The Bible

 

Genesis 26:14

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14 Jis turėjo daug gyvulių ir avių, ir didelį skaičių tarnų, todėl jam pavydėjo filistinai.

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Arcana Coelestia #3391

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3391. And Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw. That this signifies the doctrine of faith looking to rational things in knowledges, is evident from the representation of Abimelech, as being the doctrine of faith that looks to rational things (n. 2504, 2509, 2510, 2533); from the signification of “king of the Philistines” as being doctrinal things (n. 3365); and from the signification of a window,” as being the intellectual faculty (n. 655, 658), consequently the internal sight, for this was formerly signified by “windows.” Thus to “look out through a window” is to perceive those things which appear by means of the internal sight, which in general are knowledges such as are of the external man. Rational things, or what is the same, appearances of truth, that is, truths spiritual, are not knowledges, but are in knowledges, for they belong to the rational, thus to the internal man, and it is the internal man which looks to the things of the external man, thus to truths in knowledges. For as knowledges are of the natural man, they are vessels that receive rational things (that truths Divine flow into the rational, and through this into the natural, and in this latter are exhibited as an image of many things in a mirror, may be seen above, n. 3368).

[2] That “windows” signify the things of the internal sight-that is, of the understanding-which in one word are called intellectual things, is evident from those passages of the Word which were adduced in n. 655; and further from the following.

In Joel:

They shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up into the houses, they shall enter in by the windows as a thief (Joel 2:9);

speaking of the evils and falsities of the last days of the church; “climbing up into the houses” denotes destroying the goods of the will (that “house” denotes the goods of the will may be seen above, n. 710, 2233, 2334); and “entering in by the windows” denotes destroying truths and their knowledges which are of the understanding.

In Zephaniah:

Jehovah will stretch out His hands upon the north, and destroy Asshur; herds shall lie down in the midst of her; every wild animal of his kind; both the pelican and the osprey, shall pass the night in the pomegranates thereof; a voice shall sing in the windows, drought shall be upon the threshold, because he hath laid bare the cedar (Zeph. 2:13-14); where the destruction of the truths of faith by reasonings, which are “Asshur,” is treated of (n. 119, 1186); that a “voice shall sing in the windows” signifies the desolation of truth, thus of the intellectual faculty as to truth.

[3] In the book of Judges:

Through the window she looked forth, and the mother of Sisera cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? (Judg. 5:28);

this is the prophecy of Deborah and Barak concerning the resuscitation of a spiritual church; “looking forth through a window” denotes through the reasonings of those who deny truths and thus destroy what is of the church; for such reasonings are intellectual things in the opposite sense.

In Jeremiah:

Woe unto him that buildeth his house without righteousness, and his chambers without judgment; that saith, I will build me a roomy house and spacious chambers; and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion (Jeremiah 22:13-14);

“[B]uilding a house without righteousness, and chambers without judgment” denotes building up a religious system from what is not good and not true (that “righteousness and judgment” are good and truth may be seen above, n. 2235); “cutting him out windows and ceiling with cedar, and painting with vermilion,” denotes falsifying intellectual and spiritual truths. The windows of the temple at Jerusalem represented nothing but that which belongs to intellectual and thus to spiritual things. The like is signified by the windows of the new temple described in Ezekiel (40:16, 40:22, 25, 40:33, 36; 41:16, 26); for anyone can see that in this Prophet the new temple, the new Jerusalem, and the new earth, are nothing else than the Lord’s kingdom; thus that the things mentioned in regard to them are such as belong to His kingdom.

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

The Bible

 

Genesis 26

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1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

2 Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.

3 Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

4 I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed,

5 because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."

6 Isaac lived in Gerar.

7 The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife," lest, he thought, "the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at."

8 It happened, 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 caressing Rebekah, his wife.

9 Abimelech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister?'" Isaac said to him, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of her.'"

10 Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!"

11 Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."

12 Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.

13 The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.

14 He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.

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

16 Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we."

17 Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.

18 Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

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

20 The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." He called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.

21 They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. He called its name Sitnah.

22 He left that place, and dug another well. They didn't argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, "For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."

23 He went up from there to Beersheba.

24 Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father. Don't be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham's sake."

25 He built an altar there, and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac's servants dug a well.

26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army.

27 Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?"

28 They said, "We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,

29 that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.' You are now the blessed of Yahweh."

30 He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

31 They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

32 It happened the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water."

33 He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

35 They grieved Isaac's and Rebekah's spirits.