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.

Commentary

 

Mourn

  

In a general sense, mourning in the Bible represents a state of grief over the lack of desires for good and true ideas about life. This often happens when a church or an aspect of a church has fallen away from the Lord and has been devastated. It can also be when a new church or state of a church is soon to begin, and there is nothing yet in place. In particular, especially when paired with "weeping," "mourning" has do with the loss of all desire for good and the presence of evil; "weeping" in those cases has to do with the devastation of thought and knowledge.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #1164

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1164. Weeping and mourning-That this signifies grief of soul and heart, is evident from the signification of weeping, which denotes grief of soul; and from the signification of mourning, which denotes grief of heart. The distinction between grief of soul and grief of heart is like that between truth and good. For soul in the Word is said of the truth which is of faith, and heart of the good which is of love. This is the reason why the expression, from the soul, and from the heart, frequently occurs in the Word. They are also distinguished as the will and the understanding in man, and also, as the respiration of the lungs and the motion of the heart. And because throughout the Word there is a marriage, as it were, of truth and good, or of faith and love, or of intellect and will, therefore it is also the case here with the expressions, weeping and mourning, weeping arising from grief of soul and mourning from grief of heart.

[2] Continuation.- But that man may be brought out of hell, and led into heaven by the Lord, it is necessary for him to resist hell, that is, evil as if from himself. If he does not resist as if from himself, he remains in hell, and hell in him, nor are they separated to eternity. This, also, follows from the laws of Divine Providence, which have been explained above. Experience also will teach us that this is the case. For evils are removed from man either by punishments, temptations and the aversions arising from them, or by the affections for truth and good. Evils are removed by punishments in the case of those who have not reformed; by temptations and aversions arising from them in the case of those about to be reformed; and by the affections for truth and good in the case of the regenerate. Experience is as follows. When an unreformed or evil man undergoes punishments, which is the case in hell, he is kept in them and not liberated until it is seen that of himself he does not will evils; he is thus compelled of himself to remove them. If the punishment does not extend to the intention and will, he remains in his evil. But still the evil is not even then removed, because he has not compelled himself, it therefore remains within, and returns when the fear ceases. In the case of those who are about to be reformed, evils are removed by temptations, which are not punishments, but combats. Men of this description are not compelled to resist evils, but they compel themselves, and implore the Lord, and are thus set free from the evils which they have resisted. They afterwards desist from them, not from any fear of punishment, but from a repugnance to evil, the very repugnance at length becoming resistance. But with the regenerate, there are no temptations or combats, the affections for truth and good keeping evils at a distance from them; for they are entirely separated from hell, whence evils come, and are conjoined to the Lord.

[3] To be separated and removed from evils is nothing else than to be separated and removed from infernal societies. The Lord is able to separate and remove all, as many as He wills, from infernal societies, that is from evils, and to transfer them to heavenly societies, thus to goods; but this endures only for a few hours, after which the evils return. I have sometimes seen this take place, and have observed wicked men continue wicked as before. In the whole spiritual world there is no instance of any one having been removed from evils, except by means of combat or resistance as if from himself, or of any one having been so removed except by the Lord alone.

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.