995、“都可作你们的食物”表示人们将在这种享受中所获得的快乐。这从以下事实清楚可知：每种享受不仅触动人，还像食物一样滋养他、维持他。没有快乐的享受不是享受，而是无生命的东西。享受从快乐中获得自己的存在并得其名。然而，快乐的性质决定了享受的性质。肉体和感官事物本身完全是物质的，无生命的和死的；但它们从源于按次序排列的内在事物的快乐中获得生命。由此清楚可知，内在事物的生命之性质决定了享受中所固有的快乐之性质，因为快乐拥有生命在里面。只有包含来自主的良善的快乐具有生命，因为在这种情况下，它从良善本身的生命中获得生命。因此，经上在此说“凡活着的爬行物，都可作你们的食物”，也就是说，可作为享受。
有些人认为，想要在来世幸福，就不应沉浸于肉体和感官的享受，而是要放弃这一切。他们声称，追求肉体和世俗的东西会妨碍人，阻止他过属灵的天堂生活。但那些如此思想，并且活在世上时自愿过悲惨生活的人，对事情的真相知之甚少。从来没有人被禁止拥有肉体和感官的享受，也就是拥有土地和财富的享受；在政府担任高级职务的享受；婚姻之爱，以及爱婴儿和儿童的享受；友谊和社交的享受；听觉享受，或甜美歌曲和音乐的享受；视觉享受，或多种多样的美丽事物的享受，如优雅合身的衣服，漂亮精致的房子和家具，美丽的花园，等等，它们的形状和色彩和谐搭配在一起给人带来快乐；嗅觉享受，或馨香气味的享受；味觉享受，或营养美味的食物和饮品的享受；触觉享受。事实上，如前所述，这一切都是来源于内在情感的最外在或肉体情感。
内在情感是活的，都从良善和真理中获得快乐；而良善和真理则从仁和信中获得快乐，仁和信反过来又从主，因而从生命本身那里获得快乐；这就是为何情感和由此而来的享受是活的。由于真正的享受有这样的源头，所以任何人都决不可否认它们。事实上，当它们来自这个源头时，它们的快乐远远超越不是来自这个源头的快乐；相比之下，后一种快乐是污秽的。以婚姻之爱的享受为例，当这些享受来源于真正的婚姻之爱时，它们远远超越不是来自这个源头的享受，并且如此超越，以至于那些拥有真正婚姻之爱的人实际上就住在天堂般的快乐和幸福中，因为它是从天堂降下来的。属于上古教会的人都承认这一点。而通奸者从淫行中所获得的快乐对这些人来说如此可憎，以致他们一想到它就吓得发抖。这清楚表明凡不是从生命的真正源泉，也就是主那里降下来的快乐是何性质。
再说一遍，人决不可否认上述享受；事实上，它们非但不可被否认，反而当来自它们真正的源头时，它们第一次成为真实的享受。这一点也可从以下事实清楚看出来：很多人在世时拥有权力、地位和财富，富有肉体和感官的一切享受，如今就在天堂被祝福和幸福的人当中。对他们来说，如今内在的快乐和幸福是活的，因为它们来源于仁之良善和对主的信之真理。由于幸福和快乐来源于仁和对主的信，所以他们从功用的角度，也就是他们的目的来看待他们的一切享受。对他们来说，功用本身最令人快乐，他们的享受中所固有的快乐由此而来（参看945节中所记载的经历）。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]995. The symbolism of will serve you for food as the joy that people would have in this pleasure can be seen from the fact that each of our pleasures not only touches us but also nourishes us the way food does.
A pleasure that is not enjoyable is not pleasure but some lifeless thing. Joy is what makes it pleasurable in name and in fact. But the nature of the joy involved determines the quality of the pleasure. In themselves, personal and sensory rewards are only material things, lifeless and dead. From delight, however, which emerges from progressively deeper sources inside us, they receive life. Plainly, then, the quality of the life we have in our deeper dimensions determines the nature of the enjoyment in our pleasures, because enjoyment has life in it. Delight that contains something good from the Lord is the only thing that is alive, because in that case it flows from the genuine life within goodness. That is why the verse says, "Every creeping thing that is alive will serve you for food," that is, for enjoyment.
[2] Some believe that no one who wants to be happy in the other world should ever live among personal or sensual pleasures but should renounce them all. They assert that these are bodily and worldly distractions that hinder us from living a spiritual and heavenly life. But people who think this way and willingly subject themselves to misery while living in the world are misinformed as to the true situation.
