8467. 'Gather from it, each according to the mouth of his eating' means receiving and making it their own, each in accordance with his own ability. This is clear from the meaning of 'gathering' - when said in regard to the good of truth, which is meant by 'the manna' - as receiving; and from the meaning of 'each according to the mouth of his eating' as making their own, each in accordance with his own ability. For when 'according to the mouth of one's eating' refers to food it means in accordance with what is requisite and necessary to nourish [the body]; but when the expression refers to the good of truth it means in accordance with the ability to receive and make one's own, since 'eating' in the spiritual sense means making a thing one's own, 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 4745.

4792. Because food and nourishment correspond to spiritual food and nourishment, taste consequently corresponds to a perception of and an affection for this food. Spiritual food consists in knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom. These are what quicken and also sustain spirits and angels, who desire them and have an appetite for them as men desire and have an appetite for food when they are very hungry. Therefore appetite corresponds to that desire for them. And what is amazing, spirits and angels also grow to maturity on that spiritual food, for those who die as young children do not in the next life look like any but young children, and they are young children too as far as their understanding goes. But as they grow in intelligence and wisdom they cease to look like young children. They now look like those who are coming of age, and at length like adults. I have talked to some who died when they were young children and who looked to me like youths, for by then they had grown in understanding. From this one may see what spiritual food and nourishment are.