The Bible

 

Genesis 15

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1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

2 And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

8 And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.

11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,

21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Scriptural Confirmations #49

  
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49. 21. (The young lions roar, they give out their voice, they reduce the land to wasteness (Jeremiah 2:15).)

At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah, and all the nations shall be gathered on account of the name of Jehovah to Jerusalem (Jeremiah 3:17). Concerning the New Church.

(A lion has gone up from his thicket and a destroyer of nations has set out; he is gone forth from his place to reduce thy land to wasteness. It shall come to pass in that day that the heart of the king shall perish and the heart of the princes, and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder (Jeremiah 4:7, 9).)

Breaking upon breaking is cried, for the whole land is devastated; suddenly are my tents devastated. I beheld, when lo, Carmel was a wilderness, and all the cities were desolated at the presence of Jehovah, for thus saith Jehovah the whole land shall be a waste; nevertheless I will not make a full end (Jeremiah 4:20, 26-28; 5:10, 18).

Shall I not visit for this, and shall not my soul take vengeance on such a nation as this? (Jeremiah 5:9, 29.)

(As a fountain causeth its waters to be cast forth, so Jerusalem causeth her wickedness to be cast forth; violence and vastation is heard in her. Receive reproof, lest my soul be alienated from thee; lest I reduce thee to a waste, a land not inhabited (Jeremiah 6:7-8).

At [that] time I will visit them (Jeremiah 6:15).

(Daughter of my people, make thee mourning for an only begotten, for the waster shall suddenly come upon you (Jeremiah 6:26).

(Behold the days come when the carcass of this people shall be for food for the bird of the heavens, and for the beast of the earth, none frightening them away. I will cause to cease from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall become a waste (Jeremiah 7:32-34; Genesis 15:11, 17).)

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.