5147. There was some of every kind of food for Pharaoh' means full of celestial good for nourishing the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'food' as celestial good, dealt with below; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the interior natural, dealt with in 5080, 5095, and also the natural in general, since the interior natural and the exterior natural make one when they correspond. And because food exists to provide nourishment, 'every kind of food for Pharaoh' means full of celestial good for nourishing the natural. It is said that this food was in the highest basket, meaning that the inmost degree of the will was full of celestial good. For good from the Lord flows in by way of the inmost degree in a person; and from there it passes degree by degree, so to speak down a flight of steps, to what is more exterior. For in relation to other degrees the inmost one exists in the most perfect state, and can therefore receive good from the Lord directly, in a way the lower ones cannot. If these were to receive good from the Lord directly, they would either obscure it or pervert it, since they are less perfect in comparison with the inmost degree.

[2] As regards the influx of celestial good from the Lord and the reception of it, it should be recognized that the will part of the human mind is the receiver of good and the understanding part is the receiver of truth. The understanding part cannot possibly receive truth so as to make this its own unless at the same time the will part receives good; and vice versa. For one flows as a result into the other and disposes that other to be receptive. All that constitutes the understanding may be compared to forms which are constantly varying, and all that constitutes the will may be compared to the harmonies resulting from those variations. Consequently truths may be compared to variations, and forms of good may be compared to the delights which those variations bring. And this being pre-eminently the case with truths and forms of good it is evident that one cannot exist without the other, as well as that one cannot be brought forth except by means of the other.

[3] The reason 'food' means celestial good is that angels' food consists in nothing else than forms of the good of love and charity, and that these serve to enliven angels and to rejuvenate them. Especially when they are expressed in action or practice do those forms of good cause angels to feel rejuvenated, for they are the desires they have; for it is a well known fact that when a person's desires are expressed in action he feels rejuvenated and enlivened. Those desires also nourish a person's spirit when material food supplies nourishment to his body, as may be recognized from the fact that when no delight is taken in food it is not very nutritious, but when delight is taken in it, it is nutritious. The delight taken in food is what opens the meatus or channels which serve to convey it into the blood, whereas the opposite closes them. Among angels those delights are forms of the good of love and charity, and from this one may deduce that these are spiritual kinds of food which correspond to earthly ones. Also, just as forms of good are meant by different kinds of food, so truths are meant by 'drink'.

[4] In the Word 'food' is mentioned in many places, yet someone unacquainted with the internal sense will inevitably suppose that in those places ordinary food is meant. In fact spiritual food is meant, as in Jeremiah,

All the people groan as they search for bread. They have given their desirable things for food to restore the soul. Lamentations 1:11.

In Isaiah,

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1.

In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is near, and as destruction from the thunderbolt-hurler will it come. [s not the food cut off before our eyes, gladness and joy from the house of our God? The grains have rotted under their clods, the storehouses have been laid waste, the granaries have been destroyed, because the grain has failed. Joel 1:15-17.

In David,

Our storehouses are full, yielding food and still more food; our flocks are thousands, and ten thousands in our streets. There is no outcry in our streets. Blessed are the people for whom it is thus. Psalms 144:13-15.

In the same author,

They all look to You, that You may give them their food in due season. You give to them - they gather it up; You open Your hand - they are satisfied with good. Psalms 104:27-28.

[5] In these places celestial and spiritual food is meant in the internal sense when material food is referred to in the sense of the letter. From this one may see how the interior features of the Word and its exterior features correspond to one another, that is, how what belongs inwardly to its spirit and what belongs to its letter do so; so that while man understands those things according to the sense of the letter, the angels present with him understand the same things according to the spiritual sense. The Word has been written in such a way that it may serve not only the human race but heaven also, and for this reason all expressions are used to mean heavenly realities, and every matter described there is representative of these realities. This is so with the Word even to the tiniest jot.

[6] Furthermore the Lord Himself explicitly teaches that good is meant in the spiritual sense by 'food': In John,

Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. John 6:27.

In the same gospel,

My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. John 6:55.

