The Bible

 

Genesis 11

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1 And the whole earth is of one pronunciation, and of the same words,

2 and it cometh to pass, in their journeying from the east, that they find a valley in the land of Shinar, and dwell there;

3 and they say each one to his neighbour, `Give help, let us make bricks, and burn [them] thoroughly:' and the brick is to them for stone, and the bitumen hath been to them for mortar.

4 And they say, `Give help, let us build for ourselves a city and tower, and its head in the heavens, and make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth.'

5 And Jehovah cometh down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men have builded;

6 and Jehovah saith, `Lo, the people [is] one, and one pronunciation [is] to them all, and this it hath dreamed of doing; and now, nothing is restrained from them of that which they have purposed to do.

7 Give help, let us go down, and mingle there their pronunciation, so that a man doth not understand the pronunciation of his companion.'

8 And Jehovah doth scatter them from thence over the face of all the earth, and they cease to build the city;

9 therefore hath [one] called its name Babel, for there hath Jehovah mingled the pronunciation of all the earth, and from thence hath Jehovah scattered them over the face of all the earth.

10 These [are] births of Shem: Shem [is] a son of an hundred years, and begetteth Arphaxad two years after the deluge.

11 And Shem liveth after his begetting Arphaxad five hundred years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

12 And Arphaxad hath lived five and thirty years, and begetteth Salah.

13 And Arphaxad liveth after his begetting Salah four hundred and three years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

14 And Salah hath lived thirty years, and begetteth Eber.

15 And Salah liveth after his begetting Eber four hundred and three years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

16 And Eber liveth four and thirty years, and begetteth Peleg.

17 And Eber liveth after his begetting Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

18 And Peleg liveth thirty years, and begetteth Reu.

19 And Peleg liveth after his begetting Reu two hundred and nine years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

20 And Reu liveth two and thirty years, and begetteth Serug.

21 And Reu liveth after his begetting Serug two hundred and seven years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

22 And Serug liveth thirty years, and begetteth Nahor.

23 And Serug liveth after his begetting Nahor two hundred years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

24 And Nahor liveth nine and twenty years, and begetteth Terah.

25 And Nahor liveth after his begetting Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begetteth sons and daughters.

26 And Terah liveth seventy years, and begetteth Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 And these [are] births of Terah: Terah hath begotten Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran hath begotten Lot;

28 and Haran dieth in the presence of Terah his father, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.

29 And Abram and Nahor take to themselves wives; the name of Abram's wife [is] Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife [is] Milcah, daughter of Haran, father of Milcah, and father of Iscah.

30 And Sarai is barren -- she hath no child.

31 And Terah taketh Abram his son, and Lot, son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, wife of Abram his son, and they go out with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go towards the land of Canaan; and they come unto Charan, and dwell there.

32 And the days of Terah are two hundred and five years, and Terah dieth in Charan.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1183

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1183. What is signified in particular by “Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar,” cannot so well be seen, because they are not mentioned in other parts of the Word, except Calneh (in Amos 6:2) but they are varieties of such worship. But as regards the land of Shinar in which these worships were, that external worship wherein is what is profane is signified by it in the Word is evident from its signification in the following chapter (Genesis 11:2), and also in Zechariah 5:11 and, especially in Daniel, where these words occur:

The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, with part of the vessels of the house of God, and he carried them into the land of Shinar, into the house of his god and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god (Daniel 1:2),

by which is signified that holy things were profaned: “the vessels of the house of God,” are holy things; “the house of the god of Babel, in the land of Shinar,” is profane things, into which the holy things were brought. Although these incidents are historical, yet they involve these arcana, as do all the historical facts of the Word. The same is further evident from the profanation of the same vessels (Daniel 5:3-5). If sacred things had not been represented by them, no such events would have taken place.

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