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Genesis第31章

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1 And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory.

2 And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as beforetime.

3 And Jehovah said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.

4 And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock,

5 and said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as beforetime; but the God of my father hath been with me.

6 And ye know that will all my power I have served your father.

7 And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.

8 If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the flock bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstreaked shall be thy wages; then bare all the flock ringstreaked.

9 Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.

10 And it came to pass at the time that the flock conceive, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the he-goats which leaped upon the flock were ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled.

11 And the angel of God said unto me in the dream, Jacob: and I said, Here am I.

12 And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the he-goats which leap upon the flock are ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.

13 I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst a pillar, where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy nativity.

14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

15 Are we not accounted by him as foreigners? for he hath sold us, and hath also quite devoured our money.

16 For all the riches which God hath taken away from our father, that is ours and our children's: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.

17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon the camels;

18 and he carried away all his cattle, and all his substance which he had gathered, the cattle of his getting, which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to Isaac his father unto the land of Canaan.

19 Now Laban was gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's.

20 And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.

21 So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

22 And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled.

23 And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and he overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.

24 And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, and said unto him, Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

25 And Laban came up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain: and Laban with his brethren encamped in the mountain of Gilead.

26 And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters as captives of the sword?

27 Wherefore didst thou flee secretly, and steal away from me, and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp;

28 and didst not suffer me to kiss my sons and my daughters? now hast thou done foolishly.

29 It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

30 And now, [though] thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father's house, [yet] wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?

31 And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Lest thou shouldest take thy daughters from me by force.

32 With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, he shall not live: before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them.

33 And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two maid-servants; but he found them not. And he went out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.

34 Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, and put them in the camel's saddle, and sat upon them. And Laban felt about all the tent, but found them not.

35 And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before thee; for the manner of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the teraphim.

36 And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast hotly pursued after me?

37 Whereas thou hast felt about all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? Set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us two.

38 These twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flocks have I not eaten.

39 That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

40 Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from mine eyes.

41 These twenty years have I been in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy flock: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.

42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now hadst thou sent me away empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.

43 And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children whom they have borne?

44 And now come, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee.

45 And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.

46 And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made a heap: and they did eat there by the heap.

47 And Laban called it Jegar-saha-dutha: but Jacob called it Galeed.

48 And Laban said, This heap is witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed:

49 and Mizpah, for he said, Jehovah watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.

50 If thou shalt afflict my daughters, and if thou shalt take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee.

51 And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar, which I have set betwixt me and thee.

52 This heap be witness, and the pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.

53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the Fear of his father Isaac.

54 And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mountain.

55 And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed and returned unto his place.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#4171

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4171. 'That which was torn [by beasts] I did not bring to you' means that evil for which He was not blameworthy resided with that good. This is clear from the meaning of 'torn' as death caused by another, and so evil for which He was not blameworthy. The evils present with man have many origins. The first lies in the heredity passed down to him by the series of transmissions to his father from grandfathers and forefathers, and then from his father, in whom evils have thereby become heaped up, down to himself. The second origin lies in what he himself makes actual, that is to say, in what a person acquires to himself by a life of evil. This evil consists partly of that which he draws from his heredity, as from an ocean of evils, and puts into practice, and partly of much more which he adds for himself to these. This is the source of the proprium which a person acquires to himself. But this actual evil which a person makes his own also has various origins, though in general there are two. First there is the evil he receives from others, for which he is not worthy of blame; second there is that which he adopts of his own accord and for which he is thus worthy of blame. That which anyone receives from others and for which he is not blameworthy is meant in the Word by 'that which is torn', whereas that which he adopts of his own accord and for which he is thus blameworthy is meant in the Word by 'a carcass'.

[2] This explains why, as in the Ancient Church so also in the Jewish they were forbidden to eat anything that had died naturally, that is, was a carcass, or to eat 'that which had been torn'. This prohibition is contained in the following,

Every soul - homeborn or settler - who eats a carcass 1 or that which has been torn to pieces shall wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; he shall be unclean until the evening, and then he shall be clean; and if he has not washed himself and bathed his flesh he shall bear his iniquity. Leviticus 17:15-16.

In the same author,

He shall not eat a carcass 1 or that which has been torn, to defile himself with it; I am Jehovah. Leviticus 22:8.

'That which has been torn' stands for evil that is a product of falsity, which is caused by the evil who are meant by the wild animals in the wood which tear to pieces, for in the Word those in hell are compared to wild animals. In the same author,

You shall be men who are sanctified to Me; therefore you shall not eat flesh torn in the field, you shall throw it to the dogs. Exodus 22:31.

In Ezekiel,

The prophet said to Jehovah, My soul has not been polluted, and from my childhood even till now I have not eaten any carcass 1 or that which has been torn nor has abominable flesh come into my mouth. Ezekiel 4:14.

In the same prophet,

The priests shall not eat any carcass 1 or anything that has been torn, whether bird or beast. Ezekiel 44:31.

This refers to the Lord's kingdom - that it is where the new earth is situated.

[3] All these places show what is meant in the internal sense by 'that which has been torn'; yet to make this plainer still, take as an example someone who leads a good life, that is, who does good to another because he wishes him well. Suppose that this someone then allows himself to be persuaded by another who is under the influence of evil that a good life contributes nothing to salvation for the reason that everyone is born in sins and nobody is able of himself to will good or consequently do it. And suppose he therefore allows himself to be persuaded by the idea that a means of salvation is supplied which is called faith, and accordingly that a person can be saved without leading a good life, even though his reception of faith were to take place at his final hour. If such a person who has been leading a good life allows himself to be persuaded by such an idea and then ceases to care about that life and also shows contempt for it, he is called 'one who has been torn'. For 'torn' is used in reference to good into which falsity is introduced, with the result that good ceases to be living any longer.

[4] Take as another example marriage, which a person thinks of as a heavenly institution. Then he - and perhaps his partner also - allows himself to be persuaded that marriage is instituted purely for the sake of order in the world, for the sake of the upbringing and proper care of children, and for the sake of inheritances. In addition he allows himself to be persuaded that the bond of marriage is nothing more than a kind of contract which can be terminated or modified by either partner if the other is in agreement. Once he has accepted these ideas he does not see anything heavenly about marriage. If this leads on to debauchery, then that which is called 'torn' is the result. So with every other example that could be taken.

[5] The fact that the evil are the ones who 'tear to pieces' - which they do by means of reasonings drawing on things of an external nature, into which things of an internal kind cannot be imported because of an evil life - may be seen from the following in Jeremiah,

A lion from the forest has struck the great men down, a wolf of the deserts has devastated them, a leopard is watching over their cities, every one going out of them is torn to pieces, because their transgressions have been multiplied, their turnings away have become firm. Jeremiah 5:5-6.

And in Amos,

Edom pursued his brother with the sword, and extinguished his own feelings of compassion, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever. Amos 1:11-12.

脚注:

1. i.e. an animal that has not been slaughtered but has died naturally

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