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Genesis第19章

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1 And the two angels came to Sodom at even. And Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. And Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them; and he bowed down, the face toward the ground,

2 and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and lodge, and wash your feet; and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way. And they said, No; but we will pass the night in the open place.

3 And he urged them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house. And he made them a repast, and baked unleavened cakes; and they ate.

4 Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from the youngest to the oldest -- all the people from every quarter.

5 And they called to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men that have come in to thee to-night? bring them out to us that we may know them.

6 And Lot went out to them to the entrance, and shut the door after him,

7 and said, I pray you, my brethren, do not wickedly!

8 Behold now, I have two daughters who have not known a man: let me now bring them out to you; and do to them as is good in your sight: only, to these men do nothing; for therefore have they come under the shadow of my roof.

9 And they said, Back there! And they said [again], This one came to sojourn, and he must be a judge? Now we will deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed hard on the man -- on Lot; and drew near to break the door.

10 And the men stretched out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

11 And they smote the men that were at the entrance of the house with blindness, from the smallest to the greatest; and they wearied themselves to find the entrance.

12 And the men said to Lot, Whom hast thou here besides? a son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and all whom thou hast in the city -- bring [them] out of the place.

13 For we are going to destroy this place, because the cry of them is great before Jehovah, and Jehovah has sent us to destroy it.

14 And Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, Up, go out of this place, for Jehovah will destroy the city. But he was as if he jested, in the sight of his sons-in-law.

15 And as the dawn arose, the angels urged Lot, saying, Up, take thy wife and thy two daughters who are present, lest thou perish in the iniquity of the city.

16 And as he lingered, the men laid hold on his hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his two daughters, Jehovah being merciful to him; and they led him out, and set him without the city.

17 And it came to pass when they had brought them outside, that he said, Escape for thy life: look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain: Escape to the mountain, lest thou perish.

18 And Lot said to them, Not [so], I pray thee, Lord;

19 behold now, thy servant has found favour in thine eyes, and thou hast magnified thy goodness, which thou hast shewn to me in preserving my soul alive; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest calamity lay hold on me, that I die.

20 Behold now, this city is near to flee to, and it is small: I pray thee, let me escape thither -- is it not small? -- and my soul shall live.

21 And he said to him, Behold, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken.

22 Haste, escape thither; for I cannot do anything until thou art come there. Therefore the name of the city is called Zoar.

23 The sun rose upon the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

24 And Jehovah rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven,

25 and overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew upon the ground.

26 And his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham rose early in the morning [and went] to the place where he had stood before Jehovah;

28 and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and lo, a smoke went up from the land as the smoke of a furnace.

29 And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.

30 And Lot went up from Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar. And he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.

31 And the first-born said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the land to come in to us after the manner of all the earth:

32 come, let us give our father wine to drink, and let us lie with him, that we may preserve seed alive of our father.

33 And they gave their father wine to drink that night. And the first-born went in, and lay with her father, and he did not know of her lying down, nor of her rising.

34 And it came to pass on the next day that the first-born said to the younger, Lo, I lay last night with my father: let us give him wine to drink to-night also, and go thou in, lie with him, that we may preserve seed alive of our father.

35 And they gave their father wine to drink that night also. And the younger arose, and lay with him; and he did not know of her lying down, nor of her rising.

36 And both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

37 And the first-born bore a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38 And the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; the same is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#7519

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7519. 'The ashes of the furnace' means to arouse the falsities that are a product of evil desires, by being present with those engaged in molestation. This is clear from the meaning of 'the ashes of the furnace' as the falsities that are a product of evil desires, dealt with below. The fact that they are aroused through presence with those who molest is clear from what follows in the present verse, for it goes on to say that Moses scattered the ashes in the direction of heaven, before 'Pharaoh's eyes', 'before the eyes' meaning presence, and 'Pharaoh' meaning those who engage in molestation, as has been shown often.

[2] The nature of these things cannot be known without revelation, for they are things such as take place in the next life and are unknown in the world. As long as evil spirits or those from hell have been removed and are separated from heaven, that is, from the good of love and the truth of faith which are there, they are unaware of the fact that they are under the influence of evils and falsities. For in these circumstances they believe falsities to be truths and evils to be forms of good. But as soon as heaven, that is, some heavenly community, moves closer towards them, they recognize them to be falsities and evils; for the truth of faith that flows in then enables them to recognize falsities, and the good of love that flows in enables them to recognize evils. Also the closer heaven comes, or the inflow from it of the good of love and truth of faith becomes more directly present, the worse are those evil spirits tormented by their own evils and falsities, because they cannot bear that goodness and truth.

