The Bible

 

Genesis 2

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1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

   

The Bible

 

Job 38:8

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8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #541

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541. And the sun was darkened, and the air, by the smoke of the pit, signifies that the light of truth from the Lord was made thick darkness by infernal falsities. This is evident from the signification of "the sun and the air darkened," as being the light of truth from the Lord being made thick darkness (of which presently) and from the signification of "by the smoke of the pit," as being by dense falsities from hell, thus by infernal falsities. (That "smoke" signifies dense falsities, and "the pit of the abyss" the hells where and from which are falsities, see above, n. 536-539.) "The sun and the air darkened" signifies that the light of truth from the Lord was made thick darkness, for the Lord in the angelic heaven is a sun, and Divine truth proceeding from the Lord as a sun produces all the light there, and illuminates both the sight and the understanding of angels; when therefore that sun is darkened there, the light of truth, which is from the Lord, is made thick darkness; it is darkened by falsities from hell. All denial of the Divine and of Divine things by those who are merely natural comes from falsities of evil making the light of heaven thick darkness; for such look at Divine things in thick darkness, and therefore they see them as thick darkness, and in consequence deny them. Moreover, the light of heaven when it flows in with those who are in the falsities of evil actually becomes in the spiritual world thick darkness. From this it is that the evil not only do not see or understand spiritual things, that is, the things that belong to heaven and the church, but in heart they deny them. (That the Lord appears in the angelic heaven as a sun, and that Divine truth proceeding from the Lord as a sun produces all the light of heaven, thus all the intelligence and wisdom the angels have, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell 116-125, and 126-140.) It is said also that the "air" was darkened, meaning the light of truth, for the air gives light from the sun. "Skies" [aetheres] have a similar signification in David:

Thy mercy O Jehovah, is in the heavens; and Thy truth is even unto the skies (Psalms 36:5; 57:10; 108:4).

"Mercy" signifies the Divine good of Divine love, and "truth" Divine truth; and as Divine truth is the light of heaven, as has just been said, it is said, "Thy truth is even unto the skies;" thus "skies" in the plural signify Divine light even to the highest heaven, where it is in the highest degree. ("Skies" have a similar signification in Psalms 77:17; Psalms 78:23, 24.)

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