The Bible

 

Genesis 32

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1 And Jacob hath gone on his way, and messengers of God come upon him;

2 and Jacob saith, when he hath seen them, `This [is] the camp of God;' and he calleth the name of that place `Two Camps.'

3 And Jacob sendeth messengers before him unto Esau his brother, towards the land of Seir, the field of Edom,

4 and commandeth them, saying, `Thus do ye say to my lord, to Esau: Thus said thy servant Jacob, With Laban I have sojourned, and I tarry until now;

5 and I have ox, and ass, flock, and man-servant, and maid-servant, and I send to declare to my lord, to find grace in his eyes.'

6 And the messengers turn back unto Jacob, saying, `We came in unto thy brother, unto Esau, and he also is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him;'

7 and Jacob feareth exceedingly, and is distressed, and he divideth the people who [are] with him, and the flock, and the herd, and the camels, into two camps,

8 and saith, `If Esau come in unto the one camp, and have smitten it -- then the camp which is left hath been for an escape.'

9 And Jacob saith, `God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Jehovah who saith unto me, Turn back to thy land, and to thy kindred, and I do good with thee:

10 I have been unworthy of all the kind acts, and of all the truth which Thou hast done with thy servant -- for, with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

11 `Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I am fearing him, less he come and have smitten me -- mother beside sons;

12 and Thou -- Thou hast said, I certainly do good with thee, and have set thy seed as the sand of the sea, which is not numbered because of the multitude.'

13 And he lodgeth there during that night, and taketh from that which is coming into his hand, a present for Esau his brother:

14 she-goats two hundred, and he-goats twenty, ewes two hundred, and rams twenty,

15 suckling camels and their young ones thirty, cows forty, and bullocks ten, she-asses twenty, and foals ten;

16 and he giveth into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and saith unto his servants, `Pass over before me, and a space ye do put between drove and drove.'

17 And he commandeth the first, saying, `When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and hath asked thee, saying, Whose [art] thou? and whither goest thou? and whose [are] these before thee?

18 then thou hast said, Thy servant Jacob's: it [is] a present sent to my lord, to Esau; and lo, he also [is] behind us.'

19 And he commandeth also the second, also the third, also all who are going after the droves, saying, `According to this manner do ye speak unto Esau in your finding him,

20 and ye have said also, Lo, thy servant Jacob [is] behind us;' for he said, `I pacify his face with the present which is going before me, and afterwards I see his face; it may be he lifteth up my face;'

21 and the present passeth over before his face, and he hath lodged during that night in the camp.

22 And he riseth in that night, and taketh his two wives, and his two maid-servants, and his eleven children, and passeth over the passage of Jabbok;

23 and he taketh them, and causeth them to pass over the brook, and he causeth that which he hath to pass over.

24 And Jacob is left alone, and one wrestleth with him till the ascending of the dawn;

25 and he seeth that he is not able for him, and he cometh against the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh is disjointed in his wrestling with him;

26 and he saith, `Send me away, for the dawn hath ascended:' and he saith, `I Send thee not away, except thou hast blessed me.'

27 And he saith unto him, `What [is] thy name?' and he saith, `Jacob.'

28 And he saith, `Thy name is no more called Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast been a prince with God and with men, and dost prevail.'

29 And Jacob asketh, and saith, `Declare, I pray thee, thy name;' and he saith, `Why [is] this, thou askest for My name?' and He blesseth him there.

30 And Jacob calleth the name of the place Peniel: for `I have seen God face unto face, and my life is delivered;'

31 and the sun riseth on him when he hath passed over Penuel, and he is halting on his thigh;

32 therefore the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew which shrank, which [is] on the hollow of the thigh, unto this day, because He came against the hollow of Jacob's thigh, against the sinew which shrank.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #939

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939. The fact that seeing the Lord's face does not mean seeing His face, but knowing and acknowledging Him as He is in respect to His Divine attributes, of which there are many, and that people conjoined with Him by love know Him and in that way see His face, can be seen from the following passages:

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me... ...When you come to see the face of Jehovah... (Isaiah 1:11-12)

My heart said..., "Seek my face. Your face, Jehovah, I am seeking." (Psalms 27:8)

We will shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His face with confession. (Psalms 95:1-2)

My soul thirsts... for the living God. When shall I come to see the face of God? ...yet shall I confess to Him the salvation of His countenance. (Psalms 42:2, 5)

They shall not see My face empty-handed. (Exodus 23:15)

...to come... to placate the face of Jehovah. (Zechariah 8:21-22, cf. Malachi 1:9)

Make Your face shine upon Your servant. (Psalms 31:16)

Who will show us any good? Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, Jehovah. (Psalms 4:6)

They shall walk, O Jehovah, in the light of Your countenance. (Psalms 89:15)

...O God, cause Your face to shine, that we may be saved! (Psalms 80:3, 7, 19)

God be merciful to us and bless us. May He cause His face to shine upon us. (Psalms 67:1)

Jehovah bless you and keep you; Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be merciful to you; Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

You hide them in the secret place of Your countenance... (Psalms 31:20)

You have set... our hidden secret in the light of Your countenance. (Psalms 90:8)

(Jehovah) said (to Moses), "My countenance will go... (Moses) said..., "If Your countenance does not go..., do not bring us down from here." (Exodus 33:14-15)

The bread on the table in the Tabernacle was called [literally] "the bread of faces" (Exodus 25:30, Numbers 4:7).

[2] We are often told, too, that Jehovah hid His face or turned His face away, as in the following:

...for (their) wickedness I have hidden My face from (them). (Jeremiah 33:5, cf. Ezekiel 7:22)

Your sins have hidden (God's) face from you... (Isaiah 59:2)

The face of Jehovah... will no longer regard them. (Lamentations 4:16)

(Jehovah) will hide His face from them..., according as they have made their works evil. (Micah 3:4)

You hid Your face... (Psalms 30:7, cf. 44:24; 104:29)

I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them... I will surely hide My face... because of all the evil which they have done... (Deuteronomy 31:17-18)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 8:17; Ezekiel 39:23, 28-29; Deuteronomy 32:20.

[3] In an opposite sense, the face of Jehovah symbolizes anger and aversion, because an evil person turns away from the Lord, and when he turns away, it seems to him as though the Lord had turned away and was angry, as is clear from the following passages:

...I have set My face against this city for its evil... (Jeremiah 21:10, cf. 44:11)

I will set My face against that man and... devastate him... (Ezekiel 14:7-8)

I will set My face against them... and... fire shall devour them..., when I set My face against them. (Ezekiel 15:7)

...(he) who eats any blood, I will set My face against that soul... (Leviticus 17:10)

At the rebuke of Your countenance they perished. (Psalms 80:16)

The face of Jehovah is against those who do evil... (Psalms 34:16)

...I send an angel before you... Beware of his face..., for he will not endure your transgression. (Exodus 23:20-21)

Let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee from Your countenance. (Numbers 10:35)

(I saw one sitting on the throne) from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. (Revelation 20:11)

That no one can see the Lord as He is in Himself, as we said above, is apparent from the following:

(Jehovah said to Moses,) "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." (Exodus 33:18-23)

That people nevertheless saw the Lord and lived, because He appeared by means of an angel, is apparent from Genesis 32:30, 1 Judges 13:22-23, 2 and elsewhere.

Footnotes:

1. Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

2. Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God!" But his wife said to him, "If Jehovah had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time."

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.