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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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Arcana Coelestia # 3579

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3579. 'And God will give to you of the dew of heaven' means from Divine Truth; 'and of the fatness of the land' means from Divine Good. This is clear from the meaning of 'the dew of heaven' as truth, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'fatness' as good, dealt with in 353. In the highest sense in which they have reference to the Lord both are Divine. As for the multiplication of truth and the fruitfulness of good, they involve this: When the rational flows into the natural its own good presented by it in the natural appears in a general form. Through this good it produces truths there, almost in the way that life develops tissues in man and organizes them into different forms according to the functions they perform. By means of these truths organized into a heavenly order, this good produces further good, and through this further truths, which are derivatives. It is possible to have a natural idea such as this concerning the formation of truth from good, and of further good through that truth, through which yet again truth is formed. But it is not possible for anyone to have a spiritual idea except those in the next life, for in that life ideas are formed from the light of heaven, which light holds intelligence within it.

[2] As regards 'the dew' meaning truth, this too is clear from other places in the Word, as in Zechariah,

The seed of peace, the vine will give its fruit, and the land will give its increase, and the heavens will give their dew. Zechariah 8:12.

This refers to a new Church. 'The vine will give its fruit' stands for the fact that the spiritual element of the Church, which is the truth of faith, will yield good, while 'the land will give its increase' stands for the fact that the celestial element of the Church, which is the good of charity, will yield truth, 'the dew which the heavens will give' being that good and truth. In Haggai,

Because of My house which lies waste the heavens above you have withheld their dew, and the earth has withheld its increase. Haggai 1:9-10.

'The dew of the heavens' and 'the increase of the earth' which were held back stand for similar things.

[3] In David,

From the womb of the dawn You have the dew of Your nativity. Psalms 110:3-4.

This refers to the Lord. 'The dew of nativity' stands for the celestial element of love. In Moses,

Blessed by Jehovah is his land, of the precious things of heaven, of the dew, of the deep also Lying below. Deuteronomy 33:13.

This refers to Joseph. 'The precious things of heaven' are spiritual things, 3166, which are 'the dew', 'the deep Lying below' being natural things. In the same author,

Israel dwelt securely. alone at Jacob's spring, in a land of grain and new wine; even his heavens distilled dew. Deuteronomy 33:28.

Here 'even his heavens distilled dew' stands for spiritual things, which are those of truth.

[4] 'Dew' in the genuine sense is the truth of good which is the product of a state of innocence and peace, for by 'the morning' or dawn when the dew comes down are meant those states of innocence and peace, 2333, 2405, 2540, 2780. This also was why the manna from heaven accompanied the dew which used to come down in the morning time, as becomes clear in Moses,

In the morning there was a deposit of dew around the camp, and when the deposit of dew went up, behold, on the face of the wilderness a round congealed thing, a congealed thing like hoar frost on the earth. Exodus 16:13-14.

When the dew came down over the camp at night, the manna came down on it. Numbers 11:9.

Because 'the manna' was heavenly bread it meant in the highest sense the Lord as regards Divine Good, and consequently with men the celestial element of love, for this originates in the Lord's Divine, 276, 680, 1798, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478. 'The dew' on which and with which the manna came down stands in the highest sense for Divine Truth, and in the relative sense for spiritual truth with men. 'The morning time' is the state of peace in which those goods and truths are present, 92, 93, 1726, 2780, 3170.

[5] Because 'the dew' means truth which comes from good, or what amounts to the same, that which is spiritual originating in that which is celestial, spiritual truth is for that reason also compared in the Word to the dew, for the objects used as signs of spiritual things are also used as comparisons with those same things, as in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah to me, I will be still and I will behold in My dwelling-place; like clear warmth on the light, like a cloud of dew when the harvest is warm. Isaiah 18:4.

In Hosea,

What shall I do to you, O Ephraim? What shall I do to you, O Judah? For your holiness - like a dawn cloud, and like the dew that falls in the morning - [is going away]. Hosea 6:4; 13:3.

In the same prophet,

I will be as the dew to Israel, he will blossom 1 as the lily, and strike root like Lebanon. Hosea 14:5.

