The Bible

 

Genesis 25

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1 προσθέμενος δὲ αβρααμ ἔλαβεν γυναῖκα ᾗ ὄνομα χεττουρα

2 ἔτεκεν δὲ αὐτῷ τὸν ζεμραν καὶ τὸν ιεξαν καὶ τὸν μαδαν καὶ τὸν μαδιαμ καὶ τὸν ιεσβοκ καὶ τὸν σωυε

3 ιεξαν δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν σαβα καὶ τὸν θαιμαν καὶ τὸν δαιδαν υἱοὶ δὲ δαιδαν ἐγένοντο ραγουηλ καὶ ναβδεηλ καὶ ασσουριιμ καὶ λατουσιιμ καὶ λοωμιμ

4 υἱοὶ δὲ μαδιαμ γαιφα καὶ αφερ καὶ ενωχ καὶ αβιρα καὶ ελραγα πάντες οὗτοι ἦσαν υἱοὶ χεττουρας

5 ἔδωκεν δὲ αβρααμ πάντα τὰ ὑπάρχοντα αὐτοῦ ισαακ τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ

6 καὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς τῶν παλλακῶν αὐτοῦ ἔδωκεν αβρααμ δόματα καὶ ἐξαπέστειλεν αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ ισαακ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ ἔτι ζῶντος αὐτοῦ πρὸς ἀνατολὰς εἰς γῆν ἀνατολῶν

7 ταῦτα δὲ τὰ ἔτη ἡμερῶν ζωῆς αβρααμ ὅσα ἔζησεν ἑκατὸν ἑβδομήκοντα πέντε ἔτη

8 καὶ ἐκλιπὼν ἀπέθανεν αβρααμ ἐν γήρει καλῷ πρεσβύτης καὶ πλήρης ἡμερῶν καὶ προσετέθη πρὸς τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ

9 καὶ ἔθαψαν αὐτὸν ισαακ καὶ ισμαηλ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ σπήλαιον τὸ διπλοῦν εἰς τὸν ἀγρὸν εφρων τοῦ σααρ τοῦ χετταίου ὅ ἐστιν ἀπέναντι μαμβρη

10 τὸν ἀγρὸν καὶ τὸ σπήλαιον ὃ ἐκτήσατο αβρααμ παρὰ τῶν υἱῶν χετ ἐκεῖ ἔθαψαν αβρααμ καὶ σαρραν τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ

11 ἐγένετο δὲ μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν αβρααμ εὐλόγησεν ὁ θεὸς ισαακ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ κατῴκησεν ισαακ παρὰ τὸ φρέαρ τῆς ὁράσεως

12 αὗται δὲ αἱ γενέσεις ισμαηλ τοῦ υἱοῦ αβρααμ ὃν ἔτεκεν αγαρ ἡ παιδίσκη σαρρας τῷ αβρααμ

13 καὶ ταῦτα τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν υἱῶν ισμαηλ κατ' ὄνομα τῶν γενεῶν αὐτοῦ πρωτότοκος ισμαηλ ναβαιωθ καὶ κηδαρ καὶ ναβδεηλ καὶ μασσαμ

14 καὶ μασμα καὶ ιδουμα καὶ μασση

15 καὶ χοδδαδ καὶ θαιμαν καὶ ιετουρ καὶ ναφες καὶ κεδμα

16 οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ υἱοὶ ισμαηλ καὶ ταῦτα τὰ ὀνόματα αὐτῶν ἐν ταῖς σκηναῖς αὐτῶν καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἐπαύλεσιν αὐτῶν δώδεκα ἄρχοντες κατὰ ἔθνη αὐτῶν

17 καὶ ταῦτα τὰ ἔτη τῆς ζωῆς ισμαηλ ἑκατὸν τριάκοντα ἑπτὰ ἔτη καὶ ἐκλιπὼν ἀπέθανεν καὶ προσετέθη πρὸς τὸ γένος αὐτοῦ

18 κατῴκησεν δὲ ἀπὸ ευιλατ ἕως σουρ ἥ ἐστιν κατὰ πρόσωπον αἰγύπτου ἕως ἐλθεῖν πρὸς ἀσσυρίους κατὰ πρόσωπον πάντων τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτοῦ κατῴκησεν

