congregation
A company, congregation, and a multitude, in the Word, are predicated of truths.
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....
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...
journeyed
'To journey' signifies the institutes and order of life.
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...
Wilderness of Sin
'The wilderness of Sin' signifies the good from truth in an earlier state of temptation.
the Lord
The Bible refers to the Lord in many different ways, which from the text seem indistinguishable and interchangeable. Understood in the internal sense, though, there...
lord
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...
encamped
'Pitch,' as in Genesis 14:10, denotes lusts. 'Burning pitch,' as in Isaiah 34:9, signifies direful fantasies.
Rephidim
'Rephidim,' as in Exodus 17:1, signify the quality of temptations to truth.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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,...
murmured
'To murmur' denotes complaint and pain from the bitterness of temptation.
egypt
'Mizraim' signifies the same thing as Egypt.
cattle
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,...
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...
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...
Elders of Israel
The elders of Israel (Deut. 1:13, 15) represent celestial men.
elders
Ancients of the people, and the princes thereof ('Isaiah 3:14'), have a similar signification with the twelve disciples.
hand
In Genesis 27:22, 'voice' relates to truth, and 'hand,' to good.
stand
'To stay with,' as in Genesis 32:4, relates to the life of truth when accompanied by good, and in this instance, it means to take...
rock
'A rock' signifies the Lord regarding the divine truth of the Word.
smite
'The smitten' signify people who are oppressed by the falsities of ignorance.
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...
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...
place
'A room' or 'place' denotes state.
Meribah
'Meribah' signifies things pertaining to the spiritual 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...
Joshua
Joshua, the son of Josedech the high-priest,' as in Zechariah 3:1, signifies the law, or the Word.
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....
morrow
'Tomorrow' signifies eternity.
god
The Lord is love itself, expressed in the form of wisdom itself. Love, then, is His essence, His inmost. Wisdom - the loving understanding of...
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.
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...
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...
Put
'To put' has reference to order, arrangement, application, and influx.
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...
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...
side
'Side' signifies good or spiritual love.
other side
Generally when things in the Bible are described as having two sides – especially when the two sides are equal – it has to do...
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...
Edge of the sword
The edge of the sword (Gen. 34:26) signifies what is false and evil in a state of combat.
sword
A 'sword,' in the Word, signifies the truth of faith combating and the vastation of truth. In an opposite sense, it signifies falsity combating and...
write
In John 8:2-11, the Lord wrote twice on the ground, when the woman taken in adultery was brought to him, which signifies the condemnation of...
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...
heaven
Heavens are celestial and spiritual things. Consequently, they are inmost things, both of the Lord's kingdom in heaven the and in the earth. This also...
built
wrought (also entwined or entwisted) is predicated of the natural scientific principle, and in Isaiah 45:13, of divine natural truth.
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...
Nissi
'Jehovah Nissi' means continual war and protection of the Lord. 'Nissi' means my flag, or my standard, in the Hebrew.
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...
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...
