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Exodus 16

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1 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 departing out of the land of Egypt.

2 The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness;

3 and the children of Israel said to them, "We wish that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

4 Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.

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

6 Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, "At evening, then you shall know that Yahweh has brought you out from the land of Egypt;

7 and in the morning, then you shall see the glory of Yahweh; because he hears your murmurings against Yahweh. Who are we, that you murmur against us?"

8 Moses said, "Now Yahweh shall give you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to satisfy you; because Yahweh hears your murmurings which you murmur against him. And who are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against Yahweh."

9 Moses said to Aaron, "Tell all the congregation of the children of Israel, 'Come near before Yahweh, for he has heard your murmurings.'"

10 It happened, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud.

11 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

12 "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread: and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.'"

13 It happened at evening that quail came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp.

14 When the dew that lay had gone, behold, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the frost on the ground.

15 When the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, "What is it?" For they didn't know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat."

16 This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded: "Gather of it everyone according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, you shall take it, every man for those who are in his tent."

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

18 When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating.

19 Moses said to them, "Let no one leave of it until the morning."

20 Notwithstanding they didn't listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and became foul: and Moses was angry with them.

21 They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted.

22 It happened that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

23 He said to them, "This is that which Yahweh has spoken, 'Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to Bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.'"

24 They laid it up until the morning, as Moses asked, and it didn't become foul, neither was there any worm in it.

25 Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh. today you shall not find it in the field.

26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none."

27 It happened on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, and they found none.

28 Yahweh said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

29 Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day."

30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

31 The house of Israel called its name Manna, and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey.

32 Moses said, "This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, 'Let an omer-full of it be kept throughout 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 Moses said to Aaron, "Take a pot, and put an omer-full of manna in it, and lay it up before Yahweh, to be kept throughout your generations."

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

35 The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the 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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Arcana Coelestia #8413

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8413. 'To kill all this congregation with hunger' means that they were perishing owing to the lack of delight and of good. This is clear from the meaning of 'killing' as depriving of life, at this point life made up of delight and good, for a person's life consists in these, dealt with in 3607, 6767; from the meaning of 'congregation' as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 7843; and from the meaning of 'hunger' or 'famine' as a lack of good, dealt with in 5893, at this point the good of lower pleasures, meant by 'bread' in 8410. For when that which nourishes spiritual life, or the life of the spirit, is taken away, hunger or famine occurs.

[2] A brief statement showing the nature of all this needs to be made. When the good of charity, which is to constitute a spiritual life, is to be instilled, the delight belonging to lower pleasures, which has constituted a natural life, is taken away. And when this delight is taken away the person enters into temptation. The person thinks that if he is deprived of the delight which belongs to those pleasures he is deprived of all life; for the life of his natural has consisted in that delight or good as he calls it. But he does not know that when this delight in which his life has consisted is taken away the Lord instills spiritual delight and good instead; and this good is what is meant by 'the manna'. The previous kind of good or delight is meant by 'flesh and bread in the land of Egypt', and the deprivation of it by 'hunger'.

[3] But it should be thoroughly understood that a person undergoing regeneration is not deprived of the delight belonging to bodily and mental pleasures, for after regeneration he has full enjoyment of such delight, fuller than he had before, but in inverse proportion. Before regeneration the delight that belongs to lower pleasures was the all of that life; but after regeneration the good of charity becomes the all of life, and when it does so the delight belonging to lower pleasures serves as a means, as something embodying spiritual good and the happiness and bliss that go with it. When therefore order is to be inverted, the previous delight belonging to lower pleasures fades away and ceases to be anything, and a new delight from a spiritual origin is instilled instead.

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

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Arcana Coelestia #3607

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3607. 'The days of mourning for my father are approaching, and I will kill Jacob my brother' means an inversion, and the removal from truth of the life from itself. This is clear from the meaning of 'the days of mourning' as an inversion of state, and from the meaning of 'killing his brother Jacob' as removing from truth the life from itself. These matters are similar to those discussed just above about hatred not being meant in the internal sense by 'hatred'. The same is also evident from things that are happening all the time in the next life. In that life all good flowing down from heaven to those under the influence of evil is converted into that which is evil, and among those in hell into that which is an opposite of that good; and truth in a similar way is converted into falsity, see 2123. Conversely therefore, that which exists as evil and falsity among such evil spirits as these exists in heaven as good and truth; and to turn this into what is good, there are spirits along the way who remove ideas of evil and falsity so that an idea of good and truth may present itself. Concerning that removal, see 1393, 1875. Furthermore when evil and falsity reach people with whom good and truth are present they are not seen as evil and falsity but under some other form determined by the disposition and state of the goodness that exists with them.

[2] From this it may also be seen that 'killing Jacob his brother' does not mean in the internal sense killing but the removal of that life which does not properly belong to truth. For of itself truth has no life except from good, truth being merely a vessel for receiving good, see 1496, 1832, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269, 2697, 3049, 3068, 3128, 3146, 3318, 3387. It is in good that life lies, but not in truth unless it receives it from good 1589, and many other paragraphs. Consequently the removal from truth of the life from itself does not destroy truth but gives it life, for when truth seems to possess life from itself it does not possess any life at all other than that which is not life in itself. But when that life from itself is removed, life itself is then conferred on it, that is to say, the life received by way of good from the Lord, who is life itself.

[3] This is plain to see in those in the next life with whom truth alone exists. Their ideas appear closed, so much so that things of heaven are unable to flow in except in so general a way that it is scarcely recognized as being influx from that source. But the ideas of those with whom good as well as truth exists appear to be open, so much so that things of heaven flow so to speak into a miniature heaven or an image of themselves, for such things flow by way of the good present with those persons into the truths, see 1869, 2429. The fact that truth has the life from itself removed from it when good starts to occupy the prior position or to have dominion may be seen from what has been stated and shown already about the apparent priority of truth in the first stage and about the priority of good later on. It is this removal from truth of life from itself that is meant here. The reason why these matters are referred to as 'mourning for a father' is that 'the days of mourning' means an inversion of state, the inversion of state that was meant above in verse 33 by Isaac's 'trembling very greatly', 3593, and in verse 34 by Esau's crying out 'with a loud and bitter cry', 3597.

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