congregation
A company, congregation, and a multitude, in the Word, are predicated of truths.
journeyed
'To journey' signifies the institutes and order of life.
Wilderness of Sin
'The wilderness of Sin' signifies the good from truth in an earlier state of temptation.
wilderness
'Wilderness' signifies something with little life in it, as described in the internal sense in Luke 1:80 'Wilderness' signifies somewhere there is no good because...
journeys
'To journey' signifies the institutes and order of life.
encamped
'Pitch,' as in Genesis 14:10, denotes lusts. 'Burning pitch,' as in Isaiah 34:9, signifies direful fantasies.
give
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...
water
'Waters' signify truths in the natural self, and in the opposite sense, falsities. 'Waters' signify particularly the spiritual parts of a person, or the intellectual...
thirsted
Food in the Bible generally relates to the desire for good, and drink generally relates to ideas of what is true. It makes sense then,...
thirst
Food in the Bible generally relates to the desire for good, and drink generally relates to ideas of what is true. It makes sense then,...
murmured
'To murmur' denotes complaint and pain from the bitterness of temptation.
egypt
In the Bible, Egypt means knowledge and the love of knowledge. In a good sense that means knowledge of truth from the Lord through the...
Put
'To put' has reference to order, arrangement, application, and influx.
livestock
Animals in the Bible generally refer to spiritual activity, the things we actually do on a spiritual level. "Cattle," as typically used in the Bible,...
pass
'To pass,' as in Genesis 31:52, signifies flowing in. 'To pass the night,' as in Genesis 24:54, signifies having peace. 'To pass through,' as in...
stand
'To sit before Jehovah' is to be with Him, and so, it also means willing and acting from Him. 'To stand before Him,' is to...
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...
rock
'A rock' signifies the Lord regarding the divine truth of the Word.
smite
To strike or smite, when used in the Bible, means to attack, harm or destroy, and is usually in reference to an attack on someone’s...
drink
Food in the Bible represents the desire for good, and water and other drinks represent the understanding and true ideas we need to recognize what...
eyes
It’s common to say “I see” when we understand something. And indeed, “seeing” in the Bible represents grasping and understanding spiritual things. So it makes...
Elders of Israel
The elders of Israel (Deut. 1:13, 15) represent celestial men.
elders
Elders are mentioned in the Bible mainly in two ways: First the elders of Israel: and second the 24 elders seated about the throne of...
place
'A room' or 'place' denotes state.
meribah
'Meribah' signifies things pertaining to the spiritual church.
Sons of Israel
'The camp of the sons of Israel' represents the church.
came
As with common verbs in general, the meaning of “come” in the Bible is highly dependent on context – its meaning is determined largely by...
Rephidim
'Rephidim,' as in Exodus 17:1, signify the quality of temptations to truth.
us
Angels do give us guidance, but they are mere helpers; the Lord alone governs us, through angels and spirits. Since angels have their assisting role,...
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...
tomorrow
'Tomorrow' signifies eternity.
God
When the Bible speaks of "Jehovah," it is representing love itself, the inmost love that is the essence of the Lord. That divine love is...
head
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....
israel
Jacob is told twice that his name will now be Israel. The first time is when he wrestles with an angel on his journey to...
hands
Scientists believe that one of the most crucial developments in the evolution of humans was bipedalism – walking on two legs. That left our hands...
stone
Stones in the Bible in general represent truths, or things we know concerning the Lord and what He wants from us and for us in...
one
A company might have executives setting policy and strategy, engineers designing products, line workers building them, managers handling personnel and others handling various functions. They...
sat
If you think about sitting, it seems fair to say that where you're sitting is more important than that you're sitting. Sitting in a movie...
aaron
Aaron was the brother of Moses. He symbolizes two things, one during the first part of the exodus, when he was Moses' spokesperson, and another...
Hur
'Hur' signifies the truth of doctrine.
side
'Side' signifies good or spiritual love.
faithful
In the modern world, we’re used to thinking of “faith” as primarily an emotional state. When Swedenborg talks about “faith” – which his books do...
coming
Coming (Gen. 41:14) denotes communication by influx.
sun
The 'sun' signifies celestial and spiritual love. The 'sun' in the Word, when referring to the Lord, signifies His divine love and wisdom. Because the...
mouth
In most cases, "mouth" in the Bible represents thought and logic, especially the kind of active, concrete thought that is connected with speech. The reason...
sword
The three words, sword, famine and pestilence, appear in a group in 26 different Bible verses. That's not an accident. Sword, famine and pestilence describe...
write
If knowing what’s right were the same as doing what’s right, we would all be thin, healthy, hard-working, law-abiding, faithful to our spouses and free...
memorial
'For a sign and for a memorial,' denotes that a thing should be perpetually remembered.
book
(Rev. 10:9.) "And I went unto the angel, saying, give me the little book," signifies the faculty of perceiving the quality of the Word from...
joshua
Joshua is first mentioned in Exodus 17, where he is told to select men to fight for the children of Israel against the Amalekites in...
remembrance
'For a sign and for a memorial,' denotes that a thing should be perpetually remembered.
under
Generally speaking things that are seen as lower physically in the Bible represent things that are lower or more external spiritually. In some cases this...
heavens
"Air" in the Bible represents thought, but in a very general way – more like our capacity to perceive ideas and the way we tend...
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...
built
There are really two meanings for "build" in the Bible. When something is being built for the first time, or built in the most typical...
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...
called
'To proclaim' signifies exploration from influx of the Lord.
name
It's easy to see that names are important in the Bible. Jehovah changed Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah, changed Jacob to Israel and...
Jehovah-nissi
'Jehovah Nissi' means continual war and protection of the Lord. 'Nissi' means my flag, or my standard, in the Hebrew.
Nissi
'Jehovah Nissi' means continual war and protection of the Lord. 'Nissi' means my flag, or my standard, in the Hebrew.
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...
hand
Scientists believe that one of the most crucial developments in the evolution of humans was bipedalism – walking on two legs. That left our hands...
Jah
'Jah' in Psalm 112:4, signifies the Lord as to divine truth. 'The tribes of Jah' signify truths from good. The song of Jah' signifies the...
war
War in the Word represents the combat of temptation when what is good is assaulted by what is evil or false. The evil that attacks...
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...
generation
To “generate” something is to create it, and that idea underpins the meaning of a “generation” of people – it is a group that was...
