The Bible

 

Genesis 28

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1 And Isaac calleth unto Jacob, and blesseth him, and commandeth him, and saith to him, `Thou dost not take a wife of the daughters of Caanan;

2 rise, go to Padan-Aram, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take for thyself from thence a wife, of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother;

3 and God Almighty doth bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and thou hast become an assembly of peoples;

4 and He doth give to thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, to cause thee to possess the land of thy sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.'

5 And Isaac sendeth away Jacob, and he goeth to Padan-Aram, unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramaean, brother of Rebekah, mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 And Esau seeth that Isaac hath blessed Jacob, and hath sent him to Padan-Aram to take to himself from thence a wife -- in his blessing him that he layeth a charge upon him, saying, Thou dost not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan --

7 that Jacob hearkeneth unto his father and unto his mother, and goeth to Padan-Aram --

8 and Esau seeth that the daughters of Canaan are evil in the eyes of Isaac his father,

9 and Esau goeth unto Ishmael, and taketh Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, sister of Nebajoth, unto his wives, to himself, for a wife.

10 And Jacob goeth out from Beer-Sheba, and goeth toward Haran,

11 and he toucheth at a [certain] place, and lodgeth there, for the sun hath gone in, and he taketh of the stones of the place, and maketh [them] his pillows, and lieth down in that place.

12 And he dreameth, and lo, a ladder set up on the earth, and its head is touching the heavens; and lo, messengers of God are going up and coming down by it;

13 and lo, Jehovah is standing upon it, and He saith, `I [am] Jehovah, God of Abraham thy father, and God of Isaac; the land on which thou art lying, to thee I give it, and to thy seed;

14 and thy seed hath been as the dust of the land, and thou hast broken forth westward, and eastward, and northward, and southward, and all families of the ground have been blessed in thee and in thy seed.

15 `And lo, I [am] with thee, and have kept thee whithersoever thou goest, and have caused thee to turn back unto this ground; for I leave thee not till that I have surely done that which I have spoken to thee.'

16 And Jacob awaketh out of his sleep, and saith, `Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I knew not;'

17 and he feareth, and saith, `How fearful [is] this place; this is nothing but a house of God, and this a gate of the heavens.'

18 And Jacob riseth early in the morning, and taketh the stone which he hath made his pillows, and maketh it a standing pillar, and poureth oil upon its top,

19 and he calleth the name of that place Bethel, [house of God,] and yet, Luz [is] the name of the city at the first.

20 And Jacob voweth a vow, saying, `Seeing God is with me, and hath kept me in this way which I am going, and hath given to me bread to eat, and a garment to put on --

21 when I have turned back in peace unto the house of my father, and Jehovah hath become my God,

22 then this stone which I have made a standing pillar is a house of God, and all that Thou dost give to me -- tithing I tithe to Thee.'

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3706

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3706. And to thy seed. That this signifies that so also was the truth, is evident from the signification of “seed,” as being the truth of faith (see n. 255, 880, 1025, 1447, 1610, 2848, 3038, 3310, 3373).

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3373

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3373. And unto thy seed. That this signifies truth, is evident from the signification of “seed,” as being truth (see n. 29, 255, 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3310); thus it signifies the truth which is from the Lord’s Divine, which is “thy seed.” They who apprehend the Word only according to the sense of the letter cannot know but that “seed” denotes posterity, consequently here the posterity of Isaac from Esau and Jacob, and chiefly from Jacob, because the Word was in that nation and it contains so many historical facts concerning them. But in the internal sense by “seed” there is not meant any posterity from Isaac, but all those who are sons of the Lord, thus the sons of His kingdom, or what is the same, who are in good and truth from the Lord; and because these are “seed,” it follows that the very good and truth from the Lord are “seed,” for hence come the sons; wherefore also the very truths from the Lord are called the “sons of the kingdom,” in Matthew:

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the sons of the kingdom (Matthew 13:37-38);

hence also by “sons” in general are signified truths (n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623).

[2] Everyone who thinks somewhat more deeply or interiorly may know that in the Divine Word by the “seed of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,” so often mentioned, and concerning which it is so frequently said that it should be blessed, and this above all nations and people in the world, cannot be signified their posterity; for above all nations they were least of all in the good of love to the Lord and of charity toward the neighbor, and were not even in any truth of faith; for they were utterly ignorant of what the Lord is, what His kingdom, thus what heaven is, and what the life after death, both because they did not want to know, and because if they had learned about these things, they would at heart have totally denied them, and would thus have profaned interior goods and truths, just as they so frequently profaned exterior ones by becoming open idolaters; which is the reason why in the sense of the letter of the Word of the Old Testament any interior things so rarely stand forth to view. Being of this nature, the Lord has said concerning them, quoting Isaiah:

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them (John 12:40);

and again when they said:

We are Abraham’s seed; Abraham is our father; Jesus said unto them, If ye were Abraham’s sons, ye would do the works of Abraham; ye are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father ye will to do (John 8:33, 39, 44);

by “Abraham” here is meant the Lord, as everywhere in the Word; and that the Jews were not his seed, or sons, but the seed of the devil, is plainly stated. All this shows very plainly that by the “seed of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” as mentioned in the historical and prophetical Word, are by no means meant their posterity-for the Word throughout is Divine-but all those who are the Lord’s “seed,” that is, who are in the good and truth of faith in Him. (That from the Lord alone comes heavenly seed, that is, all good and truth, may be seen above n. 1438, 1614, 2016, 2803, 2882-2883, 2891, 2892, 2904, 3195)

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