Aholiab
Aholiab, as in Exodus 31:6, signifies those who are in the good and truth of faith, like the first or lowest heavens
man
The relationship between men and women is deep and nuanced, and one entire book of the Writings – Conjugial Love or Love in Marriage –...
wise
At its heart, wisdom is love's imperative desire to take form. That's a tricky statement, but think of it this way: If you love someone,...
heart
The heart means love. A good heart means love to the Lord and to the neighbor while a hard or stony heart means the love...
jehovah
The Lord, in the simplest terms, is love itself expressed as wisdom itself. In philosophic terms, love is the Lord's substance and wisdom is His...
Put
'To put' has reference to order, arrangement, application, and influx.
Wisdom
Throughout the Word, a distinction is made between wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge. 'Wisdom' means from good, 'intelligence' is from truth, and 'knowledge' is in a...
To
‘To grieve at heart’ is in reference to love, and ‘to repent,’ to wisdom, as in Genesis 6:6.
know
In a general sense, men represent things of the intellect – facts, ideas, knowledge, everything from the deepest truths to the most pernicious falsities about...
work
'Works,' as in Genesis 46:33, denote goods, because they are from the will, and anything from the will is either good or evil, but anything...
moses
Moses's name appears 814 times in the Bible (KJV), third-most of any one character (Jesus at 961 actually trails David at 991). He himself wrote...
called
To call someone or summon someone in the Bible represents a desire for conjunction between higher and lower states of life. For instance, imagine someone...
lifted
The idea of "lifting" is used in a number of different ways in the Bible. In general, it means connecting with a higher spiritual state...
near
'Near,' in the Word, signifies presence and conjunction. 'To be near' signifies being on internal levels. Near,' as in Genesis 19:20, signifies truth bordering upon...
before
In most cases, the meaning of "before" is pretty straightforward, both as a way of assessing relative time, and in its use meaning "in someone's...
Sons of Israel
'The camp of the sons of Israel' represents the church.
israel
'Israel,' in Jeremiah 23:8, signifies the spiritual natural church. The children of Israel dispersed all the literal sense of the Word by falsities. 'The children...
service
Generally speaking, those who are at lower levels of an organization serve those at higher levels. Bosses boss and their employees serve; coaches devise strategy...
sanctuary
'Sanctuary' signifies the truth of heaven and the church. 'Sanctuary,' as in Ezekiel 24:21, signifies the Word.
morning
Morning comes with the rising of the sun, and the sun – which gives life to the earth with its warmth and light – represents...
said
As with many common verbs, the meaning of “to say” in the Bible is highly dependent on context. Who is speaking? Who is hearing? What...
bring
As with common verbs in general, the meaning of “bring” is highly dependent on context, but in general it represents an introduction to a new...
Enough
'Sufficiency' relates to the reception of good, because good is the spiritual nourishment of the soul, as natural food is the nourishment of the body.
commanded
To command is to give an order that something must be done, and is directed to an individual, or a group. It is an imperative,...
voice
'Voice' signifies what is announced from the Word. 'Voice' often refers and is applied to things that cannot have a voice, as in Exodus 4,...
passed
'To pass,' as in Genesis 31:52, signifies flowing in. 'To pass the night,' as in Genesis 24:54, signifies having peace. 'To pass through,' as in...
camp
Camps in the Bible represent spiritual order – a person’s (or a church community’s) whole collection of desires for good and true ideas on how...
Woman
The word "woman" is used a number of different ways in the Bible – as a simple description, as someone connected to a man ("his...
people
"Man" is a tricky word to discuss, because the Hebrew of the Old Testament uses six different words that are generally translated as "man," with...
bringing
As with common verbs in general, the meaning of “bring” is highly dependent on context, but in general it represents an introduction to a new...
remained
In Leviticus 6:16, 'Aaron and his sons eating the remainder' signifies a person’s reciprocation and making something one's own. This represents conjunction by means of...
ten
Most places in Swedenborg identify “ten” as representing “all,” or in some cases “many” or “much.” The Ten Commandments represent all the guidance we get...
curtains
Curtains (Exod. 26) signify the interior truths of faith, which are of the new intellectual principle. Curtains and cords (Jer. 4:20, and 10:20), signify spiritual...
linen
Linen' signifies genuine truth.
blue
Blue and purple signify celestial goods and truths, and scarlet double-dyed and fine-twined linen, spiritual goods and truths. (Exod. 28:33.) Blue and purple from the...
scarlet
'Scarlet,' as in Isaiah 1:18, signifies truth derived from good, or truth from a celestial origin, such as is the truth of the Word in...
cherubim
A Cherub has as its first definition in the dictionary, “A winged heavenly creature.” Cherubim is the plural of cherub. In the Word, the words...
length
'Length' symbolizes goodness, here, the goodness of the church, for the same reason that 'breadth' symbolizes truth. This is because 'length means the sweep of...
one
A company might have executives setting policy and strategy, engineers designing products, line workers building them, managers handling personnel and others handling various functions. They...
curtain
Curtains (Exod. 26) signify the interior truths of faith, which are of the new intellectual principle. Curtains and cords (Jer. 4:20, and 10:20), signify spiritual...
eight
According to Swedenborg, the number eight represents something that is complete within itself, in every respect. Two reasons are offered for this. First, eight is...
