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Genesis 35

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1 And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto the ùGod that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

2 And Jacob said to his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments;

3 and we will arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar to the ùGod that answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way that I went.

4 And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hand, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth that [is] by Shechem.

5 And they journeyed; and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

6 And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.

7 And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el; because there God had appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

8 And Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died; and she was buried beneath Bethel, under the oak; and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.

9 And God appeared to Jacob again after he had come from Padan-Aram, and blessed him.

10 And God said to him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel.

11 And God said to him, I am the Almighty ùGod: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee; and kings shall come out of thy loins.

12 And the land that I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

13 And God went up from him in the place where he had talked with him.

14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had talked with him, a pillar of stone, and poured on it a drink-offering, and poured oil on it.

15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God had talked with him, Beth-el.

16 And they journeyed from Bethel. And there was yet a certain distance to come to Ephrath, when Rachel travailed in childbirth; and it went hard with her in her childbearing.

17 And it came to pass when it went hard with her in her childbearing, that the midwife said to her, Fear not; for this also is a son for thee.

18 And it came to pass as her soul was departing -- for she died -- that she called his name Benoni; but his father called him Benjamin.

19 And Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which [is] Bethlehem.

20 And Jacob erected a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to [this] day.

21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent on the other side of Migdal-Eder.

22 And it came to pass when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine; and Israel heard of it. And the sons of Jacob were twelve.

23 The sons of Leah: Reuben -- Jacob's firstborn -- and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun.

24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant: Dan and Naphtali.

26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob that were born to him in Padan-Aram.

27 And Jacob came to Isaac his father to Mamre -- to Kirjath-Arba, which is Hebron; where Abraham had sojourned, and Isaac.

28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years.

29 And Isaac expired and died, and was gathered to his peoples, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

   

Das Obras de Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia # 9327

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9327. 'I will send My terror before you' means the terror felt, on account of truths springing from good, by those immersed in evils arising from falsity. This is clear from the meaning of 'terror' as the terror felt by those immersed in evils that arise from falsity; and from the meaning of 'the children of Israel', before whom the terror would be sent, as those governed by spiritual good, which is truth springing from good, dealt with in 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833, 7957, 8234, 8805. The nations in the land of Canaan who would feel terror on account of the children of Israel mean evils arising from falsity and falsities arising from evil, see 1413, 1437, 1573, 1574, 1607, 1868, 4517, 6306, 8054, 8317. So it is that 'I will send My terror before you' means the terror felt by those immersed in evils arising from falsity, on account of truths springing from good. The implications of all this are that all power in the spiritual world is provided by truths that spring from good, thus by truths that emanate from the Lord.

[2] This is made perfectly clear by the consideration that the Lord arranges into order all things in heaven and all things in hell, as well as all things in the world, by means of truths coming from Him. For Divine Truth emanating from the Lord is the actual means by which all things are brought into being and by which all things are kept in being. This is incomprehensible to those who think on solely a material level, as those people do who attribute the origin and continued existence of all things to natural forces. These people cannot have any other idea about truths than this, that truths do not possess any power because they are solely objects of thought, and thought is not seen by them to be an essential entity, still less something substantial, 1 even though they know that thought controls the whole body and causes individual parts to move in exact accord with its own disposition. Nor also do they see that in the whole of creation nothing exists which lacks connection with truth that springs from good. Regarding truth, that it holds all power within it and is a supreme essential entity, see 8200. From all this it is evident that angels possess power which they receive from God's truth that emanates from the Lord, and that this is why they are called 'powers'. As regards the nature of truths that spring from good, that is, of truths coming from the Lord, see my experience involving the arm which corresponds to such truth, spoken of in 4932-4935.

[3] Since all power belongs to truth it follows that no power whatever resides in falsity arising from evil, since it is an absence of truth springing from good, and so is an absence of power. Therefore also those in hell, since all there are steeped in falsities arising from evil, have absolutely no power at all. This being so, thousands of them can be rebuffed, thrown down, and dispelled by a single angel, almost exactly as fluff in the air can be by a puff from the mouth. From this one may see the reason for the terror felt by those steeped in falsities arising from evil on account of truths springing from good. This terror is called 'the terror of God' in Genesis 35:5; Job 13:21; and in Ezekiel,

I will put My terror in the land of the living, when he had been made to lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude. Ezekiel 32:32.

And in Moses,

If you despise My statutes, and if your soul abhors My judgements, so that you do not do all My commandments, I will inject dismay into their heart, that the sound of a driven leaf may pursue them, and they may flee, like flight from the sword, and they may fall without [anyone] pursuing. Leviticus 26:15, 36.

