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.

   

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

 

Apocalypse Revealed #244

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244. And the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its concepts and the understanding they afford.

Eagles have various symbolic meanings, but flying eagles symbolize concepts which lead to understanding, since when they fly, they recognize and see. They also have sharp eyes so as to see keenly, and eyes symbolize the intellect (nos. 48, 214).

To fly means, symbolically, to perceive and teach, and in the highest sense, which has the Lord as its subject, it means to foresee and provide.

That this is the symbolic meaning of eagles in the Word is apparent from the following passages:

Those who wait on Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles. (Isaiah 40:31)

To mount up on wings like eagles means to be raised into concepts of truth and goodness and so into intelligence.

Does the hawk fly by your wisdom...? Does the eagle mount up at your command...(and) spy out its food? Its eyes observe from afar. (Job 39:26-27, 29)

The eagle here describes a faculty for recognizing, understanding, and foreseeing, and the fact that this does not result from one's own intelligence.

(Jehovah,) who satisfies your mouth with good, so that you are renewed in your youth like an eagle. (Psalms 103:5)

To satisfy the mouth with good means to give understanding by means of concepts. Thus an analogy is made with an eagle.

A great eagle with large wings and long pinions... came upon Lebanon and took from the cedar a little branch... Then it took some of the seed of the land and planted it in the field of a growing crop..., and it grew and became a vine... But there was another great eagle..., to which the vine bent its roots... (Ezekiel 17:1-8)

The two eagles here describe the Jewish and Israelite churches, each in respect to its concepts of truth and consequent intelligence.

In an opposite sense, however, eagles symbolize false concepts, by which the intellect is corrupted, as in Matthew 24:28, Jeremiah 4:13, Habakkuk 1:8-9, and elsewhere.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.