No one is ever forbidden to enjoy personal and sensory pleasures, which are these: pleasure in owning property and having other wealth; the pleasure of rank and high office in government; pleasure connected with love in marriage and with love for babies and children; pleasure in friendship and social contact; auditory pleasure, or pleasure in the sweetness of song and music; visual pleasure, or pleasure in the many kinds of beauty that exist, such as elegant clothes, fine mansions with all their furnishings, beautiful gardens, and similar objects whose symmetry makes them delightful; olfactory pleasure, or pleasure in sweet scents; gustatory pleasure, or pleasure in the wonderful flavor and useful qualities of food and drink; and tactile pleasures.
These are, after all, our most outward emotional responses — physical responses — rising out of inward responses, as noted.
[3] Inward responses, which are alive, all derive their appeal from goodness and truth, and goodness and truth derive theirs from charity and faith and beyond that from the Lord, so that they derive it from life itself. As a result, emotional responses and the lower pleasures that come from them are alive. And since true pleasure springs from this source, it is never denied to anyone. In fact when it springs from there, the thrill it offers outstrips by far any thrill that does not originate there. The other kind of delight is dirty by comparison.
Take for example the sensual pleasures connected with love in marriage. When those pleasures rise out of true marriage love, they surpass immeasurably any pleasure that does not. So superior are they that people who have true marriage love are virtually in the blissful elation of heaven, since it comes down to them from heaven. The people who belonged to the earliest church testify to this. The delight an adulterer feels in adultery was so loathsome to them that merely thinking about it made their hair stand on end.{*1} From this we can draw conclusions about the nature of any pleasure that does not flow from the true fountain of life: the Lord.
[4] Again, the pleasures mentioned above are never denied to us. So far are they from being denied to us that they do not even begin to feel good until we obtain them from their true origin. Further corroboration for this fact is the consideration that many people who enjoyed power, importance, and wealth during their earthly lives and abundant gratifications of all kinds, both personal and sensory, are among the blessed and happy in heaven. Deeper joys and a deeper happiness are now alive in them, because these feelings originated in the good impulses of neighborly love and in the true ideas constituting faith in the Lord. Because the joy and happiness originated in charity and in faith in the Lord, such people viewed all their lower pleasures in terms of usefulness, since usefulness was their goal. The usefulness itself was intensely exhilarating to them and was what made their lower pleasures enjoyable. See the lesson of experience in 945.
Footnotes:
{*1} Swedenborg's view that sexual pleasure as an expression of love in marriage is holy and presages the delights of heaven is laid out fully in his work Marriage Love (1768). This understanding contrasts with the view, widespread in Christianity from ancient times, that sexuality is morally questionable even in marriage. The church father Jerome (around 347-around 420) famously wrote, "‘He who too ardently loves his wife is an adulterer.' It is disgraceful to love another man's wife at all, or one's own too much" (Jerome Against Jovinianus 1:49 [Jerome 1996, 386]; the first sentence is Jerome's quotation from the Sentences of an obscure ancient writer, Xystus or Sextus, on whom see The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed., under "Sextus 2. "). [RS]
Potts(1905-1910) 995
995. Shall be food for you. That this signifies its delight which they should enjoy, is evident from this, that any pleasure not only affects man, but also sustains him, like food. Pleasure without delight is not pleasure, but is something without life, and only from delight is and is called pleasure. Such also as is the delight, such is the pleasure. Corporeal and sensuous things are in themselves only material, lifeless, and dead; but from delights which come in order from the interiors, they have life. From this it is evident that such as is the life of the interiors, such is the delight in the pleasures, for in the delight there is life. The delight in which there is good from the Lord is alone living, for it is then from the very life of good; for which reason it is here said, "every creeping thing that liveth shall be food for you" that is, for enjoyment. [2] Some think that no one ought ever to live in the pleasures of the body and its senses who wishes to be happy in the other life, but that all these should be renounced on the ground that they are corporeal and worldly, withdrawing man and keeping him away from spiritual and heavenly life. But those who think so and therefore reduce themselves to voluntary misery while they live in the world, are not well-informed as to what the real case is. No one is forbidden to enjoy the pleasures of the body and its senses, that is, the pleasures of possession of lands and wealth; the pleasures of honor and office in the state; the pleasures of conjugial love and of love for infants and children; the pleasures of friendship and of interaction with companions; the pleasures of hearing, or of the sweetness of singing and music; the pleasures of sight, or of beauties, which are manifold, as those of becoming dress, of elegant dwellings with their furniture, beautiful gardens, and the like, which are delightful from harmony of form and color; the