1481. Verse 15 And Pharaoh's princes saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house.

'Pharaoh's princes saw' means the first and foremost commandments, which are 'pharaoh's princes'. 'And they praised her to Pharaoh' means that they were pleasing. 'And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house' means that they sought to capture the mind (animus).

9411. 'And they saw God' means faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing God' as being endowed with intelligence and faith. 'Seeing' in the internal sense means seeing in a spiritual manner, and seeing in a spiritual manner implies seeing with the gift of faith; this is why 'seeing' in the Word means having faith, 2325, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421, 5400, 6805, 9128. The reason why they saw the God of Israel, that is, the Lord, is that in a broad sense the laws declared from Mount Sinai mean the Word in its entirety, and the Word is Divine Truth from the Lord, which deals in its highest sense with the Lord alone. All this being so, those who receive enlightenment when they read the Word see the Lord; they do so because of the faith and the love they have. They see Him solely in the Word and in no other writing whatever. From this it is evident why Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders saw Him. The fact that these saw Him and not the children of Israel who had been set apart is evident from the preceding verses 9 and 10, which say, 'Moses and Aaron went up, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel', and the present verse says, 'And on the children of Israel who had been set apart He did not lay a hand'. The reason why the former saw God and not the latter was that 'Moses and Aaron' represented the Word in respect of its inward and outward senses, 9374, 'Nadab and Abihu' teachings derived from both senses, 9375, and 'the seventy elders' all who are governed by good which results from truths received from there, 9376, 9404, whereas 'the children of Israel who had been set apart' represented those who are restricted to the outward sense of the Word, separated from the inward.

5915. 'And I will sustain you there' means a constant influx of spiritual life from the internal celestial. This is clear from the meaning of 'sustaining', when spoken by Joseph, who represents the internal celestial, as an influx of spiritual life from the internal celestial. In the internal sense 'sustainment' is nothing else than the influx of goodness and truth from the Lord by way of heaven. This is how angels are sustained, and it is how a person's soul, that is, his internal man, is sustained. This sustainment is what the sustaining of the external man by means of food and drink corresponds to; and for this reason good is meant by 'food' and truth by 'drink'. The nature of this correspondence is also such that when a person is eating food the angels present with him think of goodness and truth; and, what is amazing, their ideas vary according to the different kinds of food that he eats. When therefore in the Holy Supper a person receives bread and wine the angels present with him think about the good of love and the good of faith, 3464, 3735, for the reason that 'bread' corresponds to the good of love and 'wine' to the good of faith. And because they correspond to them they also carry the same meanings in the Word.

[2] The fact that a person's soul, that is, his internal man, is sustained by spiritual food and drink, which are goodness and truth, is clear from the Lord's words in Moses,

Man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every utterance of the mouth of Jehovah. Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4.

'Utterance of the mouth of Jehovah' is goodness and truth that go forth from Him. In John,

Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. John 6:27.

In the same gospel,

The disciples asked Jesus, saying, Master, eat. He said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. John 4:31-32.

And regarding drink, in the same gospel,

Jesus said, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow out from within him. ¹ John 7:37-38.

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