'Flesh' means Divine Good, 3813, and 'blood' Divine Truth, 4735. And in the same gospel,

Jesus said to the disciples, I have food to eat of which you do not know. The disciples said to one another, Has anyone brought Him [anything] to eat? Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. John 4:33-34.

'Doing the will of the Father and finishing His work' means Divine Good when expressed in actions or practice, which in the genuine sense is 'food', as stated above.

235. I am about to vomit thee out of My mouth, signifies separation from the knowledges from the Word. This is evident from the signification of "vomiting out," when said by the Lord, as being separation; not that the Lord separates them from Himself, but they separate themselves from the Lord. It is said "to vomit out," because the "lukewarm" are treated of, and in the world what is lukewarm produces vomiting. And this is also from correspondence; for the food that man takes corresponds to knowledges, and thence in the Word signifies knowledges; therefore separation from knowledges means non-admission; but as those here treated of do admit something from the Word, it means ejection or vomiting. (That "food," from correspondence, signifies knowledges and intelligence therefrom, see Arcana Coelestia 3114, 4459, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410, 5426, 5576, 5582, 5588, 5655, 8562; for the reason that knowledges nourish the internal man or spirit, as food nourishes the external man or body, n. 4459, 5293, 5576, 6277, 8418.) This is evident also from the signification of "out of My mouth," as being, in reference to the Lord, out of the Word. "Out of the mouth" signifies, in reference to the Lord, out of the Word, because the Word is Divine truth, and this proceeds from the Lord, and what proceeds from the Lord and flows in with man is said to be "out of the mouth," although it is not from the mouth, but is like light from the sun. For the Lord is seen above the heavens where the angels are as a sun, and light therefrom is Divine truth, from which angels and men have all their intelligence and wisdom (See in the work on Heaven and Hell 116-125, 126-140). From this it can be seen that "I will vomit thee out of My mouth" signifies to separate from Divine truth, or what is the same, from the knowledges from the Word.

[2] That those who are "lukewarm," that is, "neither cold nor hot," who are those that live according to the doctrine of faith alone and justification by faith (of which just above), are separated from the knowledges from the Word, is not known to themselves, for they believe that they are in knowledges more than others; but they are not, yea, they are in scarcely any knowledge; and this for the reason that the principles of their doctrine and religion are false, and from false principles nothing results but falsities; when therefore they read the Word, they keep their minds in their falsities, and as a consequence, either they do not see truths, or if they see them they pass them by or falsify them. These false principles are, that salvation is by faith alone, and that man is justified by faith. That they are separated from the knowledges from the Word and that they do not see truths therein, they may know if they will; for what is more frequently declared by the Lord, than that they ought to do His words, His commandments, His will, and that everyone shall be recompensed according to his deeds; also that the whole Word is based upon two commandments, which are to love God, and to love the neighbor; also that loving God is doing His commandments (John 14:21, 23, 24)? What men must do in order to be saved is said a thousand times in each Testament, also that hearing and knowing are nothing without doing. But do those who have confirmed themselves in faith alone and justification by faith, see these things? And if they see them do they not falsify them? Consequently they have no doctrine of life, but a doctrine of faith alone; when yet, life makes the man of the church, and those things come to be of his faith which are of his life.

[3] That such persons are separated from the knowledges from the Word, can be seen also from this, that they are not aware that they are to live as men after the death of the body; that they have a spirit that lives; that heaven is from the human race, and hell also; that they know nothing at all about heaven and heavenly joy; nothing about hell and infernal fire; thus nothing about the spiritual world; nothing about the internal or spiritual sense of the Word; nothing about the glorification of the Lord's Human; nothing about regeneration; nothing about temptation; about baptism, what it involves; about the Holy Supper, and what the flesh and blood, or the bread and wine in it signify; nothing about free will; nothing about the internal man; nothing about charity, about the neighbor, about good, about love; neither do they know what the remission of sins is; and many other things. Moreover, I have heard angels say that when they are permitted to look into the church, and to see those who believe themselves to be intelligent from doctrine, that they see nothing but mere thick darkness, and those so believing are seen as if deep down under waters.

