9689. 'And you shall make for the screen five pillars of shittim [wood]' means a sufficient amount of support provided by the uniting intermediary through the good of merit belonging to the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'the screen in place of the tent door' as the intermediary uniting the second or middle heaven to the first or lowest, dealt with above in 9686; from the meaning of 'five' as that which exists partially or in some measure, dealt with in 4638, and also a sufficient amount; from the meaning of 'pillars' as support, dealt with in 9674; and from the meaning of 'shittim wood' as the good of merit, which, being the Lord's alone - dealt with in 9472, 9486 - accordingly belongs to His Divine Human, for This is what merit truly belongs to, 9486.

4637. It is quite clear that all the details, every single one, mentioned by the Lord in His parables are representative of and mean the spiritual and celestial attributes of His kingdom, and in the highest sense Divine attributes in Himself. Consequently anyone who does not know this cannot make anything else out of the Lord's parables than ordinary comparisons which hold nothing deeper within them, as with this particular parable concerning the ten virgins. He makes nothing more out of it if he does not know what 'virgins' means in the internal sense, and also what ten, five, lamps, vessels, oil, those who sell, a wedding feast, and every other detail mean. And the same is true with all other parables. As has been stated, the details mentioned by the Lord in them look, in the outward form they take, like ordinary comparisons, but in their internal form their nature is such that they fill the whole of heaven. This is because the internal sense is contained within every detail, and that sense is such that its spiritual and celestial content spreads like light and flame throughout the heavens in all directions. That sense is utterly superior to the sense of the letter, flowing from every phrase and every word, indeed from every tiny letter. But what is embodied in the internal sense of this particular parable may be seen from what follows below.