Nadab
'Nadab' signifies doctrine from the internal sense of the Word.
aaron
Aaron was the brother of Moses. He symbolizes two things, at different stages of the story. During the first part of the exodus, when he...
Put
'To put' has reference to order, arrangement, application, and influx.
fire
Fire, in the spiritual sense, can mean both love and hatred depending on the context, just as natural fire can be both comforting in keeping...
Incense
'Incense' or 'odors' signify worship and confession of the Lord, from spiritual goods and truths.
Strange fire
The phrase 'strange fire' denotes infernal love. The phrase 'strange fire,' as in Leviticus 10:1, signifies all love of self and of the world, and...
before
In most cases, the meaning of "before" is pretty straightforward, both as a way of assessing relative time, and in its use meaning "in someone's...
jehovah
The Lord, in the simplest terms, is love itself expressed as wisdom itself. In philosophic terms, love is the Lord's substance and wisdom is His...
commanded
To command is to give an order that something must be done, and is directed to an individual, or a group. It is an imperative,...
devoured
When we eat, our bodies break down the food and get from it both energy and materials for building and repairing the body. The process...
died
Dead (Gen. 23:8) signifies night, in respect to the goodnesses and truths of faith.
moses
Moses's name appears 814 times in the Bible (KJV), third-most of any one character (Jesus at 961 actually trails David at 991). He himself wrote...
said
As with many common verbs, the meaning of “to say” in the Bible is highly dependent on context. Who is speaking? Who is hearing? What...
spake
Like "say," the word "speak" refers to thoughts and feelings moving from our more internal spiritual levels to our more external ones – and ultimately...
sanctified
'To sanctify' denotes being led by the Lord. 'To sanctify' denotes being incapable of being violated.
glorified
'Honor' signifies the good of love. 'To honor,' as mentioned in Isaiah 24:15, signifies worship and adoration. 'To honor thy father and thy mother,' as...
peace
In ordinary life, we tend to think of "peace" as essentially "a lack of conflict." As a nation, if we're not at war, it's a...
called
To call someone or summon someone in the Bible represents a desire for conjunction between higher and lower states of life. For instance, imagine someone...
draw
"Drawing" is used a number of different ways in the Bible, generally in the sense of pulling, leading or moving: People most commonly draw water,...
near
'Near,' in the Word, signifies presence and conjunction. 'To be near' signifies being on internal levels. Near,' as in Genesis 19:20, signifies truth bordering upon...
brethren
Brethren (Gen. 27:29) signify the affections of good.
sanctuary
'Sanctuary' signifies the truth of heaven and the church. 'Sanctuary,' as in Ezekiel 24:21, signifies the Word.
camp
Camps in the Bible represent spiritual order – a person’s (or a church community’s) whole collection of desires for good and true ideas on how...
drew
"Drawing" is used a number of different ways in the Bible, generally in the sense of pulling, leading or moving: People most commonly draw water,...
coats
A coat, as in Matthew 10:10, signifies interior natural truth, or truth of the natural principle. The Lord's coat without seam, woven from above throughout...
hair
'Hairs of the head, the beard, and the feet,' as mentioned in Isaiah 7:20, signify the following things: 'Hairs of the head' signify the outermost...
heads
The head is the part of us that is highest, which means in a representative sense that it is what is closest to the Lord....
go
In the physical world, the places we inhabit and the distances between them are physical realities, and we have to get our physical bodies through...
rend
'To rend the garments' signifies mourning for truth lost or destroyed, or the loss of faith.
clothes
It is said, in Deuteronomy 22:11, "Thou shalt not wear a garment of diverse sorts; as of woolen and linen together…”. This means that the...
die
Dead (Gen. 23:8) signifies night, in respect to the goodnesses and truths of faith.
congregation
A company, congregation, and a multitude, in the Word, are predicated of truths.
house
A "house" is essentially a container - for a person, for a family, for several families or even for a large group with shared interests...
israel
'Israel,' in Jeremiah 23:8, signifies the spiritual natural church. The children of Israel dispersed all the literal sense of the Word by falsities. 'The children...
