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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #23

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23. Nothing is more common in the Word than for the word 'day' to be used to mean the particular time at which events take place, as in Isaiah,

The day of Jehovah is near. Behold, the day of Jehovah comes. I will make heaven tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, on the day of My fierce anger. Its time is close at hand, and its days will not be prolonged. Isaiah 13:6, 9, 13, 22.

And in the same prophet,

Her antiquity is in the days of antiquity. On that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. Isaiah 23:7, 15.

Since 'day' stands for the particular time it also stands for the state associated with that particular time, as in Jeremiah, Woe to us, for the day has declined, for the shadows of evening have lengthened! Jeremiah 6:4

And in the same prophet,

If you break My covenant that is for the day and My covenant that is for the night, so that there is neither daytime nor night at their appointed time. Jeremiah 33:20, 25.

Also,

Renew our days as of old. Lamentations 5:21.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1679

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1679. 'And they smote all the territory of the Amalekites' means kinds of falsities. This is clear from the representation and meaning of the 'Amalekite' nation, for all the nations that were in the land of Canaan represented kinds of falsities and evils, as will be clear, in the Lord's Divine mercy, from what follows. 'The Amalekites' means falsities, 'the Amorites in Hazezon-tamar' evils deriving from falsities. That 'the Amalekites' means falsities which assail truths becomes clear from what is mentioned regarding the Amalekites in Exodus 17:13-end; Numbers 13:29; 24:20; Deuteronomy 25:17-19; Judges 5:14; 1 Samuel 15:1-end; 1 Samuel 27:8; Psalms 83:7-8.

[2] The Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim, and Horites, referred to in verses 5-6, mean false persuasions that have their origins in desires for evil, that is, in evils, whereas here 'the Amalekites and the Amorites in Hazezon-tamar' means falsities from which evils derive. Falsity deriving from evil is one thing, falsity and evil deriving from that falsity another. Falsities spring either from evil desires which belong to the will or from accepted ideas which belong to the understanding. Falsities that spring from evil desires belonging to the will are foul and do not easily allow themselves to be rooted out, for they cling to a person's life itself. A person's life itself is that which desires, that is, which loves. As long as he is making that life firm within himself, that is, confirming that desire or love, all things of a confirmatory nature are false and are implanted in his life. Such were the people before the Flood.

[3] Falsities however which spring from accepted ideas belonging to the understanding cannot be rooted in the same way in the will part of man's mind. Like false or heretical doctrines, these have their origin outside of the will, coming instead from the absorption of such matters in early childhood, and after that from the confirmation of them in adult years. Yet because they are false they inevitably produce evils of life. For example, when anyone believes that he merits salvation through works and confirms himself in that belief, a sense of merit, of his own righteousness, and of assurance [of salvation] are the evils that result from it. On the other hand, when anyone believes that a truly devout life is not possible unless merit is attached to works, the evil which results from that belief is that he destroys all such devoutness in himself and gives himself up to evil desires and pleasures. It is the same with many other examples that could be taken. Such are the falsities and derivative evils dealt with in this verse.

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