The Bible

 

Genesis 11

Study

   

1 The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

2 It happened, as they traveled east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.

3 They said one to another, "Come, let's make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.

4 They said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let's make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth."

5 Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.

6 Yahweh said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.

7 Come, let's go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

8 So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city.

9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.

10 This is the history of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood.

11 Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and became the father of sons and daughters.

12 Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and became the father of Shelah.

13 Arpachshad lived four hundred three years after he became the father of Shelah, and became the father of sons and daughters.

14 Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber:

15 and Shelah lived four hundred three years after he became the father of Eber, and became the father of sons and daughters.

16 Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg.

17 Eber lived four hundred thirty years after he became the father of Peleg, and became the father of sons and daughters.

18 Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu.

19 Peleg lived two hundred nine years after he became the father of Reu, and became the father of sons and daughters.

20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug.

21 Reu lived two hundred seven years after he became the father of Serug, and became the father of sons and daughters.

22 Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor.

23 Serug lived two hundred years after he became the father of Nahor, and became the father of sons and daughters.

24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah.

25 Nahor lived one hundred nineteen years after he became the father of Terah, and became the father of sons and daughters.

26 Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot.

28 Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.

29 Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran who was also the father of Iscah.

30 Sarai was barren. She had no child.

31 Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. They went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there.

32 The days of Terah were two hundred five years. Terah died in Haran.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1472

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

1472. That 'it will be, when the Egyptians see you' means knowledge comprised of cognitions, it being the nature of that knowledge when celestial cognitions are seen that is described, becomes clear from the meaning of 'Egypt' as knowledge comprised of cognitions, as shown already. And from this what the words 'if the Egyptians see you' mean may become clear, namely that this knowledge is such as is described in the present verse. Such is the case with knowledge comprised of cognitions; and it has also a certain naturalness within it, as is manifested in children when they first start to learn - that is to say, the higher things are, the more they desire them; and all the more so when they hear that these things are celestial and Divine. But this delight is natural and arises from a strong desire that belongs to the external man. With others that strong desire causes them to take delight solely in knowledge comprised of cognitions, without any other end in view; yet that knowledge is nothing else than a certain means that exists to achieve an end, which is use. That is to say, cognitions exist to serve as vessels for celestial and spiritual things, and when they are performing that service, for the first time they have a use, and from that use receive their delight. It may become clear to anyone, if he pays the matter any attention, that in itself the knowledge comprised of cognitions exists for no other reason than that a person should become rational, and from that become spiritual, and at length celestial, and that by means of those cognitions his external man may be allied to his internal. When this point is reached he has arrived at the use itself, the internal man having nothing else than uses in view. For the sake of the same end also the Lord instills the delight that childhood and youth experience in forms of knowledge. When however a person begins to take delight in knowledge alone, it is a bodily desire that carries him away; and to the extent it carries him away, that is, to the extent he takes delight in knowledge alone, to the same extent does he move away from what is celestial, and to the same extent do the facts he knows close themselves up in the Lord's direction and become materially inclined. But insofar as facts are learned with a view to use - such as for the sake of human society, for the sake of the Lord's Church on earth, for the sake of the Lord's kingdom in heaven, and still more for the sake of the Lord Himself - the more they are opened out towards Him. For these reasons also the angels, who possess the knowledge that is comprised of all cognitions - having so full a possession of it that scarcely one ten thousandth part of what they know can be presented to man's entire mental grasp - nevertheless place no value at all in knowledge when compared with use. These considerations show what is meant by the words, 'when the Egyptians see you they will say, This is his wife, and they will slay me and let you live'. It is because the Lord when He was a boy knew this and thought in this way, that these things have been stated, namely that if He were to be carried away by a strong desire for nothing else than the knowledge that is comprised of cognitions, this knowledge would be such that He would have no interest any more in celestial things but only in the cognitions which that strong desire for knowledge would seize upon. More regarding these matters follows below.

  
/ 10837  
  

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