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

 

Vine shall give her fruit, and the ground her increase

  

In Zechariah 8:12, 'the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground her increase,' signifies that the spiritual affection of truth produces the good of charity, and the natural affection of good and truth produces the works of charity.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 695)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #9333

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9333. 'I will not drive them out from before you in one year' means no hurried flight or removal of them, that is to say, of the falsities and evils meant by the nations in the land of Canaan. This is clear from the meaning of 'driving out' as flight, for those in the next life who are steeped in evils and falsities are not driven out but flee of their own accord (the fact that removal is also meant will be seen below); and from the meaning of 'in one year' as that which is hurried, for the words follow, 'Little by little I will drive them out from before you', meaning a gradual removal in keeping with order.

[2] The reason why 'driving out', when it has reference to evils and falsities, means removal is that falsities and evils are not driven out of a person but removed. Anyone who does not know the true nature of human deliverance from evils and falsities, which is the forgiveness of sins, thinks that sins are wiped out when they are said to have been forgiven. The literal sense of the Word which speaks several times in that kind of way leads people to think so. As a result of this the minds of very many people have been taken over by the erroneous idea that they are righteous and pure after they have received absolution. But they have no knowledge whatever of the true nature of the forgiveness of sins. They do not know that no one is purified from sins; rather people are withheld from them by the Lord when they are such that they can be maintained in goodness and truth, and they can be maintained in goodness and truth when they have been regenerated, because then they have acquired the life of the good of charity and of the truth of faith. All that a person thinks, intends, says, and does from earliest childhood enters into the composition of his life. Those things cannot be banished, only removed; and when they are removed it seems as though the person is without sins, because they have been removed, see 8393, 8988 (end), 9014. The Word speaks in keeping with the appearance that a person thinks and does what is good and true unaided, by himself (the reality being that he does so not by himself but with the Lord's aid) when it says that he is free from sins, and also is righteous, as for instance in Isaiah,

Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are as red as crimson, 1 they will be as wool. Isaiah 1:18.

[3] The like is said many times elsewhere. The state of souls in the next life enables anyone to know that all this is true. All people take with them from this world into the next all that composes their life, that is, whatever they have thought, intended, spoken, or done, also indeed whatever they have seen or heard from early childhood right through to the last phase of their life in the world; not even the smallest detail of any of this is lacking, 2474. Those who have led a life of faith and charity while in the world can be withheld from evils and maintained in good, and so can be raised to heaven. Those however who have not led a life of faith and charity while in the world but a life of self-love and love of the world sink down to hell because they cannot be withheld from evils or maintained in good. From all this it is evident why it is that 'driving out', when it refers to what happens to falsities and evils, means removal. In this verse and the next that removal is the subject in the internal sense; there the arcana of it are disclosed.

Footnotes:

1. literally, purple

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