The Bible

 

Бытие 32

Study

   

1 А Іаковъ пошелъ въ путь свой. И встрјтили его ангелы Божіи.

2 Іаковъ, увидя ихъ, сказалъ: это ополченіе Божіе; и нарекъ имя мјсту тому: Маханаимъ.

3 Потомъ Іаковъ послалъ предъ собою вјстниковъ къ брату своему Исаву въ землю Сеиръ, въ область Эдомъ;

4 и далъ имъ приказаніе, говоря: такъ скажите господину моему Исаву: вотъ что говоритъ рабъ твой Іаковъ: я жилъ у Лавана и прожилъ донынј;

5 и есть у меня волы и ослы, и мелкій скотъ, и рабы и рабыни; и я послалъ извјстить о себј господина моего, дабы пріобрјсть благоволеніе предъ очами твоими.

6 Вјстники, возвратясь къ Іакову, сказалп: мы ходили къ брату твоему Исаву; онъ идетъ на встрјчу тебј, и съ нимъ четыреста человјкъ.

7 Тогда Іаковъ очень испугался, и былъ въ затрудненіи; и раздјлилъ людей, бывшихъ съ нимъ, и скотъ мелкій и крупный и верблюдовъ, на два ополченія,

8 и сказалъ: если Исавъ нападетъ на одно ополченіе, и побіетъ его; то остальное ополченіе можетъ спастись.

9 И сказалъ Іаковъ: Боже отца моего Авраама, и Боже отца моего Исаака, Іегова, Ты, который сказалъ мнј: возвратисъ въ землю твою, на родину твою, и Я буду благотворить тебј!

10 Малъ я предъ всјми милостями, и предъ всею истиною, которую Ты сотворилъ рабу Твоему: ибо я съ жезломъ моимъ перешелъ этотъ Іорданъ, а теперь у меня два ополченія.

11 Избавь меня отъ руки брата моего, отъ руки Исава; ибо я боюсь, чтобъ онъ, пришедши, не убилъ меня, и матерей съ дјтьми.

12 Ибо ты сказалъ: Я буду благотворить тебј; и дамъ тебј потомство, какъ песокъ морскій, котораго не изчислить отъ множества.

13 И ночевалъ тутъ Іаковъ въ ту ночь. И взялъ изъ того, что у него было, въ подарокъ Исаву брату своему:

14 двјсти козъ, двадцать козловъ, двјсти овецъ, двадцать овновъ,

15 верблюдовъ дойныхъ съ дјтьми ихъ тридцать, сорокъ коровъ, десять воловъ, двадцать ослицъ, десять ословъ.

16 И далъ въ руки рабамъ своимъ, каждое стадо особо, и сказалъ рабамъ своимъ: подите предо мною, и оставляйте разстояніе отъ стада до стада.

17 И приказалъ первому, говоря: когда братъ мой Исавъ встрјтится тебј и спроситъ тебя, говоря: чей ты? и куда идешь? и чье это стадо предъ тобою?

18 ты скажи: раба твоего Іакова; это подарокъ, посланный господину моему Исаву; вотъ, онъ и самъ за нами.

19 Тоже приказалъ онъ и второму и третьему, и всјмъ, которые шли за стадами, говоря: такъ скажите Исаву, когда встрјтитесь съ нимъ.

20 И скажите: вотъ, рабъ твой Іаковъ за нами: ибо онъ сказалъ самъ въ себј: умилостивлю его дарами, которые пойдутъ передо мною; и потомъ увижу лице его; можетъ быть и приметъ меня.

21 Такимъ образомъ дары пошли предъ нимъ; и онъ ту ночь ночевалъ въ стану своемъ.

22 И всталъ въ ту ночь, и, взявъ двухъ женъ своихъ, и двухъ рабынь своихъ. и одиннадцать сыновъ своихъ, перешелъ черезъ Іавокъ въ бродъ.

23 И когда взявъ ихъ, перевелъ черезъ потокъ, перевелъ также и все, что у него было.

24 И остался Іаковъ одинъ. Тогда нјкто боролся съ нимъ до появлешя зари;

25 и когда увидјлъ, что не одолјваетъ его, коснулся состава стегна его, повредилъ составъ стегна у Іакова, когда онъ боролся съ нимъ,

26 и сказалъ: пусти меня: ибо взошла заря; Іаковъ отвјчалъ: не пущу тебя, если ее благословишь меня.

27 И спросилъ его: какъ тебј имя? онъ отвјчалъ: Іаковъ.

28 Онъ сказалъ: отнынј имя тебј будетъ не Іаковъ, а Израиль; ибо ты борешься съ Богомъ и съ человјками, и одолјваешь.

