The Bible

 

Génesis 13

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1 Así subió Abram de Egipto hacia el mediodía, él y su mujer, con todo lo que tenía, y con él Lot.

2 Y Abram era riquísimo en ganado, en plata y oro.

3 Y volvió por sus jornadas de la parte del mediodía hacia Betel, hasta el lugar donde había estado antes su tienda entre Betel y Hai;

4 al lugar del altar que había hecho allí antes; e invocó allí Abram el nombre del SEÑOR.

5 Y asimismo Lot, que andaba con Abram, tenía ovejas, y vacas, y tiendas.

6 De tal manera que la tierra no los sufría para morar juntos; porque su hacienda era mucha, y no pudieron habitar juntos.

7 Y hubo contienda entre los pastores del ganado de Abram y los pastores del ganado de Lot; y el cananeo y el ferezeo habitaban entonces en la tierra.

8 Entonces Abram dijo a Lot: No haya ahora altercado entre mí y ti, entre mis pastores y los tuyos, porque somos hermanos.

9 ¿No está toda la tierra delante de ti? Yo te ruego que te apartes de mí. Si tú fueres a la mano izquierda, yo iré a la derecha; y si a la derecha, yo a la izquierda.

10 Y alzó Lot sus ojos, y vio toda la llanura del Jordán, que toda ella era de riego, antes que destruyese el SEÑOR a Sodoma, y a Gomorra, como un huerto del SEÑOR, como la tierra de Egipto entrando en Zoar.

11 Entonces Lot escogió para sí toda la llanura del Jordán; y se fue Lot al oriente, y se apartaron el uno del otro.

12 Abram se asentó en la tierra de Canaán, y Lot se asentó en las ciudades de la llanura, y puso sus tiendas hasta Sodoma.

13 Mas los hombres de Sodoma eran malos y pecadores para con el SEÑOR en gran manera.

14 Y el SEÑOR dijo a Abram, después que Lot se apartó de él: Alza ahora tus ojos, y mira desde el lugar donde tú estás hacia el aquilón, y al mediodía, y al oriente y al occidente;

15 porque toda la tierra que tú ves, la daré a ti y a tu simiente para siempre.

16 Y pondré tu simiente como el polvo de la tierra; que si alguno podrá contar el polvo de la tierra, también tu simiente será contada.

17 Levántate, ve por la tierra a lo largo de ella y a su ancho; porque a ti la tengo de dar.

18 Y asentó Abram su tienda, y vino, y moró en el alcornocal de Mamre, que es en Hebrón, y edificó allí altar al SEÑOR.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1585

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1585. And saw all the plain of Jordan. That this signifies those goods and truths that were in the external man, is evident from the signification of a “plain,” and of “Jordan.” In the internal sense “the plain of Jordan” signifies the external man as to all its goods and truths. That “the plain of Jordan” signifies this, is because the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan, as before said and shown, signifies the Lord’s kingdom and church, and in fact the celestial and the spiritual things thereof; on which account it has also been called the Holy Land, and the Heavenly Canaan; and because it signifies the Lord’s kingdom and church, it signifies in the supreme sense the Lord Himself, who is the all in all of His kingdom and of His church.

[2] Hence all things that were in the land of Canaan were representative. Those which were in the midst of the land, or which were the inmost, represented the Lord’s internal man-as Mount Zion and Jerusalem, the former the celestial things, the latter the spiritual things. Those which were further distant from the center, represented the things more remote from the internals. Those which were the furthest off, or which were the boundaries, represented the external man. The boundaries of Canaan were several; in general, the two rivers Euphrates and Jordan, and also the sea. Hence the Euphrates and the Jordan represented the externals. Here, therefore, “the plain of Jordan,” signifies, as it represents, all things that are in the external man. The case is similar when the expression “land of Canaan” is applied to the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens, or to the Lord’s church on earth, or again to the man of His kingdom or church, or, abstractly, to the celestial things of love, and so on.

[3] Hence it is that almost all the cities, and even all the mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and other things, in the land of Canaan, were representative. It has already been shown (n. 120) that the river Euphrates, being a boundary, represented the things of sense and knowledge that belong to the external man. That the case is similar with the Jordan, and the plain of Jordan, may be seen from passages that now follow.

In David:

O my God, my soul is bowed down within me; therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan, and the Hermons, from the mountain of littleness (Psalms 42:6); where “the land of Jordan” denotes that which is low, thus that which is distant from the celestial, as man’s externals are from his internals.

[4] That the sons of Israel crossed the Jordan when they entered the land of Canaan, and that it was then divided, likewise represented the access to the internal man through the external, and also man’s entrance into the Lord’s kingdom, besides other things. (See Josh. 3:14; 4:1 to 24 e end.) And because the external man continually fights against the internal, and desires dominion, the “pride” or “swelling” of Jordan became a prophetic expression. As in Jeremiah:

How shalt thou offer thyself a match for horses? And in a land of peace thou art confident; but how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5).

“The swelling of Jordan” denotes the things that belong to the external man, which rise up and desire to dominate over the internal man, as reasonings do—which here are the “horses”— and the confidence that is from them.

[5] In the same:

Edom shall be for a desolation; behold he shall come up like a lion from the pride of Jordan to the habitation of Ethan (Jeremiah 49:17, 19);

“the pride of Jordan” denotes the rising of the external man against the goods and truths of the internal.

In Zechariah:

Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the magnificent ones are laid waste. Howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the defensed forest is come down. A voice of the howling of the shepherds, for their magnificence is laid waste; a voice of the roaring of young lions, for the swelling of Jordan is laid waste (Zech. 11:2-3).

That the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan, is evident from Numbers 34:12; and of the land of Judah toward the east, from Joshua 15:5.

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