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Genesis第9章

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1 And God gave his blessing to Noah and his sons, and said, Be fertile, and have increase, and make the earth full.

2 And the fear of you will be strong in every beast of the earth and every bird of the air; everything which goes on the land, and all the fishes of the sea, are given into your hands.

3 Every living and moving thing will be food for you; I give them all to you as before I gave you all green things.

4 But flesh with the life-blood in it you may not take for food.

5 And for your blood, which is your life, will I take payment; from every beast I will take it, and from every man will I take payment for the blood of his brother-man.

6 Whoever takes a man's life, by man will his life be taken; because God made man in his image.

7 And now, be fertile and have increase; have offspring on the earth and become great in number.

8 And God said to Noah and to his sons,

9 Truly, I will make my agreement with you and with your seed after you,

10 And with every living thing with you, all birds and cattle and every beast of the earth which comes out of the ark with you.

11 And I will make my agreement with you; never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters; never again will the waters come over all the earth for its destruction.

12 And God said, This is the sign of the agreement which I make between me and you and every living thing with you, for all future generations:

13 I will put my bow in the cloud and it will be for a sign of the agreement between me and the earth.

14 And whenever I make a cloud come over the earth, the bow will be seen in the cloud,

15 And I will keep in mind the agreement between me and you and every living thing; and never again will there be a great flow of waters causing destruction to all flesh.

16 And the bow will be in the cloud, and looking on it, I will keep in mind the eternal agreement between God and every living thing on the earth.

17 And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the agreement which I have made between me and all flesh on the earth.

18 And the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan.

19 These three were the sons of Noah and from them all the earth was peopled.

20 In those days Noah became a farmer, and he made a vine-garden.

21 And he took of the wine of it and was overcome by drink; and he was uncovered in his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father unclothed, and gave news of it to his two brothers outside.

23 And Shem and Japheth took a robe, and putting it on their backs went in with their faces turned away, and put it over their father so that they might not see him unclothed.

24 And, awaking from his wine, Noah saw what his youngest son had done to him, and he said,

25 Cursed be Canaan; let him be a servant of servants to his brothers.

26 And he said, Praise to the Lord, the God of Shem; let Canaan be his servant.

27 May God make Japheth great, and let his living-place be in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.

28 And Noah went on living three hundred and fifty years after the great flow of waters;

29 all the years of his life were nine hundred and fifty: and he came to his end.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#1097

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1097. 'Canaan will be a slave to him' means that such people as make worship consist solely in external things are among those who are able to perform inferior services to members of the Church. This becomes clear especially from the representatives in the Jewish Church. In the Jewish Church the internal Church was represented by Judah and Israel - the celestial Church by Judah, the spiritual by Israel - and the external Church by Jacob. People however who made worship consist solely in external things were represented by 'the gentiles' whom they called foreigners. The latter were to be 'their slaves' and were to perform inferior services in the Church, as in Isaiah,

Aliens will stand and pasture your flock, and sons of the foreigner will be your field-workers and your vine-dressers; and you will be called the priests of Jehovah, you will be spoken of as the ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of the gentiles, and in their glory will you glory. Isaiah 61:5-6.

Here celestial people are called 'the priests of Jehovah', spiritual people 'the ministers of God', while those who made worship consist solely in external things are called 'sons of the foreigner' who were to serve in their fields and vineyards.

[2] In the same prophet,

The sons of the foreigner will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you. Isaiah 60:10.

Here similar reference is made to the service they were to render. In reference to the Gibeonites the following is said in Joshua,

You are cursed, and some of you will always be slaves, 1 both hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. Joshua made them on that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, especially for the altar of Jehovah. Joshua 9:23, 27.

It may be seen elsewhere whom the Gibeonites represented because of the covenant made with them, even though they belonged among those who were to be servants in the Church. Regarding foreigners, the law was laid down that if they would accept peace and open their gates they would become tributary and serve, 2 Deuteronomy 20:11; 1 Kings 9:21-22. Every single detail written down in the Word concerning the Jewish Church was representative of the Lord's kingdom. The Lord's kingdom is such that everyone, no matter who or what kind of person, must perform a use. In His kingdom the Lord looks to nothing else than use. Even those in hell have to perform a use, though the uses they do perform are the lowest of all. Among those performing inferior uses are people in the next life whose worship has been wholly external, separated from internal.

[3] Furthermore representatives in the Jewish Church were such that no attention was paid to the person who represented, but to that which was represented by him. The Jews, for example, who were anything but celestial people, nevertheless represented these, while Israel, anything but a spiritual man, nevertheless represented that man; and it was similar with Jacob and the rest. The same applied to kings and priests; they nevertheless represented the Kingship and Holiness of the Lord. This matter becomes clearer still from the fact that even inanimate objects were representative, such as Aaron's garments, the altar itself, the tables with the leaves on them, the lamps, bread and wine; as well as oxen, calves, goats, sheep, kids, lambs, doves, and pigeons. And because the sons of Judah and Israel did no more than represent the internal and the external worship of the Lord's Church, and yet more than anybody else made all worship consist merely in external things, it is therefore they, more than all others, who may be called 'Canaan' according to his meaning here.

脚注:

1. literally, and there will not be cut off from you the slave

2. literally, they would become tribute [taking the form] of a serving one

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