Arcana Coelestia #1695
1695. That 'all their food' means the power to think what was false is clear from the meaning of 'food'. What the celestial, spiritual, and natural food are which people enjoy in the next life has been shown already in 56, 58, 680, 681. These also correspond to food for the body, and therefore they are also represented in the Word by food and are actually called food. The food of evil and hellish spirits however is that which is the reverse of wisdom, intelligence, and true knowledge, namely all falsity; and what is remarkable, evil spirits are also sustained by this food. The reason they are sustained by it is that it is their life. Unless they are given the opportunity to revile the truth, and indeed to blaspheme it, they cannot live. Yet they are not given the freedom to think and speak anything false except that which subsists from their own evil; they are not free to think or speak that which is contrary to their own evil, for this is deception. Insofar as their own evil is the origin of the falsity they express, their own life is the source of it; and in this case it is also forgiven them, since their nature is such that they could not otherwise live at all.
[2] With regard to their being stripped of the power to do evil and to think falsity, the situation is that in the conflicts brought about by temptations evil spirits are permitted to draw forth all the evil and falsity residing in a person, and to fight from that person's evil and falsity. But once they have been overcome they are no longer allowed to do so, for, being within that person, they instantly perceive that good and truth have been confirmed. Such perception exists more completely with spirits than with men. From the very sphere of a person confirmed in truth and good they recognize in an instant what the situation is, what response they will get, and much else. This is quite clear in the case of a spiritual and regenerate person, with whom evil spirits are present just as much as they are with one who is not regenerate; but with the regenerate person they have been subdued and are subservient. These are the things meant by their being stripped of the power to do evil and to think falsity.
Genesis 6
1
It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
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that God's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.
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Yahweh said, "My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years."
4
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came in to men's daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5
Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
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Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
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Yahweh said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
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But Noah found favor in Yahweh's eyes.
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This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
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Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
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The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
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God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
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God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14
Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
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This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship will be three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
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You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.
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I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
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But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
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Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
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Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come to you, to keep them alive.
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Take with you of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them."
22
Thus Noah did. According to all that God commanded him, so he did.
