The Bible

 

Génesis 16

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1 Y SARAI, mujer de Abram no le paría: y ella tenía una sierva egipcia, que se llamaba Agar.

2 Dijo, pues, Sarai á Abram: Ya ves que Jehová me ha hecho estéril: ruégote que entres á mi sierva; quizá tendré hijos de ella. Y atendió Abram al dicho de Sarai.

3 Y Sarai, mujer de Abram, tomó á Agar su sierva egipcia, al cabo de diez años que había habitado Abram en la tierra de Canaán, y dióla á Abram su marido por mujer.

4 Y él cohabitó con Agar, la cual concibió: y cuando vió que había concebido, miraba con desprecio á su señora.

5 Entonces Sarai dijo á Abram: Mi afrenta sea sobre ti: yo puse mi sierva en tu seno, y viéndose embarazada, me mira con desprecio; juzgue Jehová entre mí y ti.

6 Y respondió Abram á Sarai: He ahí tu sierva en tu mano, haz con ella lo que bien te pareciere. Y como Sarai la afligiese, huyóse de su presencia.

7 Y hallóla el ángel de Jehová junto á una fuente de agua en el desierto, junto á la fuente que está en el camino del Sur.

8 Y le dijo: Agar, sierva de Sarai, ¿de dónde vienes tú, y á dónde vas? Y ella respondió: Huyo de delante de Sarai, mi señora.

9 Y díjole el ángel de Jehová: Vuélvete á tu señora, y ponte sumisa bajo de su mano.

10 Díjole también el ángel de Jehová: Multiplicaré tanto tu linaje, que no será contado á causa de la muchedumbre.

11 Díjole aún el ángel de Jehová: He aquí que has concebido, y parirás un hijo, y llamarás su nombre Ismael, porque oído ha Jehová tu aflicción.

12 Y él será hombre fiero; su mano contra todos, y las manos de todos contra él, y delante de todos sus hermanos habitará.

13 Entonces llamó el nombre de Jehová que con ella hablaba: Tú eres el Dios de la vista; porque dijo: ¿No he visto también aquí al que me ve?

14 Por lo cual llamó al pozo, pozo del Viviente que me ve. He aquí está entre Cades y Bered.

15 Y parió Agar á Abram un hijo y llamó Abram el nombre de su hijo que le parió Agar, Ismael.

16 Y era Abram de edad de ochenta y seis años, cuando parió Agar á Ismael.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1896

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1896. And her name was Hagar. That this signifies the life of the exterior or natural man, may be seen from what has been said, and also from the meaning of “Hagar,” which is “a stranger” or “sojourner.” Strangers represented those who were to be instructed, and sojourning represented instruction and also principles of life [vitae instituta], as shown above (n. 1463). When anyone’s name is stated in the Word, as here that “her name was Hagar,” it signifies that something is involved in the name to which attention should be given, for to “call by name” means to know a person’s quality (as before shown, n. 144, 145, 340). No syllable in the Word is there without a cause, or without a signification in the internal sense of some actual thing.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1463

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1463. That “to sojourn” means to be instructed, is evident from the signification of “sojourning” in the Word, as being to be instructed; and this for the reason that sojourning and migration, or proceeding from place to place, is in heaven nothing but change of state, as before shown n. 1376,1379); and therefore, whenever traveling, sojourning, and passing from place to place, occur in the Word, nothing else is suggested to the angels than such change of state as exists with them. There are changes of state of both the thoughts and the affections; changes of the state of the thoughts are knowledges, and in the world of spirits these changes are presented by means of instructions; which also was the reason why the men of the Most Ancient Church, having communication with the angelic heaven, by sojourning perceived nothing else. So in the passage before us, Abram’s going down into Egypt to sojourn, signifies nothing else than the instruction of the Lord.

[2] Similar, too, is the signification of Jacob and his sons’ going down into Egypt; as in Isaiah:

Thus hath said the Lord Jehovih, My people went down in the beginning into Egypt to sojourn there; and Assyria oppressed them without cause (Isaiah 52:4); where “Assyria” denotes reasonings. Hence also in the Jewish Church, those who were being instructed were called “sojourners, sojourning in the midst of them,” concerning whom it was commanded that they should be treated as the homeborn (Exodus 12:48-49; Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 15:13-16, 26, 29; 19:10). Of them it is thus written in Ezekiel:

Ye shall divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel. And it shall come to pass that ye shall divide it by lot, for an inheritance unto you and to the sojourners that sojourn in the midst of you; and they shall be unto you as the homeborn among the sons of Israel; with you shall they cast the lot for an inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Israel; and it shall come to pass that in what tribe the sojourner sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance (Ezekiel 47:21-23).

This is concerning the New Jerusalem, or the Lord’s kingdom; by “the sojourners sojourning” are meant those who suffer themselves to be instructed, consequently the Gentiles; that those are meant who are being instructed, is evident from its being said that in the tribe with which he has sojourned, there his inheritance should be given; “tribes” denote the things that are of faith.

[3] “Sojourning” has also nearly the same signification as “journeying,” and “dwelling.” By “journeying” are signified the arrangements and order of life, and by “dwelling” is signified to live (see above, n. 1293); on which account the land of Canaan is also called the land of the sojournings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 28:4; 36:7; 37:1; Exodus 6:4); and Jacob said unto Pharaoh:

The days of the years of my sojournings, few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their sojournings (Genesis 47:9); where “sojourning” denotes life and instructions.

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