The Bible

 

Genesis 16

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1 σαρα δὲ ἡ γυνὴ αβραμ οὐκ ἔτικτεν αὐτῷ ἦν δὲ αὐτῇ παιδίσκη αἰγυπτία ᾗ ὄνομα αγαρ

2 εἶπεν δὲ σαρα πρὸς αβραμ ἰδοὺ συνέκλεισέν με κύριος τοῦ μὴ τίκτειν εἴσελθε οὖν πρὸς τὴν παιδίσκην μου ἵνα τεκνοποιήσῃς ἐξ αὐτῆς ὑπήκουσεν δὲ αβραμ τῆς φωνῆς σαρας

3 καὶ λαβοῦσα σαρα ἡ γυνὴ αβραμ αγαρ τὴν αἰγυπτίαν τὴν ἑαυτῆς παιδίσκην μετὰ δέκα ἔτη τοῦ οἰκῆσαι αβραμ ἐν γῇ χανααν καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτὴν αβραμ τῷ ἀνδρὶ αὐτῆς αὐτῷ γυναῖκα

4 καὶ εἰσῆλθεν πρὸς αγαρ καὶ συνέλαβεν καὶ εἶδεν ὅτι ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχει καὶ ἠτιμάσθη ἡ κυρία ἐναντίον αὐτῆς

5 εἶπεν δὲ σαρα πρὸς αβραμ ἀδικοῦμαι ἐκ σοῦ ἐγὼ δέδωκα τὴν παιδίσκην μου εἰς τὸν κόλπον σου ἰδοῦσα δὲ ὅτι ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχει ἠτιμάσθην ἐναντίον αὐτῆς κρίναι ὁ θεὸς ἀνὰ μέσον ἐμοῦ καὶ σοῦ

6 εἶπεν δὲ αβραμ πρὸς σαραν ἰδοὺ ἡ παιδίσκη σου ἐν ταῖς χερσίν σου χρῶ αὐτῇ ὡς ἄν σοι ἀρεστὸν ᾖ καὶ ἐκάκωσεν αὐτὴν σαρα καὶ ἀπέδρα ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτῆς

7 εὗρεν δὲ αὐτὴν ἄγγελος κυρίου ἐπὶ τῆς πηγῆς τοῦ ὕδατος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ἐπὶ τῆς πηγῆς ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ σουρ

8 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ ὁ ἄγγελος κυρίου αγαρ παιδίσκη σαρας πόθεν ἔρχῃ καὶ ποῦ πορεύῃ καὶ εἶπεν ἀπὸ προσώπου σαρας τῆς κυρίας μου ἐγὼ ἀποδιδράσκω

9 εἶπεν δὲ αὐτῇ ὁ ἄγγελος κυρίου ἀποστράφητι πρὸς τὴν κυρίαν σου καὶ ταπεινώθητι ὑπὸ τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῆς

10 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ ὁ ἄγγελος κυρίου πληθύνων πληθυνῶ τὸ σπέρμα σου καὶ οὐκ ἀριθμηθήσεται ἀπὸ τοῦ πλήθους

11 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ ὁ ἄγγελος κυρίου ἰδοὺ σὺ ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχεις καὶ τέξῃ υἱὸν καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ισμαηλ ὅτι ἐπήκουσεν κύριος τῇ ταπεινώσει σου

12 οὗτος ἔσται ἄγροικος ἄνθρωπος αἱ χεῖρες αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ πάντας καὶ αἱ χεῖρες πάντων ἐπ' αὐτόν καὶ κατὰ πρόσωπον πάντων τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτοῦ κατοικήσει

13 καὶ ἐκάλεσεν αγαρ τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου τοῦ λαλοῦντος πρὸς αὐτήν σὺ ὁ θεὸς ὁ ἐπιδών με ὅτι εἶπεν καὶ γὰρ ἐνώπιον εἶδον ὀφθέντα μοι

14 ἕνεκεν τούτου ἐκάλεσεν τὸ φρέαρ φρέαρ οὗ ἐνώπιον εἶδον ἰδοὺ ἀνὰ μέσον καδης καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον βαραδ

15 καὶ ἔτεκεν αγαρ τῷ αβραμ υἱόν καὶ ἐκάλεσεν αβραμ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ ὃν ἔτεκεν αὐτῷ αγαρ ισμαηλ

16 αβραμ δὲ ἦν ὀγδοήκοντα ἓξ ἐτῶν ἡνίκα ἔτεκεν αγαρ τὸν ισμαηλ τῷ αβραμ

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1914

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1914. That 'may the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant-girl into your bosom' means its unwillingness to take any blame is clear without explanation. In the internal sense these words embody within themselves the truth that the Lord perceived this first rational to be such as despised intellectual truth, and for that reason He reproached it. The Lord did indeed think from intellectual truth, as stated above in 1904; and because that truth was superior to the rational, He was able to perceive and see the nature of the rational, that is to say, that it held that truth in contempt.

[2] The Lord's being able from the interior man to perceive and see the nature of the new rational within Himself becomes clear from the fact that what is interior is able to perceive that which occurs in the exterior, or what amounts to the same, what is higher is able to see that which occurs in that which is lower, but not the reverse. Moreover, those who have conscience are able and are accustomed to do the same, for when anything contrary to the truth constituting conscience enters their thought or the intentions of their will, they not only recognize it for what it is but also pour blame upon it; indeed it grieves them that their own nature is such. This is all the more true of those who have perception, for perception is more interior within the rational. What then could the Lord not do who had Divine celestial perception and whose thought sprang from the affection for intellectual truth which is above the rational? Therefore He could not be anything else but righteously angry since He knew that no evil or falsity at all stemmed from Himself and that from the affection for truth He strove anxiously with all His might so that the rational might be pure. From this it becomes clear that the Lord did not despise intellectual truth, yet perceived that the first rational with Him did so.

[3] What thinking from intellectual truth is cannot be explained intelligibly, all the less so because nobody except the Lord has ever thought from that affection and that kind of truth. Anyone who thinks from them is above the angelic heaven, for the angels of the third heaven do not think from intellectual truth but from the interior part of the rational. But to the extent that the Lord united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence, He thought from Divine Good itself, that is, from Jehovah.

[4] The early fathers of the Most Ancient Church, who had perception, thought from the interior rational. The fathers of the Ancient Church, who did not have perception but conscience, thought from the exterior or natural rational. But all who do not have conscience never think from the rational at all, since they have no rational however much they appear to do so. Instead they think from the sensory and the bodily experience of the natural. People who do not have conscience are unable to think from the rational for the reason, as has been stated, that they have no rational. The rational man is one in whom the good and truth of faith are the substance of his thought and never one who thinks in opposition to these. Those in whom evil and falsity are the substance of their thought are insane as to their thought and therefore the rational cannot be attributed to them.

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