[4] These are separated from the knowledges from the Word for two reasons; first, because they cannot be illustrated by the Lord, for the Lord flows into man's good, and from that illustrates him in truths, that is, He flows into man's love and therefrom into his faith; secondly, because they profane truths by falsifications, and those who do this are separated from truths themselves while they live in the world, that they may not know them, but in the other life they cast away from themselves all things they knew from the Word while in the world. Both these separations are meant by "being vomited out of the mouth." Like things are meant by "vomiting" and "vomit" elsewhere in the Word; as in the following passages. In Isaiah:

Jehovah hath mingled a spirit of perversities in the midst of Egypt; whence they have led Egypt astray in every work thereof, even as a drunkard goeth astray in his vomit (Isaiah 19:14).

"Egypt" signifies the knowledge [scientia] of things, both spiritual and natural; "mingling the spirit of perversities in the midst thereof" signifies to pervert and falsify these things; "a drunkard" signifies those who are insane in spiritual things; and as truths mingled with falsities are cast out, it is said "as a drunkard goeth astray in his vomit." (That "Egypt" signifies knowledge [scientia], see Arcana Coelestia 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 5700, 5702, 6015, 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692, 7296; also the knowledges [scientifica] of the church, n. 7296, 9340, 9391; that "drunkards" signify those who are insane in spiritual things, n. 1072.)

[5] In Jeremiah:

Drink ye, and be drunken, and vomit and fall, and rise not because of the sword (Jeremiah 25:27).

"To drink and be drunken" is to drink in falsities and mix them with truths, and thence to be insane; "to vomit and fall" is altogether to cast out things falsified; "the sword," because of which they shall not rise, signifies falsity destroying and laying waste truth (See Arcana Coelestia 2799, 4499, 7102); which shows clearly what is meant by "vomiting and falling." In the same:

Make Moab drunken, for he hath magnified himself against Jehovah, that he may clap the hands in his vomit (Jeremiah 48:26).

"Moab" signifies those who adulterate the goods of the church, therefore "vomiting" is predicated of them.

[6] In Habakkuk:

Woe unto him that maketh his companion to drink even making him drunken, that thou mayest look upon their nakednesses. Thou shalt be satiated with disgrace instead of glory; drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered; the cup of Jehovah shall go about unto thee, and disgraceful vomiting shall be on thy glory (Habakkuk 2:15-16).

"To drink even making him drunken" also signifies to drink in truths and mix them with falsities; the "nakednesses" upon which they look, signify the deprivation of truth and of intelligence therefrom (See Arcana Coelestia 1073, 5433, 9960). The "foreskin that shall be uncovered" signifies the defilement of good (See Arcana Coelestia 2056, 3412, 3413, 4462, 7225, 7245); "glory" signifies Divine truth, thus the Word (See Arcana Coelestia 4809, 5922, 8267, 8427, 9429); which shows what is meant by "disgraceful vomiting upon their glory."

[7] In Isaiah:

These err through wine, through strong drink they are gone astray; the priest and the prophet err through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they err among the seeing, they stumble in judgment; yea, even all tables are full of the vomit of filthiness; there is no place. Whom shall he teach knowledge? (Isaiah 28:7-9).

Here "wine" and "strong drink," by which they err, signify truths mixed with falsities; "priest" and "prophet" signify those who teach goods and truths, and in an abstract sense, the goods and truths of the church; "the seeing" among whom they err signify those who might be about to see truths; "to stumble in judgment" signifies insanity; "tables" signify all things that should nourish spiritual life, for tables mean the food that is on them, and "food" signifies all truths and goods, because these are what nourish spiritual life; therefore "tables full of the vomit of filthiness" signify the same things falsified and adulterated.

[8] In Moses:

Defile not yourselves with any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you; whence the land is defiled; and the land hath vomited out her inhabitants; thus the land will not vomit you out, as it vomited out the nations that were before you (Leviticus 18:24-25, 28).

Adulteries of every kind are here treated of, by which in the spiritual sense all kinds of adulterations of good and falsifications of truth or profanations are meant; and as it is not possible for evils and goods, nor for the falsities of evil and the truths of good to exist together without being cast out, therefore it is said that "the land," that is, the church, "hath vomited them out." From this it can be seen what is signified by "vomiting out."