The Bible

 

Бытие 32

Study

   

1 А Иаков пошел путем своим. И встретили его Ангелы Божии.

2 Иаков, увидев их, сказал: это ополчение Божие. И нарек имя месту тому: Маханаим.

3 И послал Иаков пред собою вестников к брату своему Исаву в землюСеир, в область Едом,

4 и приказал им, сказав: так скажите господину моему Исаву: вот чтоговорит раб твой Иаков: я жил у Лавана и прожил доныне;

5 и есть у меня волы и ослы и мелкий скот, и рабы и рабыни; и я послал известить о себе господина моего, дабы приобрести благоволение пред очами твоими.

6 И возвратились вестники к Иакову и сказали: мы ходили к брату твоему Исаву; он идет навстречу тебе, и с ним четыреста человек.

7 Иаков очень испугался и смутился; и разделил людей, бывших с ним, и скот мелкий и крупный и верблюдов на два стана.

8 И сказал: если Исав нападет на один стан и побьетего, то остальной стан может спастись.

9 И сказал Иаков: Боже отца моего Авраама и Боже отца моего Исаака, Господи, сказавший мне: возвратись в землю твою, на родину твою, и Я буду благотворить тебе!

10 Недостоин я всех милостей и всех благодеяний, которые Ты сотворил рабу Твоему, ибо яс посохом моим перешел этот Иордан, а теперь у меня два стана.

11 Избавь меня от руки брата моего, от руки Исава, ибо я боюсь его, чтобы он, придя, не убил меня и матери с детьми.

12 Ты сказал: Я буду благотворить тебе и сделаю потомство твое, как песок морской, которого не исчислить от множества.

13 И ночевал там Иаков в ту ночь. И взял из того, что у него было, в подарок Исаву, брату своему:

14 двести коз, двадцать козлов, двести овец, двадцать овнов,

15 тридцать верблюдиц дойных с жеребятами их, сорок коров, десятьволов, двадцать ослиц, десять ослов.

16 И дал в руки рабам своим каждое стадо особо и сказал рабам своим:пойдите предо мною и оставляйте расстояние от стада до стада.

17 И приказал первому, сказав: когда брат мой Исав встретится тебе и спросит тебя, говоря: чей ты? и куда идешь? и чье это стадо пред тобою?

18 то скажи: раба твоего Иакова; это подарок, посланный господину моемуИсаву; вот, и сам он за нами.

19 То же приказал он и второму, и третьему, и всем, которые шли застадами, говоря: так скажите Исаву, когда встретите его;

20 и скажите: вот, и раб твой Иаков за нами. Ибо он сказал сам всебе : умилостивлю его дарами, которые идут предо мною, и потом увижу лице его; может быть, и примет меня.

21 И пошли дары пред ним, а он ту ночь ночевал в стане.

22 И встал в ту ночь, и, взяв двух жен своих и двух рабынь своих, и одиннадцать сынов своих, перешел через Иавок вброд;

23 и, взяв их, перевел через поток, и перевел все, что у него было .

24 И остался Иаков один. И боролся Некто с ним до появления зари;

25 и, увидев, что не одолевает его, коснулся состава бедра его и повредил состав бедра у Иакова, когда он боролся с Ним.

26 И сказал: отпусти Меня, ибо взошла заря. Иаков сказал: не отпущу Тебя, пока не благословишь меня.

27 И сказал: как имя твое? Он сказал: Иаков.

28 И сказал: отныне имя тебе будет не Иаков, а Израиль, ибо ты боролся с Богом, и человеков одолевать будешь.

29 Спросил и Иаков, говоря: скажи имя Твое. И Он сказал: на что ты спрашиваешь о имени Моем? И благословил его там.

30 И нарек Иаков имя месту тому: Пенуэл; ибо, говорил он , я видел Бога лицем к лицу, и сохранилась душа моя.

31 И взошло солнце, когда он проходил Пенуэл; и хромал он на бедро свое.

32 Поэтому и доныне сыны Израилевы не едят жилы, которая на составебедра, потому что Боровшийся коснулся жилы на составе бедра Иакова.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4295

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

4295. 'And Jacob asked and said, Tell me, I pray, your name' means the angelic heaven and the nature of that heaven. This becomes clear from the representation of Jacob' as the Lord's Divine Natural, dealt with already, and from the meaning of 'God' whose name he asked for, and also of 'men', with whom he contended as a prince and prevailed, as truths and goods, and so as those who are governed by truths and goods, dealt with above in 4287. And since the angelic heaven is heaven by virtue of truths and goods it is that heaven specifically which is meant by God and men with whom the Lord prevailed. Angels are also sometimes called 'gods' in the Word, it being by virtue of truths and goods that they are called such, as in David,

God stands in the assembly of God, in the midst of the gods will He judge. I said, You are gods, and sons of the Most High, all of you. Psalms 82:1, 6.

Here it is quite plain that 'the assembly of God' and 'the gods' are the angelic heaven. In the same author,

Who in the sky will be compared to Jehovah? Who will be likened to Jehovah among the sons of gods? Psalms 89:6.

In the same author,

Confess the God of gods; confess the Lord of lords Psalms 136:2-3.