19 καὶ αὗται αἱ γενέσεις ισαακ τοῦ υἱοῦ αβρααμ αβρααμ ἐγέννησεν τὸν ισαακ

20 ἦν δὲ ισαακ ἐτῶν τεσσαράκοντα ὅτε ἔλαβεν τὴν ρεβεκκαν θυγατέρα βαθουηλ τοῦ σύρου ἐκ τῆς μεσοποταμίας ἀδελφὴν λαβαν τοῦ σύρου ἑαυτῷ γυναῖκα

21 ἐδεῖτο δὲ ισαακ κυρίου περὶ ρεβεκκας τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ ὅτι στεῖρα ἦν ἐπήκουσεν δὲ αὐτοῦ ὁ θεός καὶ ἔλαβεν ἐν γαστρὶ ρεβεκκα ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ

22 ἐσκίρτων δὲ τὰ παιδία ἐν αὐτῇ εἶπεν δέ εἰ οὕτως μοι μέλλει γίνεσθαι ἵνα τί μοι τοῦτο ἐπορεύθη δὲ πυθέσθαι παρὰ κυρίου

23 καὶ εἶπεν κύριος αὐτῇ δύο ἔθνη ἐν τῇ γαστρί σού εἰσιν καὶ δύο λαοὶ ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας σου διασταλήσονται καὶ λαὸς λαοῦ ὑπερέξει καὶ ὁ μείζων δουλεύσει τῷ ἐλάσσονι

24 καὶ ἐπληρώθησαν αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ τεκεῖν αὐτήν καὶ τῇδε ἦν δίδυμα ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ αὐτῆς

25 ἐξῆλθεν δὲ ὁ υἱὸς ὁ πρωτότοκος πυρράκης ὅλος ὡσεὶ δορὰ δασύς ἐπωνόμασεν δὲ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ησαυ

26 καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο ἐξῆλθεν ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἡ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ ἐπειλημμένη τῆς πτέρνης ησαυ καὶ ἐκάλεσεν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ιακωβ ισαακ δὲ ἦν ἐτῶν ἑξήκοντα ὅτε ἔτεκεν αὐτοὺς ρεβεκκα

27 ηὐξήθησαν δὲ οἱ νεανίσκοι καὶ ἦν ησαυ ἄνθρωπος εἰδὼς κυνηγεῖν ἄγροικος ιακωβ δὲ ἦν ἄνθρωπος ἄπλαστος οἰκῶν οἰκίαν

28 ἠγάπησεν δὲ ισαακ τὸν ησαυ ὅτι ἡ θήρα αὐτοῦ βρῶσις αὐτῷ ρεβεκκα δὲ ἠγάπα τὸν ιακωβ

29 ἥψησεν δὲ ιακωβ ἕψεμα ἦλθεν δὲ ησαυ ἐκ τοῦ πεδίου ἐκλείπων

30 καὶ εἶπεν ησαυ τῷ ιακωβ γεῦσόν με ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑψέματος τοῦ πυρροῦ τούτου ὅτι ἐκλείπω διὰ τοῦτο ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ εδωμ

31 εἶπεν δὲ ιακωβ τῷ ησαυ ἀπόδου μοι σήμερον τὰ πρωτοτόκιά σου ἐμοί

32 εἶπεν δὲ ησαυ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ πορεύομαι τελευτᾶν καὶ ἵνα τί μοι ταῦτα τὰ πρωτοτόκια

33 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ιακωβ ὄμοσόν μοι σήμερον καὶ ὤμοσεν αὐτῷ ἀπέδοτο δὲ ησαυ τὰ πρωτοτόκια τῷ ιακωβ

34 ιακωβ δὲ ἔδωκεν τῷ ησαυ ἄρτον καὶ ἕψεμα φακοῦ καὶ ἔφαγεν καὶ ἔπιεν καὶ ἀναστὰς ὤ|χετο καὶ ἐφαύλισεν ησαυ τὰ πρωτοτόκια

