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Genesis 30:22

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22 At naalala ng Dios si Raquel, at dininig ng Dios, at binuksan ang kaniyang bahay-bata.

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Arcana Coelestia #3952

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3952. 'And he lay with her that night' means the actual joining together. This too becomes clear without explanation. The reason why the explanation of the expressions immediately preceding this has for the most part been limited to giving simply the meanings which they have in the internal sense is that they are the kind of things which cannot be understood unless they are presented separately one after another. For the subject is the joining of truth to good and of good to truth, and this joining together of them is the conjugial relationship meant in the spiritual sense; that is, when with man or in the Church the two are so joined together the heavenly marriage is effected. The arcana of this heavenly marriage have been described in the verses above, where they are shown to be the following: As has been stated, the heavenly marriage is a marriage of good to truth and of truth to good. It is not however a marriage between good and truth which both belong to one and the same degree, but between good and truth which belong one to a lower degree, the other to a higher. That is, it is not a marriage between the good of the external man and the truth of the same, but between the good of the external man and the truth of the internal man; or what amounts to the same, it is not a marriage between the good of the natural man and the truth of the same, but between the good of the natural man and the truth of the spiritual man. It is when good and truth of different degrees are joined together that the marriage comes into effect.

[2] The same applies in the internal or spiritual man. The heavenly marriage is not a marriage between the good and the truth present there but between the good of the spiritual man and the truth of the celestial man, for compared with the spiritual man the celestial man belongs to a higher degree. Nor again is the heavenly marriage between the good and the truth present there, but between the good of the celestial man and the Divine truth which proceeds from the Lord. From this it is in addition evident that the Divine marriage itself within the Lord is not a marriage between the Divine good and the Divine truth present in His Divine Human but between the Good of the Divine Human and the Divine itself, that is, between the Son and the Father, for the Good of the Lord's Divine Human is that which in the Word is called 'the Son of God' and the Divine itself that which is called 'the Father'.

[3] These are the arcana contained in the internal sense present within the things said about the dudaim. Anyone may see that there is some arcanum hidden within them. For the following details - those about Reuben's finding dudaim in the field and Rachel's desiring them, and, so that she might acquire them, about her agreeing to their husband's lying with Leah, and about Leah's going out to meet Jacob when he came from the field in the evening and her saying that she had hired him for the dudaim - would not have been important enough for them to be mentioned in any historical description in the Word unless something Divine had lain hidden within them. Exactly what that something Divine is nobody can know unless he knows what is meant by the sons of Jacob and by the tribes named after them, and also unless he knows the flow of ideas belonging to the subject dealt with in the internal sense, and on top of this unless he knows what the heavenly marriage is. For that marriage is the subject; that is to say, the joining of the good of the external man to the affection for the truth of the internal man is the subject. But to enable this arcanum to be seen more clearly, let a further illustration be given.

[4] The truths of the external man are the facts and the matters of doctrine which he acquires first through parents and also teachers, after that through books, and at length by his own endeavours. The good of the external man is the pleasure and delight which he finds in those facts and matters of doctrine. Facts which are essentially truths, and delights which are essentially good, are joined together, but these do not constitute the heavenly marriage with him, for even with people who are governed by self-love and love of the world and who are consequently under the influence of evil and falsity, facts, and indeed matters of doctrine, are joined to delights; but they are the delights that go with self-love and love of the world, to which truths are able to be joined. All the same, such people are outside the heavenly marriage. But the heavenly marriage exists in a person when pleasure or delight, which essentially is the good of the external or natural man, stems from spiritual love. That is, the heavenly marriage exists with him when that good stems from love towards the neighbour, towards his country or the general public, towards the Church, towards the Lord's kingdom; and it exists even more fully when it stems from celestial love, which is love to the Lord. For when that spiritual or celestial love passes from the internal or spiritual man into the delight of the external or natural man and fashions that delight, it is then joined to the facts and the matters of doctrine of the external or natural. But such a marriage cannot exist with the evil, only with the good, that is to say, with those who have those things as the end in view. But see what has been said already in 3286, 3288, 3314, 3321, about the influx of the internal or spiritual man into the external or natural man.

[5] Once acquainted with these arcana one may now come to see the overall meaning of the individual expressions, the explanations of which in preceding paragraphs was limited simply to giving their individual meanings in the internal sense, those expressions and their meanings being these: 'Reuben', who means the truth of faith, which is the first stage of regeneration, 'found dudaim'; 'he brought them to Leah his mother' who means the affection for external truth; 'Rachel' who means the affection for interior truth 'desired them', and they were also 'given to her'; Leah therefore 'lay with Jacob her husband' who means the good of truth within the natural man. Likewise the expressions in what comes after this: Sons were born to Jacob by Leah, 'Issachar and Zebulun', by whom things to do with conjugial love and so with the heavenly marriage are meant and represented; and after this, 'Joseph' was born, by whom the Lord's spiritual kingdom - the marriage itself, which is the subject here - is meant and represented.

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

The Bible

 

Genesis 30

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1 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I will die."

2 Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

3 She said, "Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her."

4 She gave him Bilhah her handmaid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

5 Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.

6 Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son." Therefore called she his name Dan.

7 Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.

8 Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed." She named him Naphtali.

9 When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

10 Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a son.

11 Leah said, "How fortunate!" She named him Gad.

12 Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a second son.

13 Leah said, "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me Happy." She named him Asher.

14 Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

15 She said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes, also?" Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes."

16 Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, "You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." He lay with her that night.

17 God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son.

18 Leah said, "God has given me my hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband." She named him Issachar.

19 Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

20 Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons." She named him Zebulun.

21 Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

22 God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.

23 She conceived, bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach."

24 She named him Joseph, saying, "May Yahweh add another son to me."

25 It happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.

26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you."

27 Laban said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake."

28 He said, "Appoint me your wages, and I will give it."

29 He said to him, "You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.

30 For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?"

31 He said, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it.

32 I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire.

33 So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be counted stolen."

34 Laban said, "Behold, let it be according to your word."

35 That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

36 He set three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

37 Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

38 He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink.

39 The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.

40 Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and didn't put them into Laban's flock.

41 It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods;

42 but when the flock were feeble, he didn't put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.

43 The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.