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1 Mose 25

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1 Abraham nahm wieder ein Weib, die hieß Ketura.

2 Die gebar ihm Simran und Joksan, Medan und Midian, Jesbak und Suah.

3 Joksan aber zeugte Saba und Dedan. Die Kinder aber von Dedan waren: die Assuriter, die Letusiter und die Leumiter.

4 Die Kinder Midians waren: Epha, Epher, Henoch, Abida und Eldaa. Diese alle sind Kinder der Ketura.

5 Und Abraham gab all sein Gut Isaak.

6 Aber den Kindern, die er von den Kebsweibern hatte, gab er Geschenke und ließ sie von seinen Sohn Isaak ziehen, dieweil er noch lebte, gegen Aufgang in das Morgenland.

7 Das aber ist Abrahams Alter, das er gelebt hat: hundertfünfundsiebzig Jahre.

8 Und er nahm ab und starb in einem ruhigen Alter, da er alt und lebenssatt war, und ward zu seinem Volk gesammelt.

9 Und es begruben ihn die Söhne Isaak und Ismael in der zwiefachen Höhle auf dem Acker Ephrons, des Sohnes Zohars, des Hethiters, die da liegt Mamre gegenüber,

10 in dem Felde, das Abraham von den Kindern Heth gekauft hatte. Da ist Abraham begraben mit Sara, seinem Weibe.

11 Und nach dem Tode Abrahams segnete Gott Isaak, seinen Sohn. Und er wohnte bei dem Brunnen des Lebendigen und Sehenden.

12 Dies ist das Geschlecht Ismaels, des Sohnes Abrahams, den ihm Hagar gebar, die Magd Saras aus Ägypten;

13 und das sind die Namen der Kinder Ismaels, davon ihre Geschlechter genannt sind: der erstgeborene Sohn Ismaels, Nebajoth, -Kedar, Abdeel, Mibsam,

14 Misma, Duma, Massa,

15 Hadar, Thema, Jetur, Naphis und Kedma.

16 Dies sind die Kinder Ismaels mit ihren Namen in ihren Höfen und Zeltdörfern, zwölf Fürsten über ihre Leute.

17 Und das ist das Alter Ismaels: hundert und siebenunddreißig Jahre. Und er nahm ab und starb und ward gesammelt zu seinem Volk.

18 Und sie wohnten von Hevila an bis gen Sur vor Ägypten und bis wo man nach Assyrien geht. Er ließ sich aber nieder gegen alle seine Brüder.

19 Dies ist das Geschlecht Isaaks, des Sohnes Abrahams: Abraham zeugte Isaak.

20 Isaak aber war vierzig Jahre alt, da er Rebekka zum Weibe nahm, die Tochter Bethuels, des Syrers, von Mesopotamien, Labans, des Syrers Schwester.

21 Isaak aber bat den HERRN für sein Weib, denn sie war unfruchtbar. Und der HERR ließ sich erbitten, und Rebekka, sein Weib, ward schwanger.

22 Und die Kinder stießen sich miteinander in ihrem Leibe. Da sprach sie: Da mir's also sollte gehen, warum bin ich schwanger geworden? und sie ging hin, den HERRN zu fragen.

23 Und der HERR sprach zu ihr: Zwei Völker sind in deinem Leibe, und zweierlei Leute werden sich scheiden aus deinem Leibe; und ein Volk wird dem andern Überlegen sein, und der Ältere wird dem Jüngeren dienen.

24 Da nun die Zeit kam, daß sie gebären sollte, siehe, da waren Zwillinge in ihrem Leibe.

25 Der erste, der herauskam, war rötlich, ganz rauh wie ein Fell; und sie nannten ihn Esau.

26 Darnach kam heraus sein Bruder, der hielt mit seiner Hand die Ferse des Esau; und sie hießen ihn Jakob. Sechzig Jahre alt war Isaak, da sie geboren wurden.

27 Und da nun die Knaben groß wurden, ward Esau ein Jäger und streifte auf dem Felde, Jakob aber ein sanfter Mann und blieb in seinen Hütten.

28 Und Isaak hatte Esau lieb und aß gern von seinem Weidwerk; Rebekka aber hatte Jakob lieb.

29 Und Jakob kochte ein Gericht. Da kam Esau vom Felde und war müde

30 und sprach zu Jakob: Laß mich kosten das rote Gericht; denn ich bin müde. Daher heißt er Edom.

