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Genesis第10章

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1 And these [are] births of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and born to them are sons after the deluge.

2 `Sons of Japheth [are] Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.

3 And sons of Gomer [are] Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.

4 And sons of Javan [are] Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.

5 By these have the isles of the nations been parted in their lands, each by his tongue, by their families, in their nations.

6 And sons of Ham [are] Cush, and Mitzraim, and Phut, and Canaan.

7 And sons of Cush [are] Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah; and sons of Raamah [are] Sheba and Dedan.

8 And Cush hath begotten Nimrod;

9 he hath begun to be a hero in the land; he hath been a hero in hunting before Jehovah; therefore it is said, `As Nimrod the hero [in] hunting before Jehovah.'

10 And the first part of his kingdom is Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar;

11 from that land he hath gone out to Asshur, and buildeth Nineveh, even the broad places of the city, and Calah,

12 and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah; it [is] the great city.

13 And Mitzraim hath begotten the Ludim, and the Anamim, and the Lehabim, and the Naphtuhim,

14 and the Pathrusim, and the Casluhim, (whence have come out Philistim,) and the Caphtorim.

15 And Canaan hath begotten Sidon his first-born, and Heth,

16 and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite,

17 and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,

18 and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite; and afterwards have the families of the Canaanite been scattered.

19 And the border of the Canaanite is from Sidon, [in] thy coming towards Gerar, unto Gaza; [in] thy coming towards Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, unto Lasha.

20 These [are] sons of Ham, by their families, by their tongues, in their lands, in their nations.

21 As to Shem, father of all sons of Eber, brother of Japheth the elder, he hath also begotten:

22 Sons of Shem [are] Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram.

23 And sons of Aram [are] Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash.

24 And Arphaxad hath begotten Salah, and Salah hath begotten Eber.

25 And to Eber have two sons been born; the name of the one [is] Peleg (for in his days hath the earth been divided,) and his brother's name [is] Joktan.

26 And Joktan hath begotten Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,

27 and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah,

28 and Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba,

29 and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab; all these [are] sons of Joktan;

30 and their dwelling is from Mesha, [in] thy coming towards Sephar, a mount of the east.

31 These [are] sons of Shem, by their families, by their tongues, in their lands, by their nations.

32 These [are] families of the sons of Noah, by their births, in their nations, and by these have the nations been parted in the earth after the deluge.

   

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Arcana Coelestia#1093

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1093. That 'cursed be Canaan' means that external worship separated from internal turned itself away from the Lord is clear from the meaning of 'Canaan' and from the meaning of 'being cursed'. That 'Canaan' is external worship separated from internal is clear from what has been stated already about Canaan, also from his being called 'cursed'; and from what follows about his being 'a slave of slaves'. And being a slave both to Shem and to Japheth cannot mean anything other than something separated from the Church itself, such as worship that is wholly external. This is clear from the meaning of 'being cursed' as turning oneself away, for the Lord in no way curses anybody, or is even angry. Instead it is man who brings the curse upon himself by turning himself away from the Lord. On these points see what has been shown already in 223, 245, 592. The Lord is as far from cursing or being angry with anyone as the sky is from the earth. Who can believe that the Lord, who is all-knowing and all-powerful, who with wisdom rules the universe, and so who is infinitely superior to all [human] weaknesses, is angry with such pitifully worthless dust, that is, with human beings who scarcely know anything of what they do and who of themselves are incapable of anything other than evil? With the Lord therefore anger is never present, only mercy.

[2] That arcana are contained here can be seen merely from the consideration that even though it was Ham who saw his father's nakedness and pointed it out to his brothers, he was not cursed but his son Canaan, who was not his only son nor even the firstborn but the fourth in line, as is clear from Chapter 10, verse 6 later on, where the sons of Ham are mentioned as being Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. It can in addition be seen from the Divine Law that no son was to bear his father's iniquity, as is clear in Ezekiel,

The soul that has sinned will die. The son will not bear the iniquity of the father, nor will the father bear the iniquity of the son. Ezekiel 18:20; Deuteronomy 14:16; 2 Kings 14:6.

And the same can also be seen from the consideration that this iniquity of merely seeing his father's nakedness and pointing it out to his brothers seems too slight for all of his descendants ever to have been cursed on that account. From these considerations it is clear that arcana are contained here.

[3] The reason Ham is not mentioned here but Canaan is that Ham means faith separated from charity in the spiritual Church, which cannot be cursed because in that Church faith has holiness present within it because truth is present there. And although there is no faith when there is no charity, it is still possible - since it is by means of the cognitions of faith that a person is regenerated - for separated faith to be allied to charity, and in this way to be in some sense 'a brother' or may become one. This was why Canaan was cursed and not Ham. Furthermore the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were for the most part people such as made all worship consist in external things, the Jews there as much as the gentiles. These are the arcana contained here, but for which Canaan would never have been substituted for Ham. That external worship separated from internal turns itself away and so brings a curse on itself is quite clear from the fact that people whose worship is external have no regard for anything other than worldly, bodily, and earthly things. Thus they look downwards, and immerse their minds (animus) and life in those things; such will be dealt with a little further on.

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