The Bible

 

Genesi 4

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1 OR Adamo conobbe la sua moglie, ed ella concepette, e partorì Caino, e disse: Io ho acquistato un uomo col Signore.

2 Poi partorì ancora Abele, fratello di esso. Ed Abele fu pastore di pecore, e Caino fu lavorator della terra.

3 Or avvenne, in capo di alquanto tempo, che Caino offerse al Signore offerta de’ frutti della terra.

4 Ed Abele offerse anch’esso de’ primogeniti delle sue pecore, e del grasso di esse. E il Signore riguardò ad Abele ed alla sua offerta.

5 Ma non riguardò a Caino, nè alla sua offerta; onde Caino si sdegnò grandemente, e il suo volto fu abbattuto.

6 E il Signore disse a Caino: Perchè sei tu sdegnato? e perchè è il tuo volto abbattuto?

7 Se tu fai bene, non vi sarà egli esaltazione? ma altresì, se tu fai male, il peccato giace alla porta. Ora i desiderii di esso dipendono da te, e tu hai la signoria sopra lui.

8 E Caino disse ad Abele suo fratello: Andiamo ai campi. Ed avvenne che essendo essi ai campi, Caino si levò contro ad Abele suo fratello, e l’uccise.

9 E il Signore disse a Caino: Ov’è Abele tuo fratello? Ed egli disse: Io non so; sono io guardiano del mio fratello?

10 E il Signore gli disse: Che hai fatto? ecco la voce del sangue del tuo fratello grida a me dalla terra.

11 Ora dunque tu sei maledetto, e sarai cacciato dalla terra, che ha aperta la sua bocca per ricevere il sangue del tuo fratello dalla tua mano.

12 Quando tu lavorerai la terra, ella non continuerà più di renderti la sua virtù; e tu sarai vagabondo ed errante sulla terra.

13 E Caino disse al Signore: La mia iniquità è più grande che io non posso portare.

14 Ecco, tu mi hai oggi cacciato d’in su la faccia della terra, ed io sarò nascosto dal tuo cospetto, e sarò vagabondo ed errante sulla terra; ed avverrà che chiunque mi troverà mi ucciderà.

15 E il Signore gli disse: Perciò, chiunque ucciderà Caino sarà punito a sette doppi più che Caino. E il Signore pose un segnale in Caino, acciocchè alcuno, trovandolo, non lo uccidesse.

16 E Caino si partì dal cospetto del Signore, e dimorò nel paese di Nod, dalla parte orientale di Eden.

17 E Caino conobbe la sua moglie, ed ella concepette, e partorì Enoch. Poi egli si mise ad edificare una città, e la nominò del nome del suo figliuolo Enoch.

18 E ad Enoch nacque Irad; ed Irad generò Mehujael; e Mehujael generò Metusael; e Metusael generò Lamec.

19 E Lamec si prese due mogli; il nome dell’una delle quali era Ada, e il nome dell’altra Silla.

20 E Ada partorì Iabal. Esso fu padre di coloro che dimorano in tende, e son mandriani.

21 E il nome del suo fratello fu Iubal. Esso fu padre di tutti coloro che maneggiano la cetera e l’organo.

22 E Silla partorì anch’ella Tubal-cain, il quale ha ammaestrato ogni fabbro di rame e di ferro; e la sorella di Tubal-cain fu Naama.

23 E Lamec disse ad Ada e Silla sue mogli: Ascoltate la mia voce, mogli di Lamec; Porgete l’orecchio al mio parlare. Certo io ho ucciso un uomo, dandogli una ferita; Ed un giovane, dandogli una percossa.

24 Se Caino è vendicato a sette doppi, Lamec lo sarà a settanta volte sette doppi.

25 E Adamo conobbe ancora la sua moglie; ed ella partorì un figliuolo, e gli pose nome Set; perciocchè, disse ella, Iddio mi ha riposta un’altra progenie in luogo di Abele, che Caino ha ucciso.

26 Ed a Set ancora nacque un figliuolo; ed egli gli pose nome Enos. Allora si cominciò a nominare una parte degli uomini del nome del Signore.

   


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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #357

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357. 'Cain's anger was set ablaze' means that charity had departed. This becomes clear from what comes further on, where it is said that he killed Abel his brother, who means charity. Anger is the general emotion that results from anything which gets in the way of self-love and its desires. In the world of evil spirits this is perceived plainly. Indeed general anger against the Lord prevails, because they are not moved at all by charity, but only by hatred. Anything that is unfavourable to self-love and the love of the world arouses opposition, which manifests itself in anger. In the Word, anger, wrath, and even rage, are frequently attributed to Jehovah; but in fact they belong to man and are attributed to Jehovah because they seem to be from Him, for reasons mentioned already. The following is stated in David,

He let loose on them His fierce anger and wrath, and rage, and distress, and a mission of evil angels. He levelled out a path for His anger, He did not spare their soul from death. Psalms 78:49-50.

Not that Jehovah ever 'lets loose His anger on anyone', but that people bring it down on themselves. Nor, as it is said, does He send evil angels but man takes them to himself. This is why the statement is added that 'He levels out a path for His anger and does not spare their soul from death', and it is said in Isaiah that

He will come to Jehovah, and all will be ashamed who were incensed against Isaiah 45:14.

From these quotations it is clear that 'anger' means evils, or what amounts to the same, a departure from charity.

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

The Bible

 

Psalms 78

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1 Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

6 that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

7 that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,

8 and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

10 They didn't keep God's covenant, and refused to walk in his law.

11 They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.

12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

14 In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

15 He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17 Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

18 They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

19 Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

20 Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"

21 Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

22 because they didn't believe in God, and didn't trust in his salvation.

23 Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.

24 He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.

25 Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

26 He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

27 He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.

28 He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations.

29 So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

30 They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

31 when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel.

32 For all this they still sinned, and didn't believe in his wondrous works.

33 Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

34 When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.

36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

38 But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn't stir up all his wrath.

39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

41 They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42 They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

43 how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

44 he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

46 He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

48 He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49 He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

50 He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

51 and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

52 But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53 He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54 He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

55 He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies;

57 but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

59 When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;

60 So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

61 and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand.

62 He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

63 Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep.

65 Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

66 He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

67 Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,

68 But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

69 He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.

70 He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

71 from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

72 So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. A Psalm by Asaph.