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Genesis第47章

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1 Then Joseph went to Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brothers with their flocks and their herds and all they have, are come from Canaan, and are now in the land of Goshen.

2 And he took five of his brothers to Pharaoh.

3 And Pharaoh said to them, What is your business? And they said, Your servants are keepers of sheep, as our fathers were before us.

4 And they said to Pharaoh, We have come to make a living in this land, because we have no grass for our flocks in the land of Canaan; so now let your servants make a place for themselves in the land of Goshen.

5 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Let them have the land of Goshen; and if there are any able men among them, put them over my cattle.

6 And Jacob and his sons came to Joseph in Egypt, and when word of it came to the ears of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, he said to Joseph, Your father and brothers have come to you; all the land of Egypt is before you; let your father and your brothers have the best of the land for their resting-place.

7 Then Joseph made his father Jacob come before Pharaoh, and Jacob gave him his blessing.

8 And Pharaoh said to him, How old are you?

9 And Jacob said, The years of my wanderings have been a hundred and thirty; small in number and full of sorrow have been the years of my life, and less than the years of the wanderings of my fathers.

10 And Jacob gave Pharaoh his blessing, and went out from before him.

11 And Joseph made a place for his father and his brothers, and gave them a heritage in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had given orders.

12 And Joseph took care of his father and his brothers and all his father's people, giving them food for the needs of their families.

13 Now there was no food to be had in all the land, so that all Egypt and Canaan were wasted from need of food.

14 And all the money in Egypt and in the land of Canaan which had been given for grain, came into the hands of Joseph: and he put it in Pharaoh's house.

15 And when all the money in Egypt and Canaan was gone, the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, Give us bread; would you have us come to destruction before your eyes? for we have no more money.

16 And Joseph said, Give me your cattle; I will Give you grain in exchange for your cattle if your money is all gone.

17 So they took their cattle to Joseph and he gave them bread in exchange for their horses and flocks and herds and asses, so all that year he gave them food in exchange for their cattle.

18 And when that year was ended, they came to him in the second year, and said, We may not keep it from our lord's knowledge that all our money is gone, and all the herds of cattle are my lord's; there is nothing more to give my lord but our bodies and our land;

19 Are we to come to destruction before your eyes, we and our land? take us and our land and give us bread; and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh; and give us seed so that we may have life and the land may not become waste.

20 So Joseph got all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh; for every Egyptian gave up his land in exchange for food, because of their great need; so all the land became Pharaoh's.

21 And as for the people, he made servants of them, town by town, from one end of Egypt to the other.

22 Only he did not take the land of the priests, for the priests had their food given them by Pharaoh, and having what Pharaoh gave them, they had no need to give up their land.

23 Then Joseph said to the people, I have made you and your land this day the property of Pharaoh; here is seed for you to put in your fields.

24 And when the grain is cut, you are to give a fifth part to Pharaoh, and four parts will be yours for seed and food, and for your families and your little ones.

25 And they said to him, Truly you have kept us from death; may we have grace in your eyes, and we will be Pharaoh's servants.

26 Then Joseph made a law which is in force to this day, that Pharaoh was to have the fifth part; only the land of the priests did not become his.

27 And so Israel was living among the Egyptians in the land of Goshen; and they got property there, and became very great in numbers and in wealth.

28 And Jacob was living in the land of Goshen for seventeen years; so the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven.

29 And the time of his death came near, and he sent for his son Joseph and said to him, If now I am dear to you, put your hand under my leg and take an oath that you will not put me to rest in Egypt;

30 But when I go to my fathers, you are to take me out of Egypt and put me to rest in their last resting-place. And he said, I will do so.

