Spiritual Meaning of GENESIS 13:5
[2] From these things it may be seen that it must necessarily happen that such knowledges as cannot agree with spiritual truths will insinuate themselves into the external man; and that such pleasures and delights will insinuate themselves as cannot agree with celestial goods; as is the case with all those things which regard corporeal, worldly, and earthly things as the ends; which, when regarded as ends, draw the external man outward and downward, and so remove it from the internal man. Wherefore, unless such things are first dispersed, the internal man cannot possibly agree with the external; so that before the internal man can agree with the external, such things must first be removed. That with the Lord these things were removed or separated, is represented and signified by the separation of Lot from Abram.
. Had flock and herd, and tents. That this signifies the things with which the external man abounds, is evident from the signification of "flock," "herd," and "tents," explained just below. They here signify the possessions of the external man; for by Lot, as before said, is represented the Lord’s external man. There are two classes of possessions in the external man, namely, such as can agree with the internal, and such as cannot agree. By "flock, herd, and tents" are here signified those things which cannot agree, as is evident from what follows--" and there was strife between the herdmen of Abram‘s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle" (verse 7). . That "flock and herd" signify the possessions of the external man, is evident from the signification of "flock" and "herd," as being goods (n. 343 and 415); but here they signify things that are to be separated, and thus things that are not good, because they are attributed to Lot, who was being separated from Abram. That "flock" and "herd" signify also things not good, is evident from the following passages of the Word. In Zephaniah:--I will destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. And the sea coast shall be habitations dug out for shepherds, and folds for a flock (Zephaniah 2:5, 6).
In Jeremiah:--
I will disperse in thee the shepherd and the flock; and I will disperse in thee the husbandman and his yoke (Jeremiah 51:23).
In the same:--
Go ye up to Arabia, and lay waste the sons of the east; their tents and their flocks shall they take (Jeremiah 49:28, 29).
The nettle shall inherit them; thorns shall be in their tents (Hosea 9:6).
In Habakkuk:--
I saw the tents of Cushan; the curtains of the land of Midian were greatly moved; Jehovah was angry against the rivers (Habakkuk 3:7, 8).
In Jeremiah:--
Shepherds with their flocks shall come unto the daughter of Zion; they shall pitch tents against her round about; they shall feed down every one his space (Jeremiah 6:3).
In David:--
He smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the beginning of strength in the tents of Ham (Ps. 78:51).
In the same:--
I had rather stand at the threshold in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness (Ps. 84:10).
Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). | Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002. | www.BibleMeanings.info |