This describes the terror experienced by those who despise and reject statutes, judgements, and commandments, thus that felt by those who are immersed in evils arising from falsity and in falsities arising from evil. It says that 'the sound of a leaf will pursue them, and they will flee, like flight from the sword'; and the reason why it says this is that 'a leaf' means truth, 885, and 'the sword' truth engaged in conflict against falsity arising from evil, 2799, 6353, 8294. The fact that those people possess absolutely no power at all against truth is meant by 'they will fall without [anyone] pursuing'.

Notas de rodapé:

1. i.e. having real existence in a higher dimension

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

Das Obras de Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia # 6306

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6306. 'Which I took out of the hand of the Amorite' means because of the victory over evil. This is clear from the representation of 'the Amorite' as evil, dealt with in 1857; and from the meaning of 'taking out of the hand' as acquiring through victory. As regards 'the Amorites', it should be recognized that they mean evil, just as 'the Canaanites' and all the other nations in the land that are mentioned in the Word mean various kinds of evil and also of falsity. Such things were represented by the nations when the children of Israel were taking possession of the land of Canaan. The reason for this was that whenever the children of Israel represented the things of heaven those nations represented the things of hell; thus the land of Canaan represented every state that exists in the next life. Also, because the nations represented the things of hell they were utterly destroyed; and entrance into any treaty with those who might remain was forbidden.

[2] The action of the children of Israel, of their taking possession of and dwelling in the land of those who represented the hells, was representative. It represented what happened around the time of the Lord's Coming, when spirits from hell had possession of a large part of heaven but He, by coming into the world and making the human within Himself Divine, cast them out of there and down into hell, and thereby delivered heaven from them, which He then gave as an inheritance to those who belonged to His spiritual kingdom.

[3] The representation of the Amorite nation as evil in general is evident from the places where it is referred to, as in Ezekiel, Thus said the Lord Jehovih to Jerusalem, 1 Your tradings and your births are of the land of the Canaanite. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. Ezekiel 16:3, 45.

'Father' in the internal sense means the Church's good, or in the contrary sense evil, and 'mother' means the Church's truth, or in the contrary sense falsity; and this is why it is said, 'Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite'.

[4] In Amos,

I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and whose strength was like the oaks. I led you in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. Amos 2:9-10.

Here also 'the Amorite' stands for evil, for the evil of self-love is described by 'the height of the cedars' and 'the strength of an oak'. The reason why 'the Amorite' means evil in general is that the entire land of Canaan was called 'the land of the Amorite'; for it says, 'I led you in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite'. In addition the second Book of Kings says,

Manasseh king of Judah did what was evil, greater than all the evil which the Amorites did, who were before him. 2 Kings 21:11.

[5] 'With my sword' means through truth engaged in conflict. This is clear from the meaning of 'sword' as truth engaged in conflict, dealt with in 2799, 4499.

'And my bow' means received from doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'bow' as doctrine, dealt with in 2686, 2709.

[6] The words used here, 'the portion which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow' were, it is quite evident, uttered by Israel on account of the internal sense; for Jacob did not take that portion from the Amorite with sword or bow. He bought it from the sons of Hamor, as is evident from Genesis 33, where these words occur, Jacob came to Salem, the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, as he was coming from Paddan Aram; and he encamped towards the face of the city. And he bought the portion of the field where he had stretched his tent, from the hand of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitahs. Genesis 33:18-19.

The fact that this field was the portion he gave to Joseph is clear in Joshua,

The bones of Joseph which the children of Israel caused to be brought up out of Egypt they buried in Shechem, in the part of the field which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitahs; and they had become an inheritance for the children of Joseph. Joshua 24:32.

From this it is evident that the portion had been bought, and that this is what was given to Joseph. Nor was the city of Shechem nearby meant, the city in which Simeon and Levi killed every male and which they took with the sword, Genesis 34. This is made clear by the fact that Jacob detested what they did and for that reason cursed Simeon and Levi, completely dissociating himself from the crime. He said,

Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of violence are their swords. Into their secret place let my soul not come; in their congregation let not my glory be united; for in their anger they killed a man, and in their pleasure they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was hard. 2 I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. Genesis 49:5-7.

From all this it may now be seen that the words 'the portion which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow' were uttered by him, when the spirit of prophecy rested on him, for the sake of the internal sense.

Notas de rodapé:

1. The Latin means O Jerusalem but the Hebrew means to Jerusalem, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse (and possibly in his rough draft here).

2. i.e. cruel

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