The Bible

 

Genesis 21

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1 Ja Issand hoolitses Saara eest, nõnda nagu ta oli lubanud. Issand toimis Saaraga, nõnda nagu ta oli öelnud:

2 Saara jäi lapseootele ja tõi Aabrahamile poja ilmale ta vanas eas, määratud ajal, millest Jumal temaga oli rääkinud.

3 Ja Aabraham pani oma pojale, kes temale sündis, kelle Saara temale ilmale tõi, Iisak nimeks.

4 Ja Aabraham lõikas ümber oma poja Iisaki, kui see kaheksapäevane oli, nõnda nagu Jumal teda oli käskinud.

5 Ja Aabraham oli sada aastat vana, kui ta poeg Iisak temale sündis.

6 Aga Saara ütles: 'Jumal pani mind naerma! Igaüks, kes sellest kuuleb, naerab mind!'

7 Ja ta ütles: 'Kes oleks võinud Aabrahamile kuulutada, et Saara imetab veel lapsi? Ometi tõin ma temale poja ilmale ta vanas eas!'

8 Laps kasvas ja võõrutati; ja Aabraham tegi suure peo Iisaki võõrutamispäeval.

9 Kui Saara nägi mängimas egiptlanna Haagari poega, kelle see Aabrahamile oli ilmale toonud,

10 siis ta ütles Aabrahamile: 'Kihuta minema see teenija ja tema poeg, sest selle teenija poeg ei või pärida koos minu poja Iisakiga!'

11 See kõne aga oli Aabrahami silmis ta poja kohta väga paha.

12 Aga Jumal ütles Aabrahamile: 'Ärgu olgu see su silmis paha ei poisi ega su teenija kohta. Kõiges, mis Saara sulle ütleb, kuula ta sõna, sest Iisakist loetakse sinu sugu!

13 Aga ka teenija poja teen ma rahvaks, sest ta on ju sinu järeltulija.'

14 Ja Aabraham tõusis hommikul vara, võttis leiva ja veelähkri ning andis Haagarile, pannes need temale selga, samuti lapse ja saatis ta minema. Ja tema läks ning eksles Beer-Seba kõrbes.

15 Kui vesi lähkrist lõppes, siis ta jättis lapse ühe põõsa alla

16 ja läks ning istus temaga kohastikku, ammulaske kauguses, sest ta ütles: 'Ma ei või näha lapse surma!' Nõnda ta istus temaga kohastikku, tõstis häält ja nuttis.

17 Aga Jumal kuulis poisi häält ja Jumala ingel hüüdis taevast Haagarit ning ütles temale: 'Mis sul viga on, Haagar? Ära karda, sest Jumal on kuulnud poisi häält seal, kus ta on.

18 Tõuse, tõsta poiss üles ja võta ta käekõrvale, sest ma tahan temast teha suure rahva!'

19 Ja Jumal tegi ta silmad lahti, nõnda et ta nägi ühte veekaevu; ta läks ning täitis lähkri veega ja andis poisile juua.

20 Ja Jumal oli poisiga; ta kasvas ja elas kõrbes, ja temast sai ammukütt.

21 Ta elas Paarani kõrbes; ja ta ema võttis temale Egiptusemaalt naise.

22 Sel ajal rääkisid Abimelek ja tema väepealik Piikol Aabrahamiga, öeldes: 'Jumal on sinuga kõiges, mis sa teed.

23 Ja nüüd vannu mulle siin Jumala juures, et sa ei peta mind ega mu lapsi ja lapselapsi! Heateo pärast, mis ma sulle tegin, tee seda mulle ja maale, kus sa võõrana elad!'

24 Ja Aabraham ütles: 'Ma vannun!'

25 Aabraham aga noomis Abimelekit veekaevu pärast, mille Abimeleki sulased väevõimuga olid ära võtnud.

26 Kuid Abimelek vastas: 'Mina ei tea, kes seda tegi. Sina pole mulle sellest teatanud ja mina ise pole ka midagi kuulnud enne kui täna.'

27 Siis Aabraham võttis lambaid, kitsi ja veiseid ja andis Abimelekile; ja nad mõlemad sõlmisid lepingu.

28 Kui Aabraham pani seitse lambatalle eraldi,

29 küsis Abimelek Aabrahamilt: 'Milleks on siin need seitse talle, keda sa oled eraldi pannud?'

30 Ja tema vastas: 'Sa pead need seitse talle minu käest võtma tõendina minu poolt, et mina olen kaevanud selle kaevu!'

31 Seepärast hüütakse seda paika Beer-Sebaks, sest nad mõlemad andsid seal vande.

32 Nõnda sõlmisid nad Beer-Sebas lepingu. Siis Abimelek ja tema väepealik Piikol tõusid ja läksid tagasi vilistite maale.

33 Aabraham aga istutas Beer-Sebasse ühe tamariskipuu ja hüüdis seal appi Issanda, igavese Jumala nime.

34 Ja Aabraham elas võõrana vilistite maal kaua aega.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2669

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2669. 'Also, the son of the servant-girl I will make into a nation' means the spiritual Church which was to receive the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the son of the servant-girl' and also of 'a nation'. 'The son of the servant-girl' or Ishmael, while he was in Abraham's house, that is, while he was with Abraham, represented the Lord's first rational, as shown in 2652, 2653, 2657, 2658. But now he has been separated he takes on another representation, namely that of the spiritual Church, 2666. A similar change of representation occurred previously with Lot who while with Abraham represented the Lord's external man, 1428, 1429, 1434, 1547, 1597, 1598, 1698, but once he had been separated from Abraham he represented the external Church and many states of that Church, 2324, 2371, 2399, 2422, 2459, and in the whole of Chapter 19. As regards 'nation' meaning good, see 1159, 1258-1260, 1416, 1849. Here the good of faith is meant since it has reference to the spiritual Church. Hence the words used here, 'Also, the son of the servant-girl I will make into a nation', mean the spiritual Church which was to receive the good of faith, which is charity.

