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 #7111

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7111.'To the taskmasters over the people and to their officers, saying' means those in the nearest position to molest, and those in the nearest position to receive. This is clear from the meaning of 'the taskmasters' as those who compel people to serve, dealt with in 6852, and since they do so by means of molestations, 'the taskmasters' also means those who molest, but those in the nearest position to carry it out, who are dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the officers' as those in the nearest position to receive. For the officers came from the children of Israel, but the taskmasters from the Egyptians, as is evident from what follows. Thus in the internal sense 'the officers' are those in the nearest position to receive, and 'the taskmasters' those in the nearest position to molest.

[2] Who exactly are meant may be recognized from those in the next life who molest, introducing falsities and evils, and those who receive these and pass them on. Those who molest, introducing falsities and evils, are the hells. But to achieve their purpose they send out from themselves emissaries through whom they act; and these make their appearance no great distance away from those who are molested. This is done for the reason that the thoughts and intentions of many may by focused through them; otherwise such thoughts and intentions would become diffuse. Those emissaries appear in particular places of their own in the world of spirits, and from the actual places where they appear one can recognize which hell they come from. Some appear overhead at varying heights and angles; others alongside the head, to the right or left as well as behind it; and others again below the head, on various levels in relation to the body, from the head right down to the soles of the feet. They flow in with the kinds of things that are emitted from hell, but a spirit or man can only feel them, and therefore only know of them, as things that are inside himself, as things that he himself thinks and intends. Those emissaries are called 'subordinates', see what has already been shown from experience regarding them in 4403, 5856, 5983-5989. Since these are in the nearest position to molest they are meant by 'the taskmasters'. But those who receive things from them and pass them on are 'the officers'; they are also intermediary spirits. For as stated above, the officers came from the children of Israel, but the taskmasters came from the Egyptians.

[3] Among the Israelite and Jewish people 'officers was a name given to those who were required to tell the people what they had to do, and who were to give orders. For this reason they also sat with the judges and elders in the gates, and told the people the judgements that had been made as well as the commands issued by the leader, as becomes clear from the following places: In Moses,

You shall appoint 1 judges and officers in all your gates according to your tribes, who will judge the people with righteous judgement. 2 Deuteronomy 16:18.

In the same author,

When they go out to war the priest shall speak to the people and warn them that they should not be afraid. After that the officers shall say that he who has built a house should go back, and also the fearful. Deuteronomy 20:1-3, 5, 8, 9.

In Joshua,

Joshua gave orders to the officers to say to the people that they should prepare provisions for the journey, before they crossed the Jordan. Joshua 1:10-11.

In the same book,

At the end of three days it happened, when the officers passed through the middle of the camp, that they gave orders [to the people, saying] that when they saw the ark of the covenant of Jehovah they too were to set out. Joshua 8:33.

The officers' were overseers of the people, distinct and separate from the princes or leaders of the people, see Deuteronomy 1:15. They were distinct and separate from the elders too, Deuteronomy 31:28, and also from the judges, Joshua 8:33.

Footnotes:

1. literally, give

2. literally, the judgement of righteousness

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