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...
spoke
Like "say," the word "speak" refers to thoughts and feelings moving from our more internal spiritual levels to our more external ones – and ultimately...
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...
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...
Sinai
'Mount Sinai,' as in Exodus 19:1, signifies, in the highest sense, divine truth from divine good. 'Mount' means divine good, and 'Sinai,' divine truth, and...
the first
'Resurrection' signifies salvation and eternal life. 'The first,' mentioned in Revelation 20:5, 6, does not mean a first resurrection, but the essence and primary part...
first
'The first and the last' signifies that the Lord is the only God.
month
'A month' has respect to the state of truth in a person. 'A month' signifies a full state. Month,' as in Genesis 29, signifies the...
land
"Earth" in the Bible can mean a person or a group of like-minded people as in a church. But it refers specifically to the external...
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...
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
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...
passover
'The Passover,' in Exodus 12, 27, signifies the presence of the Lord and His liberation from damnation of the people of the spiritual church. 'The...
fourteenth
Fourteen, as in Genesis 31:40, signifies a first period of time. The fourteenth year, as in Genesis 14:5, signifies the first temptation of the Lord...
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...
day of
'Day of vengeance' signifies a state of damnation.
evening
Since the light and warmth of the sun represent the Lord’s wisdom and love, it makes sense that evening, a time when the light and...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
hear
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...
command
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,...
man
The relationship between men and women is deep and nuanced, and one entire book of the Writings – Conjugial Love or Love in Marriage –...
unclean
'Pollution' denotes the truth of faith defiled.
Second month
'Second month,' as in Genesis 8:14, signifies every state before regeneration, which is because of the significance of 'two' in the Word. 'Two' signifies the...
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...
Unleavened bread
'Unleavened bread' signifies the holiness of love, or the holy of holies, so, pure love. The baking of unleavened bread is purification.
unleavened
For something to be “unleavened” means that it's been made without yeast. Since yeast is what makes bread rise and take on its airy texture,...
morning
Morning comes with the rising of the sun, and the sun – which gives life to the earth with its warmth and light – represents...
break
To “break” something creates an image that is much different from “attacking,” “destroying,” or “shattering.” It is less emotional, less violent in its intent; it...
bone
Bones are strong and supportive, providing a framework for our bodies and making motion and action possible. They are also the least "alive" part of...
clean
To be "pure" in the Bible means - unsurprisingly - to be devoid of evil. Thus all the washing for purification prescribed in the Laws...
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...
soul
The nature of the soul is a deep and complicated topic, but it can be summarized as "spiritual life," who we are in terms of...
Cut off
To be cut off, as in Genesis 41:36, signifies to perish.
people
"Man" is a tricky word to discuss, because the Hebrew of the Old Testament uses six different words that are generally translated as "man," with...
sojourn
There is a long history of using travel to round out an education, from the 19th-century “world tours” taken by Oxford and Cambridge graduates to...
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...
tabernacle
'The tabernacle' has almost the same meaning as 'temple,' that is, in the highest sense, the Lord’s divine humanity, and in a relative sense, heaven...
cloud
In Isaiah 19:1, "Jehovah rides upon a light cloud, and comes into Egypt", signifies the visitation of the natural man from spiritual-natural Divine Truth, for...
covered
The "high mountains being covered " (Gen. 7:19) signifies that all the good things of charity were extinguished.
tent
'The sanctuary and habitation' together signify heaven and the church, 'sanctuary' regarding the good of love, and 'tabernacle' regarding truths of that good, because the...
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...
night
The sun in the Bible represents the Lord, with its heat representing His love and its light representing His wisdom. “Daytime,” then, represents a state...
after
According to Swedenborg, time and space don’t exist in spiritual reality; they are purely natural things that exist only on the physical plane. This means...
journeyed
'To journey' signifies the institutes and order of life.
place
'A room' or 'place' denotes state.
pitched
'Pitch,' as in Genesis 14:10, denotes lusts. 'Burning pitch,' as in Isaiah 34:9, signifies direful fantasies.
Tents
'Ohalim' or 'tabernacles' signify the holy part of what is good.
encamped
'Pitch,' as in Genesis 14:10, denotes lusts. 'Burning pitch,' as in Isaiah 34:9, signifies direful fantasies.
long
'Long' and thence to prolong, refer to good.
many
Intellectual things – ideas, knowledge, facts, even insight and understanding – are more separate and free-standing than emotional things, and it’s easier to imagine numbering...
days
"Day" describes a state in which we are turned toward the Lord, and are receiving light (which is truth) and heat (which is a desire...
kept
"Keeping" in the Bible generally has to do with controlling the actual actions of life, though in some cases it can mean holding something away...
Two days
'Two days,' as in Hosea 6:2, signifies the time and state which precedes judgment.
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...
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