9539. 'The rings shall be close to the rail, as houses for the poles' means the power from this. This is clear from the meaning of 'the rail' which 'the rings shall be close to' as the joining in outermost parts to truth from the Divine, dealt with in 9534; from the meaning of 'the rings' as the receptacle of it, also dealt with above, in 9536; and from the meaning of 'the poles' as power, dealt with in 9496. The expression 'as houses' is used because the subject is celestial good and the power of its receptacle, that good being meant by 'the bread of faces' and its receptacle by 'the table' on which the loaves were laid. 'Houses' furthermore means that good in the outermost parts. For the meaning of 'house' as good, see 2233, 2234, 2559, 3652, 3720, 4982, 7848, 7929.

2559. 'It happened, when God caused me to depart from my father's house' means when He left behind factual knowledge and the appearances that arise from this, together with their delights, meant here by 'father's house'. This is clear from the meaning of 'departing' as leaving behind, and from the meaning of 'house' as good, 2233, here the good that consists in the delight received from the appearances that go with factual knowledge and rational concepts, for all delight appears as good. The reason 'father's house' here means the delights received from factual knowledge and rational concepts, and therefore from the appearances that go with these, is that they are spoken of in reference to Abraham when he departed from his father's house, for at that time, together with his father's house, Abraham worshipped other gods; see 1356, 1992. This explains why the verb in the clause God caused me to depart is plural. This clause, as is also in keeping with the original language, could be rendered, the gods caused me to wander, but because the Lord is represented by Abraham it must be rendered, 'God caused me to depart'. Now it is because the factual knowledge that existed initially with the Lord, and also the rational concepts formed from that knowledge, were human - steeped as they were in what had been inherited from the mother - and so were not purely Divine, that they are represented by 'Abraham's' first state. But how far representations go, see 665, 1097 (end), 1361, 1992.