The Bible

 

ഉല്പത്തി 6

Study

   

1 മനുഷ്യന്‍ ഭൂമിയില്‍ പെരുകിത്തുടങ്ങി അവര്‍ക്കും പുത്രിമാര്‍ ജനിച്ചപ്പോള്‍

2 ദൈവത്തിന്റെ പുത്രന്മാര്‍ മനുഷ്യരുടെ പുത്രിമാരെ സൌന്ദര്യമുള്ളവരെന്നു കണ്ടിട്ടു തങ്ങള്‍ക്കു ബോധിച്ച ഏവരെയും ഭാര്യമാരായി എടുത്തു.

3 അപ്പോള്‍ യഹോവമനുഷ്യനില്‍ എന്റെ ആത്മാവു സദാകാലവും വാദിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കയില്ല; അവന്‍ ജഡം തന്നേയല്ലോ; എങ്കിലും അവന്റെ കാലം നൂറ്റിരുപതു സംവത്സരമാകും എന്നു അരുളിച്ചെയ്തു.

4 അക്കാലത്തു ഭൂമിയില്‍ മല്ലന്മാര്‍ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു; അതിന്റെ ശേഷവും ദൈവത്തിന്റെ പുത്രന്മാര്‍ മനുഷ്യരുടെ പുത്രിമാരുടെ അടുക്കല്‍ ചെന്നിട്ടു അവര്‍ മക്കളെ പ്രസവിച്ചു; ഇവരാകുന്നു പുരാതനകാലത്തെ വീരന്മാര്‍, കീര്‍ത്തിപ്പെട്ട പുരുഷന്മാര്‍ തന്നേ.

5 ഭൂമിയില്‍ മനുഷ്യന്റെ ദുഷ്ടത വലിയതെന്നും അവന്റെ ഹൃദയവിചാരങ്ങളുടെ നിരൂപണമൊക്കെയും എല്ലായ്പോഴും ദോഷമുള്ളതത്രേ എന്നും യഹോവ കണ്ടു.

6 താന്‍ ഭൂമിയില്‍ മനുഷ്യനെ ഉണ്ടാക്കുകകൊണ്ടു യഹോവ അനുതപിച്ചു; അതു അവന്റെ ഹൃദയത്തിന്നു ദുഃഖമായി

7 ഞാന്‍ സൃഷ്ടിച്ചിട്ടുള്ള മനുഷ്യനെ ഭൂമിയില്‍ നിന്നു നശിപ്പിച്ചുകളയും; മനുഷ്യനെയും മൃഗത്തെയും ഇഴജാതിയെയും ആകാശത്തിലെ പക്ഷികളെയും തന്നേ; അവയെ ഉണ്ടാക്കുകകൊണ്ടു ഞാന്‍ അനുതപിക്കുന്നു എന്നു യഹോവ അരുളിച്ചെയ്തു.

8 എന്നാല്‍ നോഹെക്കു യഹോവയുടെ കൃപ ലഭിച്ചു.

9 നോഹയുടെ വംശപാരമ്പര്യം എന്തെന്നാല്‍നോഹ നീതിമാനും തന്റെ തലമുറയില്‍ നിഷ്കളങ്കനുമായിരുന്നു; നോഹ ദൈവത്തോടുകൂടെ നടന്നു.

10 ശേം, ഹാം, യാഫെത്ത് എന്ന മൂന്നു പുത്രന്മാരെ നോഹ ജനിപ്പിച്ചു.

11 എന്നാല്‍ ഭൂമി ദൈവത്തിന്റെ മുമ്പാകെ വഷളായി; ഭൂമി അതിക്രമംകൊണ്ടു നിറഞ്ഞിരുന്നു.

12 ദൈവം ഭൂമിയെ നോക്കി, അതു വഷളായി എന്നു കണ്ടു; സകലജഡവും ഭൂമിയില്‍ തന്റെ വഴി വഷളാക്കിയിരുന്നു.

