The Bible

 

Genesis 20

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1 And Abraham journeyeth from thence toward the land of the south, and dwelleth between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourneth in Gerar;

2 and Abraham saith concerning Sarah his wife, `She is my sister;' and Abimelech king of Gerar sendeth and taketh Sarah.

3 And God cometh in unto Abimelech in a dream of the night, and saith to him, `Lo, thou [art] a dead man, because of the woman whom thou hast taken -- and she married to a husband.'

4 And Abimelech hath not drawn near unto her, and he saith, `Lord, also a righteous nation dost thou slay?

5 hath not he himself said to me, She [is] my sister! and she, even she herself, said, He [is] my brother; in the integrity of my heart, and in the innocency of my hands, I have done this.'

6 And God saith unto him in the dream, `Yea, I -- I have known that in the integrity of thy heart thou hast done this, and I withhold thee, even I, from sinning against Me, therefore I have not suffered thee to come against her;

7 and now send back the man's wife, for he [is] inspired, and he doth pray for thee, and live thou; and if thou do not send back, know that dying thou dost die, thou, and all that thou hast.'

8 And Abimelech riseth early in the morning, and calleth for all his servants, and speaketh all these words in their ears; and the men fear exceedingly;

9 and Abimelech calleth for Abraham, and saith to him, `What hast thou done to us? and what have I sinned against thee, that thou hast brought upon me, and upon my kingdom, a great sin? works which are not done thou hast done with me.'

10 Abimelech also saith unto Abraham, `What hast thou seen that thou hast done this thing?'

11 And Abraham saith, `Because I said, `Surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they have slain me for the sake of my wife;

12 and also, truly she is my sister, daughter of my father, only not daughter of my mother, and she becometh my wife;

13 and it cometh to pass, when God hath caused me to wander from my father's house, that I say to her, This [is] thy kindness which thou dost with me: at every place whither we come, say of me, He [is] my brother.'

14 And Abimelech taketh sheep and oxen, and servants and handmaids, and giveth to Abraham, and sendeth back to him Sarah his wife;

15 and Abimelech saith, `Lo, my land [is] before thee, where it is good in thine eyes, dwell;'

16 and to Sarah he hath said, `Lo, I have given a thousand silverlings to thy brother; lo, it is to thee a covering of eyes, to all who are with thee;' and by all this she is reasoned with.

17 And Abraham prayeth unto God, and God healeth Abimelech and his wife, and his handmaids, and they bear:

18 for Jehovah restraining had restrained every womb of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2571

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2571. 'Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you' means the Lord's perception regarding the doctrine of love and charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as thinking, dealt with in 2506, and from the meaning of 'land' here as the doctrine of love and charity. 'Land' or 'earth' has various meanings in the internal sense, 620, 636, 1066, but what is meant in a specific instance is clear from the train of thought. For 'land' or 'earth' means the external member of the Church when 'the sky' or 'heaven' means the internal, 82, 913, 1411, 1733; it also means the region where the Church is, 662, 1066; it means the Church itself, and also in the universal sense the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, since 'the land of Canaan' or 'the holy land' was representative of that kingdom, 1437, 1585, 1607. The same was also meant by 'a new heaven and a new earth', 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118. And because 'land' or 'earth' means the member of the Church, the Church, and the Lord's kingdom, it also means that which is the essential component of these, namely love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, for it is on these that they all depend, 537, 540, 547, 553, 2130. Consequently 'land' or 'earth' means the doctrine of love and charity which belongs to the Church, and to which here 'the land of Abimelech' refers. For 'Abimelech as a king' means the doctrine of faith, as has been shown, while his land, from which he sprang and in which he dwelt, means the doctrine of love and charity, from which faith springs and in which faith dwells.

[2] The reason why up to this point the Lord's thought had been concerned with the doctrine of faith but was now concerned with the doctrine of love and charity is that the Lord joined the Human to the Divine by means of truths which are matters of faith, yet at the same time by means of Divine Goods which are matters of love that were present within those truths. This He did according to the order by which also man becomes spiritual and celestial but not Divine so as to have life in himself, in the way that the Lord became so. But when the marriage had taken place in the Lord of Divine Truth to Good, and of Good to Truth, which is meant by the words 'Abimelech restored to Abraham Sarah his wife', 2569, His thought was now concerned with the doctrine of love and charity, and this also was according to order; for once man has become spiritual and celestial he no longer thinks from truth but from good, yet not as the Lord did - from Divine Good united to Divine Truth. This is the reason why the doctrine of love and charity is only now mentioned for the first time, even though the doctrine of faith regarded in itself is the same, and the Lord's perception and thought always sprang from Divine love within every thing of faith. Hence it is that the doctrine of love and charity is Divine doctrine itself, and was the doctrine which was cultivated in the Most Ancient Churches. And because that doctrine made one with the doctrine of faith, they rejected people who separated these; see 2417.

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