The Bible

 

Obadja 1:3

Study

       

3 Ditt hjärtas övermod har bedragit dig, där du sitter ibland bergsklyftorna i den höga boning och säger i ditt hjärta: »Vem kan störta mig ned till jorden

Commentary

 

Benjamin

  

In Genesis 35:18, Benjamin signifies the quality of the spiritual of the celestial, intermediate between the spiritual and the celestial. (Arcana Coelestia 4592, 5469)

In Revelation 7:8, Deuteronomy 33:12, Benjamin signifies the Word in its lowermost sense, which is natural. (Apocalypse Explained 449[10])

In Genesis 35:18, Benjamin (as Benoni) signifies a state of temptation, one of mourning. (Arcana Coelestia 4591)

In Jeremiah 6:1, Benjamin signifies people who have conjunction with the Lord in the lowest heaven. (The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms 72)

Benjamin, as the beloved of the Lord, signifies spiritual truth from celestial good. (Arcana Coelestia 4592[7])

(References: Apocalypse Explained 449)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2089

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

2089. 'Twelve princes will he beget' means the first and foremost commandments [of faith] inhering in charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'twelve' as all things belonging to faith, and from the meaning of 'princes' as first and foremost features. King and princes are mentioned in various places in the Word, but in the internal sense they nowhere mean king or princes but the first and foremost features of the subject under discussion. That 'kings' means truths taken as a whole has been shown already in 2015, and that 'princes' means the first and foremost aspects of truth, which are commandments, in 1482. For this reason angels, especially spiritual angels, are called principalities, because they are governed by truths. Princes have reference to truths which go with charity because, as stated above in 2088, spiritual people receive charity from the Lord through truths which to them look like truths, and through charity they receive conscience.

[2] Up to now the world has not known that 'twelve' means all things of faith. Yet every time the number twelve occurs in the Word, in historical or in prophetical sections, it has no other meaning. The twelve sons of Jacob, and therefore the twelve tribes named after them, have no other meaning. And the same applies to the Lord's twelve disciples. Each one of Jacob's sons and each of the disciples represented some essential and primary aspect of faith. What each son of Jacob represented, and therefore what each tribe of Israel represented, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on at Genesis 29, 30, where the sons of Jacob are the subject.

  
/ 10837  
  

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