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Numbers 11

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1 And the people is evil, as those sighing habitually in the ears of Jehovah, and Jehovah heareth, and His anger burneth, and the fire of Jehovah burneth among them, and consumeth in the extremity of the camp.

2 And the people cry unto Moses, and Moses prayeth unto Jehovah, and the fire is quenched;

3 and he calleth the name of that place Taberah, for the fire of Jehovah hath `burned' among them.

4 And the rabble who [are] in its midst have lusted greatly, and the sons of Israel also turn back and weep, and say, `Who doth give us flesh?

5 We have remembered the fish which we do eat in Egypt for nought, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick;

6 and now our soul [is] dry, there is not anything, save the manna, before our eyes.'

7 And the manna is as coriander seed, and its aspect as the aspect of bdolach;

8 the people have turned aside and gathered [it], and ground [it] with millstones, or beat [it] in a mortar, and boiled [it] in a pan, and made it cakes, and its taste hath been as the taste of the moisture of oil.

9 And in the descending of the dew on the camp by night, the manna descendeth upon it.

10 And Moses heareth the people weeping by its families, each at the opening of his tent, and the anger of Jehovah burneth exceedingly, and in the eyes of Moses [it is] evil.

11 And Moses saith unto Jehovah, `Why hast Thou done evil to Thy servant? and Why have I not found grace in Thine eyes -- to put the burden of all this people upon me?

12 I -- have I conceived all this people? I -- have I begotten it, that Thou sayest unto me, Carry it in thy bosom as the nursing father beareth the suckling, unto the ground which Thou hast sworn to its fathers?

13 Whence have I flesh to give to all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, give to us flesh, and we eat.

14 I am not able -- I alone -- to bear all this people, for [it is] too heavy for me;

15 and if thus Thou art doing to me -- slay me, I pray Thee; slay, if I have found grace in thine eyes, and let me not look on mine affliction.'

16 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou hast known that they are elders of the people, and its authorities; and thou hast taken them unto the tent of meeting, and they have stationed themselves there with thee,

17 and I have come down and spoken with thee there, and have kept back of the Spirit which [is] upon thee, and have put on them, and they have borne with thee some of the burden of the people, and thou dost not bear [it] thyself alone.

18 `And unto the people thou dost say, Sanctify yourselves for to-morrow, and ye have eaten flesh (for ye have wept in the ears of Jehovah, saying, Who doth give us flesh? for we [had] good in Egypt) -- and Jehovah hath given to you flesh, and ye have eaten.

19 Ye do not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days; --

20 unto a month of days, till that it come out from your nostrils, and it hath become to you an abomination; because that ye have loathed Jehovah, who [is] in your midst, and weep before Him, saying, Why is this? -- we have come out of Egypt!'

21 And Moses saith, `Six hundred thousand footmen [are] the people in whose midst I [am]; and Thou, Thou hast said, Flesh I give to them, and they have eaten, a month of days!

22 Is flock and herd slaughtered for them, that one hath found for them? -- are all the fishes of the sea gathered for them -- that one hath found for them?'

23 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Is the hand of Jehovah become short? now thou dost see whether My word meeteth thee or not.'

24 And Moses goeth out, and speaketh unto the people the words of Jehovah, and gathereth seventy men of the elders of the people, and causeth them to stand round about the tent,

25 and Jehovah cometh down in the cloud, and speaketh unto him, and keepeth back of the Spirit which [is] on him, and putteth on the seventy men of the elders; and it cometh to pass at the resting of the Spirit on them, that they prophesy, and do not cease.

26 And two of the men are left in the camp, the name of the one [is] Eldad, and the name of the second Medad, and the spirit resteth upon them, (and they are among those written, and have not gone out to the tent), and they prophesy in the camp;

27 and the young man runneth, and declareth to Moses, and saith, `Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.'

28 And Joshua son of Nun, minister of Moses, [one] of his young men, answereth and saith, `My lord Moses, restrain them.'

29 And Moses saith to him, `Art thou zealous for me? O that all Jehovah's people were prophets! that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon them!'

