The Bible

 

1 Mose 23:16

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16 Abraham gehorchte Ephron und wog ihm das Geld dar, das er gesagt hatte, daß zuhöreten die Kinder Heths nämlich vierhundert Sekel Silbers, das im Kauf gang und gäbe war.

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Arcana Coelestia #2966

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2966. Four hundred shekels of silver. That this signifies the price of redemption, was shown above (n. 2959); but what the price of redemption is shall now be told. Redemption is of the Lord alone, and so too is the price of redemption; and this price is also predicated of the reception by man, with whom the price is great according to the reception. The price of redemption is the Lord’s merit and righteousness through the most grievous temptations, whereby He united the Human Essence to the Divine, and the Divine Essence to the Human, and this by His own power; and by this unition saved the human race, and especially those who are of the spiritual church. (That the Lord was made righteousness through the most grievous temptations, may be seen above, n. 1813, 2025-2027; also that He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence, and the Divine to the Human, n. 1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 1813, 2083; and that He did this from His own power, n. 1616, 1921, 2025, 2026, 2083, 2500, 2523, 2632; and by this unition saved the human race, and especially those who are of the spiritual church, n. 2661, 2716.) These are the things which are signified by the “price of redemption.”

[2] That this price is also predicated of the reception with man, with whom it is great in proportion to his reception, is evident from the fact that it is the Lord’s Divine which makes the church with man; for nothing is called the church that is not the Lord’s own; for it is the good which is of love and charity, and it is the truth which is of faith, which make that which is called the church. That all good is from the Lord, and that all truth is from Him, is well known; good and truth that are from man are not good and truth; and from this it is plain that the price of redemption with a man is great in proportion to his reception.

[3] As with the Jews the Lord’s redemption was so little esteemed as to be scarcely anything, it is said in Zechariah:

I said unto them, If it be good in your eyes, give me my hire, and if not, forbear. And they weighed my hire, thirty pieces of silver. And Jehovah said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price that I was priced at of them (Zech. 11:12-13).

And in Matthew:

They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that was priced, whom they had bought from the sons of Israel, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me (Matthew 27:9-10).

That “thirty” denotes what is so little as to be scarcely anything, may be seen above (n. 2276); thus this passage denotes that the Jews placed no value on the merit and redemption of the Lord. But with those who believe all good and all truth to be from the Lord, the price of redemption is signified by “forty,” and in a higher degree by “four hundred.”

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

The Bible

 

Genesis 21

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1 Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken.

2 Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

3 Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.

4 Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

5 Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him.

6 Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me."

7 She said, "Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age."

8 The child grew, and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

9 Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.

10 Therefore she said to Abraham, "Cast out this handmaid and her son! For the son of this handmaid will not be heir with my son, Isaac."

11 The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight on account of his son.

12 God said to Abraham, "Don't let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your handmaid. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For from Isaac will your seed be called.

13 I will also make a nation of the son of the handmaid, because he is your seed."

14 Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

15 The water in the bottle was spent, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

16 She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, "Don't let me see the death of the child." She sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.

17 God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar? Don't be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

18 Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation."

19 God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the bottle with water, and gave the boy drink.

20 God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer.

21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

22 It happened at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, "God is with you in all that you do.

23 Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner."

24 Abraham said, "I will swear."

25 Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.

26 Abimelech said, "I don't know who has done this thing. Neither did you tell me, neither did I hear of it, until today."

27 Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.

28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

29 Abimelech said to Abraham, "What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?"

30 He said, "You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well."

31 Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore there.

32 So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God.

34 Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.