8398. 'And all the assembly of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin' means arriving at another state of temptation. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming' as a point in the further stage that is meant in 8397 by 'travelling on'; from the meaning of 'the assembly of the children of Israel' as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 7843; from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as a state when temptations have to be undergone, dealt with in 8098; and from the meaning of 'Sin' as the essential nature of the state since names hold within them the entire nature of the state of whatever thing they refer to, as has been shown in various places above. As temptation is meant by the grumbling over the lack of bread and flesh, and as the comfort received after that is meant by the manna and selav, the meaning of 'Sin' is clear, namely good that is the product of truth. In the contrary sense therefore 'Sin', a city in Egypt from which the wilderness of Sin took its name, means evil that is a product of falsity. In Ezekiel,

I will pour out My wrath onto Sin, the strength of Egypt, and I will cut off the multitude of No; and I will send fire on Egypt. Sin will suffer great pain, and No will be breached, and Noph by enemies daily. The young men of Aven and Pi Beseth will fall by the sword, and those [cities] will go away into captivity. And in Tehaphnehes the day will be darkened, when I break the yokes of Egypt there. Ezekiel 30:15-18.

[2] The subject here is those in possession of known facts, who use them to hatch falsities that give rise to evils. 'Egypt' here is factual knowledge, 'Sin' is evil that arises from falsity, and 'No' is falsity that gives rise to evil. Anyone may recognize, solely from the consideration that it is the Divine Word, that a deeper meaning lies here than that visible in the letter. Without the deeper meaning within it, it would contain scarcely any intelligible meaning, never mind a meaning with a holy content. From this it is plainly evident that the names appearing in it are descriptive of real things, and that these provide a general meaning that befits the Word which comes from Jehovah. Anyone who accepts that the Word is Divine cannot possibly deny this, so long as he is willing to think rationally or to draw conclusions with an understanding that has been somewhat enlightened.

8098. 'And God led the people around by the way of the wilderness' means that under Divine guidance they were led by means of temptations to a firm acceptance of the truths and forms of the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'God led' as providence, as above in 8093, or what amounts to the same thing, as Divine guidance; and from the meaning of 'by the way of the wilderness' as a way that leads people to undergo temptations and so to reach a firm acceptance of the truths and forms of the good of faith since temptations are the means by which they become firmly accepted. 'The wilderness' means a place which is uninhabited and uncultivated, dealt with in 2708, in the spiritual sense a situation in which there is no good or truth, and also a situation in which truth has not yet been bonded to good. That being so, 'the wilderness' means the state of those with whom the two are to be bonded together; but since the bonding is not accomplished except by means of temptations, these also are meant. Temptations are meant when the number forty is included, which can be forty years, forty months, or forty days. For 'forty' means temptations and their duration, however long that may be, 730, 862, 2272, 2273. These things are meant by the travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years; the temptations they underwent are also described. The fact that they were led into the wilderness to undergo temptations and in so doing to represent them is evident from the following words in Moses,

You shall remember all the way in which Jehovah your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order that He might afflict you, in order that He might tempt you, in order that He might know what is in your heart. He fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, in order that He might afflict you, in order that He might tempt you, to do good to you in your descendants. Deuteronomy 8:2, 16.

Because 'forty' meant temptations and their durations, and 'the wilderness' meant the states of people undergoing them, the Lord too, when He was tempted, went out into the wilderness and was there for forty days, Matthew 4:1-2, and following verses; Luke 4:1-2, and following verses; Mark 1:12-13.