The Bible

 

Genesis 13

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1 And Abram goeth up from Egypt (he and his wife, and all that he hath, and Lot with him) towards the south;

2 and Abram [is] exceedingly wealthy in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

3 And he goeth on his journeyings from the south, even unto Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the commencement, between Bethel and Hai --

4 unto the place of the altar which he made there at the first, and there doth Abram preach in the name of Jehovah.

5 And also to Lot, who is going with Abram, there hath been sheep and oxen and tents;

6 and the land hath not suffered them to dwell together, for their substance hath been much, and they have not been able to dwell together;

7 and there is a strife between those feeding Abram's cattle and those feeding Lot's cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite [are] then dwelling in the land.

8 And Abram saith unto Lot, `Let there not, I pray thee, be strife between me and thee, and between my shepherds and thy shepherds, for we [are] men -- brethren.

9 Is not all the land before thee? be parted, I pray thee, from me; if to the left, then I to the right; and if to the right, then I to the left.'

10 And Lot lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the whole circuit of the Jordan that it [is] all a watered country (before Jehovah's destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, as Jehovah's garden, as the land of Egypt,) in thy coming toward Zoar,

11 and Lot chooseth for himself the whole circuit of the Jordan; and Lot journeyeth from the east, and they are parted -- a man from his companion;

12 Abram hath dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot hath dwelt in the cities of the circuit, and tenteth unto Sodom;

13 and the men of Sodom [are] evil, and sinners before Jehovah exceedingly.

14 And Jehovah said unto Abram, after Lot's being parted from him, `Lift up, I pray thee, thine eyes, and look from the place where thou [art], northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward;

15 for the whole of the land which thou are seeing, to thee I give it, and to thy seed -- to the age.

16 And I have set thy seed as dust of the earth, so that, if one is able to number the dust of the earth, even thy seed is numbered;

17 rise, go up and down through the land, to its length, and to its breadth, for to thee I give it.'

18 And Abram tenteth, and cometh, and dwelleth among the oaks of Mamre, which [are] in Hebron, and buildeth there an altar to Jehovah.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1587

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1587. Before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. That this signifies the external man destroyed by the cupidities of evil and the persuasions of falsity, is evident from the signification of “Sodom,” as being the cupidities of evil, and from the signification of “Gomorrah,” as being the persuasions of falsity; for these two are what destroy the external man, and separate it from the internal, and these two were what destroyed the Most Ancient Church before the flood. The cupidities of evil are of the will, and the persuasions of falsity are of the understanding; and when these two reign, the whole external man is destroyed; and when it is destroyed, it is also separated from the internal man. Not that the soul or spirit is separated from the body, but that good and truth are separated from man’s soul or spirit, so as not to flow in except remotely; concerning which influx, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere. And because the external man was so destroyed in the human race, and its bond with the internal, that is, with good and truth, was broken, the Lord came into the world in order that He might conjoin and unite the external man to the internal, that is, the Human Essence to the Divine. What the external man is when conjoined with the internal, is here described, namely, that before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was “like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt in coming to Zoar.”

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