The Bible

 

Genezo 28

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1 Tiam Isaak alvokis Jakobon kaj benis lin, kaj ordonis al li, dirante: Ne prenu edzinon el la filinoj Kanaanaj.

2 Levigxu, iru Mezopotamion, al la domo de Betuel, la patro de via patrino, kaj prenu al vi el tie edzinon el la filinoj de Laban, la frato de via patrino.

3 Kaj Dio la Plejpotenca benu vin kaj fruktigu vin kaj multigu vin, kaj kreskigu el vi amason da popoloj.

4 Kaj Li donu al vi la benon de Abraham, al vi kaj al via idaro kune kun vi, por ke vi heredu la landon de via fremdelogxado, kiun Dio donis al Abraham.

5 Kaj Isaak forsendis Jakobon, kaj tiu iris Mezopotamion, al Laban, la filo de Betuel la Siriano, frato de Rebeka, patrino de Jakob kaj Esav.

6 Kiam Esav vidis, ke Isaak benis Jakobon kaj sendis lin en Mezopotamion, por ke li prenu al si el tie edzinon, kaj ke, benante lin, li ordonis al li, dirante: Ne prenu edzinon el la filinoj Kanaanaj;

7 kaj ke Jakob obeis sian patron kaj sian patrinon kaj iris Mezopotamion:

8 tiam Esav vidis, ke ne placxas la filinoj Kanaanaj al lia patro Isaak.

9 Kaj Esav iris al Isxmael kaj prenis al si Mahxalaton, filinon de Isxmael, filo de Abraham, fratinon de Nebajot, kiel edzinon krom siaj aliaj edzinoj.

10 Kaj Jakob eliris el Beer-SXeba kaj iris en la direkto al HXaran.

11 Li venis al iu loko kaj restis tie, por pasigi la nokton, cxar la suno subiris. Kaj li prenis unu el la sxtonoj de tiu loko kaj metis gxin sub sian kapon kaj kusxigxis en tiu loko.

12 Kaj li songxis: jen sxtuparo staras sur la tero, kaj gxia supro atingas la cxielon, kaj jen angxeloj de Dio iras sur gxi supren kaj malsupren.

13 Kaj jen la Eternulo staras sur gxi, kaj diras: Mi estas la Eternulo, la Dio de via patro Abraham kaj la Dio de Isaak; la teron, sur kiu vi kusxas, Mi donos al vi kaj al via idaro.

14 Kaj via idaro estos kiel la polvo de la tero, kaj vi disvastigxos okcidenten kaj orienten kaj norden kaj suden, kaj benigxos per vi kaj per via idaro cxiuj gentoj de la tero.

15 Kaj Mi estas kun vi, kaj Mi gardos vin cxie, kien vi iros, kaj Mi revenigos vin sur cxi tiun teron; cxar Mi ne forlasos vin, gxis Mi estos farinta tion, kion Mi diris al vi.

16 Kaj Jakob vekigxis el sia dormo, kaj li diris: Vere, la Eternulo estas en cxi tiu loko, kaj mi ne sciis.

17 Kaj li ektimis, kaj diris: Kiel timinda estas cxi tiu loko! gxi estas nenio alia ol domo de Dio, kaj cxi tie estas la pordego de la cxielo.

18 Kaj Jakob levigxis frue matene, kaj prenis la sxtonon, kiun li estis metinta sub sian kapon, kaj starigis gxin kiel monumenton, kaj versxis oleon sur gxian supron.

19 Kaj li donis al tiu loko la nomon Bet-El; sed antauxe la nomo de la urbo estis Luz.

20 Kaj Jakob faris sanktan promeson, dirante: Se Dio estos kun mi, kaj gardos min sur cxi tiu vojo, kiun mi iras, kaj donos al mi panon por mangxi kaj veston por porti sur mi,

21 kaj mi revenos en paco al la domo de mia patro, kaj la Eternulo estos por mi Dio:

22 tiam cxi tiu sxtono, kiun mi starigis kiel monumenton, estos domo de Dio, kaj de cxio, kion Vi donos al mi, mi oferos al Vi dekonon.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3665

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3665. 'To the home of Bethuel your mother's father, and take for yourself from there a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother' means a parallel external good, and the truth which sprang from this good and was to be joined [to the good of the natural]. This is clear from the representation of 'Bethuel' as good existing with those who make up a first group of gentiles, dealt with in 2865; from the representation of 'Laban' as the affection for good in the natural man, that is, the affection for external good, strictly speaking a parallel good that springs from a common stock, dealt with in 3129, 3130, 3160, 3612; and from the meaning of 'taking a wife from his daughters' as being brought into association with or joined to affections for truth from that source. For 'taking a wife', as is self-evident, means being joined to, and 'daughters' means affections, see 568, 2362, 3024. From this it is clear what those words mean, namely that the good of the natural represented here by 'Jacob' was to be joined to truths which came from a parallel external good.