twenty
'Twenty,' when referring to a quantity, signifies everything, or fullness, because it is ten twice. In Genesis 18:31, 'twenty', like all numbers occurring in the...
four
The number "four" in the Bible represents things being linked together or joined. This is partly because four is two times two, and two represents...
measure
'To measure' signifies knowing and exploring the quality of something.
five
Five also signifies all things of one part.
lip
'A lip' signifies doctrine. A lip,' as in Isaiah 6:3, 7, signifies the interior parts of a person, consequently, internal worship, where adoration is grounded....
fifty
God rested on the seventh day of creation. That represents a state of holiness and tranquility that was preserved in the form of the sabbath....
clasps of gold
Rings of gold signify the ability to use good loves to join things together. The gold stands for inner, pure loves for good. Some English...
gold
Gold means good, and just as gold was the most precious metal known to ancient mankind so it represents the good of the highest and...
goats
From correspondences, a goat signifies the natural man. The goat which was sacrificed, as in Leviticus 16:5-10, signifies the natural man regarding a part purified,...
tabernacle
'The tabernacle' has almost the same meaning as 'temple,' that is, in the highest sense, the Lord’s divine humanity, and in a relative sense, heaven...
habitation
'The sanctuary and habitation' together signify heaven and the church, 'sanctuary' regarding the good of love, and 'tabernacle' regarding truths of that good, because the...
thirty
'Thirty' has a twofold significance because it is is the product of five and six, and also three and ten. From five multiplied by six,...
six
Like most numbers in the Bible, "six" can have various meanings depending on context, but has a couple that are primary. When used in relation...
bronze
Brass and iron as in Isaiah 48:4 and Daniel 7:19 signify what is hard.
covering
A covering of precious stones (Ezek. 28:4, 13) signifies the truths of intelligence.
skins
'Skin' corresponds to truth or to falsity in the extremes. See Arcana Coelestia 1835, 10036, and Apocalypse Explained 386. 'Skin,' as in Job 19:26, means...
rams
'Rams of the breed of Bashan,' as in Deuteronomy 32:14, signify celestial spiritual things.
Planks
Planks' or 'boards,' as in for the tabernacle, signify supports from good, because they were made of wood, and supported the curtains both of the...
wood
In general, plants in the Bible represent facts, thoughts and ideas – intellectual things. This makes sense: Plants are rooted in place, but can grow...
standing
'To stand,' and 'come forth' as in Daniel 7:10, refers to truth. In Genesis 24:13, it signifies a state of conjunction of divine truth with...
half
Half and double in reference to numbers in the world have a similar signification as the numbers themselves.
two
The number "two" has two different meanings in the Bible. In most cases "two" indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see...
hands
Scientists believe that one of the most crucial developments in the evolution of humans was bipedalism – walking on two legs. That left our hands...
south
In the Word, 'the south' or 'midday' means a state of light, which is a state of intelligence produced by truths, thus also an interior...
southward
'The land of the south,' as in Genesis 24:62, signifies divine light, for 'the south' signifies light, and the light of intelligence, which is wisdom,...
forty
'Forty' means completeness because 'four' means what is complete, as does 'ten.' Forty is the product of four and ten. Compound numbers have a meaning...
silver
'Silver,' in the internal sense of the Word, signifies truth, but also falsity. 'Silver' means the truth of faith, or the truth acquired from selfhood,...
under
In the Bible, things that are lower down, or under, physically, generally represent things that are lower or more external spiritually. In some cases, the...
rib
The most famous rib in the Bible is, of course, the one taken from Man (or Adam) and formed into Woman (or Eve) in the...
north
'North' signifies people who are in obscurity regarding truth. North,' in Isaiah 14:31, signifies hell. The North,' as in Jeremiah 3:12, signifies people who are...
sea
Water generally represents what Swedenborg calls “natural truth,” or true concepts about day-to-day matters and physical things. Since all water ultimately flows into the seas,...
below
'Underneath' or 'below,' in the internal sense, signifies being outside.
head
The head is the part of us that is highest, which means in a representative sense that it is what is closest to the Lord....
ring
'Rings' signify the conjunction of good and truth. In Exodus 25:12, 'rings' particularly signify divine truth with divine good.
bars
Bars, as in Lamentations 2:9, signify doctrinals
Shittim wood
'Shittim wood' signifies the good of merit, and in the highest sense, the mercy of the Lord.
middle
'Middle' denotes what is primary, principal, or inmost.
bar
Bars, as in Lamentations 2:9, signify doctrinals
rings
In Genesis 41:42 and Luke 16:22, 'to give a ring' signifies something that confirms power.
veil
'A veil,' as in Genesis 38:19, signifies obscurity of the truth. The first vail of the tabernacle, which was the screen in front of the...
pillars
A pillar of a cloud by day,' and 'a pillar of fire by night,' as in Exodus 8:21, signifies a state of illustration which is...
entrance
In a general sense, doors in the Bible represent the initial desires for good and concepts of truth that introduce people to new levels of...
embroiderer
'Needlework,' as in Exodus 26:36, signifies the scientific principle.
heads
The head is the part of us that is highest, which means in a representative sense that it is what is closest to the Lord....
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