The Bible

 

Genesis 17

Study

   

1 At nang si Abram ay may siyam na pu't siyam na taon, ay napakita ang Panginoon kay Abram, at sa kaniya'y nagsabi, Ako ang Dios na Makapangyarihan sa lahat lumakad ka sa harapan ko, at magpakasakdal ka.

2 At ako'y makikipagtipan sa iyo at ikaw ay aking pararamihing mainam.

3 At nagpatirapa si Abram: at ang Dios ay nakipagusap sa kaniya, na sinasabi,

4 Tungkol sa akin, narito, ang aking tipan ay sumasaiyo, at ikaw ang magiging ama ng maraming bansa.

5 At hindi na tatawagin ang pangalan mong Abram, kundi Abraham ang magiging iyong pangalan; sapagka't ikaw ay ginawa kong ama ng maraming bansa.

6 At ikaw ay aking gagawing totoong palaanakin at papanggagalingin ko sa iyo ang mga bansa; at magbubuhat sa iyo ang mga hari.

7 At aking papagtitibayin ang aking tipan sa iyo at sa iyong binhi pagkamatay mo sa buong kalahian nila, na tipang walang hanggan, na ako'y magiging iyong Dios, at ng iyong binhi, pagkamatay mo.

8 At ibibigay ko sa iyo, at sa iyong binhi, pagkamatay mo, ang lupaing iyong mga pinaglakbayan, ang buong lupain ng Canaan, na pag-aaring walang hanggan at ako ang magiging Dios nila.

9 At sinabi pa ng Dios kay Abraham, At tungkol sa iyo, iingatan mo ang aking tipan, iingatan mo at ng iyong binhi pagkamatay mo, sa buong kalahian nila.

10 Ito ang aking tipan na inyong iingatan sa akin at sa inyo, at ng iyong binhi, pagkamatay mo; tutuliin ang bawa't lalake sa inyo.

11 At kayo'y tutuliin sa laman ng inyong balat ng masama; at ito ang magiging tanda ng aking tipan sa inyo.

12 At ang may walong araw ay tutuliin sa inyo, ang bawa't lalake sa buong kalahian ninyo; ang ipinanganak sa bahay, o ang binili ng salapi sa sinomang taga ibang lupa na hindi sa iyong lahi.

13 Ang ipinanganak sa bahay at ang binili ng iyong salapi, ay dapat tuliin: at ang aking tipan ay sasa iyong laman na pinakatipang walang hanggan.

14 At ang lalaking hindi tuli, na hindi tinuli ang laman ng kaniyang balat ng masama, ang taong yaon ay mahihiwalay sa kaniyang bayan; sinira niya ang aking tipan.

15 At sinabi ng Dios kay Abraham, Tungkol kay Sarai na iyong asawa, ay huwag mo nang tatawagin ang kaniyang pangalang Sarai, kundi Sara ang magiging kaniyang pangalan.

16 At akin siyang pagpapalain, at saka sa kaniya'y bibigyan kita ng anak: oo, siya'y aking pagpapalain, at magiging ina ng mga bansa; ang mga hari ng mga bayan ay magmumula sa kaniya.

17 Nang magkagayo'y nagpatirapa si Abraham, at nagtawa, at nasabi sa kaniyang sarili, Magkakaanak kaya siya na may isang daang taon na? at manganak pa kaya si Sara na may siyam na pung taon na?

18 At sinabi ni Abraham sa Dios, Kahimanawari, si Ismael ay mabuhay sa harapan mo!

19 At sinabi ng Dios, Hindi, kundi ang iyong asawang si Sara ay magkakaanak sa iyo; at tatawagin mo ang kaniyang ngalang Isaac; at aking pagtitibayin ang aking tipan sa kaniya ng pinakatipang walang hanggan, sa kaniyang lahi pagkamatay niya.

20 At tungkol kay Ismael, ay dininig din kita. Narito't aking pinagpala siya, at siya'y aking papagaanakin ng marami, at siya'y aking pararamihin ng di kawasa; labing dalawang prinsipe ang kaniyang magiging anak, at siya'y gagawin kong malaking bansa.

21 Nguni't ang aking tipan ay pagtitibayin ko kay Isaac na iaanak sa iyo ni Sara, sa tadhanang araw, sa taong darating.

22 At nang matapos na makipagusap sa kaniya, ay napaitaas ang Dios mula sa piling ni Abraham.

23 At ipinagsama ni Abraham si Ismael, na kaniyang anak, at ang lahat na ipinanganak sa kaniyang bahay, at ang lahat ng binili niya ng kaniyang salapi, ang lahat ng lalake sa mga lalaking kasangbahay ni Abraham, at tinuli ang laman ng kanilang balat ng masama ng araw ding yaon, ayon sa sinabi ng Dios sa kaniya.