[2] The implications of this are that when a person is being regenerated the Lord leads him first of all as an infant, then as a child, after that as a young person, and at length as an adult. The truths which he learns as a small child are totally external and bodily, for he is not yet capable of grasping more interior things. Those truths are no more than cognitions of such things as inmostly contain Divine things within them. For there are some cognitions of things which do not inmostly contain anything Divine and there are other cognitions which do. Cognitions that do contain the Divine inmostly are such that they can receive interior truths into themselves, increasingly so, one after another in their proper order, whereas cognitions that do not contain the Divine are such that they do not so receive them but spurn them. For the cognitions of external and bodily good and truth are like the soil which, depending on its own particular nature, receives into itself one kind of seed but not another, and is productive of one variety of seed but is destructive of another. Cognitions which inmostly contain the Divine receive spiritual and celestial truth and good into themselves, for it is by virtue of the Divine within, bringing order to them, that makes them what they are. But cognitions that do not contain the Divine receive only falsity and evil, such being their nature. Those cognitions of external and bodily truth which do receive spiritual and celestial truth and good are meant here by 'the daughters of Laban from the home of Bethuel', while those that do not receive them are meant by 'the daughters of Canaan'.

[3] The cognitions which people learn from infancy onwards into childhood are like very general vessels, which exist to be filled with goods. And as they are filled a person is enlightened. If the vessels are such that they can contain genuine goods within them, the person is in that case enlightened, step by step and increasingly so from the Divine that is within them. But if they are such that they cannot contain genuine goods within them he is not in that case enlightened. He may indeed give the appearance of being enlightened, but this comes about from the illusory light that goes with falsity and evil. Indeed those cognitions place him all the more in obscurity as regards good and truth.

[4] Such cognitions are manifold, so manifold that one can hardly count even the genera of them, let alone identify their species. For they derive in their multiplicity from the Divine and then pass by way of the rational into the natural. That is to say, certain of them flow in directly by way of the good of the rational, and from there into the good of the natural, and also into the truth that goes with that good, and again from there into the external or bodily natural, where also they depart into various channels; but others flow in indirectly by way of the truth of the rational into the truth of the natural, and also into the good that goes with this truth, and again from there into the external or bodily natural, see 3573, 3616. All this is like nations, families, and houses, in which there are blood relatives and relatives by marriage; that is to say, there are those in the direct line of descent from the chief ancestor and there are those belonging to an increasingly indirect or parallel line. In the heavens these things are quite distinct and separate, for all the communities there are distinguished according to genera and species of good and truth, and so according to how near they are in relation to one another, 685, 2508, 2524, 2556, 2739, 3612. The most ancient people, being celestial, also represented those communities by their dwelling as distinct and separate nations, families, and houses, 470, 471, 483, 1159, 1246. This was also the reason why members of the representative Church were commanded to contract marriages within the families which made up their own nation; for by so doing they could represent heaven and the interconnection of its communities as regards good and truth. That representation is exemplified here by Jacob's going to the home of Bethuel his mother's father and his taking a wife for himself from there from the daughters of Laban his mother's brother.

[5] As regards cognitions themselves of external or bodily truth which come from a parallel good and, as has been stated, contain the Divine and so are able to receive genuine truths within them, they are like cognitions present with small children who at a later time undergo regeneration. They are in general such as those that are found in the historical narratives of the Word, for example, in what is said there about Paradise, about the first human being in Paradise, about the tree of life in the middle of it, and about the tree of knowledge where the deceiving serpent was. These are cognitions which contain the Divine and which receive spiritual and celestial goods and truths into themselves because they represent and mean these. Such cognitions also constitute all the other descriptions in historical narratives of the Word, for example, those in the Word concerning the Tabernacle, concerning the Temple, and concerning the construction of these; likewise what is said about Aaron's vestments and those of his sons; also about the feasts of tabernacles, of first fruits, and of unleavened bread, and about other matters of a similar nature. When these and similar details are known and thought about by a small child, the thoughts of the angels residing with him at that time are concerned with the Divine things which they represent and mean. And because the angels are stirred by an affection for these things, that affection is communicated. This produces the joy and delight that the child gets out of them, and it prepares his mind for the reception of genuine truths and goods. These and very many others are the cognitions of external and bodily truth that come from a parallel good.

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