29 Спросилъ и Іаковъ, говоря: скажи имя Твое; но Онъ сказалъ: на что ты спрашиваешь о имени Моемъ? и благословилъ его тамъ.

30 И нарекъ Іаковъ имя мјсту тому: Пеніилъ; ибо, говорилъ онъ: я видјлъ Бога лицемъ къ лицу, и сохранилась душа моя.

31 И взошло солнце, когда онъ проходилъ Пеніилъ, и онъ хромалъ отъ поврежденія стегна своего.

32 Посему и донынј сыны Израилевы не јдятъ жилы, которая у стегна, потому что Боровшійся тронулъ жилу на стегнј у Іакова.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4263

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

4263. 'Two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats; two hundred sheep and twenty rams' means Divine goods and accompanying truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'she-goats and sheep' as goods, dealt with in 3995, 4006, 4169; from the meaning of 'he-goats and rams' as truths, dealt with in 4005, 4170, in this case Divine goods and truths. The reason why goods and truths are mentioned so many times, and why they are meant by so many different things, is that everything in heaven or in the Church has a relationship with them - everything of love and charity with good, and everything of faith with truth. Yet the genera and species of good and truth are countless, indeed limitless, as becomes clear from the fact that all who are governed by good are within the Lord's kingdom and yet good is not one and the same with one community as it is with another, nor is it even one and the same with one individual within a community as it is with another. For it is by no means possible for one and the same good to exist in two individuals, still less in many, for if one and the same good existed in them, there would not even be two, let alone many of them. Every single whole consists of varying parts, doing so through heavenly harmony and concord.

  
/ 10837  
  

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4169

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

4169. 'Your sheep and your she-goats have not miscarried' means its state as regards good and the good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'sheep' as good, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'she-goat' as the good of truth, dealt with in 3995, 4006. The word good when used by itself means the good of the will, whereas the expression the good of truth means the good of the understanding. The good of the will consists in doing good from good, whereas the good of the understanding consists in doing it from truth. To people who do good from truth those two activities seem to be one and the same, when in fact they are considerably different from each other. For doing good from good consists in doing it from the perception of good, and that perception does not exist with any except those who are celestial. But doing good from truth is doing it from knowledge and consequently from the understanding. It amounts to doing it without any perception that it is good, and so solely as something that a person has been taught to do by others, or else by the exercise of his own intellect has decided that it is good. Such truth may well be faulty, but if it has good as its end in view, then a person's action arising out of that truth becomes tantamount to good.

[2] 'Sheep' means goods. This may be seen from many places in the Word, from which places let merely the following be quoted: In Isaiah,

He was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He is led like a lamb 1 to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers, he did not open his mouth. Isaiah 53:7.

This refers to the Lord, where He is compared to 'a sheep' not by virtue of truth but of good. In Matthew,

Jesus said to the twelve whom He sent out, Do not go into the way of the gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 10:5-6.

'The gentiles' to whom they were forbidden to go stands for those among whom evils exist - 'gentiles' meaning evils, see 1259, 1260, 1849; 'the cities of the Samaritans' stands for those among whom falsities are present; and 'sheep' stands for those among whom forms of good may be found.

[3] In John,

Jesus after the Resurrection said to Peter, Feed My lambs. A second time He said, Feed My sheep; the third time He said, Feed My sheep. John 21:15-17.

'Lambs' stands for those who have innocence within them. The first reference to 'sheep' stands for people whose practice of good stems from good, the second for those whose practice of it stems from truth. In Matthew,

When the Son of Man comes in His glory He will place the sheep at His right hand but the goats at His left. And He will say to those at His right hand, Come, O blessed of My Father, possess as an inheritance the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me. Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers you did it to Me. Matthew 25:31-40.

Here it is quite plain that 'sheep' stands for goods, that is, for those in whom good is present. Every kind of good flowing from charity, which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be described elsewhere, is included here in the internal sense. 'Goats' means in particular those who have faith but no charity.

[4] Similarly in Ezekiel,

As for you, O My flock, said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am judging between one member of the flock and another, between rams of the sheep, and he-goats. Ezekiel 34:17.

'He-goats' means in particular those whose faith is not linked to any charity. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'he-goats' in the good sense as those who possess the truth of faith and from this some charity, but in the contrary sense those whose faith is not linked to any charity. Such people reason about salvation from basic assumptions that faith is what saves. The same point is apparent from what the Lord says about the goats in the passage in Matthew quoted above. But people who do not possess any truth of faith, or at the same time any good of charity, are carried away into hell without undergoing any such judgement, that is to say, without any examination to prove that they are governed by falsity.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin means cattle, but the Hebrew means lamb, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.

  
/ 10837  
  

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