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Genesis第13章

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1 And Abram goeth up from Egypt (he and his wife, and all that he hath, and Lot with him) towards the south;

2 and Abram [is] exceedingly wealthy in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

3 And he goeth on his journeyings from the south, even unto Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the commencement, between Bethel and Hai --

4 unto the place of the altar which he made there at the first, and there doth Abram preach in the name of Jehovah.

5 And also to Lot, who is going with Abram, there hath been sheep and oxen and tents;

6 and the land hath not suffered them to dwell together, for their substance hath been much, and they have not been able to dwell together;

7 and there is a strife between those feeding Abram's cattle and those feeding Lot's cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite [are] then dwelling in the land.

8 And Abram saith unto Lot, `Let there not, I pray thee, be strife between me and thee, and between my shepherds and thy shepherds, for we [are] men -- brethren.

9 Is not all the land before thee? be parted, I pray thee, from me; if to the left, then I to the right; and if to the right, then I to the left.'

10 And Lot lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the whole circuit of the Jordan that it [is] all a watered country (before Jehovah's destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, as Jehovah's garden, as the land of Egypt,) in thy coming toward Zoar,

11 and Lot chooseth for himself the whole circuit of the Jordan; and Lot journeyeth from the east, and they are parted -- a man from his companion;

12 Abram hath dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot hath dwelt in the cities of the circuit, and tenteth unto Sodom;

13 and the men of Sodom [are] evil, and sinners before Jehovah exceedingly.

14 And Jehovah said unto Abram, after Lot's being parted from him, `Lift up, I pray thee, thine eyes, and look from the place where thou [art], northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward;

15 for the whole of the land which thou are seeing, to thee I give it, and to thy seed -- to the age.

16 And I have set thy seed as dust of the earth, so that, if one is able to number the dust of the earth, even thy seed is numbered;

17 rise, go up and down through the land, to its length, and to its breadth, for to thee I give it.'

18 And Abram tenteth, and cometh, and dwelleth among the oaks of Mamre, which [are] in Hebron, and buildeth there an altar to Jehovah.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#1613

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1613. 'The length of it and the breadth of it' means the celestial dimension and the spiritual dimension, or what amounts to the same, good and truth. 'length' means good and 'breadth' truth; see what has been stated already in 650. The reason is that 'land' means the heavenly kingdom, or Church, to which length and breadth are not attributable, only those things that match them and correspond to them, that is to say, goods and truths. The celestial dimension, or good, being primary, is compared to length, while the spiritual dimension, or truth, being secondary, is compared to breadth.

[2] That 'breadth' is truth is quite clear from the Prophetical part of the Word, as in Habakkuk,

I am rousing the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation, marching' into the breadths of the earth. Habakkuk 1:6.

'Chaldeans' stands for people under the influence of falsity, 'marching 1 into the breadths of the earth' for the destruction of truths, for these words are used in reference to the Chaldeans. In David,

O Jehovah, You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have made my feet stand in a broad place. Psalms 31:8.

'Standing in a broad place' stands for abiding in the truth. In the same author,

Out of my distress I called on Jah; He answered me in a broad place. Psalms 118:5.

'Answering in a broad place' stands for answering with the truth. In Hosea,

Jehovah will pasture them like a lamb in a broad place. Hosea 4:16.

'Pasturing in a broad place' stands for teaching the truth.

[3] In Isaiah,

Asshur will go through Judah, it will deluge it and pass through and will reach even to the neck; and the outstretching of its wings will fill the breadth of the land. Isaiah 8:8.

'Asshur' stands for reasoning which would 'deluge the land', or the Church; 'wings' stands for reasonings from which falsities result; 'filling the breadth of the land' stands for its being full of falsities, or things contrary to the truth. Because the length of the land meant good and its breadth truth it is said that the New Jerusalem when measured lies four-square, its length being the same as its breadth, Revelation 21:16. From this anyone may see that length and breadth have no other meaning, since the New Jerusalem is nothing else than the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth. Because of the meaning things have in the internal sense it became commonplace in former times to refer to celestial and spiritual things by means of things on earth, such as length and breadth, just as height and depth are used nowadays in everyday speech when people are referring to wisdom.

脚注:

1. literally, walking

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