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Exodus 16

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1 And they set forward from Elim, and all the multitude of the children of Israel came into the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai: the fifteenth day of the second month, after they came out of the land of Egypt.

2 And all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

3 And the children of Israel said to them: Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat over the flesh pots, and ate bread to the full. Why have you brought us into this desert, that you might destroy all the multitude with famine?

4 And the Lord said to Moses: Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you: let the people go forth, and gather what is sufficient for every day: that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law, or not.

5 But the sixth day let them provide for to bring in: and let it be double to that they were wont to gather every day.

6 And Moses and Aaron said to the children of Israel: In the evening you shall know that the Lord hath brought you forth out of the land of Egypt:

7 And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord: for he hath heard your murmuring against the Lord: but as for us, what are we, that you mutter against us?

8 And Moses said: In the evening the Lord will give you flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full: for he hath heard your murmurings, with which you have murmured against him, for what are we? your murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord.

9 Moses also said to Aaron: Say to the whole congregation of the children of Israel: Come before the Lord: for he hath heard your murmuring.

10 And when Aaron spoke to all the assembly of the children of Israel, they looked towards the wilderness: and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud.

11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

12 I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel: say to them: In the evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread: and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.

13 So it came to pass in the evening, that quails coming up, covered the camp: and in the morning, a dew lay round about the camp.

14 And when it had covered the face of the earth, it appeared in the wilderness small, and as it were beaten with a pestle, like unto the hoar frost on the ground.

15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another: Manhu! which signifieth: What is this! for they knew not what it was. And Moses said to them: This is the bread, which the Lord hath given you to eat.

16 This is the word, that the Lord hath commanded: Let every one gather of it as much as is enough to eat: a gomor for every man, according to the number of your souls that dwell in a tent, so shall you take of it.

17 And the children of Israel did so: and they gathered, one more, another less.

18 And they measured by the measure of a gomor: neither had he more that had gathered more: nor did he find less that had provided less: but every one had gathered, according to what they were able to eat.

19 And Moses said to them: Let no man leave thereof till the morning.

20 And they hearkened not to him, but some of them left until the morning, and it began to be full of worms, an it putrefied, and Moses was angry with them.

21 Now every one of them gathered in the morning, as much as might suffice to eat: and after the sun grew hot, it melted.

22 But on the sixth day they gathered twice as much, that is, two gomors every man: and all the rulers of the multitude came, and told Moses.

23 And he said to them: This is what the Lord hath spoken: To morrow is the rest of the sabbath sanctified to the Lord. Whatsoever work is to be done, do it: and the meats that are to be dressed, dress them: and whatsoever shall remain, lay it up until the morning.

24 And they did so as Moses had commanded, and it did not putrefy, neither was there worm found in it.

25 And Moses said: Eat it to day, because it is the sabbath of the Lord: to day it shall not be found in the field.

26 Gather it six days: but on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord, therefore it shall not be found.

27 And the seventh day came: and some of the people going forth to gather, found none.

28 And the Lord said to Moses: How long will you refuse to keep my commandments, and my law?

29 See that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, and for this reason on the sixth day he giveth you a double provision: let each man stay at home, and let none go forth out of his place the seventh day.

30 And the people kept the sabbath on the seventh day.

31 And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed white, and the taste thereof like to flour with honey.

32 And Moses said: This is the word, which the Lord hath commanded: Fill a gomor of it, and let it be kept unto generations to come hereafter, that they may know the bread, wherewith I fed you in the wilderness, when you were brought forth out of the land of Egypt.

33 And Moses said to Aaron: Take a vessel, and put manna into it, as much as a gomor can hold: and lay it up before the Lord to keep unto your generations,

34 As the Lord commanded Moses. And Aaron put it in the tabernacle to be kept.

35 And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land: with this meat were they fed, until they reached the borders of the land of Chanaan.

36 Now a gomor is the tenth part of an ephi.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 8487

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8487. And the sun grew hot, and it melted. That this signifies that it vanishes away according to the degree of the increase of concupiscence, is evident from the signification of “the sun growing hot,” as being increasing concupiscence (of which in what follows); and from the signification of “melting,” as being to vanish away. That “the sun grew hot,” denotes increasing concupiscence, is because “the sun” in a good sense signifies heavenly love, for the reason that the Lord is the Sun in the other life, and that the heat which is from it is the good of love, and the light is the truth of faith. (That the Lord is a sun, and that heavenly love is therefrom, see n. 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 2120, 2441, 2495, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321, 4696, 5084, 5097, 5377, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173, 7270.) Consequently in the opposite sense “the sun” denotes the love of self and of the world, and “the heat” or “growing hot of the sun” denotes in this sense concupiscence.

[2] How the case herein is, that the good of truth, which is signified by “the manna,” vanished according to the degree of increasing concupiscence, which is signified by its “melting when the sun grew hot,” shall be briefly told. The good of truth, or spiritual good, is indeed given to the man of the spiritual church when he is being regenerated; but as all the delight of the love of self and of the world, which had previously constituted his life extinguishes this good (because they are opposites), therefore the pure good of truth cannot long abide with that man, but it is tempered by the Lord by means of the delights of the loves which had belonged to his previous life; for unless this good were so tempered, it would become undelightful to him, and thus would be loathed. Such is heavenly good at first with those who are being regenerated. Insofar therefore as the delights of the loves of self and of the world rise up, so far the good of heavenly love vanishes away, for as before said they are opposites; and it is the same the other way about.

[3] Hence it is that in heaven there are alternations of states, to which correspond the alternations of times in the world (n. 8426), and that thus by means of alternations they are remitted into the delights of natural pleasures; for without a change of the states the good of heavenly love would become as it were dry, and of slight estimation; but it is otherwise when it is tempered by means of natural delights at the same time, or successively. From this it is that at first when the manna was given to the sons of Israel every morning, the quail was also given in the evening; for by “the quail” is signified natural delight, and also the delight of concupiscence (n. 8452).

[4] But be it known that the concupiscences into which they who are in heaven are remitted when it is evening with them, are not concupiscences that are opposite to heavenly good, but those which in some measure agree with this good; for they are the delights of conferring benefits in a large way, and consequently something of glory, in which nevertheless there is benevolence and a study to be of service; they are also the delights of magnificence in the embellishments of home and the ornaments of dress, and many other similar delights. Such are the delights which do not destroy the good of heavenly love (but still they hide it), and at last, according to the degree of the man’s regeneration, they become the ultimate planes of heavenly good, and then they are no longer called “concupiscences,” but “delights.” That without a tempering by means of such things the good of heavenly love becomes as it were dry, and afterward is loathed as a thing of no value, is signified by the sons of Israel calling the manna dry food, and vile food, as we read when the quail was no longer given them, in Moses:

The rabble that was in the midst lusted a lust, whence the sons of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall feed us with flesh? now our soul is dry, our eyes have not anything [to look at] except the manna (Numbers 11:4, 6).

The people spake against God, and against Moses: Wherefore have ye made us come up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? there is no bread, nor water; now doth our soul loathe this most vile bread (Numbers 21:5).

Jehovah afflicted thee, and made thee hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might teach thee that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every utterance of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live (Deuteronomy 8:3).

[5] In like manner as by “the manna,” so also by “the unleavened bread,” there is signified good pure from falsities (n. 8058), which bread is for a similar reason called “the bread of misery” (Deuteronomy 16:3). From all this it can now be seen what is meant by the good of truth vanishing away according to the degree of the increasing concupiscence, which is signified by “the manna melting when the sun grew hot.”

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.