The Bible

 

Postanak 13

Study

   

1 Tako otide Avram iz Misira gore na jug, on i žena mu i sve što imaše, takođe i Lot s njim.

2 A beše Avram vrlo bogat stokom, srebrom i zlatom.

3 I iđaše svojim putevima od juga sve do Vetilja, do mesta gde mu prvo beše šator, između Vetilja i Gaja,

4 Do mesta, gde pre beše načinio žrtvenik; i onde prizva Avram ime Gospodnje.

5 A i Lot koji iđaše s Avramom imaše ovaca i goveda i šatora.

6 I zemlja ne mogaše ih nositi zajedno, jer blago njihovo beše veliko da ne mogoše živeti zajedno,

7 I beše svađa među pastirima Avramove stoke i pastirima Lotove stoke. A u to vreme živehu Hananeji i Ferezeji u onoj zemlji.

8 Pa Avram reče Lotu: Nemoj da se svađamo ja i ti, ni moji pastiri i tvoji pastiri; jer smo braća.

9 Nije li ti otvorena cela zemlja? Odeli se od mene. Ako ćeš ti na levo, ja ću na desno; ako li ćeš ti na desno ja ću na levo.

10 Tada Lot podiže oči svoje i sagleda svu ravnicu jordansku, kako celu natapaše reka, beše kao vrt Gospodnji, kao zemlja misirska, sve do Zagora, pre nego Gospod zatre Sodom i Gomor.

11 I Lot izabra sebi svu ravnicu jordansku, i otide Lot na istok; i razdeliše se jedan od drugog:

12 Avram življaše u zemlji hananskoj, a Lot življaše po gradovima u onoj ravnici premeštajući svoje šatore do Sodoma.

13 A ljudi u Sodomu behu nevaljali, i grešahu Gospodu veoma.

14 A Gospod reče Avramu, pošto se Lot odeli od njega: Podigni sada oči svoje, pa pogledaj s mesta gde si na sever i na jug i na istok i na zapad.

15 Jer svu zemlju što vidiš tebi ću dati i semenu tvom do veka.

16 I učiniću da semena tvog bude kao praha na zemlji; ako ko uzmože izbrojati prah na zemlji, moći će izbrojati i seme tvoje.

17 Ustani, i prolazi tu zemlju u dužinu i u širinu; jer ću je tebi dati.

18 I Avram diže šatore, i dođe i naseli se u ravnici mamrijskoj, koja je kod Hevrona, i onde načini žrtvenik Gospodu.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1742

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

1742. 'Give me the people and take the acquisitions for yourself' 1 means that He was to give them life and they would not care about anything else. This is clear from the meaning of 'soul' as life, dealt with already in 1000, 1005, 1040, and from the meaning of 'acquisitions' as all the other things that do not belong properly to life, dealt with immediately below.

[2] The life that evil spirits have and love desperately is the life belonging to the desires that derive from self-love and love of the world - consequently the life that goes with hatred, revenge, and cruelty; and they imagine that no delight can exist in any other kind of life. They are like men, for they have been men and retain this conviction from their life when they were men. They centre all life in the delight that accompanies such desires; indeed they know no other than that this life is the only life, and that when they lose it they will die completely. The nature of the life they love is clear from those like them in the next life. There it is converted into a life that stinks most disgustingly, yet what is remarkable, they perceive that stench as something most delightful, as becomes clear from what has been told from experience in 820, 954.

[3] The same applies to the devils who, having been cast out of the demoniac by the Lord, begged for fear of their lives to be sent into the pigs, Mark 5:7-13. That these were people who during their lifetime had surrendered themselves to foul avarice becomes clear from the fact that such people seem to themselves in the next life to spend their time among pigs. They do so because the life of pigs corresponds to avarice, and therefore they find it delightful, as is clear in what has been told from experience in 939.

Footnotes:

1. literally, Give me the soul[s], and keep the acquisition[s] for yourself

  
/ 10837  
  

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