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Genesis第50章

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1 And when Joseph saw this, he fell upon his father's face weeping and kissing him.

2 And he commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.

3 And while they were fulfilling his commands, there passed forty days: for this was the manner with bodies that were embalmed, and Egypt mounted for him seventy days.

4 And the time of the mourning being expired, Joseph spoke to the family of Pharao: If I have found favour in your sight, speak in the ears of Pharao:

5 For my father made me swear to him, saying: Behold I die: thou shalt bury me in my sepulchre which I have digged for myself in the land of Chanaan. So I will go up and bury my father, and return.

6 And Pharao said to him: Go up and bury thy father according as he made thee swear.

7 So he went up, and there went with him all the ancients of Pharao's house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

8 And the house of Joseph with his brethren, except their children, and their flocks and herds, which they left in the land of Gessen.

9 He had also in his train chariots and horsemen: and it was it great company.

10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is situated beyond the Jordan: where celebrating the exequies with a great and vehement lamentation, they spent full seven days.

11 And when the inhabitants of Chanaan saw this, they said: This is a great mourning to the Egyptians. And there- fore the name of that place was called, The mourning of Egypt.

12 So the sons of Jacob did as he had commanded them.

13 And carrying him into the land of Chanaan, they buried him in the double cave which Abraham had bought together with the held for a possession of a buryingplace, of Ephron the Hethite over against Mambre.

14 And Joseph returned into Egypt with his brethren, and all that were in his company, after he had buried his father.

15 Now he being dead, his brethren were afraid, and talked one with another : Lest perhaps he should remember the wrong he suffered, and requite us all the evil that we did to him.

16 And they sent a message to him, saying: Thy father commanded us before he died,

17 That we should say thus much to thee from him: I beseech thee to forget the wickedness of thy brethren, and the sin and malice they practiced against thee: we also pray thee, to forgive the servants of the God of thy father this wickedness. And when Joseph heard this, he wept.

18 And his brethren came to him: and worshipping prostrate on the ground they said: We are thy servants.

19 And he answered them: Fear not: can we resist the will of God?

20 You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people.

21 Fear not: I will feed you and your children. And he comforted them, and spoke gently and mildly.

22 And he dwelt in Egypt with all his father's house: and lived a hundred and ten years. And he saw the children of Ephraim to the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Ma-nasses were born on Joseph's knees.

23 After which he told his brethren: God will visit you after my death, and will make you go up out of this land, to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

24 And he made them swear to him, saying: God will visit you, Carry my bones with you out of this place:

25 And he died being a hundred and ten years old. And being embalmed he was laid in a coffin in Egypt.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#6587

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6587. 'And Joseph said to his brothers, I am dying' means a foretelling that the internal of the Church is about to come to an end. This is clear from the meaning of 'Joseph' as the internal, dealt with in 6499, here the internal of the Church since the establishment of the Church by the internal, that is, by the Lord through the internal, has been the subject in what has gone before; and from the meaning of 'dying' as ceasing to be such, dealt with in 494, thus coming to an end. 'Dying' also means the final period of the Church, 2908, 2912, 2917, 2923; and a foretelling regarding that final period is meant by 'Joseph said to his brothers', for in what follows from here to the end of the chapter the subject is a further state of the Church. From all this it is evident that 'Joseph said to his brothers, I am dying' means that the internal of the Church is about to come to an end.

[2] The situation is that for the Church to exist it must be internal and external; for there are those who are in the internal domain of the Church and there are those who are in its external domain, the former being few, but the latter very many. Even so, those with whom the internal Church exists must have the external Church with them also, for the internal of the Church is inseparable from its external; and those with whom the external Church exists must have the internal Church with them also, though with them the internal Church exists in obscurity.

[3] The internal of the Church consists in willing good from the heart and being stirred by an affection for good, while the external of that internal consists in performing such good and doing so in accordance with the truth of faith, the knowledge of which springs from good. But the external of the Church consists in the sacred performance of religious observances and the practice of charitable works as instructed by the Church. From all this it is clear that the internal of the Church is the good of charity in the will. Therefore when this comes to an end the Church itself also comes to an end, for the good of charity is the essential constituent of the Church. After that external worship does, it is true, remain as it was before; yet now it is not worship but ceremony which is preserved because it is the established custom. But such ceremony, which seems to be worship, is like the shell without the nut; for it is the external that remains but does not have anything internal within it. When the Church is like this it is at its end.

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