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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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Arcana Coelestia # 999

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999. That 'flesh' means what belongs to man's will is clear from the meaning of 'flesh' in its proper sense when used in connection with corrupt mankind. In general 'flesh' means the whole of mankind, in particular the bodily-minded - see what has been shown already in 574. And because it means the whole of mankind, and in particular the bodily-minded, it means that which is specifically man's own, and therefore that which constitutes his will. That which constitutes his will - that is, the will itself - is nothing but evil. Consequently 'flesh', used in reference to mankind because it is such, means all evil desire or all craving. For, as shown several times already, the human will is nothing but evil desire. And because flesh had that meaning, the flesh the people craved in the wilderness had the same representation too. That craving is described in Moses as follows,

The mixed multitude that were among them had a strong craving, and so they wept repeatedly and said, Who will give us flesh to eat? Numbers 11:4.

Here 'flesh' is plainly called 'craving', for it is said that 'they had a strong craving, [saying,] Who will give us flesh?' The same meaning is in like manner clear from what is said further on in that chapter,

While the flesh was yet between their teeth, before they had chewed it, the anger of Jehovah was kindled against the people, and Jehovah smote the people with a very great plague. And the name of that place was called Graves of Craving, for they buried there the people that craved. Numbers 11:33-34.

[2] Anyone may see that such a plague could not possibly have spread among the people simply because they had craved for flesh. It did not spread because of a craving for flesh, for this is quite natural for someone when he has been kept from eating for a long time, as was the case at that time with the people in the wilderness. There was a deeper - a spiritual - cause to the plague, namely, that those people were such as utterly loathed that which was meant by and represented by 'the manna', as is also clear in verse 6 of the same chapter. They desired solely such things as were meant and represented by 'flesh', that is to say, things belonging to their own will, which consisted of evil desires and were in themselves putrid and profane. It was because that Church, as a result of the representation of such things, was a representative Church that the people experienced so severe a plague. For the events that took place among the people were represented in a spiritual way in heaven. In heaven 'the manna' represented what is heavenly, and 'the flesh which they craved' the foulness of their own will. Consequently, such being their nature, they were punished. From these and other places in the Word it becomes clear that 'flesh' means what belongs to the will, here the merely human will. How filthy that will is, see under verse 2 of this chapter where 'the beasts of the earth' is the subject.

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