[2] The Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth is celestial and spiritual, and therefore angels are distinguished into those who are celestial and those who are spiritual, see 202, 337. To celestial angels the Lord appears as the Sun, to spiritual as the Moon, 1053, 1521, 1529-1531. Men in a similar way are distinguished into those who are celestial and those who are spiritual. Those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church which existed before the Flood were celestial, dealt with in 607, 608, 784, 895, 920, 1114-1125, while those who belonged to the Ancient Church which existed after the Flood were spiritual, dealt with in 609, 640, 641, 765. For what the difference was between those two Churches, see 567, 607, and for what the difference is between what is celestial and what is spiritual, 81, 1155, 1577, 1824, 2048, 2069, 2088, 2227, 2507. The celestial are referred to by the Lord in the following,

He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when He has led out His own sheep He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.

The spiritual however are referred to in these words,

And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. John 10:3-4, 16.

The good of love is that which constitutes the celestial Church, but the good of faith that which constitutes the spiritual Church. The truth of faith does not constitute the Church but leads into it.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2342

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2342. 'And he baked unleavened bread' means purification. This is clear from the meaning of 'unleavened' or without yeast. In the Word 'bread' means in general every celestial and spiritual food, and so in general everything celestial and spiritual, see 276, 680, 1798, 2165, 2177. The need for the latter to be free of all impurities or unholiness was represented by 'unleavened bread'; for 'yeast' means the evil and falsity by means of which celestial and spiritual things are rendered impure and profane. On account of this representation those who belonged to the representative Church were forbidden in sacrifices to offer any bread or minchah other than bread without yeast, that is, unleavened, as is clear in Moses,

Every minchah which you bring to Jehovah shall be made without yeast. Leviticus 2:11. In the same author,

You shall not sacrifice the blood of My sacrifice with that made with yeast. Exodus 23:18; 34:25.

[2] They were also forbidden therefore to eat any other bread during the seven days of the Passover than bread without yeast, that is, which was unleavened. This prohibition occurs in the following verses in Moses,

For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even on the first day you shall remove yeast from your houses, for anyone eating that made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day until the seventh. In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month, in the evening. For seven days no yeast shall be found in your houses, for anyone eating that made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether a settler or one born in the land. Exodus 12:15, 19-20.

The same prohibition appears in other places as well, such as Exodus 13:6-7; 23:15; 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:3-4. Consequently the Passover is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Leviticus 23:6; Numbers 28:16-17; Matthew 26:17; Luke 22:1, 7.

[3] That the Passover represented the glorification of the Lord and so the conjunction of the Divine with the human race will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown elsewhere. And because the conjunction of the Lord with the human race is effected by means of love and charity, and by means of the faith deriving from these, celestial and spiritual things were represented by the unleavened bread which they were to eat each day during the Passover. Consequently to prevent the defilement of those things by anything unholy they were strictly forbidden to eat anything made with yeast, so strictly that any who did so were to be cut off; for those who profane celestial and spiritual things inevitably perish. Anyone may see that but for this arcanum within it that observance, together with so harsh a penalty, would never have been introduced.

[4] Everything that was commanded in that Church represented some arcanum, even the actual cooking, as with every instruction which the children of Israel carried out when they were leaving Egypt, namely that they were to eat that night flesh roasted by fire, and unleavened bread on bitter herbs; they were not to eat it raw or cooked in water; the head had to be on its legs; they were to let none of it remain until the morning; they were to burn what was left over with fire, Exodus 12:8-10. Every detail of these instructions was representative - eating it at night; flesh roasted by fire; unleavened bread on bitter herbs; the head on the legs; not raw; not cooked in water; not leaving any until the morning; and burning what was left with fire. But the arcana represented are in no way apparent unless they are disclosed by means of the internal sense. That sense alone shows that all these details are Divine.

[5] Something similar was done in the ritual for the taking of a Nazirite vow. The priest was to take the cooked shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and he was to place them on the palms of the Nazirite after he had shaved his consecrated head, Numbers 6:19. Anyone who does not know that a Nazirite represented the celestial man himself does not know either that every detail of these instructions embodies celestial things, and so arcana, which are not apparent in the letter, namely the instructions to take the cooked shoulder of a ram, an unleavened cake, an unleavened wafer, and to shave off his hair. This also shows what kind of opinion regarding the Word can be gained by people who do not believe in the existence of an internal sense, for without the internal sense such details are of no consequence at all. But when the ceremonial or ritualistic element has been stripped away everything becomes Divine and holy. Everything else has a deeper meaning, as does 'unleavened bread' which means the holiness of love, or what is most holy, as it is also called in Moses,

The unleavened bread that was left over was to be eaten by Aaron and his sons in a holy place, for it was most holy. Leviticus 6:16-17.

'Unleavened bread' therefore means pure love, and 'the baking of that which is unleavened' purification.

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