31 And he said, Take an oath to me; and he took an oath to him: and Israel gave worship on the bed's head.

   

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Arcana Coelestia#3021

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3021. 'Put now your hand under my thigh' means being bound, as regards its power, to the good of conjugial love. This is clear from the meaning of 'the hand' as power, dealt with in 878, and from the meaning of 'the thigh' as the good of conjugial love, dealt with in what follows. A binding of this good to that power is indeed the meaning, as is clear from the consideration that those who were bound by an obligation to carry out some matter connected with conjugial love put their hand, according to ancient custom, under the thigh of the one to whom they were so bound, and in so doing swore by him. This was done because 'the thigh' meant conjugial love, and 'the hand' power, or the full extent of whatever one's capability might be. For all parts of the human body correspond to spiritual and celestial things in the Grand Man, which is heaven, as shown in 2996, 2998, and will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown more extensively later on. The thighs themselves, together with the loins, correspond to conjugial love. Those things were well known to the most ancient people, and for that reason so many customs came down from them, including that of putting their hands under the thigh when being bound by an obligation to carry out something connected with the good of conjugial love. Their knowledge of such things, which was valued most highly by the ancients, and belonged among the chief things that constituted their knowledge and intelligence, is totally lost today, so much so that not even the existence of any such correspondence is known, and for this reason people will probably be astounded that such things are meant by that custom. Here, because the subject is the betrothal of Isaac his son to another member of Abraham's family, and the oldest servant was called on to perform that task, this custom was therefore followed.

[2] It has been stated that 'the thigh', because of its correspondence, means conjugial love, and this may also be seen from other places in the Word, for example, from the procedure to be followed when a woman was accused by her husband of adultery, in Moses,

The priest shall make the woman take the oath of a curse, and the priest shall say to the woman, Jehovah will make you a curse and an oath in the midst of your people, when Jehovah makes your thigh fall away and your belly swell. When he has made her drink the water, then it will happen, if she has defiled herself and committed a trespass against her husband, that the water causing the curse will enter into her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, and her thigh will fall away; and the woman will be a curse in the midst of her people. Numbers 5:21, 27.

'The falling away of the thigh' means the evil of conjugial love, which is adultery. Every other detail in the same procedure had some specific meaning, so that not even the smallest detail fails to embody something, though anyone reading the Word who has no concept of its sacredness will wonder why such things are included there. It is because 'the thigh' means the good of conjugial love that the expression 'those coming out of the thigh' is used frequently, as in a reference to Jacob,

Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will go out from your thighs. Genesis 35:11.

And elsewhere in the same author,

Every soul coming with Jacob to Egypt, who came out of his thigh. Genesis 46:26; Exodus 1:5.

And in a reference to Gideon, Gideon had seventy sons, who came out of his thigh. Judges 8:30.

[3] Since 'the thigh' and 'the loins' mean the things that belong to conjugial love they also mean those that belong to love and charity, the reason being that conjugial love underlies every other kind of love, see 686, 2733, 2737-2739. These all have the same source - the heavenly marriage - which is a marriage of good and truth, regarding which see 2727-2759. For 'the thigh' means the good of celestial love and the good of spiritual love, as may be seen from the following places: In John,

He who sat on the white horse had on His robe and on His thigh the name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. Revelation 19:16.

'He who sat on the white horse' is the Word, and so the Lord, who is the Word, see 2760-2762. 'Robe' means Divine Truth, 2576, and for that reason He is called 'King of kings', 3009. From this it is evident what 'the thigh' means, namely the Divine Good which flows from His love, on account of which He is also named 'Lord of lords', 3004-3011. And this being the Lord's essential nature, it is said that He had a name written on His robe and on His thigh, for 'name' means essential nature, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006.

[4] In David,

Gird Your sword on Your thigh, O Mighty One, in Your glory and honour! Psalms 45:3.

This refers to the Lord. 'Sword' stands for truth engaged in conflict, 2799, 'thigh' for the good of love. 'Girding the sword on the thigh' means that the truth which He was to use in the fight was allied to the good of love. In Isaiah,

Righteousness will be the girdle of His loins, and truth the girdle of His thighs. Isaiah 11:5.

This too refers to the Lord. Because 'righteousness' has reference to the good that flows from love, 2235, it is called 'the girdle of His loins', while 'truth' because it comes from good, is called 'the girdle of His thighs'. Thus 'loins' is used in reference to the love within good, and 'thighs' to the love within truth.