[3] From all this one may now see why Moses was commanded to take the ashes of the furnace and to scatter them in the direction of heaven, and to do this before Pharaoh's eyes, and why he, not Aaron, was commanded to scatter the ashes in the direction of heaven. For the requirement that the ashes should be scattered in the direction of heaven means the influx of heaven; the requirement that it should be done before Pharaoh's eyes means in the presence of those who molest; and Moses, not Aaron, was told to do it because this situation is brought about among the evil by truth that goes forth directly from God, 'Moses' being truth that goes forth directly from God, 'Aaron' that which goes forth in an indirect way, see 7010. All this shows what is meant in the internal sense by the contents of this verse and those immediately following - that foul and filthy things that are products of evil desires, together with blasphemy, meant by 'sores breaking out into pustules', should be aroused. They are aroused when Divine Truth flows in and heaven moves closer.

[4] Anyone may see that Moses would never have been commanded by Jehovah to do such things - to take the ashes of the furnace and scatter them in the direction of heaven - unless some heavenly arcanum had lain within them. Jehovah would never have given orders for the employment of such means to produce their effect unless they had contained something heavenly to which they corresponded. From this one may see what the Word is like, that it is very full of arcana, but arcana that are not clearly visible in the sense of the letter.

[5] The reason why 'the ashes of the furnace' means falsities that are a product of evil desires is that ashes are formed from things that have been burnt. What is being burnt, as also the actual fire, in the Word means in the good sense good that is the object of heavenly affections, but in the contrary sense evil that is the object of hellish desires. For the fact that 'fire' means those things, see 934, 1861, 2446, 4906, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324; and 'burning' means evil desires, 1297, 5215. So it is that 'ashes' means falsities, for falsities are the product of evil desires. Since evil desires are meant by 'fire' they are also meant by 'a furnace'. 'A furnace', being a container, often implies the same as its contents.

[6] The fact that 'a furnace' means these things is clear from the following places: In Malachi,

Behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant, and every evil-doer will be stubble; and the day that is coming will burn them up; it will leave them neither root nor branch. Malachi 4:1

'Burning like a furnace' stands for evil desires; 'burning them up' stands for burning with evil desires.

[7] In the book of Genesis,

Abraham looked out towards the face of Sodom and Gomorrah, and towards the whole face of the land of the plain; and he saw, and the smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace. Genesis 19:28.

'The smoke of a furnace' stands for falsities arising from evil desires. For 'Sodom' is evil desires that stem from self-love, and 'Gomorrah' is falsity arising from that evil, 2220, 2246, 2322. In John,

Out of the pit of the abyss there went up smoke, like the smoke of a furnace. Revelation 9:2.

'The smoke of a furnace' again stands for falsities arising from evil desires, 'the pit of the abyss' standing for hell.

[8] In Matthew,

The Son of Man will send His angels, who will gather out of His kingdom all offences, and those who work iniquity, and will send them into the furnace of fire. Matthew 13:41-42.

'The furnace of fire' stands for evil desires; for the fire of evil desires is what is meant in the Word by hell-fire. Loves too are simply what fire people's lives; and loves extend into desires.

[9] In Nahum,

Draw yourself water for the siege, strengthen your fortifications; go into the mud and tread the clay; renew the brick-kiln. 1 There the fire will devour you, the sword cut you off. Nahum 3:14-15.

'Going into the mud' stands for entering into falsity, 'treading the clay' stands for stepping into evil, 6669. 'The brick-kiln' 1 stands for the falsities which they fashion and which are introduced by the evil, 1296, 6669, 7113; 'the fire' stands for the desire for evil, 1861, 2446, 5071, 5215, 6832, 7324; and 'the sword' stands for falsity, 4499.

[10] In Jeremiah,

Take into your hand large stones, and hide them in the clay in the brick-kiln 1 which is at the gate of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the eyes of the men of the Jews, and say to them, Behold, I am sending and will bring Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babel, and will put his throne onto these stones which I have hidden, so that he may spread his tent over them. He will come and strike the land of Egypt. Jeremiah 43:9-11.

One cannot know what these verses mean without the internal sense. 'Large stones' are falsities; 'the brick-kiln' 1 is the desire for falsity arising from evil; 'Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babel' is one who lays truth and goodness waste; the presence of his throne and tent on these stones means that he will cause falsities to reign; and 'the land of Egypt' which he will strike is the natural mind.

脚注:

1. literally, brick-furnace

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