8489. 'They gathered twice as much' means the joining together resulting from the reception of good. This is clear from the meaning of 'gathering from the manna' as the reception of good, 'gathering' meaning reception, see 8467, 8472, and 'manna' the good of truth, 8464; and from the meaning of 'twice as much' as the joining together, dealt with in 8423.

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 relates to the fact that the Lord provides us all with true teachings for our minds and desires for good in our hearts, and for the fact that we need to accept those gifts while acknowledging that they come from the Lord, and not from ourselves. One of the most common and significant uses of "give" in the Bible is the repeated statement that the Lord had given the land of Canaan to the people of Israel. This springs from the fact that Canaan represents heaven, and illustrates that the Lord created us all for heaven and will give us heaven if we will accept the gift.