30 And Moses is gathered unto the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

31 And a spirit hath journeyed from Jehovah, and cutteth off quails from the sea, and leaveth by the camp, as a day's journey here, and as a day's journey there, round about the camp, and about two cubits, on the face of the land.

32 And the people rise all that day, and all the night, and all the day after, and gather the quails -- he who hath least hath gathered ten homers -- and they spread them out for themselves round about the camp.

33 The flesh is yet between their teeth -- it is not yet cut off -- and the anger of Jehovah hath burned among the people, and Jehovah smiteth among the people -- a very great smiting;

34 and [one] calleth the name of that place Kibroth-Hattaavah, for there they have buried the people who lust.

35 From Kibroth-Hattaavah have the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and they are in Hazeroth.

   

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Apocalypse Explained # 1082

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1082. And shall eat her flesh, signifies rejection of its evils, which are adulterated goods, and then the manifestation that they were without any good. This is evident from the signification of "flesh," as being the good of the Word and of the church, and in the contrary sense the evil thereof. Here "flesh" means evils, which are adulterated goods. Also from the signification of "to eat," as being to consume, but here to reject wholly, because this is said of the Reformed, who have rejected the works or goods of Babylon, which consist especially in gifts to the idols of their saints, to their sepulchers, also to monasteries, and to the monks themselves, given as offerings for various expiations. It follows that the same words mean also the manifestation that they were without any good, for when spurious and meritorious goods are rejected, which are signified by the "flesh that they should eat," it is then manifest that they are without any good.

[2] "Flesh" has various significations in the Word. It signifies what is man's own [proprium], thus either his good or evil, and from this it signifies the whole man. But in the highest sense it signifies the Lord's Divine Human, and particularly the Divine good of the Divine love that proceeds from Him. That "flesh" signifies the Divine Human as to the good of love is evident in John:

Jesus said, I am the living bread, which cometh down out of heaven; if anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews, therefore, strove one with another, saying, How can this one give His flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood ye shall not have life in yourselves. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day; for My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him. This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven (John 6:51-58).

It is clearly evident that "flesh" here means the own [proprium] of the Lord's Divine Human, which is the Divine good of the Divine love, and is that which is called in the Holy Supper the body. (That the "body" there, that is, the "flesh," is the Divine good, and the "blood" is the Divine truth, may be seen above, n. 329.) And as "bread and wine" have the same signification as "flesh and blood," "bread" meaning the Divine good, and "wine" the Divine truth, therefore these were commanded in place of flesh and blood.

[3] Divine good from the Lord was signified also by the flesh of the sacrifices that Aaron, his sons, and those who sacrificed, and others who were clean, might eat:

And that this was holy (may be seen in Exodus 12:7-9, 29:31-34; Leviticus 7:15-21; 8:31; Deuteronomy 12:27; 16:4);

Consequently if an unclean person ate of that flesh he would be cut off from his people (Leviticus 7:21).

That those sacrifices were called bread (Leviticus 22:6-7).

That that flesh was called the flesh of holiness (Jeremiah 11:15; Haggai 2:12),

And the flesh of the offering, which was to be upon the table in the Lord's kingdom (Ezekiel 40:43).

The Lord's Divine Human is also called "flesh" in John:

The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father (John 1:14).

[4] That "flesh" signified also the good with man can be seen from the following passages. In Ezekiel:

I will give them one heart, and I will give a new spirit in the midst of you, and I will take away the heart of stone out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26).

"Heart of flesh" means the will and love of good. In David:

O God, Thou art my God, in the morning I seek Thee; my soul thirsteth for Thee; my flesh longeth for Thee in a land of drought and weariness without waters (Psalms 63:1).

In the same:

My soul longeth for the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God (Psalms 84:2).

The "flesh" that longeth for Jehovah, and that crieth out unto the living God, signifies man as to good of the will, for the "flesh" of man corresponds to the good or evil of his will, and the "blood" to the truth or falsity of his understanding; here "flesh" means the good of the will, because it longeth for Jehovah and crieth out unto God.

