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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 #6281

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6281. As regards the verb 'to redeem', its proper meaning is to restore to oneself and to take to oneself what was previously one's own; and it is used when slavery, death, or evil is involved. When it is slavery, people who have become slaves are meant, in the spiritual sense those enslaved to hell; when it is death, people in a state of damnation are meant; and when it is evil, as in the present context, people in hell are meant, since the evil from which the angel redeemed the speaker is hell, 6279. Because the Lord delivered mankind from those evils through having made the Human within Himself Divine, His Divine Human is the One in the Word who is called the Redeemer, as in Isaiah,

I am helping you, said Jehovah, and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 41:14.

In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, His Holy One. Isaiah 49:7, 26.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah Zebaoth is His name, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth He will be called, Isaiah 54:5.

In these places a distinction is made between the Divine itself, called Jehovah, and the Divine Human, referred to as the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

[2] Yet Jehovah Himself within His Divine Human is the Redeemer, as is clear from the following places: In Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah the King of Israel, and his Redeemer Jehovah Zebaoth, I am the first and I am the last, and besides Me there is no God. Isaiah 44:6.

In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah your Redeemer, I am Jehovah your God, who is teaching you. Isaiah 48:17.

In the same prophet,

You are our Father, for Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Jehovah, are our Father, our Redeemer; from of old is Your name. Isaiah 63:16.

In David,

Jehovah who has redeemed your 1 life from the pit. Psalms 103:4.

[3] From these places too it is evident that no one else but the Lord is meant in the Word by 'Jehovah', 1743, 1736, 2921, 3035, 5667, and that 'Jehovah the Redeemer' is His Divine Human. Here also is the reason why those who have been redeemed are called 'the Redeemed of Jehovah' in Isaiah,

Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him, and the recompense of His work before Him. They will call them, The Holy People, the Redeemed of Jehovah. Isaiah 62:11, 12.

It is quite plain that the Lord is the reason why they are called 'the Redeemed of Jehovah', for the words 'Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him' have reference to the Lord's Coming. See in addition Isaiah 43:1; 52:2-3; 63:4, 9; Hosea 13:14; Exodus 6:6; 15:13; Job 19:25, where it is evident that redemption has reference to slavery, death, and evil.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin means my but the Hebrew means your, which Swedenborg has in another place where he quotes this verse.

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