The Bible

 

Genesis 7

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1 Yahweh said to Noah, "Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.

2 You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.

3 Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth.

4 In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Every living thing that I have made, I will destroy from the surface of the ground."

5 Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth.

7 Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, because of the waters of the flood.

8 Clean animals, animals that are not Clean, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground

9 went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah.

10 It happened after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came on the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were burst open, and the sky's windows were opened.

12 The rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship;

14 they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.

15 They went to Noah into the ship, by pairs of all flesh with the breath of life in them.

16 Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; and Yahweh shut him in.

17 The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.

18 The waters prevailed, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters.

19 The waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.

20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.

21 All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.

22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land, died.

23 Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship.

24 The waters prevailed on the earth one hundred fifty days.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #566

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566. That by the “faces of the ground” is signified all that region where the church was, is evident from the signification of “ground;” for in the Word there is an accurate distinction made between “ground” and “earth;” by “ground” is everywhere signified the church, or something belonging to the church; and from this comes the name of “man” or “Adam” which is “ground;” by “earth” in various places is meant where there is no church, or anything belonging to the church, as in the first chapter, where “earth” only is named, because as yet there was no church, or regenerate man. The “ground” is first spoken of in the second chapter, because then there was a church. In like manner it is said here, and in the following chapter (Genesis 7:4, 23), that “every substance should be destroyed from off the faces of the ground” signifying in the region where the church was; but in Genesis 7:3, speaking of a church about to be created, it is said, “to keep seed alive on the faces of the ground.” “Ground” has the same signification everywhere in the Word; as in Isaiah:

Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and will set them upon their own ground, and the peoples shall take them, and shall bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall inherit them on the ground of Jehovah (Isaiah 14:1-2),

speaking of the church that has been made; whereas where there is no church it is in the same chapter called “earth” (Isaiah 14:9, 12, 16, 20-21, 25-26).

[2] Again:

And the ground of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt; in that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking with the lip of Canaan (Isaiah 19:17-18),

where “ground” signifies the church, and “land” where there is no church. In the same:

The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard; Jehovah shall visit upon the army of the height in the height, and upon the kings of the ground on the ground (Isaiah 24:20-21).

In Jeremiah:

Because of the ground that is worn, because there was no rain on the earth, the husbandmen were ashamed, they covered their heads, yea, the hind also calved in the field (Jeremiah 14:4-5),

where “earth” is that which contains the “ground” and “ground” that which contains the “field.”

[3] In the same:

He brought the seed of the house of Israel from the northern land, from all the lands whither I have driven them, and they shall dwell on their own ground (Jeremiah 23:8),

where “land” and “lands” are where there are no churches; “ground” where there is a church or true worship. Again: I will give the remains of Jerusalem, them that are left in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt, and I will deliver them to commotion, for evil to all the kings of the earth, and I will send the sword, the famine, and pestilence among them, till they be consumed from off the ground which I gave to them and to their fathers (Jeremiah 24:8-10),

where “ground” signifies doctrine and the worship thence derived; and in like manner in the same Prophet, chapter 5.

[4] In Ezekiel:

I will gather you out of the lands wherein ye have been scattered, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah when I shall bring you again into the ground of Israel, into the land for which I lifted up My hand to give it to your fathers (Ezekiel 20:41-42),

where “ground” signifies internal worship; it is called “land” when there is no internal worship.

In Malachi:

I will rebuke him that consumeth for your sakes, and he shall not corrupt for you the fruit of the ground, nor shall the vine be bereaved for you in the field; and all nations shall call you blessed, because ye shall be a delightsome land (Malachi 3:11-12),

where “land” denotes the containant, and therefore it plainly denotes man, who is called “land” when “ground” denotes the church, or doctrine.

[5] In Moses:

Sing, O ye nations, His people, He will make expiation for His ground, His people (Deuteronomy 32:43),

evidently signifying the Church of the Gentiles, which is called “ground.”

In Isaiah:

Before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the ground shall be forsaken, which thou abhorrest in presence of both her kings (Isaiah 7:16),

speaking of the advent of the Lord; that the “ground will be forsaken” denotes the church, or the true doctrine of faith. That “ground” and “field” are so called from being sown with seed, is evident; as in Isaiah:

Then shall he give rain of thy seed wherewith thou shalt sow the ground; the oxen also and the young asses that labor on the ground (Isaiah 30:23-24).

And in Joel:

The field is laid waste, and the ground hath mourned, because the corn is laid waste (Joel 1:10).

Hence then it is evident that “man” who in the Hebrew tongue is called “Adam” from “ground” signifies the church.

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