5302.“免得这地被饥荒所剪灭”表免得此人灭亡，即免得此人因真理的缺乏而灭亡。这从“剪灭”和“地”的含义清楚可知：“剪灭”是指灭亡；“地”，即此处“埃及地”是指属世心智，如刚才所述（5301节）；它因是属世心智，故是此人自己，因为人之为人，凭的是他的心智；事实上，心智本身构成此人，心智如何，此人就如何。“心智”是指人的理解力和意愿，因而是指他的本质生命。愚蠢的人以为人之为人凭是他的外表，也就是说，是因为他有一张人脸。不那么愚蠢的人声称人之为人是因为他有说话的能力；而更不怎么愚蠢的人则声称人之为人是因为他有思考的能力。但人之为人不是因为这些东西，乃因以下事实：他拥有思考真理、意愿良善的能力；当他思考真理，意愿良善时，就有仰望神性、可察觉地接受它的能力。人与动物的区别就在于此。
但他看似人，或有说话和思考的能力并不使他成为一个人；因为如果他思想虚假，意愿邪恶，那会使他不仅像野兽，甚至比野兽更坏。这时，他会利用这些能力摧毁自己里面的人性，使自己变成野兽。这一点从来世这类人身上看得尤其明显，因为当他们在天堂之光中被观之时，以及当天使观看他们时，他们在那一刻看上去就像怪物，有的则像野兽；骗子则像蛇，其他人看似其它形式。但是，当他们从天堂之光中被移除，回到自己在地狱所拥有的劣光时，他们在彼此看来就像人。我们将在本章接下来的几节阐明这一切的含义，也就是以下事实：当人没有主储存在他心智内层中的良善与真理而导致真理缺乏（这由“粮食可以为这地作储备，以应付七年饥荒，免得这地被饥荒所剪灭”来表示）时，人必要灭亡。
Potts(1905-1910) 5302
5302. And the land shall not be cut off in the famine. That this signifies lest the man should perish, namely, by the lack of truth, is evident from the signification of "being cut off," as being to perish; and from the signification of "land," here the land of Egypt, as being the natural mind (of which just above, n. 5301); and because it is the natural mind, it is the man himself, for man is man from his mind; for the mind itself constitutes the man, and such as the mind is, such is the man. By the "mind" is meant man's intellect and will, and consequently his veriest life. Stupid people suppose that man is man from his outward form, in that he has a face like a man's; those less stupid say man is man because he can speak; and those still less stupid, that man is man because he can think. But man is not man from these things, but from the fact that he can think what is true and will what is good, and that when he thinks truth and wills good he can look up to the Divine and perceptibly receive it. It is in this that man is distinguished from the brute animals. [2] But his seeming like a man, and his ability to speak and to think, do not make him a man; for if he thinks what is false and wills what is evil, this makes him not merely like a brute animal, but worse; for by means of these very faculties he destroys what is human in himself, and makes himself a wild beast. This is especially evident from such persons in the other life, who when seen in the light of heaven and looked at by angels, appear as monsters, and some of them as wild beasts, the deceitful as serpents, and others in other forms. But when they are removed from that light and are let back into their own light which they have in hell, they seem to one another like men. But how the case stands that man would perish when the truth fails him, had he not goods and truths stored up by the Lord in the interiors (signified by the "food for a store to the land against the seven years of famine, that the land shall not be cut off in the famine") will be told in the following verses of this chapter.
Elliott(1983-1999) 5302
5302. 'And the land will not be cut off in the famine' means lest the person perishes - through an absence of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'being cut off' as perishing, and from the meaning of 'the land', in this case the land of Egypt, as the natural mind, dealt with immediately above in 5301; and because it is the natural mind, it is the person's true self, since a human being is a human being by virtue of his mind, it being the actual mind itself that constitutes a person, and the kind of mind he has that determines what kind of a person he is. By the mind is meant a person's understanding and will, consequently his essential life. People who are stupid imagine that a human being is a human being by virtue of his outward appearance, that is to say, because he possesses a human face. Others who are a little less stupid say that the human being is a human being because he has the ability to speak, while others again who are less stupid still say that the human being is a human being because he has the ability to think. But a human being is not a human being for any of these reasons but because he has the capacity to think what is true and to will what is good; and when he thinks what is true and wills what is good he has the capacity to behold what is Divine and, perceiving what it is, to accept it.
[2] This is what distinguishes a human being from animals. Not merely his human appearance, or his ability to speak, or his ability to think make him a human being; for if he thinks what is false and wills what is evil, that makes him not only like but worse than an animal. For he then uses those abilities to destroy what is human within himself and to make a wild animal of himself. This is particularly evident from people of this kind in the next life, for when they are seen in the light of heaven, and also when angels see them, they look at that moment like monsters, and some of them like wild animals. The deceitful look like snakes, and others like something different again. But when they are taken away from the light of heaven and are returned to their own inferior light which they have in hell, they look to one another like human beings. But the implications of all this - of the fact that a person will perish in times when truth is absent if he has no forms of good and truth stored away by the Lord in the interior parts of his mind, meant by 'food kept as a reserve for the land, for the seven years of famine, so that the land is not cut off in the famine' - will be stated in the sections that follow next in the present chapter.
Latin(1748-1756) 5302
5302. `Et non exscindetur terra in fame': quod significet ne pereat homo, nempe per defectum veri, constat ex significatione `exscindi' quod sit perire; et a significatione `terrae' hic terrae Aegypti, quod sit mens naturalis, de qua mox supra n. 5301, et quia est mens naturalis, est ipse homo, nam homo est homo ex sua mente, ipsa enim mens constituit hominem, {1}et qualis illa est talis est homo; per mentem significatur hominis {2} intellectuale et voluntarium, consequenter ipsissima vita ejus; qui stupidi sunt, putant quod homo sit homo ex forma externa, quod nempe facies ei sit qualis hominis; qui minus stupidi sunt, dicunt quod homo sit homo ex eo quod loqui possit; et qui adhuc minus stupidi, quod homo sit homo {3}ex eo quod cogitare possit; sed homo non est homo ex illis sed ex eo quod cogitare verum et velle bonum queat, et quod tunc cum cogitat verum et vult bonum, possit intueri Divinum, et {4}illud perceptibiliter recipere; [2] in hoc distinguitur homo a brutis animalibus; alioquin quod appareat sicut homo, quod loqui queat, et quod cogitare, hoc non facit quod sit homo, nam si cogitat falsum et vult malum, facit ut sit non solum sicut animal brutum sed etiam pejus illo, nam per {5}ipsas illas facultates destruit humanum apud se et se facit feram; quod imprimis constare potest a talibus in altera vita, tales enim cum apparent in luce caeli, ut et cum inspiciuntur ab angelis, apparent eo momento sicut monstra, et quidam sicut ferae, dolosi sicut serpentes, et alii aliter; at cum removentur a luce illa et remittuntur in lumen suum quod habent in inferno, apparent inter se sicut homines. Quomodo autem cum hoc se habet, nempe quod periturus homo in defectibus veri, si non habuerit bona et vera in interioribus a Domino recondita, quae {6}significantur per `cibum ad depositum terrae, ad septem annos famis, ne {7}exscindatur terra in fame', in sequentibus hujus capitis dicetur. @1 nam$ @2 i et$ @3 per id$ @4 illud after recipere$ @5 facultates illas$ @6 significabantur$ @7 exscindaretur$