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Genesis 13

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1 Ja Aabram läks Egiptusest üles Lõunamaale, tema ja ta naine ja kõik, mis tal oli; ja Lott oli koos temaga.

2 Ja Aabram oli väga rikas karja, hõbeda ja kulla poolest.

3 Ja ta rändas peatuspaigast teise, Lõunamaalt Peeteli poole, sinna paika, kus ta telk enne oli olnud, Peeteli ja Ai vahel,

4 altari paika, mille ta varem sinna oli teinud; ja Aabram hüüdis seal appi Issanda nime.

5 Aga ka Lotil, kes rändas koos Aabramiga, oli lambaid ja kitsi, veiseid ja telke.

6 Kuid maa ei suutnud neid toita, et üheskoos elada, sest nende varandus oli nii suur, et neil oli võimatu üheskoos elada.

7 Ja Aabrami loomade karjaste ja Loti loomade karjaste vahel tekkis riid; kaananlased ja perislased elasid siis veel sellel maal.

8 Siis Aabram ütles Lotile: 'Ärgu olgu riidu minu ja sinu vahel, minu karjaste ja sinu karjaste vahel. Meie, mehed, oleme ju vennad!

9 Eks ole kogu maa su ees lahti? Mine nüüd minu juurest ära, lähed sina vasakut kätt, lähen mina paremat kätt; lähed sina paremat kätt, lähen mina vasakut kätt.'

10 Siis Lott tõstis oma silmad üles ja nägi, et kogu Jordani piirkond oli kõikjal veerikas; enne kui Issand Soodoma ja Gomorra hävitas, oli see kuni Soarini otsekui Issanda rohuaed, samasugune nagu Egiptusemaa.

11 Ja Lott valis enesele kogu Jordani piirkonna; Lott läks teele hommiku poole ja nad lahkusid teineteisest.

12 Aabram jäi Kaananimaale ja Lott asus piirkonna linnadesse ning lõi oma telgid üles Soodomani.

13 Aga Soodoma mehed olid väga pahad ja patused Issanda ees.

14 Ja Issand ütles Aabramile, pärast seda kui Lott tema juurest oli lahkunud: 'Tõsta nüüd oma silmad üles ja vaata paigast, kus sa oled, põhja ja lõuna ja hommiku ja õhtu poole,

15 sest kogu maa, mida sa näed, ma annan sinule ja su soole igaveseks ajaks!

16 Ja ma teen su soo maapõrmu sarnaseks: kui keegi suudab maapõrmu ära lugeda, siis on sinugi sugu äraloetav.

17 Võta kätte, käi maa läbi pikuti ja põiki, sest ma annan selle sinule!'

18 Ja Aabram võttis telgid ja tuli ning elas Mamre tammikus, mis on Hebroni juures; ja ta ehitas sinna altari Issandale.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #1585

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1585. 'And he saw all the plain of Jordan' means the goods and truths that resided with the external man. This is clear from the meaning of 'a plain' and of 'the Jordan'. In the internal sense 'the plain surrounding the Jordan' means the external man as regards all his goods and truths. The reason the plain of Jordan has this meaning is that the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan. 'The land of Canaan', as stated and shown already, means the Lord's kingdom and Church, and in particular its celestial and spiritual things; this also explains why it was called the Holy Land, and the heavenly Canaan. And because it means the Lord's kingdom and Church, it means in the highest sense the Lord Himself, who is the All in all of His kingdom and of His Church.

[2] For this reason all things in the land of Canaan were representative. Those in the midst of the land, or that were inmost, represented His internal Man - Mount Zion and Jerusalem, for example, representing respectively celestial things and spiritual things. More outlying districts represented things more remote from internals. And the most outlying districts, or those which formed the boundaries, represented the external man. There were several boundaries to the land of Canaan, but in general they were the two rivers Euphrates and Jordan, and also the Sea, 1 for which reason the Euphrates and the Jordan represented external things. Here therefore 'the plain of Jordan' means, as it also represents, all things residing in the external man. The meaning of the land of Canaan is similar when used in reference to the Lord's kingdom in heaven, to the Lord's Church on earth, to the member of that kingdom or Church, or abstractly to the celestial things of love, and so on.

[3] Almost all the cities therefore, and indeed all the mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and other features in the land of Canaan, were representative. The river Euphrates, being a boundary, represented, as shown already in 120, sensory evidence and facts that belong to the external man, and so too did the Jordan and the plain of Jordan, as becomes clear from the following places: In David,

O my God, my soul bows itself down within me; 2 therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan, and the Hermons from the little mountain. Psalms 42:6.

Here 'the land of Jordan' stands for that which is lowly and so is distant from the celestial, as a person's externals are from his internals.

[4] The crossing of the Jordan when the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan and the dividing of its waters at that time also represented the approach to the internal man by way of the external, as well as a person's entry into the Lord's kingdom, and much more besides, Joshua 3:14 on to the end of Chapter 4. And because the external man is constantly hostile towards the internal and strives for domination over it, the arrogance or the pride of the Jordan came to be phrases used by the Prophets, as in Jeremiah,

How will you compete with horses? And confident in a land of peace how do you deal with the pride of the Jordan? Jeremiah 12:5.

'The pride of the Jordan' stands for those things belonging to the external man which rear up and wish to have dominion over the internal, such as reasonings, meant here by 'horses', and 'the confidence' they give.

[5] In the same prophet,

Edom will become a desolation. Behold, like a lion it will come up from the arrogance of the Jordan against the habitation of Ethan. Jeremiah 49:17, 19.

'The arrogance of the Jordan' stands for the pride of the external man against the goods and truths of the internal. In Zechariah,

Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, for the magnificent ones have been laid waste! Howl, O oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down. The sound of the howling of shepherds [is heard], for their magnificence has been laid waste; the sound of the roaring of young lions, that the pride of the Jordan has been laid waste. Zechariah 11:2-3.

The fact that the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan is clear from Numbers 34:12, and the eastern boundary of the land of Judah, in Joshua 15:5.

Footnotes:

1. i.e. the Great or Mediterranean Sea

2. literally, upon me

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