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Genesis第33章

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1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids.

2 And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost.

3 And he himself passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

4 And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.

5 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are these with thee? And he said, The children whom God hath graciously given thy servant.

6 Then the handmaids came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.

7 And Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

8 And he said, What meanest thou by all this company which I met? And he said, To find favor in the sight of my lord.

9 And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; let that which thou hast be thine.

10 And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found favor in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand; forasmuch as I have seen thy face, as one seeth the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me.

11 Take, I pray thee, my gift that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took it.

12 And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee.

13 And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young: and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.

14 Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come unto my lord unto Seir.

15 And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find favor in the sight of my lord.

16 So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir.

17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

18 And Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram; and encamped before the city.

19 And he bought the parcel of ground, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money.

20 And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-israel.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#4430

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4430. 'And Shechem saw her' means truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Shechem' as truth, in this case the truth received by the Church from ancient times. The reason why 'Shechem' has this representation is that remnants of the Church still existed with the nation to which Shechem belonged. The fact that his nation was one of the upright nations is evident from the genuineness behind the things that Hamor and Shechem said to Jacob and his sons, verses 8-12, and from the deference that was shown by them in order that Shechem might marry Dinah, verses 18-24, on account of which they represented the truth of the Church. Furthermore the city of Shechem was Abram's first stopping-place when he came from Syria into the land of Canaan, Genesis 12:6, and was now also Jacob's first stopping-place when he too came from Syria, where he stretched his tent, made booths, and set up an altar, Genesis 33:17-20. It has been shown frequently that the journeys or wanderings of Abraham and Jacob represented advances into the truths of faith and the goods of love - in the highest sense, the Lord's own advances, and in the relative sense those made by the person who is being regenerated by the Lord. Hence 'Shechem' meant the first degree of light, 1440, 1441, and therefore interior truth since this is the first degree of light.

[2] But in the present chapter the subject in the internal sense is the way in which the descendants of Jacob annihilated this first degree of light or interior truth residing with them. In this sense, which is the internal historical sense, 'the sons of Jacob' means all his descendants, for the internal sense of the Word deals solely with the things that belong to the Lord's kingdom, and so those that belong to His Church. Jacob's actual sons did not constitute any Church but their descendants did, though not until after they had come out of Egypt, and in actual fact not until they entered the land of Canaan.

[3] Furthermore regarding this city named after Shechem, it was called Salem in ancient times, as is clear in the previous chapter,

Jacob came to Salem, the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan. Genesis 32:18.

'Salem' means serenity, and 'the city of Shechem' the interior truths of faith; and a person comes into a state of serenity when he arrives at those truths, see 4393. But later on the same city was called Shechem, as may be seen 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. Joshua 24:32.

And in the Book of Judges,

Gaal the son of Ebed said to the citizens of Shechem, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal. and Zebul is his commander? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; and why shall we serve him? Judges 9:28.

[4] The same city after that was called 'Sychar', as is evident in John,

Jesus came into a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to Joseph his son; Jacob's well was there. John 4:5-6.

From these places, as well as from others where it is mentioned, it is evident that this city means interior truth. It is also clear in Hosea,

Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity; it is stained with blood; and as troops wait for a man so the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem, for they have committed villainy. In the house of Israel I have seen a foul thing. Hosea 6:8-10.

Here 'they murder on the way to Shechem' means that they annihilate truths, including interior ones, and so annihilate all truths. The annihilation of interior truth is also meant by the reference to Abimelech's destruction of that city and sowing it with salt, Judges 9:45.

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