31 Aber Jakob sprach: Verkaufe mir heute deine Erstgeburt.

32 Esau antwortete: Siehe, ich muß doch sterben; was soll mir denn die Erstgeburt?

33 Jakob sprach: So schwöre mir heute. Und er schwur ihm und verkaufte also Jakob seine Erstgeburt.

34 Da gab ihm Jakob Brot und das Linsengericht, und er und trank und stand auf und ging davon. Also verachtete Esau seine Erstgeburt.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3318

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3318. 'And he was weary' means a state of conflict. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'weary' or weariness as the state following conflict. Here however, because the subject is a state of conflict in which good and truth within the natural man are joined together, the state of conflict itself is meant. As regards 'weary' here meaning a state of conflict, this is not apparent except from the train of thought in the internal sense, and in particular from the fact that without conflicts, or what amounts to the same, without temptations, good is unable to be joined to truth in the natural man.

[2] So that the nature of this state may be known - though only as man experiences it - let a brief statement be made regarding it. Man is nothing other than an organ or vessel which receives life from the Lord, for man does not live of himself, 290, 1954, 2021, 2536, 2706, 2886-2889, 3001. The life flowing in with man from the Lord comes from His Divine Love. This Love, that is, the life from it, flows in and applies itself to the vessels that are in man's rational and that are in his natural. On account of the hereditary evil into which man is born, and on account of the evil of his own doing which man acquires to himself, these vessels with him are set the wrong way round for receiving that life. But insofar as it is possible for this inflowing life to do so, it resets those vessels to receive it. These vessels within the rational man and within his natural are such as are called truths. In themselves they are nothing else than perceptions of the variations in form possessed by those vessels and of the changes of state which in different ways give rise to those variations, which are produced in the most delicate of organic substances, and in ways that defy description, 2487. Good itself, which possesses life from the Lord, that is, which is life, is that which flows in and resets them.

[3] When therefore those vessels, varying in the forms they take, are set and turned, as has been stated, the wrong way round for inflowing life, they clearly have to be re-positioned to receive that life, that is, to be controlled by it. This cannot possibly be effected as long as the person remains in that condition into which he was born or which he has brought upon himself. Indeed at that time they are unsubmissive because they resolutely withstand and harden themselves against the heavenly order governing the way that life acts. Indeed the good which moves them, and to which they are subservient, is that which stems from self-love and love of the world. From the dull warmth it contains that good makes these vessels what they are. Consequently before they can be made submissive and capable of receiving any of the life that belongs to the Lord's love, they have to be softened. The only ways that such softening can be achieved is by temptations, for temptations take away the things that constitute self-love and contempt for others in comparison with oneself, consequently that constitute self-glory, and also hatred and revenge on account of that. When therefore they have to some extent been subdued and mellowed by means of temptations those vessels start to become yielding and compliant to the life which belongs to the Lord's love and which is constantly flowing in with man.

[4] From this point onwards good, first of all in the rational man and then in the natural, starts to be joined to the truths there, for as has been stated, truths are nothing else than perceptions of the variations in form which are determined by the states that are changing all the time - those perceptions being a product of the life that is flowing in. This is the reason why a person is regenerated, that is, is made new, by means of temptations, or what amounts to the same, by means of spiritual conflicts, and after that receives an inward disposition different from before, that is to say, becomes gentle, humble, single-minded, and contrite at heart. From these considerations one may now see the use served by temptations, which is that good from the Lord may not only flow in but also render the vessels subservient and so join itself to them. For truths are the recipient vessels of good, see 1496, 1832, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269. Here therefore, since the subject is the joining together of good and truth in the natural man, and since the first stage of that conjunction comes about through the conflicts brought about by temptations, 'he was weary' clearly means a state of conflict.

[5] As for the Lord however, who is the subject here in the highest sense, He so imposed Divine order on everything within Himself by means of the very severe conflicts that went with temptations that nothing remained of the human He had derived from the mother, 1444, 1573, 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036, so that He was not made new as any other human being but was made altogether Divine. For man, who is made new through regeneration, nevertheless retains within himself the inclination towards evil; indeed he retains the evil itself but is withheld from it by the influx of the life that is the life of the Lord's love, and by an extremely powerful force. But the Lord cast out completely everything evil that was His by heredity from the mother and made Himself Divine, doing so even as to the vessels, that is, as to the truths. This is what in the Word is called Glorification.

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