In Micah,

The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples, like dew from Jehovah, like raindrops on the grass. Micah 5:7.

In David,

It is like the good oil upon the head, that runs down over the collar 2 of Aaron's robes. It is like the dew of Hermon which runs down over the mountains of Zion, for there Jehovah has commanded the blessing of life even for evermore. Psalms 133:2-3.

In Moses,

My doctrine will flow down like the rain, My word will distill like the dew, like showers on the tender grass, and like raindrops on the grass. Deuteronomy 32:2.

Here 'the dew' stands for the multiplication of truth that comes from good, and for the fruitfulness of good through truth. And because the dew is that which every morning causes field and vineyard to be fruitful, good and truth themselves are meant by the grain and new wine referred to next in this verse.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, sprout

2. literally, the mouth

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 680

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680. The fact that goods and truths are man's real food may be clear to anyone, for the person who is deprived of them has no life within himself, and is a dead man. The food on which the soul of the person feeds who is dead in this sense consists of the delights arising from evils, and of the pleasures gained from falsities. These are the food of death. These delights and pleasures also derive from bodily, worldly, and natural things, which have no life at all within them. Furthermore such a person does not know what spiritual and celestial food is. Every time 'food' or 'bread' is mentioned in the Word he assumes that food for the body is meant. In the words of the Lord's Prayer, 'Give us our daily bread', for example, he thinks purely of nourishment for the body. There are some whose ideas do extend further and who assert that this petition includes all other physical requirements, such as clothing, money, and so on. Indeed they will argue fiercely that no other kind of food is meant, even though they clearly see that the petitions coming before and after it entail purely celestial and spiritual things, and refer to the Lord's kingdom, and possibly know as well that the Lord's Word is celestial and spiritual.

[2] From this and other similar considerations it becomes sufficiently clear just how bodily-minded the man of today is, and that like the Jews, he is unwilling to accept anything stated in the Word except in a very crude and materialistic way. The Lord Himself clearly teaches what His Word means by 'food' and 'bread': He speaks of food in John as follows,

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

And of bread He says in the same gospel,

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living Bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread he will live for ever. John 6:49-51, 58.

Even today there are people who, like those who first heard these words, declare,

This is a hard saying; who can listen to it? And some drew back and no longer walked with Him. John 6:60, 66.

To those people the Lord said,

The words which I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. John 6:63.

[3] It is similar with water, in that it means the spiritual things of faith: He speaks of water in John as follows,

Jesus said, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but he who drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life. John 4:13-14.

Even today there are people like the woman to whom the Lord spoke at the spring, who replied,

Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. John 4:15.

[4] In the Word 'food' means nothing other than spiritual and celestial food, which is faith in the Lord and love. This is clear from many places in the Word, as in Jeremiah,

The enemy has stretched out his hand over all the desirable things of Jerusalem, because she saw the nations come into her sanctuary, concerning whom You did command, They shall not enter your congregation. All the people groan as they search for bread. They have given their desirable things for food to restore the soul. Lamentations 1:10-11.

Here no other bread or food is meant than spiritual, for the subject is the sanctuary. In the same author,

I called to my lovers, they deceived me. My priests and my elders breathed their last in the city, for they sought food for themselves to refresh their soul. Lamentations 1:19.

Here the meaning is similar. In David,

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

This in like manner stands for spiritual and celestial food.

[5] 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.

Here 'wine and milk' stands for spiritual and celestial drink. In the same prophet,

A virgin is conceiving and bearing a son, and you will call His name Immanuel. Butter and honey will He eat that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. It will be that because of the abundance of milk they produce he will eat butter, for butter and honey will everyone eat that is left in the midst of the land. Isaiah 7:14-15, 22.

Here 'eating honey and butter' means that which is celestial-spiritual, and 'those who are left' stands for remnants, which are referred to in Malachi as well,

Bring all the tithes 1 to the storehouse that there may be food in My house. Malachi 3:10.

'Tithes' 1 stands for remnants. Further concerning the meaning of 'food', see 56-58, 276.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. or tenths

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