pleasures of smell, or of fragrant odors; the pleasures of taste, or of the flavors and benefits of food and drink; the pleasures of touch. For these are most external or bodily affections arising from interior affections, as already said. [3] Interior affections, which are living, all derive their delight from good and truth; and good and truth derive their delight from charity and faith, and in this case do so from the Lord, thus from life itself; wherefore the affections and pleasures therefrom are living. And since genuine pleasures have this origin, they are denied to no one. Indeed, when they are from this origin their delight indefinitely surpasses delight not from this source, which is in comparison unclean. For example, the pleasure of conjugial love, when it has its origin from true conjugial love, surpasses immeasurably pleasure that has not this origin, so much so that those who are in true conjugial love are in heavenly delight and happiness, since it comes down from heaven. This was acknowledged by the men of the Most Ancient Church. The delight from adulteries felt by adulterers was to those men so abominable that when they thought of it they shuddered. From all this it is evident what is the nature of the delight that does not flow from the true fountain of life, or from the Lord. [4] That the pleasures above mentioned are never denied to man, and that so far from being denied they are then first really pleasures when they come from their true origin, may also be seen from the fact that very many who have lived in power, dignity, and opulence in the world, and who had all pleasures in abundance, both of the body and of the senses, are among the blessed and happy in heaven, and with them now the interior delights and happinesses are living, because they have had their origin in the goods of charity and the truths that are of faith in the Lord. And since they had regarded all their pleasures as coming from charity and faith in the Lord, they regarded them from use, which was their end. Use itself was the most delightful thing to them, and from this came the delight of their pleasures. (See what has been related from experience, n. 945.)
Elliott(1983-1999) 995
995. 'Will be food for you' means the accompanying delight which people were to enjoy. This becomes clear from the fact that any pleasure not only stirs a person's emotion but also sustains him, like food. Pleasure without delight is not pleasure but something lifeless. It is from the delight that a pleasure has its being and gets its name. The nature of the delight however determines that of the pleasure. In themselves things of the body and of the senses are wholly material, lifeless and dead; but from the delights that spring from interior things ranged in order they receive life. From this it is clear that the nature of the life of interior things determines the nature of the delight inherent in pleasures, for delight has life within it. No other kind of delight has life except that which contains good from the Lord, for in that case it does so from the life of good itself. Hence the wording here - 'every creeping thing that is living will be food for you', that is, will be an enjoyment. Some people are of the opinion that anyone who wishes to be happy in the next life ought never to indulge in bodily and sensory pleasures, but ought to renounce all such things. They say that such bodily and worldly pursuits are what deter and withhold men from spiritual and heavenly life. But people who think in this way and who willingly reduce themselves during their lifetime to a miserable standard of living are ill-informed of the truth of the matter.
[2] Nobody is in any way forbidden to enjoy bodily and sensory pleasures, namely the pleasures of possessing land and wealth; the pleasures of positions of honour and of service to the state; the pleasures of conjugial love, and of love of infants and children; the pleasures of friendship and of social intercourse; the pleasures of the ear - the sweet sounds of music and song; the pleasures of seeing - things of beauty, which are manifold, such as nice clothes, attractive homes together with their furniture, beautiful gardens, and things of a like nature which as they blend together give delight; pleasures of smell - the pleasant odours; pleasures of taste - all the delicious and nourishing qualities of food and drink; and the pleasures of touch. Indeed, as stated, all of these are most external or bodily affections having their origin in interior affections.
[3] Interior affections, which are living, all derive their delight from good and truth, while good and truth derive theirs from charity and faith, and these in turn do so from the Lord, and so from Life itself. This is why affections and pleasures from this source are living. And because that is where genuine pleasures have their origins they are in no way denied to anybody. Indeed when this is their source, the delight that accompanies them is immeasurably greater than delight that is not from that source. The latter delight in comparison is filthy. Take for example the pleasure that goes with conjugial love; when its origins lie in truly conjugial love it is immeasurably greater than the pleasure that is not from that source - indeed, so much greater that people who dwell in truly conjugial love dwell in delight and happiness such as is heavenly, since it comes down from heaven. People also who belonged to the Most Ancient Church declared the same. The delight which adulterers gain from acts of adultery was to those people so detestable that even the thought of it filled them with horror. This makes clear the nature of any delight that does not come down from the true fount of life, which is the Lord.