[5] In Job:

I have known my Redeemer, He liveth, and at the last He shall rise upon the dust; and afterwards these things shall be encompassed by my skin, and from my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:25-27).

To see God from one's flesh signifies from one's own voluntary made new by the Lord, and thus good. In Ezekiel:

Upon the bones seen in the midst of the valley, I will put sinews, and I will cause flesh to come up upon them, and I will cover them with skin, and I will give spirit unto them that they may live (Ezekiel 37:6, 8).

Here, too, "flesh" signifies what is one's own [proprium] of the will made new by the Lord, and thus good. What "bones" and the rest signify here may be seen above (n. 418, 419, 665). In Revelation:

Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders of thousands, and the flesh of the mighty, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, small and great (Revelation 19:17-18; Ezekiel 39:17-19).

That "flesh" here does not mean flesh but goods of every kind, is clearly evident.

[6] But on the other hand, that "flesh" signifies man's own voluntary, which regarded in itself is evil, is evident from the following passages. In Isaiah:

They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm (Isaiah 9:20).

In the same:

I will feed thine oppressors with their own flesh (Isaiah 49:26).

In Jeremiah:

I will feed you with the flesh of their sons and with the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every man the flesh of his companion (Jeremiah 19:9).

In Zechariah:

The rest shall eat everyone the flesh of another (Zechariah 11:9).

In Moses:

I will chastise you sevenfold for your sins, and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters (Leviticus 26:28-29).

[7] In Jeremiah:

Cursed is the man who trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm (Jeremiah 17:5).

Here "flesh" signifies what is man's own [proprium] which in itself is evil; to appropriate this to oneself is signified by eating and feeding upon it. Again, "flesh" signifies what is man's own [proprium] in Matthew:

Jesus said, Blessed art thou, Simon, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee (Matthew 16:17).

In John:

As many as received, to them gave He power to become sons of God, who were born, not from bloods nor from the will of the flesh, but from God (John 1:12-13).

In Ezekiel:

Jerusalem committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt her neighbors, great in flesh (Ezekiel 16:26).

In Isaiah:

Egypt is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not spirit (Isaiah 31:3).

In John:

It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing (John 6:63).

In the same:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is begotten of the spirit is spirit (John 3:6).

In David:

God remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and returneth not (Psalms 78:39).

The evil of man's will, which is what is his own [proprium] from birth is what is signified in these passages by "flesh"; also by:

The flesh that the sons of Israel lusted after in the desert, and on account of which they were smitten with a great plague, and from which the place was called graves of lust (Numbers 11:4-34).

Moreover, in the Word the expression "all flesh" is frequently used as meaning every man (as in Genesis 6:12, 13, 17, 19; Isaiah 40:5, 6; 49:26; 66:16, 23, 24; Jeremiah 25:31; 32:27; 45:5; Ezekiel 20:48, 21:4, 5; and elsewhere).

(Continuation respecting the Word)

[8] The spiritual by influx presents what is correspondent to itself in the natural, in order that the end may become a cause, and the cause become an effect, and thus the end through the cause may present itself in the effect as visible and sensible. This trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, is given from creation in every heaven. The end is the good of love, the cause is truth from that good, and the effect is use. That which produces is love, and the product therefrom is of love from good by means of truth. The final products, which are in our world, are various, as numerous as the objects are in its three kingdoms of nature, animal, vegetable, and mineral. All products are correspondences.

[9] As this trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, exists in each heaven, there must be in each heaven products that are correspondences, and which in form and aspect are like the objects in the three kingdoms of our earth; from which it is clear that each heaven is like our earth in external appearance, differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. Now in order that the Word may be full, that is, may consist of effects in which are a cause and an end, or may consist of uses, in which truth is the cause and good is the end and love is that which produces, it must needs consist of correspondences; and from this it follows that the Word in each heaven is like the Word in our world, differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. What this difference is shall be told elsewhere.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.