Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6058

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6058. But the nature of the inflowing is such that it begins in the Lord's Divine Being and passes into every angel, every spirit, and every man, and in this way the Lord governs everyone not only in an overall sense but also in the smallest details. He does so both directly from Himself and indirectly through the spiritual world. So that the existence of this inflowing may be known much has been stated already regarding the correspondence of the parts of the human being with the Grand Man, that is, with heaven, and at the same time regarding the representation of spiritual realities with natural things. These matters were dealt with at the ends of Chapters 23-43. After that the subject, the angels and spirits present with a person, was dealt with at the ends of Chapters 44 and 45. It now follows that the specific matters of influx and the interaction of the soul and the body should be dealt with. But they are matters that need to have the light of experience thrown on them, otherwise a subject about which people are so ignorant and which they place in the dark by conjecturing about it cannot be brought out into the light. Experiences that throw light on these matters will be related at the ends of several chapters following this. What has been stated so far may serve instead of an introduction to those experiences.

47

GENESIS 47

  1. And Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brothers, and their flocks and their herds, and all that they have, have come from the land of Canaan, and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.
  2. And from his brothers' party he took five men, and placed them before Pharaoh.
  3. And Pharaoh said to his brothers, What are your works?a And they said to Pharaoh, Shepherds of the flock are your servants, both we and our fathers.
  4. And they said to Pharaoh, We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for the flock which belongs to your servants, for the famine is serious in the land of Canaan; and now let your servants, we beg you, dwell in the land of Goshen.
  5. And Pharaoh said to Joseph - he said, Your fathers and your brothers have come to you.
  6. The land of Egypt is before you; in the best of the land cause your father and your brothers to dwell; let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know that there are among them men of energy, then set them as the chief men over the livestock belonging to me.
  7. And Joseph caused Jacob his father to come and placed him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
  8. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the days of the years of your life?
  9. And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my sojournings are a hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their sojournings.
  10. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
  11. And Joseph caused his father and his brothers to dwell, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
  12. And Joseph sustained his father, and his brothers, and all his father's household with bread, according to the mouth of a young child.b
  13. And there was no bread in all the land, for the famine was extremely serious; and the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished from the presence of the famine.
  14. And Joseph gathered up all the silver found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they were buying; and Joseph caused the silver to come to Pharaoh's house.
  15. And when the silver was used up in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all Egypt came to Joseph, saying, Give us bread; and why should we die near by you because the silver is lacking?
  16. And Joseph said, Give your livestock, and I will give you [bread] in exchange for your livestock, if the silver is lacking.
  17. And they caused their livestock to come to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for livestock of the flock, and for livestock of the herd, and for asses; and he provided them with bread in exchange for all their live stock that year.
  18. And that year ended, and they came to him in the second year, and said to him, We will not hide from [my] lord, that since the silver has been used up and the livestock of the beasts has passed to [my] lord, nothing is left before [my] lord apart from our bodies and our ground.
  19. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our ground? Buy us and our ground for bread, and we will live, and our ground, as Pharaoh's slaves; and give us seed so that we may live and not die, and the ground may not become a waste.
  20. And Joseph bought all the ground of Egypt for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians sold, each one his field, because the famine overwhelmed them; and the land was Pharaoh's.
  21. And the people, he transferred them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt to the other end of it.
  22. Only the ground of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed portion from Pharaoh and ate their fixed portion which Pharaoh had given them; therefore they did not sell their ground.
  23. And Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have bought you today, and your ground, for Pharaoh; look, here is seed for you, and you may sow the ground.
  24. And so it will be at in gatherings,c that you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four portions shall be yours, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for those in your households, and children.
  25. And they said, You have bestowed life on us; let us find favour in the eyes of [my] lord, and we shall be Pharaoh's slaves.
  26. And Joseph made it a statute even to this day regarding the ground of Egypt, that a fifth went to Pharaoh. Only the ground of the priests, theirs alone, did not belong to Pharaoh.
  27. And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they had a possession in it, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.
  28. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; and the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were a hundred and forty-seven years
  29. And Israel's days drew near when he must die; and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found favour in your eyes, put now your hand under my thigh, and show me mercy and truth;d do not, I beg you, bury me in Egypt.
  30. And let me lie with my fathers, and you are to carry me out of Egypt, and to bury me in their sepulchre And he said, I will do according to your word.
  31. And he said, Swear to me. And he swore to him. And Israel bowed himself over the head of the bed.

Notes

a i.e. What is your occupation?
b i.e. according to the number of young mouths they had to feed
c lit. comings forth
d lit. make with me mercy and truth


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