[4] That the pleasures mentioned above are in no way denied anyone - indeed, far from being denied they are for the first time pleasures when they flow from their true origin - is also made clear by the fact that very many people who during their lifetime had power, position, and wealth, and enjoyed in abundance all pleasures of the body and the senses, are now in heaven among the blessed and happy. And with them now interior delights and happiness are living because they have had their origin in goods that stem from charity and in truths of faith in the Lord. And since these have originated in charity and faith in the Lord, they have looked upon all their pleasures from the point of view of use, which has been their end in view. To them the use itself has been exceedingly delightful, and from this has come the delight inherent in their pleasures. See what has been stated from experience in 945.
Latin(1748-1756) 995
995. 'Vobis erit in cibum': quod significet jucundum ejus quo fruerentur, constare potest ex eo quod unaquaevis voluptas non solum afficiat hominem, sed etiam sustentet sicut cibus. Voluptas absque jucundo non est voluptas, sed est inanimatum quoddam; ex jucundo trahit quod sit et audiat voluptas; at quale jucundum, talis voluptas; corporea et sensualia sunt in se non nisi quam materialia, inanimata et mortua, sed a jucundis quae veniunt ab interioribus ordine, vivunt; exinde constat quod qualis vita interiorum, talis jucunditas voluptatum, nam in jucundo est vita; jucundum in quo bonum a Domino, hoc solum est vivum, nam tunc ab ipsa vita boni; quare hic dicitur 'omne reptile, quod est vivum, vobis erit in cibum,' hoc est, in fruitionem. Quidam opinantur quod nusquam aliquis vivere debeat in voluptatibus corporis et sensualium, qui in altera vita velit felix esse; sed quod se omnibus iis abdicare debeat, dicentes quod illa corporea et mundana sint quae abstrahunt et detinent hominem a spirituali et caelesti vita; sed qui ita putant, et ideo se in miserias cum vivunt in mundo, sponte detrudunt, non informati sunt quomodo se res habet; [2] nusquam alicui prohibitum est frui voluptatibus corporis et sensualium, nempe voluptatibus possessionum terrae et opum; voluptatibus bonorum, et officiorum in republica; voluptatibus amoris conjugialis, et amoris erga infantes et liberos; voluptatibus amicitiae, et conversationis cum sociis; voluptatibus auditus seu suavitatum cantus et musicae; voluptatibus visus seu pulchritudinum, quae multiplices sunt, ut decori amictus, ornata habitacula cum utensilibus, pulchri horti, et similia quae ex harmoniis jucunda sunt; voluptatibus olfactus seu suavitatum odoris; voluptatibus gustus seu dulcedinum et utilitatum ex cibis et potulentis; voluptatibus tactus; sunt enim affectiones extremae seu corporeae oriundae ex affectionibus interioribus, ut dictum; [3] interiores affectiones quae vivae sunt, omnes trahunt suum jucundum ex bono et vero, ac bonum et verum suum jucundum a charitate et fide, tunc a Domino, ita ab ipsa Vita, quare affectiones et voluptates quae inde, sunt vivae; et quia voluptates genuinae inde trahunt originem, nusquam alicui negatae sunt; immo cum inde originem trahunt, tunc jucundum earum indefinite excedit jucundum quod non inde; hoc respective est spurcum; sicut pro exemplo voluptas amoris conjugialis cum a vero amore conjugiali trahit originem, excedit indefinite voluptatem quae non inde, immo in tantum ut qui in vero amore conjugiali sunt, in jucunditate et felicitate quadam caelesti sint, nam a caelo descendit; quod etiam qui ab Antiquissima Ecclesia fuerunt, fassi sunt; jucundum ex adulteriis quod adulteri sentiunt, fuit illis tam abominabile ut cum modo cogitaverint de eo, horruerint; inde constare potest quale jucundum est quod non a vero fonte vitae seu a Domino descendit. [4] Quod voluptates supra memoratae nusquam homini negatae sint, immo in tantum non negatae, ut tunc primum voluptates sint quando a vera sua origine, etiam inde constare potest quod perplures qui in potentia, dignitate et opulentia vixerunt in mundo, et quibus omnes voluptates in abundantia tam corporis quam sensualium, inter beatos et felices in caelo sint, et apud eos nunc interiora jucunda et felicia vivant quia haec originem duxerunt a bonis charitatis et veris fidei in Dominum; et quia a charitate et fide in Dominum, spectarunt omnes suas voluptates ab usu, qui finis eorum fuit; ipse usus iis jucundissimus fuit, inde voluptatum eorum jucundum, videatur quod ab experientia n. 945.