The Bible

 

Genesis 10

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1 Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.

2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

4 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.

5 Of these were the islands of the nations divided in their lands, everyone after his language, after their families, in their nations.

6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

8 Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth.

9 He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Yahweh."

10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

11 Out of that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah,

12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (the same is the great city).

13 Mizraim became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,

14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (which the Philistines descended from), and Caphtorim.

15 Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn), Heth,

16 the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite,

17 the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite,

18 the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad.

19 The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, to Gaza; as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, to Lasha.

20 These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their languages, in their lands, in their nations.

21 To Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, to him also were children born.

22 The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.

23 The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

24 Arpachshad became the father of Shelah. Shelah became the father of Eber.

25 To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided. His brother's name was Joktan.

26 Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,

27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,

28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba,

29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.

30 Their dwelling was from Mesha, as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east.

31 These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their languages, in their lands, after their nations.

32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations. Of these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #1188

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1188. That falsities of doctrine are signified by “Nineveh,” and such things also from another origin by “Rehoboth and Calah,” is evident from the signification of Nineveh in the Word, concerning which presently. Falsities of this kind are from three origins. The first is from the fallacies of the senses in the obscurity of an unenlightened understanding, and from ignorance; hence comes the falsity which is “Nineveh.” The second origin is from the same cause, but with a predominant cupidity, such as that for innovation, or for pre-eminence: the falsities from this origin are “Rehoboth.” The third origin is from the will and thus from cupidities, in that men are unwilling to acknowledge anything as truth that does not favor their cupidities; hence come the falsities which are called “Calah.” All these falsities arise through Asshur, or reasonings concerning the truths and goods of faith.

[2] That “Nineveh” signifies falsities from the fallacies of the senses in the obscurity of an unenlightened understanding, and from ignorance, is evident in Jonah, who was sent to Nineveh, which city was pardoned because they were such, and from the particulars in Jonah concerning Nineveh, of which by the Divine mercy of the Lord in another place. The particulars there are historical, and yet prophetical, involving and representing such arcana, as do all the other historicals of the Word.

[3] Likewise in Isaiah, where it is said of the king of Asshur that he remained in Nineveh, and that when he bowed himself in the house of Nisroch his god, his sons slew him with the sword (Isaiah 37:37-38). Although these things are historical, yet they are prophetical, involving and representing similar arcana; and here by “Nineveh” is signified external worship in which there are falsities; and because this was idolatrous he was slain by his sons with the sword. “Sons” are falsities, as has been shown before; “the sword” is the punishment of falsity, as everywhere in the Word.

[4] In Zephaniah also:

Jehovah will stretch forth His hand upon the north, and will destroy Asshur, and will make Nineveh a desolation, a dryness like the wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, every wild beast of his kind, the cormorant and the bittern also shall pass the night in the pomegranates thereof, a voice shall sing in the windows, wasteness upon the threshold, for he hath laid bare its cedar (Zephaniah 2:13-14).

Nineveh is here described, but in the prophetic style, and the falsity itself which is signified by Nineveh. This falsity, because it is worshiped, is called “the north, the wild beast of his kind, the cormorant and the bittern in the pomegranates,” and is described by “a voice singing in the windows,” and by “laying bare the cedar,” which is intellectual truth. All these expressions are significative of such falsity.

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