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Exodus 16

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1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.

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

3 And the children of Israel said to them, O that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full: for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

4 Then said the LORD to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.

5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.

6 And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, At evening, then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt:

7 And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: And what are we, that ye murmur against us?

8 And Moses said, This shall be when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: And what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.

9 And Moses spoke to Aaron, Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings.

10 And it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked towards the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

11 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel; Speak to them, saying, At evening ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.

13 And it came to pass, that at evening the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay around the host.

14 And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground:

15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: 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 thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating: an omer for every man according to the number of your persons, take ye every man for them who are in his tents.

17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.

18 And when they measured it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack: they gathered every man according to his eating.

19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.

20 Notwithstanding, they hearkened not to Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and became offensive; and Moses was wroth with them.

21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun became hot, it melted.

22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

23 And he said to them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath to the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and boil that ye will boil; and that which remaineth over, lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses ordered: and it did not putrefy, neither was there any worm therein.

25 And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a sabbath to the LORD; to-day ye will not find it in the field.

26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there will be none.

27 And it came to pass, that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, and they found none.

28 And the LORD said to Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days: abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.

30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

31 And the house of Israel called its name Manna: and it was like coriander-seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

32 And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commanded, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.

33 And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.

34 As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

35 And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited: they ate manna, until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.

36 Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

   

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Food

  
"The Chef" by Unknown Master, Spanish (active 17th century)

Just as natural food feeds the natural body, so too does spiritual food feed the spiritual body. And since our spiritual body is the expression of what we love, then spiritual food is what feeds our state of love: It is the desire for good, the delight of being good, the understanding of what it is to be good and the knowledge of all that's true and leads to what is good. So when food is talked about in the Bible, that's what it means, and the huge variety of forms food can take represent the huge variety of good we can seek in life and the huge variety of thought we can have leading to it.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 680, 1695, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5576, 9003)

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 5293

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5293. 'And let them gather all the food' means all things that have a useful purpose. This is clear from the meaning of 'gathering' as drawing together and preserving; and from the meaning of 'food' as things which have a useful purpose. In the internal sense 'food' means, strictly speaking, those things which nourish a person's soul, that is, which nourish him when his bodily life is ended. For when this is ended his soul or spirit is living, and he no longer needs material food as he did in the world; but he does need spiritual food, which consists in everything that has a useful purpose and everything leading to this. That which leads to what has a useful purpose is knowing what goodness and truth are; and that which has such a purpose is the desire to realize these in actions. These are the things with which angels are nourished and which are therefore called spiritual and celestial foods. A person's mind - the place within him where his will and understanding, that is, his intentions or ends in view, reside - is nourished by no other kind of food, even while he lives in the body. Material food does not extend as far as that; it extends only to his bodily parts, which are sustained by that material food to the end that the mind may be sustained by food for the mind while the body is sustained by food for the body, that is, to the end that there may be a healthy mind in a healthy body.

[2] The reason 'food' in the spiritual sense means everything that has a useful purpose is that a person's entire knowledge, his entire understanding and wisdom, and so his entire will must have a useful purpose as its end in view. Consequently as is the nature of the purpose he has in view, so is the nature of his life. The truth that 'food' in the spiritual sense means everything with a useful purpose is evident from the following words spoken by the Lord,

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 accomplish His work. John 4:32-34.

And elsewhere,

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. On Him the Father - God - has set His seal. John 6:27.

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