The Bible

 

Genesis 8

Study

   

1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;

2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;

3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.

10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.

14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,

16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.

17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:

19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #857

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

857. That 'the waters were going down and abating' means that falsities started to be dispersed is clear from the actual words themselves and from what has been stated just above, at verse 3, where it is said that 'the waters receded, going back and forth', whereas in this verse it is said that 'the waters were going down and abating'. The latter as well as the former means fluctuations between truth and falsity, though the present statement means that those fluctuations were becoming less pronounced. As has been stated, during the fluctuations that follow temptation a person does not know what truth is, but as the movements gradually come to an end so the light of truth appears. The reason for this is that as long as a person's state is such, the internal man cannot function, that is, the Lord cannot function by way of the internal into the external. The internal contains remnants, which are affections for good and for truth deriving from it, which have been dealt with already. The external contains evil desires, and falsities deriving from these. As long as these external things have not been subdued and done away with, no road is open for goods and truths to pass from the internal, that is, from the Lord by way of the internal.

[2] A further purpose of temptations therefore is that the external side of a person may be subdued and so made subservient to the internal. This may become clear to anyone from the fact that as soon as a person's loves are assaulted and crushed, as they are in times of misfortune, sickness, and mental illness, his evil desires start to subside. And as they subside he begins to talk of more devout things. But as soon as he goes back to his previous state, his external man takes control again and he gives scarcely any thought to such matters. It is similar in the final hour of death when bodily things start to fade. From these considerations anyone may see what the internal man is and what the external man, also what remnants are, and how too the desires and pleasures that belong to the external man hinder the Lord's functioning by way of the internal man. From this also anyone may discern what temptations, that is, the inward pains termed the pricks of conscience, accomplish; they take place so that the external man may become subservient to the internal. The external man is made subservient solely to ensure that affections for good and truth are not hindered, halted, and stifled by evil desires and by falsities deriving from them. The subsidence of evil desires and falsities is here described by 'the waters going down and abating'.

  
/ 10837  
  

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