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Genesis第31章

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1 And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob has taken away all that was our father's, and of what was our father's he has acquired all this glory.

2 And Jacob saw the countenance of Laban, and behold, it was not toward him as previously.

3 And Jehovah said to Jacob, Return into the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.

4 And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the fields to his flock,

5 and said to them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as previously; but the God of my father has been with me.

6 And you know that with all my power I have served your father.

7 And your father has mocked me, and has changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.

8 If he said thus; The speckled shall be thy hire, then all the flocks bore speckled; and if he said thus: The ringstraked shall be thy hire, then all the flocks bore ringstraked.

9 And God has taken away the cattle of your father, and given [them] to me.

10 And it came to pass at the time of the ardour of the flocks, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams that leaped upon the flocks were ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.

11 And the Angel of God said to me in a dream, Jacob! And I said, Here am I.

12 And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see: all the rams that leap upon the flock are ringstraked, speckled, and spotted; for I have seen all that Laban does to thee.

13 I am the ùGod of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, where thou vowedst a vow to me. Now arise, depart out of this land, and return to the land of thy kindred.

14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

15 Are we not reckoned of him strangers? for he has sold us, and has even constantly devoured our money.

16 For all the wealth that God has taken from our father is ours and our children's; and now whatever God has said to thee do.

17 And Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels,

18 and carried away all his cattle, and all his property that he had acquired -- the cattle of his possessions that he had acquired in Padan-Aram, to go to Isaac his father, into the land of Canaan.

19 And Laban had gone to shear his sheep. And Rachel stole the teraphim that [belonged] to her father.

20 And Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he fled.

21 And he fled with all that he had; and he rose up and passed over the river, and set his face [toward] mount Gilead.

22 And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled.

23 And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey, and overtook him on mount Gilead.

24 And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said to him, Take care thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

25 And Laban came up with Jacob; and Jacob had pitched his tent on the mountain; Laban also with his brethren pitched on mount Gilead.

26 And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast deceived me, and hast carried away my daughters as captives of war?

27 Why didst thou flee away covertly, and steal away from me, and didst not tell me, that I might have conducted thee with mirth and with songs, with tambour and with harp;

28 and hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now thou hast acted foolishly.

29 It would be in the power of my hand to do you hurt; but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Take care that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

30 And now that thou must needs be gone, because thou greatly longedst after thy father's house, why hast thou stolen my gods?

31 And Jacob answered and said to Laban, I was afraid; for I said, Lest thou shouldest take by force thy daughters from me.

32 With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, he shall not live. Before our brethren discern what is thine with me, and take [it] to thee. But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

33 And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the two handmaids' tents, and found nothing; and he went out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.

34 Now Rachel had taken the teraphim and put them under the camel's saddle; and she sat upon them. And Laban explored all the tent, but found nothing.

35 And she said to her father, Let it not be an occasion of anger in the eyes of my lord that I cannot rise up before thee, for it is with me after the manner of women. And he searched carefully, but did not find the teraphim.

36 And Jacob was angry, and he disputed with Laban. And Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my fault, what my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me?

37 Whereas thou hast explored all my baggage, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? Set [it] here before my brethren and thy brethren, and let them decide between us both.

38 These twenty years have I been with thee: thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock I have not eaten.

39 What was torn I have not brought to thee; I had to bear the loss of it: of my hand hast thou required it, [whether] stolen by day or stolen by night.

40 Thus it was with me: in the day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from mine eyes.

41 I have been these twenty years in thy house: I have served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy flock; and thou hast changed my wages ten times.

42 Had not the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, been with me, it is certain thou wouldest have sent me away now empty. God has looked upon my affliction and the labour of my hands, and has judged last night.

43 And Laban answered and said to Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, and the sons are my sons, and the flock is my flock, and all that thou seest is mine; but as for my daughters, what can I do this day to them, or to their sons whom they have brought forth?

44 And now, come, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be a witness between me and thee.

45 And Jacob took a stone, and set it up [for] a pillar.

46 And Jacob said to his brethren, Gather stones. And they took stones, and made a heap, and ate there upon the heap.

47 And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.

48 And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed,

49 -- and Mizpah; for he said, Let Jehovah watch between me and thee, when we shall be hidden one from another:

50 if thou shouldest afflict my daughters, or if thou shouldest take wives besides my daughters, -- no man is with us; see, God is witness between me and thee!

51 And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I have set up between me and thee:

52 [let] this heap be witness, and the pillar a witness, that neither I pass this heap [to go] to thee, nor thou pass this heap and this pillar [to come] to me, for harm.

53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us! And Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.

54 And Jacob offered a sacrifice upon the mountain, and invited his brethren to eat bread: and they ate bread, and lodged on the mountain.

55 And Laban rose early in the morning, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them; and Laban went and returned to his place.

