The Bible

 

Genesis 1

Study

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

 

Wings

  

'To cover under wings,' as in Psalms 91:4, signifies guarding with the divine truth, which is the divine spiritual. 'Wings' signify spiritual truths. 'Wings,' when related to the Lord, signify the divine spiritual. In the opposite sense, 'wings' relate to falsities and rationalizations from them.

(References: Apocalypse Revealed 245; Deuteronomy 32:10-12; Divine Providence 20-25; Ezekiel 16:8; Malachi 4:2; Matthew 23:37; Psalms 17:8, 26:8, 57:2, 63:8)


From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #9879

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9879. 'And you shall make on the breastplate small chains on the border' means all heaven joined together in the most external parts. This is clear from the meaning of 'the breastplate' as Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, dealt with in 9823, thus also heaven, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'small chains' as coherence, dealt with above in 9852, thus also a joining together; and from the meaning of 'the border' as the most external part, as also above in 9853. The reason why 'the breastplate' means heaven as well is that all the kinds of good and truth in their entirety were represented there by the twelve stones and by the names of the twelve tribes; and those kinds of good and truth in their entirety constitute heaven, so completely that whether you say heaven or those kinds of good and truth it amounts to the same thing. For the angels who constitute heaven are recipients of good and truth from the Lord, and being recipients of these they are also forms of them, or forms of love and charity. Truths of faith make for beauty, but a beauty in keeping with truths that spring from good, that is, in keeping with truths through which good shines forth. Outward forms of love and charity, which is what the forms of angels in the heavens are, are human forms; they are such because the kinds of good and the truths which emanate from the Lord, and the angels are recipients of, are effigies and images of the Lord.

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