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Exodus 16

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1 And they journey from Elim, and all the company of the sons of Israel come in unto the wilderness of Sin, which [is] between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month of their going out from the land of Egypt.

2 And all the company of the sons of Israel murmur against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness;

3 and the sons of Israel say unto them, `Oh that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, in our sitting by the flesh-pot, in our eating bread to satiety -- for ye have brought us out unto this wilderness to put all this assembly to death with hunger.'

4 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Lo, I am raining to you bread from the heavens -- and the people have gone out and gathered the matter of a day in its day -- so that I try them whether they walk in My law, or not;

5 and it hath been on the sixth day, that they have prepared that which they bring in, and it hath been double above that which they gather day [by] day.'

6 And Moses saith -- Aaron also -- unto all the sons of Israel, `Evening -- and ye have known that Jehovah hath brought you out from the land of Egypt;

7 and morning -- and ye have seen the honour of Jehovah, in His hearing your murmurings against Jehovah, and what [are] we, that ye murmur against us?'

8 And Moses saith, `In Jehovah's giving to you in the evening flesh to eat, and bread in the morning to satiety -- in Jehovah's hearing your murmurings, which ye are murmuring against Him, and what [are] we? your murmurings [are] not against us, but against Jehovah.'

9 And Moses saith unto Aaron, `Say unto all the company of the sons of Israel, Come ye near before Jehovah, for He hath heard your murmurings;'

10 and it cometh to pass, when Aaron is speaking unto all the company of the sons of Israel, that they turn towards the wilderness, and lo, the honour of Jehovah is seen in the cloud.

11 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

12 `I have heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel; speak unto them, saying, Between the evenings ye eat flesh, and in the morning ye are satisfied [with] bread, and ye have known that I [am] Jehovah your God.'

13 And it cometh to pass in the evening, that the quail cometh up, and covereth the camp, and in the morning there hath been the lying of dew round about the camp,

14 and the lying of the dew goeth up, and lo, on the face of the wilderness a thin, bare thing, thin as hoar-frost on the earth.

15 And the sons of Israel see, and say one unto another, `What [is] it?' for they have not known what it [is]; and Moses saith unto them, `It [is] the bread which Jehovah hath given to you for food.

16 `This [is] the thing which Jehovah hath commanded: Gather of it each according to his eating, an omer for a poll; and the number of your persons, take ye each for those in his tent.'

17 And the sons of Israel do so, and they gather, he who is [gathering] much, and he who is [gathering] little;

18 and they measure with an omer, and he who is [gathering] much hath nothing over, and he who is [gathering] little hath no lack, each according to his eating they have gathered.

19 And Moses saith unto them, `Let no man leave of it till morning;'

20 and they have not hearkened unto Moses, and some of them do leave of it till morning, and it bringeth up worms and stinketh; and Moses is wroth with them.

21 And they gather it morning by morning, each according to his eating; when the sun hath been warm, then it hath melted.

22 And it cometh to pass on the sixth day, they have gathered a second bread, two omers for one, and all the princes of the company come in, and declare to Moses.

23 And he saith unto them, `It [is] that which Jehovah hath spoken [of]; a rest -- a holy sabbath to Jehovah -- [is] to-morrow; that which ye bake, bake; and that which ye boil, boil; and all that is over, let rest for yourselves in charge till the morning.'

24 And they let it rest until the morning, as Moses hath commanded, and it hath not stank, and a worm hath not been in it.

25 And Moses saith, `Eat it to-day, for to-day [is] a sabbath to Jehovah; to-day ye find it not in the field:

26 six days ye do gather it, and in the seventh day -- the sabbath -- in it there is none.'

27 And it cometh to pass on the seventh day, some of the people have gone out to gather, and have not found.

28 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `How long have ye refused to keep My commands, and My laws?

29 see, because Jehovah hath given to you the sabbath, therefore He is giving to you on the sixth day bread of two days; abide ye each [in] his place, no one doth go out from his place on the seventh day.'

30 And the people rest on the seventh day,

31 and the house of Israel call its name Manna, and it [is] as coriander seed, white; and its taste [is] as a cake with honey.

32 And Moses saith, `This [is] the thing which Jehovah hath commanded: Fill the omer with it, for a charge for your generations, so that they see the bread which I have caused you to eat in the wilderness, in My bringing you out from the land of Egypt.'

33 And Moses saith unto Aaron, `Take one pot, and put there the fulness of the omer of manna, and let it rest before Jehovah, for a charge for your generations;'

34 as Jehovah hath given commandment unto Moses, so doth Aaron let it rest before the Testimony, for a charge.

35 And the sons of Israel have eaten the manna forty years, until their coming in unto the land to be inhabited; the manna they have eaten till their coming in unto the extremity of the land of Canaan.

36 and the omer is a tenth of the ephah.

   

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Apocalypse Explained # 146

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146. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. That this signifies that to those who conquer in temptations will be given the delight of heavenly love from the Divine Human of the Lord is evident from the signification of him that overcometh, as being those who conquer in temptations; for such are treated of in what is written to the angel of this church (as may be seen above, n. 130); also from the signification of I will give to eat, as being to be appropriated and conjoined by love and charity (concerning which see Arcana Coelestia 2187, 2343, 3168, 3513, 5643), and because it is said concerning the hidden manna, by which is meant the Lord as to the Divine Human; by eating thereof, is here signified the delight of heavenly love, for this is appropriated from the Divine Human of the Lord by those who receive Him in love and faith; and from the signification of the hidden manna, as being the Lord as to the Divine Human.

