圣经文本

 

Genesis第49章

学习

   

1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.

2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father.

3 Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength; The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.

4 Boiling over as water, thou shalt not have the pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence are their swords.

6 O my soul, come not thou into their council; Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will they hocked an ox.

7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; And their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.

8 Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise: Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee.

9 Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up: He stooped down, he couched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?

10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh come: And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.

11 Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass's colt unto the choice vine; He hath washed his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes:

12 His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk.

13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; And he shall be for a haven of ships; And his border shall be upon Sidon.

14 Issachar is a strong ass, Couching down between the sheepfolds:

15 And he saw a resting-place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And became a servant under taskwork.

16 Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel.

17 Dan shall be a serpent in the way, An adder in the path, That biteth the horse's heels, So that his rider falleth backward.

18 I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah.

19 Gad, a troop shall press upon him; But he shall press upon their heel.

20 Out of the Asher his bread shall be fat, And he shall yield royal dainties.

21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: He giveth goodly words.

22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a fountain; His branches run over the wall.

23 The archers have sorely grieved him, And shot at him, and persecute him:

24 But his bow abode in strength, And the arms of his hands were made strong, By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, (From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),

25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee, With blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath, Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.

26 The blessings of thy father Have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

27 Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth: In the morning she shall devour the prey, And at even he shall divide the spoil.

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.

29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place.

31 there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah:

32 the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.

33 And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#1298

学习本章节

  
/10837  
  

1298. 'They had brick for stone' means that they had falsity in place of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'brick' as falsity, dealt with just above, and also from the meaning of 'stone' in the broad sense as truth, dealt with already in 643. The reason 'stones' meant truth was that the most ancient people used to mark out boundaries by means of stones and raise up stones to testify that something was so, that is, was the truth. This is clear from the stone which Jacob set up as a pillar, Genesis 28:22; 35:14; from the pillar of stones placed between Laban and Jacob, Genesis 31:46-47, 52; and from the altar which the children of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh erected beside the Jordan as an altar of witness, Joshua 22:10, 28, 34. Consequently 'stones' in the Word means truths, so much so that not only the stones of the altar but also the precious stones in the shoulder-pieces of Aaron's ephod and in the breastplate of judgement meant the holy truths of love.

[2] Regarding the altar, when sacrificial worship on altars was introduced, an altar in that case meant representative worship of the Lord in general. 'The stones' themselves however meant the holy truths belonging to that worship. This was why it was commanded that the altar had to be built of whole and not of hewn stones, and why it was forbidden to use any iron tool on them, Deuteronomy 27:5-7; Joshua 8:31. The reason was that hewn stones, and those on which an iron tool had been used, meant artificialities and thus fabrications in worship. That is to say, they meant things that derive from the proprium, or from the inventions of man's own thought and heart, which was to profane worship, as is clearly stated in Exodus 20:25. For the same reason no tool of iron was used on the stones of the Temple, 1 Kings 6:7.

[3] That the precious stones set in the shoulder-pieces of Aaron's ephod and in the breastplate of judgement in a similar way meant holy truths has been shown already in 114. This is clear also in Isaiah,

Behold, I will set your stones in carbuncle and lay your foundations in sapphires; and I will make your suns (windows) of ruby, and your gates into precious stones, and all your border into pleasant stones And all your sons will be taught by Jehovah, and great will be the peace of your sons. Isaiah 54:11-13

The stones mentioned here stand for holy truths, and this is why it is said that 'all your sons will be taught by Jehovah'. It is also the reason why it is said in John that the foundations of the wall of the city, holy Jerusalem, were adorned with every kind of precious stone, which are each mentioned by name, Revelation 21:19-20. 'The holy Jerusalem' stands for the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, the foundations of which kingdom are holy truths. Holy truths were similarly meant by the tables of stone on which the commandments of the Law, or Ten Commandments, were written. This was why they were made of stone or had a stone base, concerning which see Exodus 24:12; 31:18; 34:1; Deuteronomy 5:22; 10:1; for the commandments themselves are nothing else than truths of faith.

[4] Now because stones in ancient times meant truths, and because later on when worship on pillars, on altars, and in the Temple began, pillars, altars, and the Temple meant holy truths, the Lord also is therefore called 'a Stone': In Moses,

The Mighty One of Jacob - from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. Genesis 49:24.

In Isaiah,

The Lord Jehovih said, I am laying in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tested Corner-Stone, precious, of sure foundation. Isaiah 28:16.

In David,

The Stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner Psalms 118:22.

The same is meant in Daniel 2:34-35, 45, by the stone cut out of the rock which smashed Nebuchadnezzar's statue to pieces.

[5] That 'stones' means truths is clear in Isaiah,

By this the iniquity of Jacob will be expiated, and this will be the full fruit to remove his sin, when He makes all the stones of the altar like chalk-stones scattered about. Isaiah 27:9.

'The stones of the altar' stands for truths in worship that have been dissipated. In the same prophet,

Make level the way of the people; level out, level out the highway; gather out the stones. Isaiah 62:10.

'The way' and 'the stones' stand for truths. In Jeremiah,

I am against you, O destroying mountain. I will roll you down from the rocks and I will make you into a mountain of burning. And they will not take from you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations. Jeremiah 51:25-26.

This refers to Babel. 'A mountain of burning' is self-love. 'Taking no stone from it' means that there is no truth from this source.

  
/10837  
  

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