The Bible

 

Amos 8

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1 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.

2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

7 The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:

10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

   

The Bible

 

Hosea 2:13

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13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #707

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707. It is clearly established from the Lord's words that bread has much the same meaning as flesh:

Jesus taking bread broke it and gave it, saying, This is my body. Matt. chapter 26; Mark chapter 14; Luke chapter 22.

Also:

The bread which I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world, John 6:51.

He also says that He is the bread of life, and that he who eats of this bread will live for ever (John 6:48, 51, 58). This too is the bread meant by sacrifices, which are called bread in the following passages:

The priest is to burn it upon the altar, the bread of the fire-offering to Jehovah, Leviticus 3:11, 16.

The sons of Aaron are to be holy to their God, and they are not to profane the name of their God, because they present the fire-offerings to Jehovah, the bread of their God. You are to sanctify him, because it is he who presents the bread of your God. A man of the seed of Aaron in whom there is a blemish is not to approach to present the bread of his God, Leviticus 21:6, 8, 17, 21.

Command the Children of Israel and say to them, My gift, my bread for the fire-offerings for an odour of rest, you are to take care to present to me in due season, Numbers 28:2.

He who has touched an unclean thing is not to eat any of the sanctified things, but is to wash his flesh in water, and afterwards he may eat of the sanctified things, because that is his bread, Leviticus 22:6-7.

Eating of the sanctified things meant the flesh from the sacrifices, and this is here also called bread; see also Malachi 1:7.

[2] The minhah in sacrifices, which were offerings of bread made from fine wheat-flour, had the same meaning (Leviticus 2:1-11; 6:14-21; 7:9-13 and elsewhere). The same is true of the loaves placed on the table in the Tabernacle, which were called the bread of faces 1 or shewbread (on which see Exodus 25:30; 40:23; Leviticus 24:5-9). It is not natural bread which is meant by bread, but heavenly bread, as is plain from these quotations:

It is not by bread alone that a person lives, but it is by everything that comes out of Jehovah's mouth that a person lives, Deuteronomy 8:3.

I shall send hunger upon the land, not hunger for bread, nor thirst for waters, but for hearing the words of Jehovah, Amos 8:11.

Moreover, bread means every kind of food (Leviticus 24:5-9; Exodus 25:30; 40:23; Numbers 4:7; 1 Kings 7:48). It also means spiritual food, as is clear from these words of the Lord:

Work for food, not that which perishes, but that which lasts to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, John 6:27.

Footnotes:

1. So literally; usually translated 'bread of the presence.'

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