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Bereshit 24:52

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52 וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר שָׁמַע עֶבֶד אַבְרָהָם אֶת־דִּבְרֵיהֶם וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ אַרְצָה לַיהוָה׃

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3209

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3209. 'The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done' means perception from the Divine Natural showing how real things stood now. This is clear from the meaning of 'telling' as perceiving, for perception is so to speak an internal telling, and therefore perceiving is expressed in historical descriptions in the Word by the verb 'to tell', and also 'to say', 1741, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862; from the meaning of 'the servant' here as the Divine Natural, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the things' as real things, dealt with in 1785. From all this it is evident that 'the servant told all the things that he had done' means that Divine Rational Good perceived from the Divine Natural how real things stood now.

[2] The situation is that the rational part of the mind exists in the degree above the natural, and Rational Good within the Lord was Divine. Truth however which was to be raised up from the natural was not Divine until joined to the Divine Good of the Rational. So that the Good of the Rational might flow into the natural therefore, there had to be a means in between. This means could not be anything else than the natural which was to partake of the Divine. This is represented by the oldest servant of Abraham's house administering all that he had, 3019, 3020, for that servant means the Divine Natural, see 3191, 3192, 3204, 3206.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1468

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1468. 'That he said to Sarai his wife' means that He thought in the following way about truths to which celestial things were allied. This is clear from the meaning of 'Sarai' when she is called 'a wife'. In the internal sense of the Word 'a wife' means nothing other than truth joined to good, for truth joined to good is altogether like a marriage. When the noun 'husband' (maritus) is used in the Word it means good and 'wife' means truth. But when instead of this another noun for 'husband' (vir) is used, it in that case means truth, and 'wife' means good; and this is a consistent usage in the Word, as also stated already in 915. Since 'Abram' has been mentioned by name in this passage, 'Sarai his wife' means truth. Thus the meaning of 'he said to Sarai his wife' is in the internal sense that He thought in the following way about truths to which celestial things were allied. It is true historically that when he travelled into Egypt Abram spoke to his wife in this way; but, as has been stated, all the historical events recorded in the Word are representative and every word carries a spiritual meaning. No other historical details have been brought in, and those that have are not presented in any other sequence, nor expressed in any other words than such as in the internal sense may express these arcana.

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