Arcana Coelestia#2353
2353. 'In the night' means the final period when these two are acknowledged no longer. This is clear from the meaning of 'the night' as a time of darkness when the things of light are seen no longer. The angels did not come in the night but at evening time, but because it was the men of Sodom who spoke and cried out, that is, those who are immersed in falsity and evil, the expression used is not 'in the evening' but 'in the night'. For 'night' in the Word means the period of time and the state when the light of truth exists no longer, but merely falsity and evil, and so is the final period when judgement takes place.
[2] This meaning is met in other places, as in Micah,
Against the prophets who lead the people astray: It is night for you instead of vision, and darkness for you instead of divination, and the sun is setting upon the prophets and the day is becoming black over them. Micah 3:5-6.
'The prophets' here stands for those who teach falsities. 'Night', 'darkness', 'sunset', and 'the day becoming black' stand for falsities and evils.
[3] In John,
If anyone walks in the day he does not stumble; but if anyone walks in the night he stumbles because the light is not in him. John 11:9-10.
Here 'night' stands for falsity deriving from evil. 'The light' stands for truth deriving from good, for just as all the light of truth derives from good, so all the night of falsity does so from evil.
[4] In the same gospel,
I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when nobody can work. John 9:4.
'Day' stands for the period of time and the state when good and truth are present, but 'night' when evil and falsity are present.
[5] In Luke,
I tell you, in that night there will be two upon one bed; one will be taken, the other left. Luke 17:34.
Here 'night' stands for the final period when the truth of faith is no more.
[6] When the children of Israel were going out of Egypt they were commanded 'to go out at midnight', because in this way the vastation of good and truth inside the Church was represented, and also that nothing except falsity and evil reigned there any longer, Exodus 11:4. And when they did, all the firstborn of Egypt were slain at midnight, Exodus 12:12, 29-30. Now because those with whom good and truth are present, who were represented by the children of Israel, are watched over when, like Lot in Sodom, they are among falsities and evils, that night is described in reference to them as 'the night when Jehovah kept watch', Exodus 12:42.
Genesis第19章
1
The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,
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and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night."
3
He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4
But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.
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They called to Lot, and said to him, "Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them."
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Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him.
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He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.
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See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don't do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."
9
They said, "Stand back!" Then they said, "This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!" They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.
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But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.
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They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
12
The men said to Lot, "Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:
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for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it."
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Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, "Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.
15
When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, "Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city."
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But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and his two daughters' hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.
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It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life! Don't look behind you, and don't stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!"
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Lot said to them, "Oh, not so, my lord.
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See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.
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See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live."
21
He said to him, "Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
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Hurry, escape there, for I can't do anything until you get there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
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The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
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Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.
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He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
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But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
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Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.
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He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
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It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
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Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.
31
The firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.
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Come, let's make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."
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They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she arose.
34
It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."
35
They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she got up.
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Thus both of Lot's daughters were with child by their father.
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The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38
The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.
