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Genesis 27

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1 It happened, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, "My son?" He said to him, "Here I am."

2 He said, "See now, I am old. I don't know the day of my death.

3 Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and take me venison.

4 Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die."

5 Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.

6 Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, "Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying,

7 'Bring me venison, and make me savory food, that I may eat, and bless you before Yahweh before my death.'

8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you.

9 Go now to the flock, and get me from there two good young goats. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves.

10 You shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death."

11 Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

12 What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing."

13 His mother said to him, "Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me."

14 He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made savory food, such as his father loved.

15 Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son.

16 She put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck.

17 She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

18 He came to his father, and said, "My father?" He said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?"

19 Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me."

20 Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?" He said, "Because Yahweh your God gave me success."

21 Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not."

22 Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau."

23 He didn't recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother, Esau's hands. So he blessed him.

24 He said, "Are you really my son Esau?" He said, "I am."

25 He said, "Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless you." He brought it near to him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank.

26 His father Isaac said to him, "Come near now, and kiss me, my son."

27 He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, "Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed.

28 God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.

29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers. Let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you."

30 It happened, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

31 He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, "Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that your soul may bless me."

32 Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" He said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."

33 Isaac trembled violently, and said, "Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed."

34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said to his father, "Bless me, even me also, my father."

35 He said, "Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing."

36 He said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing." He said, "Haven't you reserved a blessing for me?"

37 Isaac answered Esau, "Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers have I given to him for servants. With grain and new wine have I sustained him. What then will I do for you, my son?"

38 Esau said to his father, "Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father." Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

39 Isaac his father answered him, "Behold, of the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling, and of the dew of the sky from above.

40 By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, that you shall shake his yoke from off your neck."

41 Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob."

42 The words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, "Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you.

43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran.

44 Stay with him a few days, until your brother's fury turns away;

45 until your brother's anger turn away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send, and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?"

46 Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?"

   

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Arcana Coelestia #3660

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3660. And blessed him. That this signifies that thus conjunction would be effected, is evident from the signification of being “blessed,” as being to be conjoined (see n. 3504, 3514, 3530, 3565, 3584). The reason why Isaac the father now blesses Jacob the son, although he had come with guile and taken the blessing from Esau, and Isaac had shuddered at that deed (as appears from the preceding chapter (Genesis 27:33), verses 33 and 35), is that Isaac now perceived that it was the posterity of Jacob, and not that of Esau, that was to possess the land of Canaan; and therefore the blessing was confirmed by Isaac. But the guile at which Isaac shuddered signified and foretold what was deceptive in the posterity of Jacob in regard to the representatives; that is to say, that they were very far from sincerely or at heart representing the Divine or celestial things of the Lord’s kingdom, and were thus utterly unlike the Ancient Church, being merely in externals separate from what is internal, and not even in these, inasmuch as they so often fell away into open idolatries.

[2] What is meant by being conjoined, or by conjunction, here signified in the internal sense by being “blessed,” was shown above, namely, that the natural as to good and as to truth should be adjoined to the rational, or what is the same thing, the external man to the internal; for in order that the Lord might make His natural Divine, He had to implant therein such good and truth as would correspond with the good and truth of the Divine rational. Without corresponding goods and truths no conjunction is possible. There are innumerable goods and truths of the natural, or such as are proper to the natural man; so innumerable that man can scarcely know their most general kinds, in spite of the fact that when mention is made of natural good and truth it appears to man as one simple thing; for the whole natural and all that is in it is nothing else than this good and truth. And this being the case, it is evident that there are goods and truths of the natural in which the goods and truths of the rational can be, and that there are goods and truths of the natural in which the goods and truths of the rational cannot be; consequently, that there are goods and truths of the natural which can be adjoined to the goods and truths of the rational by correspondence. Such goods and truths are treated of in this and the following chapters.

[3] To know these goods and truths, and to distinguish them from one another, and also to view their qualities, and thus how they are adapted for conjunction, does not so well appear to man so long as he does not think from what is interior, or from enlightenment by the light of heaven; for in this case such things appear to him to be both obscure and undelightful. But nevertheless they are suited to the apprehension and understanding of angels, and even to the apprehension of spirits; for the thoughts of angels and spirits are not distracted by cares for worldly, corporeal, and earthly things, as they had formerly been when they lived as men in the world. Angels and spirits are in the pleasantness of intelligence and the bliss of wisdom when such things are present with them from the internal sense of the Word; for then what is Divine shines upon them, because in the supreme sense the Lord is treated of, and in the representative sense the church and regeneration; and thereby they are in the Lord’s Divine sphere, and in that of His ends and uses.

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