13 ദൈവം നോഹയോടു കല്പിച്ചതെന്തെന്നാല്‍സകലജഡത്തിന്റെയും അവസാനം എന്റെ മുമ്പില്‍ വന്നിരിക്കുന്നു; ഭൂമി അവരാല്‍ അതിക്രമംകൊണ്ടു നിറഞ്ഞിരിക്കുന്നു; ഞാന്‍ അവരെ ഭൂമിയോടുകൂടെ നശിപ്പിക്കും.

14 നീ ഗോഫര്‍മരംകൊണ്ടു ഒരു പെട്ടകംഉണ്ടാക്കുക; പെട്ടകത്തിന്നു അറകള്‍ ഉണ്ടാക്കി, അകത്തും പുറത്തും കീല്‍ തേക്കേണം.

15 അതു ഉണ്ടാക്കേണ്ടതു എങ്ങനെ എന്നാല്‍പെട്ടകത്തിന്റെ നീളം മുന്നൂറു മുഴം; വീതി അമ്പതു മുഴം; ഉയരം മുപ്പതു മുഴം.

16 പെട്ടകത്തിന്നു കിളിവാതില്‍ ഉണ്ടാക്കേണം; മേല്‍നിന്നു ഒരു മുഴം താഴെ അതിനെ വെക്കേണം; പെട്ടകത്തിന്റെ വാതില്‍ അതിന്റെ വശത്തുവെക്കേണംതാഴത്തെയും രണ്ടാമത്തെയും മൂന്നാമത്തെയും തട്ടായി അതിനെ ഉണ്ടാക്കേണം.

17 ആകാശത്തിന്‍ കീഴില്‍നിന്നു ജീവശ്വാസമുള്ള സര്‍വ്വജഡത്തെയും നശിപ്പിപ്പാന്‍ ഞാന്‍ ഭൂമിയില്‍ ഒരു ജലപ്രളയം വരുത്തും; ഭൂമിയിലുള്ളതൊക്കെയും നശിച്ചുപോകും.

18 നിന്നോടോ ഞാന്‍ ഒരു നിയമം ചെയ്യും; നീയും നിന്റെ പുത്രന്മാരും ഭാര്യയും പുത്രന്മാരുടെ ഭാര്യമാരും പെട്ടകത്തില്‍ കടക്കേണം.

19 സകല ജീവികളില്‍നിന്നും, സര്‍വ്വജഡത്തില്‍നിന്നും തന്നേ, ഈരണ്ടീരണ്ടിനെ നിന്നോടുകൂടെ ജീവരക്ഷെക്കായിട്ടു പെട്ടകത്തില്‍ കയറ്റേണം; അവ ആണും പെണ്ണുമായിരിക്കേണം.

20 അതതു തരം പക്ഷികളില്‍നിന്നും അതതു തരം മൃഗങ്ങളില്‍നിന്നും ഭൂമിയിലെ അതതു തരം ഇഴജാതികളില്‍നിന്നൊക്കെയും ഈരണ്ടീരണ്ടു ജീവ രക്ഷെക്കായിട്ടു നിന്റെ അടുക്കല്‍ വരേണം.

21 നീയോ സകലഭക്ഷണസാധനങ്ങളില്‍നിന്നും വേണ്ടുന്നതു എടുത്തു സംഗ്രഹിച്ചുകൊള്ളേണം; അതു നിനക്കും അവേക്കും ആഹാരമായിരിക്കേണം.

22 ദൈവം തന്നോടു കല്പിച്ചതൊക്കെയും നോഹ ചെയ്തു; അങ്ങനെ തന്നേ അവന്‍ ചെയ്തു.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1673

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

1673. 'And they smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim' means false persuasions or the hells of such persuasions which the Lord overcame. This is clear from the meaning of the Rephaim, the Zuzim, and the Emim, as those of a similar kind to the Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6:4 - the Nephilim, as was shown more than adequately at that verse, meaning false persuasions or those people who because they were persuaded of their own superiority and pre-eminence regarded all things that were holy and true as worthless, and who plunged falsities into evil desires, see 581 - and from the following places quoted in that paragraph, Numbers 13:33; Deuteronomy 2:10; Isaiah 14:9; 26:14, 19; Psalms 88:10. Here it is the different kinds of false persuasions that are meant by these three, and also by 'the Horites in Mount Seir', for there are many kinds of false persuasions, each kind varying not only according to the falsities but also according to the evil desires to which those falsities are allied or into which they are plunged, or from which they stem and are produced. The nature of such false persuasions cannot possibly become clear to anyone who knows scarcely anything more about false persuasion or evil desire than that such things exist; but in the next life they are arranged quite distinctly and separately into their own genera and their own species.

