58. Verse 30 And to every wild animal of the earth and to every bird of the air, ¹ and to everything creeping over the earth in which there is a living soul [I give] every plant for food; and it was so.

The natural food of this same [spiritual man] is being described here. His natural level is here meant by 'wild animal of the earth' and by 'bird of the air, to which 'the edible and green plant ² has been given for food'. Both kinds of food, natural and spiritual, are referred to in David as follows,

Jehovah causes the grass to grow for the beast, and the plant for man's service, that he may bring forth bread from the earth. Psalms 104:14.

Here 'beast' stands for both wild animals of the earth and birds of the air, ¹ both being mentioned in verses 11-12 of that Psalm.

Poznámky pod čarou:

3114. 'There is both straw' means factual truths, 'and also much fodder with us' means the goods that go with these. This is clear from the meaning of 'straw' and 'fodder'. The reason 'straw' means factual truths is that it has reference to camels, whose food is such; for when 'camels' means the natural man as regards the general facts there, the food of the natural man - 'straw' - cannot have any other meaning, since no other food exists to sustain his life. The nourishment of the natural man is received from this, for if deprived of that food, that is to say, of knowledge, the natural man would cease to exist. The truth of this is evident from the life after death, for in that life spirits receive such things in place of food, see 56-58, 680, 681, 1480, 1695, 1973, 1974.

[2] Within the natural man, as within the rational man, there exist in general two kinds of things which constitute its essence - those that make up the understanding and those that make up the will. Truths belong to the things constituting the understanding, goods belong to those constituting the will. The truths present in the natural man are factual truths - that is to say, all the things housed in his external memory - and it is these that are meant by 'straw' when camels, and also horses, mules and asses are the subject. But the goods present in the natural man are chiefly the delights that go with an affection for those truths, and it is these goods that are meant by 'fodder'.