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 #9281

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9281. 'And your female slave's son and the sojourner may draw breath' means the state of life of those governed by truths and forms of good outside the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'female slave's son' as those with an affection for external truth, for 'son' means truth, 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704, 4257, and 'a female slave' means an external affection, 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, 7780, 8993; from the meaning of 'the sojourner' as those who wish to receive instruction in the Church's truths and forms of good, dealt with in 1463, 8007, 8013, 9196, the reason why 'female slave's son and the sojourner' here means those outside the Church being that the preceding words in the present verse have referred to those within the Church, and therefore those outside the Church are meant by 'a female slave's sons' and those not born within the Church by 'sojourners' (the former are such because they are the offspring of an inferior marriage, the latter because they descend from an alien stock); and from the meaning of 'drawing breath' as the state of life in respect of the truths and forms of the good of faith. 'Drawing breath' means that state of life because the lungs, whose function is breathing, correspond to the life of faith springing from charity, which is spiritual life, 97, 1119, 3351, 3635, 3883-3896, 9229.

[2] The human being breathes outwardly and he breathes inwardly; outwardly he draws breath from the world, but inwardly from heaven. When a person dies he ceases to breathe outwardly, but his inward breathing, which is soundless and is undetectable by him while he lives in the world, continues. This breathing is regulated altogether by his affection for truth, thus by the life of his faith. Those without any faith at all, as those in hell are, do not draw breath from an inner source but from an outward one, thus from an opposite direction. Therefore also when they come near an angelic community, which draws breath from an inner source, they start to be suffocated and to become like deathmasks, 3894. As a result of this they hurl themselves headlong back into their hell, where they regain their former manner of breathing that is the opposite of the heavenly manner.

[3] Since breathing corresponds to the life of faith, this life is also meant by anima - a word for soul or breath, 9050 - because of the animation or life-giving power that lies in breathing. Breathing is referred to additionally as spiritus - which also means 'spirit' - in such phrases as 'taking a breath' and 'letting out breath', and therefore also the word for spirits in the original language comes from a word for 'wind', and in the Word they are compared to wind, as in John,

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its voice; but you do not know where it comes from, or where it goes away to. So is everyone who is born from the spirit. John 3:8.

From this also it is evident what the meaning is when it says that after the Resurrection, when the Lord spoke to the disciples, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit, John 20:22.

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