[2] Among those who lived before the Flood, especially among those called the Nephilim, most dreadful false persuasions existed. The Nephilim were such that in the next life by their persuasions they deprive other spirits they encounter of their whole ability to think. As a result it seems to those spirits as though they are scarcely alive, let alone capable of thinking anything true. For in the next life, as has been shown, there is a communication of the thoughts of all; and therefore when persuasiveness such as this flows in, it inevitably kills so to speak all power to think that the others have. Such were the unspeakably horrible nations against whom the Lord fought in earliest childhood and whom He overcame. And unless the Lord by His Coming into the world had overcome them, nobody at all would be alive today on this planet, for everyone is governed by the Lord through spirits. Today those same people, on account of their delusions, are hemmed in all round by what looks like a misty rock, out of which they are constantly endeavouring to rise up, though to no avail - see 1265-1272, and in many places before that. They and their like are also the people meant by Isaiah,

The dead will not live, the Rephaim will not rise. To the end that You have visited and destroyed them, and wiped out all remembrance of them. Isaiah 26:14.

[3] And in David,

Will you work a wonder for the dead? Will the Rephaim rise up and confess You? Psalms 88:10.

'The dead' here is not used to mean the dead but the condemned. At the present day too, especially from the Christian world, there are people who in a similar way have persuasions, but not of so dreadful a nature as those possessed by people before the Flood. False persuasions which occupy both the will and the understanding parts of man's mind - as did the persuasions of those before the Flood, and of those meant by the Rephaim, Zuzim, and Emim - are of one kind. But false persuasions that occupy only the understanding part, having their origin in false assumptions confirmed within oneself, are of another kind. The latter kind are not so powerful as the former, nor so deadly, but they nevertheless cause much annoyance to the other spirits in the next life, partially taking away from them their capacity to think. Spirits such as these arouse in man outright confirmations of falsity, so that a person inevitably sees falsity as truth, and evil as good. It is their sphere which is of such a nature. As soon as any truth is called forth by angels those spirits smother and extinguish it.

[4] A person can discover whether such spirits govern him by merely considering whether he thinks the truths of the Word to be falsities and confirms himself in this so that he is not able to see otherwise. He can in that case be quite sure that such spirits reside with him and have dominion. It is similar with those who persuade themselves that all private gain is the common good, and who imagine that nothing contributes to the common good if it is not to their own private gain. Evil spirits residing with such a person supply so many confirmations that he does not see otherwise. Such people as regard all private gain as the common good, or who disguise it with the appearance of its being the common good, in the next life act in much the same way with regard to the common good there. That this is the nature of the influx of the spirits residing with man I have been given to know to the life from uninterrupted experience.

  
/ 10837  
  

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

The Bible

 

Genesis 14

Study

   

1 It happened in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim,

2 that they made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar).

3 All these joined together in the valley of Siddim (the same is the Salt Sea).

4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year, they rebelled.

5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer came, and the kings who were with him, and struck the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim,

6 and the Horites in their Mount Seir, to Elparan, which is by the wilderness.

7 They returned, and came to En Mishpat (the same is Kadesh), and struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that lived in Hazazon Tamar.

8 The king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar) went out; and they set the battle in array against them in the valley of Siddim;

9 against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings against the five.

10 Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and those who remained fled to the hills.

11 They took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food, and went their way.

12 They took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

13 One who had escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew. Now he lived by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were allies of Abram.

14 When Abram heard that his relative was taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan.

15 He divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and struck them, and pursued them to Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

16 He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative, Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

17 The king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley).

18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine: and he was priest of God Most High.

19 He blessed him, and said, "blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth:

20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand." Abram gave him a tenth of all.

21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the people, and take the goods to yourself."

22 Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have lifted up my hand to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth,

23 that I will not take a thread nor a sandal strap nor anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich.'

24 I will accept nothing from you except that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their portion."