If they imagine that they have any conscience at all, it amounts to no more than external restraints - fear of the law, of loss of position, wealth, and reputation on account of these, which fears constitute with them what they call conscience, a conscience which says that they should do no harm to the neighbour but behave well towards him. Since however this is not conscience, because it is not charity, such persons consequently rush into the most wicked and disgusting actions as soon as those restraints have been loosed or done away with. But the situation is altogether different with people who, though asserting that faith alone saves, have nevertheless led charitable lives; for their faith has had charity from the Lord within it.

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