11
E Abimelecco fece un comandamento a tutto il popolo, dicendo: Chiunque toccherà quest’uomo, o la sua moglie, del tutto sarà fatto morire.
Genesi 26:11
To many Protestant and Evangelical Italians, the Bibles translated by Giovanni Diodati are an important part of their history. Diodati’s first Italian Bible edition was printed in 1607, and his second in 1641. He died in 1649. Throughout the 1800s two editions of Diodati’s text were printed by the British Foreign Bible Society. This is the more recent 1894 edition, translated by Claudiana.
Arcana Coelestia #3438
3438. 'Jehovah appeared to him that night, and said' means the Lord's perception regarding that obscurity. This is clear from the meaning of 'Jehovah's appearing and saying' - when it has reference to the Lord - as perceiving from the Divine ('Jehovah's appearing to him' is perception from the Divine, see 3367, and 'laying' is perceiving, 2862, 3395. For Jehovah was within Him, and so long as the Human was not yet glorified, Jehovah's 'appearing' was a Divine perception - or perception from the Divine. Therefore 'Jehovah's appearing to him and saying' has this meaning of perceiving from the Divine); and from the meaning of 'night' as a state of shade or obscurity, dealt with in 1712. By that obscurity is meant the literal sense of the Word, for the relationship of that sense to the internal sense is that of shade to light.
[2] To enable people to have a clearer knowledge of what the situation is with the literal sense of the Word, let this be discussed briefly: The relationship of the internal sense to the literal is like the relationship between the interiors and the exteriors of the human being, that is, between all that is celestial or spiritual in him and all that is natural or bodily. His interiors dwell in the light of heaven, but his exteriors in the light of the world. For the nature of the difference between the light of heaven and the light of the world, consequently for the difference between things belonging to the light of heaven and those belonging to the light of the world, see 1521-1533, 1619-1632, 1783, 1880, 2776, 3138, 3167, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3223, 3225, 3337, 3339, 3341, 3413. That is to say, the difference is like that existing between the light of day and the shade of night. Since man dwells in that shade and does not wish to know that truth from the Lord has light within it he inevitably believes that his shade is light, and indeed the reverse also - that his light is shade. For he is like the owl which, when flying in the shade of night, imagines it is in the light, but when flying in the light of day imagines it is in the shade. Indeed the internal eye - that is, the understanding - by means of which a person sees interiorly, assumes no other shape with someone like that, such being exactly how he has shaped it. For he opens it when he looks downwards, that is, to worldly and bodily things, and shuts it when he looks upwards, that is, to spiritual and celestial. With these people it is similar with the Word. That which appears in its literal sense they imagine to belong to the light but that which appears in the internal sense they imagine to belong to the shade. For how the Word appears to anyone depends on his own essential nature. In reality the internal sense of the Word in relation to its literal sense is like the light of heaven to the light of the world, 3086, 3108, that is, it is like the light of day to the light of night.
[3] Within the internal sense there are individual details, millions of which together constitute one particular feature that occurs in the literal sense. Or what amounts to the same, within the internal sense there exist particular features, millions of which together constitute just one general whole that occurs in the literal sense. This general whole is what is seen by man, but not the particular features which are present within it and which constitute it. Nevertheless man can see within the general whole the order that holds the particular features together, though he sees it according to his own essential nature. That order is the holiness which stirs his affections.
Genesis 26
1
There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
2
Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.
3
Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
4
I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed,
5
because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
7
The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife," lest, he thought, "the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at."
8
It happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife.
9
Abimelech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister?'" Isaac said to him, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of her.'"
10
Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!"
11
Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."
12
Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.
13
The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.
14
He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.
15
Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.
16
Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we."
17
Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.
18
Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
19
Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
20
The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." He called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.
21
They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. He called its name Sitnah.
22
He left that place, and dug another well. They didn't argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, "For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."
23
He went up from there to Beersheba.
24
Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father. Don't be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham's sake."
25
He built an altar there, and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac's servants dug a well.
26
Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army.
27
Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?"
28
They said, "We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,
29
that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.' You are now the blessed of Yahweh."
30
He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31
They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32
It happened the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water."
33
He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
34
When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