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4290

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4290. In the internal historical sense 'he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me' means that they insisted on being representative, for being insistent is meant by 'I will not let you' and the representative of the Church by 'being blessed'. This particular matter - the insistence of Jacob's descendants that they should be representative of the Church, though they were no more the elect than any other nation - is not very clear, it is true, from the historical narratives of the Word contained in the sense of the letter. It is not clear because those narratives hold the arcana of heaven within them, which accordingly follow one another in a connected sequence, and also because the actual names there are used to mean spiritual realities, many of which names indeed are used in the highest sense to mean the Lord. Examples of these are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who mean in the highest sense the Lord, as has been shown many times in what has gone before; see also 1965, 1989, 2011, 3245, 3305 (end), 3439.

[2] The fact that Jacob's descendants were not the elect, yet they insisted that the Church should have its existence among themselves, may be seen from the internal historical sense in many places in the Word, openly so in the following statements in Moses,

Jehovah said to Moses, Go up from here, you and the people which you made to go up out of the land of Egypt, into the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your seed I will give it. I will not go up in your midst, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way. When the people heard this bad news, 1 they mourned and took off every one his ornament from upon him. And Moses took a tent and pitched it for himself outside the camp, far away from the camp. Moses said to Jehovah, See, You say to me, Make this people go up, when You have not made known to me whom You will send with me. Now therefore, if, I pray, I have found favour in Your eyes, make known to me, I pray, Your ways, so that I may know of You, that I have found favour in Your eyes. See also that this nation is Your people. He said therefore, My presence will go [with you], until I give you rest. Exodus 33:1, 3-4, 7, 12-14.

In this chapter of Exodus it is said that Moses made the people go up out of Egypt and then that they took off their ornaments and mourned, and that Moses pitched the tent outside the camp and that Jehovah gave His assent. This shows plainly that they themselves were insistent.

[3] In the same author,

Jehovah said to Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? And how long will they not believe, for all the signs which I have performed in their midst? I will strike them down with pestilence and annihilate them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are. But Moses entreated Jehovah, who being appeased said, I will be gracious according to your word. But yet, I am the living One, and all the earth will be filled with the glory of Jehovah; for as for all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the desert, and despite this have tempted Me these ten times and have not obeyed My voice, they will not see the land which I swore to their fathers; all who provoke Me will not see it. In this desert will your bodies fall, but I will bring in your children. Numbers 14[11-13, 20-23, 29, 31].

From these verses also it is evident that Jehovah was willing to annihilate them and therefore not to establish the Church among them, but that they insisted it should be established among them, and therefore it was done. And there were many other occasions besides this when Jehovah would have wiped out that repeatedly rebellious nation but repeatedly He allowed Himself to be appeased by their entreaties.

[4] The same is also implied by the fact that Balaam was not allowed to curse that people, in 22 Chapters, 24 of Numbers; in addition to other places where it is said that Jehovah repented of having brought that people in; also that Jehovah was appeased, as well as that He repeatedly made a new covenant with them. These are the kinds of things that are meant in the internal historical sense by the words 'I will not let you go unless you bless me'. Something similar is also meant by Jacob's taking the birthright from Esau as well as taking the blessing by deceit from him, in Chapters 25, 27 of Genesis.

Footnotes:

1. literally, evil word

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

The Bible

 

Exodus 32

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1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him."

2 Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me."

3 All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.

4 He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh."

6 They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

7 Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!

8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'"

9 Yahweh said to Moses, "I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

10 Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation."

11 Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, "Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

12 Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

14 Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.

15 Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written.

16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tables.

17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is the noise of war in the camp."

18 He said, "It isn't the voice of those who shout for victory, neither is it the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear."

19 It happened, as soon as he came near to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing: and Moses' anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain.

20 He took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

21 Moses said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?"

22 Aaron said, "Don't let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.

23 For they said to me, 'Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.'

24 I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them take it off:' so they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf."

25 When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies),

26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is on Yahweh's side, come to me!" All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

27 He said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.'"

28 The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

29 Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to Yahweh, yes, every man against his son, and against his brother; that he may bestow on you a blessing this day."

30 It happened on the next day, that Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin."

31 Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.

32 Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin--and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written."

33 Yahweh said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

34 Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin."

35 Yahweh struck the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.