[5] In the same prophet'

None will be weary, and none will stumble in Him. He will not slumber nor sleep. Nor has the girdle of His thighs been loosed, nor the thong of His shoes torn away. Isaiah 5:27.

This refers to the Lord. 'The girdle of His thighs' stands, as above, for the love within truth. In Jeremiah Jehovah told the prophet to buy a linen girdle and put it over his loins but not dip it in water. He was then told to go away to the Euphrates and hide it in a cleft of the rock. When he went back at a later time to retrieve it from that place it was spoiled, Jeremiah 13:1-7. 'A linen girdle' stands for truth, but the placing of it over his loins was representative of the fact that truth was the outward expression of good. Anyone may see that these actions are representative. Their meaning however cannot be known except from correspondences, which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with at the ends of certain chapters further on.

[6] It is similar with the meaning of the things seen by Ezekiel, Daniel, and Nebuchadnezzar: Ezekiel saw,

Above the firmament that was above the heads of the cherubim, in appearance like a sapphire stone, there was the likeness of a throne, and above the likeness of a throne, there was a likeness, as the appearance of a Man (Homo) upon it above. And I saw as it were the shape of fiery coals, as the shape of fire, within it round about. From the appearance of His loins and upwards, and from the appearance of His loins and downwards, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, whose brightness was round about it like the appearance of the rainbow which is in the cloud on the day of rain; so was the appearance of the brightness round about, thus was the appearance of the likeness of the Glory of Jehovah. Ezekiel 1:26-28.

This scene was clearly representative of the Lord and His kingdom. 'The appearance of His loins upwards and the appearance, of His loins downwards' is descriptive of His love, as is evident from the meaning of 'fire' as love, 934, and from the meaning of 'brightness' and of 'the rainbow' as wisdom and intelligence from that love, 1042, 1043, 1053.

[7] Daniel saw,

A man clothed in linen whose loins were girded with gold of Uphaz, and whose body was like tarshish, 1 and whose face was like the appearance of lightning and whose eyes were like fiery torches, and whose arms and feet were like the shine of burnished bronze. Daniel 10:5-6.

What each of these expressions means - the loins, the body, the face, the eyes, the arms, and the feet - does not become clear to anyone except from representations and correspondences involved in these. From these it is evident that in what Daniel saw the Lord's heavenly kingdom was represented, in which Divine Love constitutes the loins, and 'the gold of Uphaz' with which He was girded, the good resulting from wisdom that is grounded in love, 113, 1551, 1552.

[8] In Daniel: Nebuchadnezzar saw a statue whose head was fine gold, breast and arms silver, belly and thighs bronze, feet partly iron, partly clay, Daniel 2:32-33. This statue represented consecutive states of the Church. The head of gold represented the first state, which was celestial because it was a state of love to the Lord; the breast and arms of silver represented the second state, which was spiritual because it was a state of charity towards the neighbour; the belly and thighs of bronze represented the third state, which was a state of natural good meant by 'bronze', 425, 1551 - natural good being love or charity towards the neighbour as this exists on a lower level than spiritual good - while the feet of iron and clay were the fourth state, which was a state of natural truth meant by 'iron', 425, 426, and also a state involving complete lack of cohesion with good, which is meant by 'clay'.

From all this one may see what is meant by the thighs and loins, namely conjugial love primarily, and from this love every genuine kind of love, as is evident from the places quoted and also from Genesis 32:25, 31-32; Isaiah 20:2-4; Nahum 2:1; Psalms 69:23; Exodus 12:11; Luke 12:35-36. The thighs and loins also mean in the contrary sense those loves that are the reverse of conjugial love and all genuine loves, namely self-love and love of the world, 1 Kings 2:5-6; Isaiah 32:10-11; Jeremiah 30:6; 48:37; Ezekiel 29:7; Amos 8:10.

脚注:

1. A Hebrew word for a particular kind of precious stone, possibly a beryl.

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