That this is what is meant by manna is evident from the words of the Lord Himself in John:

"Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. The bread of God is he who cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert and are dead. This is that bread which cometh down from heaven, that he that eateth of it may not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven, if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever. The bread that I will give is my flesh" (6:31-58).

That it is the Lord Himself who is meant by manna and by bread, He plainly teaches, for He says, "I am the bread of life that came down from heaven." That it is the Lord as to the Divine Human, He also teaches when He says, "The bread which I will give is my flesh."

[2] The Lord taught the same when He instituted the holy supper:

"Jesus took bread, and blessed, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body" (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19).

To eat of this bread is to be conjoined to Him by love, for to eat signifies to appropriate and be conjoined, as said above; and love is spiritual conjunction. The same thing is signified by eating in the kingdom of God, in Luke:

"Blessed is he that eateth bread in the kingdom of God" (14:15).

Again:

"Ye shall eat and drink at my table in the kingdom of God" (22:30).

In Matthew:

"Many shall come from the east and west, and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom" of God (8:11).

(That by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is meant the Lord, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 1893, 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276, 6804, 6847.)

And in John:

"Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man will give unto you" (6:27).

[3] (That the Son of man is the Lord as to the Divine Human, may be seen above, n. 63.) The reason why it is called hidden manna is, because the delight of heavenly love, which those receive who are conjoined to the Lord by love is quite unknown to those who are not in heavenly love; and this delight no one can receive but he who acknowledges the Divine Human of the Lord; for it proceeds from this. Because this delight was unknown to the sons of Israel in the desert, they therefore called it manna, as is evident in Moses:

"Jehovah said unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And in the morning the dew lay round about the camp. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the desert there lay a small round thing; and when they saw it, they said, It is manna (What is this?). Moses said unto them, This is the bread which Jehovah hath given you to eat. And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna" (Exodus 16:3 to the end).

"Jehovah fed thee with manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live" (Deuteronomy 8:3).

The reason why this delight, which is meant by manna, was unknown to the sons of Israel was, that they were in bodily delight more than other nations; and those who are in this delight cannot know anything at all of heavenly delight. (That the sons of Israel were of such a character may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 248.) It is called delight, and by this is meant the delight of love; for all the delight of life is from love.

[4] Because it is the delight of heavenly love that is signified by eating of the hidden manna, it is therefore called the bread of the heavens in David:

"Jehovah commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of the heavens; and rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them of the corn of the heavens" (Psalm 78:23, 24).

And in another place:

"Jehovah satisfied them with the bread of the heavens" (Psalm 105:40).

It is called the bread of the heavens because it rained down from heaven with the dew, but in the spiritual sense it is called the bread of the heavens because it flows down from the Lord through the angelic heaven; in this sense, no other heaven is meant, and no other bread than that which nourishes the soul of man. That bread is here meant in this sense is evident from the words of the Lord himself in John, where He says, that

He is the manna or bread which came down from heaven (John 6:31-58).

And in Moses, where it is said

that Jehovah fed them with manna that He might teach that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every utterance of the mouth of Jehovah (Deuteronomy 8:3).

The utterance of the mouth of Jehovah is everything that proceeds from the Lord, and this, specifically, is Divine truth united with Divine good (as may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 13, 133, 139, 140, 284-290).

[5] This delight is also described by correspondences in Moses:

The manna was "like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like a cake made with honey" (Exodus 16:31).

And in another place:

"They made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as of the juice of oil" (Numbers 11:7, 8).

The reason why the manna had such an appearance and taste was, that the white seed of coriander signifies truth from a celestial origin, a cake the good of celestial love, honey its external delight, oil that love itself, and its juice, whence was the taste, its internal delight, and the rain with the dew, in which the manna was, the influx of Divine truth in which that delight is contained. (That seed signifies truth from a heavenly origin, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 3038, 3373, 10248, 10249: that white is said of that truth, n. 3301, 3993, 4007, 5319; that cake signifies the good of heavenly love, n. 7978, 9992, 9993; that oil signifies that love itself, n. 886, 3728, 9780, 9954, 10261, 10269; hence its juice signifies its delight, because the taste is therefrom and the taste is the delight and pleasantness, see n. 3502, 4791-4805. But more may be seen concerning these things in the explanation of chapter 16 of Exodus in Arcana Coelestia.) The reason why the delight of celestial love is signified by eating of the hidden manna, although by the hidden manna the Lord as to the Divine Human is signified, is that it is the same thing whether we say the Divine Human of the Lord, or the Divine love, for the Lord is Divine love itself, and what proceeds from Him is Divine good united to Divine truth; both belong to love, and are also the Lord in heaven. Therefore to eat of Him is to be conjoined to Him, and this is effected by love from Him. (But these things may be better understood from what is said and shown in the work, Heaven and Hell 13-19, 116-125, 126-140; and also in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 210-222 and 307.)

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.