From these quotations it is evident - as it is also from the fact that no one can contend as a prince with God and prevail, and likewise from the fact that the one who is called a god was unwilling to reveal his name - that it was the angelic heaven with which the Lord fought. It is quite plain from the actual words themselves 'Why is it that you ask my name?' that an arcanum lies within them, for if he had been Jehovah God he would not have concealed his name. Nor would Jacob have asked 'What is your name?' for asking the name implies some person or persons other than God Himself.

[2] The truth that the Lord at length fought with actual angels, indeed with the whole angelic heaven, is an arcanum which has not been disclosed up to now. But the implications of this are as follows: Angels do indeed possess supreme wisdom and intelligence, yet all their wisdom and intelligence comes to them from the Lord's Divine. They have no wisdom or intelligence at all that originates in themselves, that is, in their proprium. Therefore it is only insofar as they are governed by truths and goods received from the Lord's Divine that they are wise and intelligent. The fact that angels have no wisdom or intelligence at all originating in themselves they themselves openly confess. Indeed they are also quite angry if anyone attributes to them any wisdom or intelligence at all, for they know and perceive that it would be taking away from the Divine that which is His and it would be claiming for themselves that which is not theirs, and so would be engaging in the crime of spiritual theft. Angels also say that their entire proprium consists in evil and falsity, both because of their heredity and also because of their own conduct in the world when they were men, 1880. Nor, they say, is evil or falsity separated - that is, wiped away - from them, whereby they are made righteous; rather, the whole of it remains with them, though the Lord withholds them from that evil and falsity and keeps them in good and truth, 1581. These things are confessed by every angel, and no one is allowed into heaven if he does not know and believe them. For otherwise they cannot dwell in the light of wisdom and intelligence coming from the Lord, nor consequently in good and truth. From this one can also know how the words in Job 15:15 stating that heaven is not pure in the eyes of God are to be understood.

[3] This being so, in order that the Lord might bring the whole of heaven into proper heavenly order, He even allowed angels into Himself to tempt Him, who, insofar as they acted from their proprium, did not do so from good and truth. These temptations are the inmost of all, for they go to work solely on the ends one has in view and with a subtlety such as can by no means be detected. But insofar as angels do not act from their proprium they act from good and truth and are unable to tempt anyone. What is more, angels are being perfected constantly by the Lord, and yet their perfection cannot ever reach the point when their wisdom and intelligence can be compared with the Lord's Divine wisdom and intelligence, since they are finite whereas the Lord is Infinite, and no comparison of finite with Infinite is possible. From all this one may now see what 'God with whom Jacob contended as a prince' is used to mean, and also why he was unwilling to reveal his name.

  
/ 10837  
  

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1880

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

1880. Additional Remarks -

As regards spirits and angels in general, all of whom are the souls of people living on after the death of the body, they possess far more perfect sensory powers than men, that is, the powers of sight, hearing, smell, and touch, but not of taste. Spirits however are not able, and angels are even less able, to see anything whatever in the world with their sight, that is, with the sight of the spirit. For the light of the world, or of the sun, is to them as pitch darkness, just as man cannot with his sight, that is, with the sight of the body, see anything whatever in the next life; for to him the light of heaven, or the Lord's heavenly light, is as pitch darkness.

[2] Nevertheless, when it pleases the Lord, spirits and angels are able to see the things that exist in the world through the eyes of one in the world, though the Lord does not allow such a thing to happen with anyone except someone for whom the Lord makes it possible to converse with spirits and angels, and to be together with them. Through my own eyes they have been allowed to see the things that are in the world, and to see them as plainly as I myself saw them, and also to hear the people talking to me. On occasions it has come about that through me some have seen their friends whom they had had during their lifetime, as present then as formerly; and at this they have been dumbfounded. They have also seen their married partners and their children, and have wished me to tell them that they were present and could see them, and to report about their state in the next life. But I was forbidden to tell this to them and to reveal to them that they were seen as described, the reason for this being that they would have said I was insane or would have thought that such reports were delirious wanderings of the mind. For I knew very well that although they would say with their lips that spirits exist and that the dead have risen, they would still not believe it in their hearts.

[3] When my interior sight was first opened and through my eyes they saw the world and what was in it, spirits and angels were so astonished that they said it was the greatest miracle of all time, and a new found joy entered into them that in this way a communication now existed of earth with heaven, and of heaven with earth. This delight lasted for several months, but after that it became commonplace, and now they do not wonder at it at all. I have been informed that spirits and angels present with other people do not see anything at all of things in the world, but merely perceive the thoughts and affections of those with whom they are present.

[4] From these considerations it has become clear that man was created in such a way that while living on earth among men he might live at the same time in heaven among angels, and vice versa. He was so created that heaven and earth might co-exist and act as one, with men knowing what was going on in heaven and angels what was going on in the world. And when they departed the earthly life men might accordingly pass from the Lord's kingdom on earth into the Lord's kingdom in the heavens, passing not as into a different kingdom, but as into the same one in which they had been when they lived in the body. But because man has become so bodily-minded he has closed heaven against himself.

  
/ 10837  
  

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