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.

1496. 'I might have taken her to be my wife (mulier)' means that this being so He could have done violence to the truth that was to be joined to what is celestial. This becomes clear from what has just been stated as well as from what was stated above at verse 13. As to truth being joined to that which is celestial, the situation is that regarded in itself truth learned in childhood is nothing else than a vessel adapted for that which is celestial to be introduced into it. By itself truth has no life except from the celestial flowing in. The celestial consists in love and charity, and all truth exists from these; and because all truth exists from these it is nothing else than a kind of vessel. What is more, truths themselves are plainly manifested as such in the next life, for there it is not the truths themselves that are seen but the life they have within them, that is, the celestial things within them that consist of love and charity. It is from these that truths are made celestial and are called celestial truths. From this it may now become clear what intellectual truth is, and also that intellectual truth opened a way to celestial things residing with the Lord. Factual truth is one thing, rational truth another, and intellectual truth yet another. They follow on consecutively. Factual truth is a matter of knowledge; rational truth is factual truth confirmed by reason; while intellectual truth is joined to an internal perception that the thing is so. This kind of truth resided with the Lord in childhood, and with Him opened the way to celestial things.