   

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Arcana Coelestia#4104

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4104. 'And set his sons and his womenfolk on camels' means a raising up of truths and of affections for these, and the arrangement of them within things that are general. This is clear from the meaning of 'sons' as truths, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623; from the meaning of 'womenfolk', who in this case are Rachel and Leah, and also their servant-girls, as affections for truth, for cognitions, and for facts, dealt with already; and from the meaning of 'camels' as general facts within the natural, dealt with in 3048, 3071, 3143, 3145.

[2] Anyone who does not have some knowledge of representations and correspondences is incapable of believing that the words 'he set his sons and his womenfolk on camels' mean such things. To him they seem too remote to incorporate and contain within them that which is spiritual; for he thinks about sons, womenfolk, and camels. But the angels, who see and perceive all such things in a spiritual manner, do not think of sons but of truths when 'sons' are mentioned; they do not think of womenfolk but of affections for truth, cognitions, and facts when 'womenfolk' are mentioned; nor do they think of camels but of things that are general within the natural when these are mentioned. For such is the correspondence between the one thing and the other, and such is the way in which angels think. And what is remarkable, it is also the way in which the internal spiritual man thinks while living in the body, though the external man is totally unaware of it. For the same reason when a person who has been regenerated dies he enters into a similar manner of thinking and is able to think with and talk to angels. And this he does without being taught to do so, something that would never have been possible if his interior thought had not been such. The fact that it is such is due to the correspondence of natural things with spiritual. From this it may be seen that although the literal sense of the Word is natural it nevertheless contains spiritual things within it, and in every single part, that is, it contains the kind of things that belong to thought and therefore to interior or spiritual language, such as angels employ.

[3] With regard to the raising up of truths and of the affections for these, and the arrangement of them within things that are general, truths and affections are raised up when the things of eternal life and of the Lord's kingdom are thought to be more important than those of life in the body and of the kingdom of this world. When a person acknowledges the former to be first and foremost, and the latter to be secondary and subordinate, the truths he knows and his affections for them are raised up. For as is his acknowledgement so in the same measure is that person conveyed into the light of heaven, which light holds intelligence and wisdom within it, and so also in the same measure do things belonging to the light of this world become for him images and so to speak mirrors in which he sees the things belonging to the light of heaven. The contrary takes place when he thinks the things of the life of the body and of the kingdom of this world to be more important than those of eternal life and of the Lord's kingdom. He does this when he believes that the latter do not exist because he does not see them and because nobody has come from there and given an account of them - or if he does believe that they may exist, nothing worse will happen to him than to others - and in so believing confirms himself in these ideas, leads a worldly life, and despises charity and faith altogether. With such a person truths and the affections for them are not raised up but are either smothered, or rejected, or perverted. For he dwells in natural light into which no heavenly light at all flows in. This shows what is meant by a raising up of truths and of affections for them.

[4] As for the arrangement of these truths and affections within things that are general, this is the inevitable consequence; for insofar as a person thinks heavenly things are more important than worldly ones, things within his natural are arranged into an order in keeping with the state of heaven. As a result they are seen in the natural, as has been stated, as images and mirrors of heavenly things, for they are representatives that correspond. It is the ends in view which effect the arranging, that is, the Lord effects it by means of the ends which the person has in view. For there are three things which follow in order ends, causes, and effects. Ends bring about causes, and by means of causes bring about effects. As is the nature of the ends therefore so is that of the emanating causes, and from these that of the effects. Ends constitute the inmost things with man; causes constitute the intermediate things and are called the intermediate ends; and effects constitute the ultimate things and are called the ultimate ends. Effects also constitute the things which are termed general. From this one may see what is meant by an arrangement within things that are general, namely this: When anyone has the things of eternal life and of the Lord's kingdom as his end in view, then all intermediate ends, which are causes, and all ultimate ends, which are effects, are arranged in accordance with the end itself. And this is situated within the natural because that is where effects reside, or what amounts to the same, where things that are general reside.

[5] Every adult person possessing any judgement at all can recognize, if he gives the matter any consideration, that he is living in two kingdoms, the spiritual kingdom and the natural one. He can recognize that the spiritual kingdom is interior and the natural exterior, and consequently that he is able to think one more important than the other, that is, to have one rather than the other in view, and therefore that with him the one which he has as his end in view or makes more important is predominant. If therefore he has the spiritual kingdom, that is, the things which constitute that kingdom, as his end and thinks the spiritual kingdom more important than the natural one, then he acknowledges as being first and foremost love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, and consequently all ideas that reinforce love and charity, and are called the truths of faith; for these belong to that kingdom. When this is the situation in a person, everything within his natural is distributed and arranged in keeping with the things of that kingdom so as to be subservient and obedient. But when he has the natural kingdom, that is, the things that exist there, as his end in view, and makes that more important, he annihilates all love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, and all faith. Indeed he goes so far as to set no value at all on these things, but makes love of the world and self-love, and the things which go with these, all important. When this is the case everything within his natural is arranged in keeping with those ends, and so is entirely at odds with the things of heaven. In this way he brings about hell within himself. Having something as the end in view consists in loving it, for every end exists as the object of a person's love because that which he loves he has as his end in view.

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