24 At si Abraham ay may siyam na pu't siyam na taon, nang tuliin ang laman ng kaniyang balat ng masama.

25 At si Ismael ay may labing tatlong taon, nang tuliin ang laman ng kaniyang balat ng masama.

26 Nang araw ding yaon tinuli si Abraham, at si Ismael na kaniyang anak.

27 At lahat ng lalaking kasangbahay niya, maging ang mga ipinanganak sa bahay, at ang mga binili ng salapi sa taga ibang lupain, ay pinagtuling kasama niya.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2034

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

2034. 'You and your seed after you' means that from Him there is a conjunction of all who have faith in Him. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as faith, dealt with frequently above, and from the meaning of 'after you' as following Him, dealt with above in 2019. Previously the subject has been the union of the Divine Essence with the Human Essence and of Human Essence with Divine Essence. But now it is the conjunction of the Lord with those who believe in Him, which is also why the word 'you' is repeated, that is to say, 'you shall keep My covenant' followed by 'you and your seed'. From this repetition of 'you' and from the coupling of it with 'seed' it is clear that in the internal sense conjunction is meant, in particular conjunction with those who constitute the seed, which has been shown in 1025, 1447, 1610, to mean the faith that inheres in charity. And the fact that faith is charity itself, see Volume One, in 30-38, 379, 389, 654, 724, 809, 916, 1017, 1076, 1077, 1162, 1176, 1258, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844.

[2] Furthermore when the Lord speaks of the union of Himself with the Father He is at one and the same time speaking about His own conjunction with the human race since this was the reason for the union, as is clear in John,

That they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me. For I made known to them Your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them. John 17:21-23, 26.

These verses show that in the union of Himself with His Father the Lord had conjunction of Himself with the human race in view, and had this conjunction at heart because it constituted His love. Indeed all conjunction comes about through love, love being conjunction itself.

[3] Elsewhere in the same gospel,

Because I live you will live also; in that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and does them, he it is who loves Me. John 14:19-21.

This similarly shows that in the union of His Human Essence with the Divine Essence the Lord had in view the conjunction of Himself with the human race, and that this was His end in view, and this His love, which was such that His inmost joy was the salvation of the human race, which He had had in view in the union of Himself with His Father. These verses from John describe what it is that effects union, namely having His commandments and doing them, which is loving the Lord.

[4] In the same gospel,

Father, glorify Your name. A voice therefore came from heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Jesus said, Not for My sake has this voice come but for yours. But I, when I have been lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. 1 John 12:28, 30, 32.

'Glorification' is used to mean union, as stated already. And the fact that in the union of Himself with the Father He had the conjunction of Himself with the human race in view is stated openly in the words, 'When I have been lifted up I will draw all men to Myself'.

[5] As for the conjunction of the Infinite, or Supreme Divine, with the human race being accomplished through the Lord's Human made Divine, and as for this conjunction being the reason for the Lord's Coming into the world, this is an arcanum to which many apply their minds, but because it is beyond their grasp they do not believe it. And since they do not believe it, for the reason that they cannot grasp it, that arcanum becomes a stumbling-block to them. That this is so I have been given to know from much experience of people entering the next life. Very many of these - the majority of clever people in the world - when they merely think that the Lord became man and was in outward appearance like any other human being, and that He suffered, and yet is at the same time governing the universe, immediately fill the sphere around them with stumbling-blocks. The reason they do so is that to them this whole idea had been a stumbling-block during their lifetime, though they had not then made this public but had worshipped Him in outward expressions of holiness. For in the next life the things that are interior are laid bare and revealed by the sphere that emanates from them, dealt with in Volume One, in 1048. 1053, 1316, 1504. From this sphere one perceives quite plainly what their faith had really been and what they had really thought about the Lord.

[6] This being so let the matter be explained a little further. After everything celestial with man perished, that is, all love to God, so that as a result the will for what is good existed no longer, the human race was separated from the Divine. For nothing other than love effects conjunction, and when love has been reduced to nothing, disjunction has taken place. And when the latter has taken place destruction and annihilation follow. At that point therefore a promise was given concerning the Lord's Coming into the world, who was to unite the Human to the Divine, and by means of this union was to join [to the Divine] the human race that was abiding in Himself through faith grounded in love and charity.

[7] From the time of that first promise given in Genesis 3:15, this kind of faith in the Lord who was to come was conjunctive. But once faith springing from love did not remain any more in the world the Lord came and united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence so that these were completely one, as He Himself states explicitly. At the same time He taught the way of truth to the effect that everyone who believed in Him, that is, who loved Him and what was His, and who abided in His love, which is a love directed towards the entire human race and so towards the neighbour, would be conjoined and thus saved.

[8] Once the Human had been made Divine, and the Divine made Human in the Lord, an influx of the Infinite, or the Supreme Divine, took place with man which could not possibly have manifested itself in any other way. Also by means of that influx the dreadful false persuasions and the dreadful desires for evil were dispersed with which the world of spirits had been filled and was constantly being filled by souls streaming into it from the world; and those who were actuated by such persuasions and evil desires were cast into hell and so separated. Unless this had been done the human race would have perished, for it is by means of spirits that the Lord rules the human race. They could not have been dispersed in any other way because there was no activity of the Divine by way of man's rational concepts into his inner sensory awareness, for these are far below the Supreme Divine when not so united. Still deeper arcana exist which cannot possibly be explained intelligibly to anyone. See what has appeared already in 1676, 1990, 2016. That the Lord appears as the Sun in the heaven of celestial angels and as the Moon in the heaven of spiritual angels, and that the Sun is the celestial existence of His love and the Moon the spiritual existence of it, see 1053, 1521, 1529-1531; and that every single thing comes beneath His gaze, 1274 (end), 1277 (end)

Footnotes:

1. The Latin means after Me but the Greek means to Me which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.

  
/ 10837  
  

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