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 #3235

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3235. 'Abraham took another wife' means a further state which the Lord, whom Abraham represents, passed through - for 'Abraham and Sarah' represented the Lord as regards the Divine Celestial, 'Abraham and Keturah' the Lord as regards the Divine Spiritual. This is clear from what has been stated and shown so far about Abraham and his wife Sarah, and from what is recorded here about Abraham and Keturah. But as it is said that Abraham here represents a further state which the Lord passed through, and that Abraham and Sarah represented the Lord as regards the Divine Celestial, whereas Abraham and Keturah did so as regards the Divine Spiritual, one needs to know what is meant by the Divine Celestial and by the Divine Spiritual. The Divine Celestial and the Divine Spiritual have to do with those people who receive the Lord's Divine, for the Lord is seen by everyone according to the character of the recipient, as becomes clear from what has been stated in 1838, 1861, and is quite evident from the fact that the Lord appears to celestial people in one way but to spiritual in another. For He appears as the sun to those who are celestial, but as the moon to those who are spiritual, 1529-1531, 1838. The Lord appears to celestial people as the sun because in them celestial love, which is love to the Lord, is present, but to spiritual people as the moon because in these spiritual love, which is charity towards the neighbour, is present. The difference is like that between the light of the sun during the daytime and the light of the moon at night, and also between the warmth of both which causes things in the ground to grow. These are what were meant in Genesis 1 by the words,

And God made the two great Lights, the greater Light to have dominion over the day, and the lesser Light to have dominion over the night. Genesis 1:16.

[2] The Lord's kingdom is in general celestial and spiritual, that is, it consists of those who are celestial and of those who are spiritual. And because the Lord's Divine appears to those who are celestial as being celestial, but to those who are spiritual as being spiritual, it is therefore said that Abraham and Sarah represented the Lord as regards the Divine Celestial, but Abraham and Keturah as regards the Divine Spiritual. But as scarcely anyone knows what the celestial is or what the spiritual, and who they are who are celestial or spiritual, please see what has been stated and shown about them already in the following places:

What the celestial is and what the spiritual, 1155, 1577, 1824, 2048, 2184, 2227, 2507.

Who celestial people are and who spiritual, 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715.

The celestial man is a likeness of the Lord and does good from love, whereas the spiritual man is an image of the Lord and does it from faith, 50-52, 1013.

Those who are celestial perceive truth from good and never indulge in reasoning about it, 202, 337, 607, 895, 1121, 2715.

With the celestial man good is implanted in the will part of his mind, but with the spiritual man in the understanding part, within which, in the case of those who are spiritual, a new will is created, 863, 875, 895, 897, 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256.

From good itself those who are celestial see things without limit, but those who are spiritual, because they reason whether a thing is so, cannot reach even the furthest limit to which the light that the celestial have spreads, 2718.

Compared with those who are celestial those who are spiritual dwell in obscurity, 1043, 2708, 2715.

The Lord came into the world to save those who are spiritual, 2661, 2716, 2833, 2834.

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

The Bible

 

Genesis 26:1-24

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1 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

2 And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;

4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:

7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.

8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.

9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.

13 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:

14 For he had possession of flocks, and possessions of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.

15 For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.

17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

18 And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

19 And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

20 And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.

21 And they digged another well, and strove for that also:and he called the name of it Sitnah.

22 And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

23 And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba.

24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.