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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 #2575

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2575. 'Behold, I have given a thousand pieces of silver to your brother' means an infinite abundance of rational truth joined to [celestial] good. This is clear from the meaning of 'a thousand' as much and countless, here, as infinite, or an infinite abundance, since the expression has reference to the Lord, a meaning dealt with below; from the meaning of 'silver' as rational truth, dealt with in 1551, 2048; and from the meaning of 'a brother' as celestial good joined to rational truth, like a brother to a sister, 2524, 2557. From this it is evident that 'I have given a thousand pieces of silver to your brother' means an infinite abundance of rational truth joined to [celestial] good. The reason this abundance was granted to good, meant by 'a brother', but not to truth, is that truth derives from good, not good from truth. Regarding that infinite abundance, see 2572.

[2] That 'a thousand' in the Word means much and countless, and infinite when it has reference to the Lord, is evident from the following places: In Moses,

I, Jehovah your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, on the third and on the fourth generations of those who hate Me; and showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments. Exodus 20:5-6; 34:7; Deuteronomy 5:9-10.

And in Jeremiah,

Jehovah shows mercy to thousands and He repays the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their sons after them. Jeremiah 32:18.

In these two places 'thousands' does not mean a definite number but that which is infinite, for the Lord's mercy, being Divine, is infinite. In David,

The chariots of God are myriad on myriad, thousands on thousands; 1 the Lord is within them, Sinai within holiness. Psalms 68:17.

Here 'myriads' and 'thousands' stand for things that are countless.

[3] In the same author,

A thousand will fall at your side, and a myriad at your right hand; it will not come near you. Psalms 91:7.

Here also 'a thousand' and 'a myriad' stand for things that are countless, and as it has reference to the Lord, who is meant by 'David' in the Psalms, those numbers stand for all who are His enemies. In the same author,

Our garners are full, yielding food and still more food; our flocks bring forth a thousand, and ten thousand in our streets. Psalms 144:13.

Here also 'a thousand', and 'ten thousand' or a myriad, stand for things that are countless. In the same author,

A thousand years in Your eyes are but as yesterday when it is past. Psalms 90:4.

'A thousand years' stands for that which is outside time, thus for eternity, which is infinity of time. In Isaiah,

One thousand at the rebuke of one, at the rebuke of five will you flee until you are left like a flagstaff on top of a mountain. Isaiah 30:17.

Here 'one thousand' or a chiliad stands for a large indefinite number, 'five' for few, 649. In Moses,

May Jehovah the God of your fathers add to you, as you are, a thousand times, and may He bless you. Deuteronomy 1:11.

Here 'a thousand times' stands for things that are countless, as in everyday speech in which also a thousand is an expression for many, as when one speaks of things being said thousands of times, or done in thousands of ways. Similarly in Joshua,

One man of you will chase a thousand, for Jehovah your God fights for you. Joshua 23:10.

[4] Being a definite calculable number, the word 'thousand' when used in prophetical parts, especially when these are linked together as historical descriptions, appears to mean a thousand. But in fact it means people who are many or countless - an unspecified number. For historical descriptions are of such a nature that they restrict people's ideas to the most immediate and proper meanings that the words possess, as they also do with the names that occur there, when in fact numbers in the Word, like names also, mean real things, as may become clear from what has been shown already concerning numbers in 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252. This explains why some people suppose that the thousand years referred to in Revelation 20:1-7 means a thousand years or periods of time, for the reason, as has been stated, that prophecies are declared in that book through historical descriptions. But in fact 'a thousand years' there means nothing else than that which is large and indeterminate, and elsewhere infinity of time, or eternity.

Footnotes:

1. literally, two myriads, thousands doubled.

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