Go out
To go out to meet, as in Genesis 14:17, signifies to submit themselves. To go out, as in Genesis 28:10, signifies to live more remotely....
door
In a general sense, doors in the Bible represent the initial desires for good and concepts of truth that introduce people to new levels of...
tent
'Tent' is used in the Word to signify the celestial and holy aspects of love, because in ancient time they performed holy worship in their...
oil
In Revelation 18:13, 'wine, oil, flour, and wheat' signify celestial principles of worship.
the Word
In general, we tend to be very aware of how knowing what's true leads to doing what is good. That starts as children, with parents...
word
'Word,' as in Psalms 119:6-17, stands for doctrine in general. 'The Word,' as in Psalms 147:18, signifies divine good united with divine truth. 'Word,' as...
drink
To be drunken without wine (Isa. 29:9), are they who are unconcerned about the Word, and the truths of faith, and thus have no inclination...
Wine
In Revelation 18:13, 'wine, oil, flour, and wheat' signify celestial principles of worship.
Strong drink
Strong drink' signifies the truth of the natural self.
ever
'Perpetual' in the literal sense, means to the end of one’s life, after death, and eternity.
generations
To “generate” something is to create it, and that idea underpins the meaning of a “generation” of people – it is a group that was...
holy
'Sanctuary' signifies the truth of heaven and the church. 'Sanctuary,' as in Ezekiel 24:21, signifies the Word.
unclean
'Pollution' denotes the truth of faith defiled.
clean
To be "pure" in the Bible means - unsurprisingly - to be devoid of evil. Thus all the washing for purification prescribed in the Laws...
children
A child is a young boy or girl in the care of parents, older than a suckling or an infant, but not yet an adolescent....
statutes
All laws, even civil and judicial laws, which are in the Word, correspond to the laws of good and truth, which are in heaven.
spoken
Like "say," the word "speak" refers to thoughts and feelings moving from our more internal spiritual levels to our more external ones – and ultimately...
offering
It was customary in the representative Ancient Church, and later in the Jewish Church, when people went to the judges, and at a later time,...
Offerings
'Offerings' signify worship.
eat
When we eat, our bodies break down the food and get from it both energy and materials for building and repairing the body. The process...
altar
The first altar mentioned in the Word was built by Noah after he came out of the ark. On that altar, he sacrificed clean animals...
place
'A room' or 'place' denotes state.
wave
'A wave' denotes life flowing in.
daughters
"Behold I have two daughters,” etc. (Gen. 19:8), signifies the affections of good and truth, and the blessedness perceivable from the enjoyment thereof, by those...
given
Like other common verbs, the meaning of "give" in the Bible is affected by context: who is giving what to whom? In general, though, giving...
bring
As with common verbs in general, the meaning of “bring” is highly dependent on context, but in general it represents an introduction to a new...
fat
'Fat things full of marrow,' signify goods.
goat
'A kid' signifies the truth of the church. 'A kid,' as in Isaiah 11:6, signifies the genuine truth of the church and also innocence and...
sin
In the Word three terms are used to mean bad things that are done. These three are transgression, iniquity, and sin, and they are here...
eaten
When we eat, our bodies break down the food and get from it both energy and materials for building and repairing the body. The process...
seeing
The symbolic meaning of "seeing" is "understanding," which is obvious enough that it has become part of common language (think about it; you might see...
bear
Like many verbs, the spiritual meaning of "bearing" something depends greatly on context – what it is that's being borne, and why. It is further...
iniquity
Folly, iniquity, hypocrisy, and error, as in Isaiah 32:6: Folly has respect to the false, iniquity signifies evil, hypocrisy, the evils spoken against goods, and...
blood
Bloods signify evil, in Ezek. 16:9.
day
The expression 'even to this day' or 'today' sometimes appears in the Word, as in Genesis 19:37-38, 22:14, 26:33, 32:32, 35:20, and 47:26. In a...
sight
The symbolic meaning of "seeing" is "understanding," which is obvious enough that it has become part of common language (think about it; you might see...
heard
Thanks to modern science, we now understand that hearing actually happens in the brain, not the ears. The ears collect vibrations in the air and...
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