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Genesis 33

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1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children to Leah, and to Rachel, and to the two handmaids.

2 And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost.

3 And he passed on before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, till he came near to his brother.

4 And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.

5 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children, and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given to thy servant.

6 Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.

7 And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves; and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

8 And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, these are to find grace in the sight of my lord.

9 And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep what thou hast to thyself.

10 And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou hast been pleased with me.

11 Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough: and he urged him, and he took it.

12 And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee.

13 And he said to him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me, and if men should over-drive them one day, all the flock will die.

14 Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on slowly, according as the cattle that go before me, and the children are able to endure; until I come to my lord to Seir.

15 And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the people that are with me: And he said, What needeth it? Let me find grace in the sight of my lord.

16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

18 And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan-aram; and pitched his tent before the city.

19 And he bought a part of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money.

20 And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4379

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4379. And if they drive them on in one day, all the flocks will die. That this signifies delay and what is successive, and that otherwise they would not live, thus that they are to be prepared for conjunction, may be seen from the series itself. For in the things that precede, the subject treated of has been the conjunction of good with truths in general, but here it is concerning the same specifically. The very process of the instilling of truth into good is here described in the internal sense. What its nature is, may indeed in some measure appear from the explication in general, but not as to its arcana, which are innumerable. These arcana are manifest only to those who are in the light of heaven, and in some rude image to those who are in the light of the world, when into this light is admitted the light of heaven. This may be sufficiently evident from the fact that when a man is being born again he passes through the ages of life as does one who is born [naturally] and that the state which precedes is always as an egg relatively to the following one; thus that he is continually being conceived and born; and this not only when living in the world, but also to eternity when he comes into the other life; and yet he can never be perfected further than to be as an egg relatively to the things that still remain, which are without limit. From all this it is evident how innumerable are the things which take place in connection with man’s regeneration, yet of which scarcely any are known to man; thus how great are the things here contained in the internal sense, in which the subject treated of is the state and manner of the successive instilling of good into truths.

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