The Bible

 

Genesis 1

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1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

The Bible

 

Psalms 8:4

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4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4605

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4605. 'Reuben, Jacob's firstborn' means the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the firstborn' as faith, dealt with in 352, 367, 2435, 3325; also from the representation of 'Jacob' as the good of natural truth, dealt with in 4538, and from that of 'Reuben' as the essential nature of faith. For in the genuine sense 'Reuben' means the truth of faith, 3861, 3866, but after the truth of faith has become good he means the good of faith. Furthermore faith essentially is charity, and so the truth of faith essentially is the good of faith, because it cannot have any existence at all unless it springs from charity - that is, truth cannot have any real existence unless it springs from good. This being so, once a person has been regenerated good occupies the first place, or is the firstborn, see 3325, 3494. This is the reason why 'Reuben, Jacob's firstborn' at this point means the good of faith. A similar instance of this meaning occurs in Moses,

May Reuben live and not die; and his mortal men will be [few in] numbers. Deuteronomy 33:6.

The reason 'Reuben' here means the good of faith is that in the Prophecy of Moses regarding the sons of Jacob, Reuben is placed first and Judah second, thus in a different ordering in this prophecy from that of Jacob in Genesis 49. For, as stated above at the end of 4603, the order in which their names appear is determined by the state belonging to the subject under discussion.

[2] Similarly in John,

I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed out of every tribe - twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Gad. Revelation 7:4-5.

In this case Judah is mentioned first, Reuben second, and Gad third. These three in this place make up a first group; and because the Lord's kingdom is the subject here, 'Judah' means celestial good such as exists in the inmost or third heaven, 'Reuben' spiritual good, which is the same as the good of faith, such as exists in the second or middle heaven, and 'Gad' the good of the natural, such as exists in the first heaven. But a different meaning is found in the prophecy of Deborah and Barak,

Princes in Issachar were with Deborah; and as was Issachar, so was Barak, into the valley he was sent under his command 1 - into the divisions of Reuben great decrees of the heart. Why do you dwell between two burdens to hear the hissings of the droves? - towards the divisions of Reuben great searchings of the heart. Judges 5:15-16.

Unless he knows what 'Issachar', 'Deborah', 'Barak', and 'Reuben' represent, and what 'princes', 'the valley', 'a division', 'decrees of the heart', 'two burdens' and 'the hissings of the droves' mean, no one can know what these words are used to mean. But 'Reuben', it is evident, means faith here.

Footnotes:

1. literally, at his feet

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