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 #4440

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4440. 'And his sons were with his cattle in the field' means that his descendants dwelt in their own semblance of religion. This is clear from the meaning of 'his sons' as descendants; from the meaning of 'cattle' as external truths, dealt with in 1435, 1 4391; and from the meaning of 'the field' as the Church, dealt with in 2971, 3766. Consequently 'his sons were with his cattle in the field' means that they dwelt in their own semblance of religion; for the kind of Church that existed with them must be called a semblance of religion since it involves external worship devoid of internal.

Footnotes:

1. The primary meaning of the word translated cattle here in Genesis 34:5 is acquisition. See also 4487.

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