The Bible

 

Genesis 12:1-8 : To a land that I will show you

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1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3445

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3445. 'And Isaac's servants dug a well there' means the doctrine that came from there. This is clear from the meaning of 'a well' as the Word, dealt with in 2702, 3424. Now because the Word is doctrine itself and so the Word is the source of all doctrine taught by the Church, 'digging a well' therefore means doctrine drawn from there, that is to say, from the literal sense of the Word, since that sense is the subject here. But the doctrine itself drawn from the literal sense of the Word is invariably the same, that is to say, it is always concerned with charity and love - charity towards the neighbour and love to the Lord. For such doctrine and life lived according to it constitute the whole Word, as the Lord teaches in Matthew 22:37-40.

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