At the inmost level, the story of Moses -- like all of the Bible -- is about the Lord and his spiritual development during his human life as Jesus. Moses's role represents establishing forms of worship and to make the people obedient. As such, his primary representation is "the Law of God," the rules God gave the people of Israel to follow in order to represent spiritual things. This can be interpreted narrowly as the Ten Commandments, more broadly as the books of Moses, or most broadly as the entire Bible. Fittingly, his spiritual meaning is complex and important, and evolves throughout the course of his life. To understand it, it helps to understand the meaning of the events in which he was involved. At a more basic level, Moses's story deals with the establishment of the third church to serve as a container of knowledge of the Lord. The first such church -- the Most Ancient Church, represented by Adam and centered on love of the Lord -- had fallen prey to human pride and was destroyed. The second -- the Ancient Church, represented by Noah and the generations that followed him -- was centered on love of the neighbor, wisdom from the Lord and knowledge of the correspondences between natural and spiritual things. It fell prey to the pride of intelligence, however -- represented by the Tower of Babel -- and at the time of Moses was in scattered pockets that were sliding into idolatry. On an external level, of course, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt through 40 years in the wilderness to the border of the homeland God had promised them. Along the way, he established and codified their religious system, and oversaw the creation of its most holy objects. Those rules and the forms of worship they created were given as containers for deeper ideas about the Lord, deeper truth, and at some points -- especially when he was first leading his people away from Egypt, a time before the rules had been written down -- Moses takes on the deeper representation of Divine Truth itself, truth from the Lord. At other times -- especially after Mount Sinai -- he has a less exalted meaning, representing the people of Israel themselves due to his position as their leader. Through Moses the Lord established a third church, one more external than its predecessors but one that could preserve knowledge of the Lord and could, through worship that represented spiritual things, make it possible for the Bible to be written and passed to future generations.

10807. Exodus 39

1. And from the violet, and the purple, and the twice-dyed scarlet they made the garments of service for serving in the holy place; and they made the holy garments ¹ that were for Aaron, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

2. And he made the ephod from gold, violet, and purple, and twice-dyed scarlet, and fine twined linen.

3. And they beat out ² the plates of gold and cut them up into threads, to work in among the violet, and in among the purple, and in among the twice-dyed scarlet, and in among the fine linen, with the work of a designer.

4. They made shoulder-pieces for it linked together; on its two ends it was linked together.

5. And the girdle of his ephod, which was on it, was of [one piece with] it, being of the same workmanship ³ , [made] from gold, violet, and purple, and twice-dyed scarlet, and fine twined linen, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

6. And they set the shoham ⁴ stones, enclosed in sockets of gold, engraved - [like] the engravings of a signet - with the names of the sons of Israel.

7. And he placed them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

8. And he made the breastplate, with the work of a designer, in accord with the work of the ephod, from gold, violet, and purple, and twice-dyed scarlet, and fine twined linen.

9. It was square; doubled they made the breastplate. A span was the length of it and a span the breadth of it when it was doubled ⁵ .

10. And they filled it with four rows of stones, the order being, A ruby, a topaz, and a carbuncle - the first row;

11. And the second row, A chrysoprase, a sapphire, and a diamond;

12. And the third row, A lapis lazuli, an agate, and an amethyst;

13. And the fourth row, A tarshish ⁶ , a shoham ⁴ , and a jasper. They were enclosed in sockets of gold, in their settings.

14. And the stones for it were according to the names of the sons of Israel, twelve; according to their names, with the engravings of a signet, each according to its name, they were for the twelve tribes.

15. And they made on the breastplate small chains on the border ⁷ with the work of slender rope ⁸ , from pure gold.

16. And they made two sockets of gold, and two rings of gold, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.

17. And they put the two slender ropes of gold in the two rings on the ends of the breastplate.

18. And the two ends of the two slender ropes they put into the two sockets, and put them onto the shoulder-pieces of the ephod before the face of it.

19. And they made two rings of gold, and placed them on the two ends of the breastplate, on the edge of it which is on this side of the ephod, inwards.

20. And they made two rings of gold, and put them on the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod, below before the face of it, against the join above the girdle of the ephod.

21. And they tied the breastplate from its rings to the rings of the ephod with a cord of violet, so that it was above the girdle of the ephod, in order that the breastplate might not come away from upon the ephod, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

22. And he made the robe of the ephod with the work of a weaver, the whole from violet.

23. And he made the hole ⁹ of the robe, in the middle of it, its hole ⁹ having an edge round about, so that it would not tear.

24. And they made on the hem of the robe pomegranates from violet, and purple, and interwoven twice-dyed scarlet.

25. And they made bells of pure gold, and they put the bells in the middle of the pomegranates on the hem of the robe round about, in the middle of the pomegranates -

26. A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the robe round about, for ministering in, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

27. And they made the tunics of fine linen, with the work of a weaver, for Aaron and his sons,

28. And the turban from fine linen, and the adorning headdresses ¹⁰ from fine linen, and the linen undergarments from fine twined linen,

29. And the belt from fine twined linen, and violet, and purple, and twice-dyed scarlet, with the work of an embroiderer, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

30. And they made the plate of the crown of holiness from pure gold, and wrote on it, [like] the writing of the engraving of a signet, Holiness to Jehovah.

31. And they attached to it ¹¹ a cord of violet, to attach it to ¹² the top of the turban, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

32. And all the work of the dwelling-place of the tent of meeting was finished. And the children of Israel did according to all the things that Jehovah had commanded Moses; so they did.

33. And they brought the dwelling-place to Moses, the tent and all its vessels, its clasps, its boards, its bars, and its pillars, and its bases,

34. And the covering of skins of red rams ¹³ , and the covering of skins of badgers, and the veil of the screen,

35. The ark of the testimony, and its poles, and the mercy-seat,

36. The table, all its vessels, and the bread of the Presence ¹⁵ ,

37. The pure lampstand, its lamps (the lamps set in order ¹⁵ ), and all its vessels, and the oil for the light,

38. And the altar of gold, and the anointing oil, and the incense of spices, and the screen at the door of the tent,

39. The altar of bronze, and the grating of bronze made for it, its poles, and all its vessels, the laver and its pedestal,

40. The hangings of the court, its pillars, and its bases, and the screen of the gate of the court, its ropes, and its pegs, and all the vessels of service of the dwelling-place, for the tent of meeting,

41. The garments of service for serving in the holy place, the holy garments ¹⁶ for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons for serving in the priestly office.

42. According to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work ¹⁷ .

43. And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it as Jehovah had commanded; so they had done. And Moses blessed them.

CONTENTS

Since the inner meaning of the things contained in this chapter have been explained before - those regarding the garments of Aaron and his sons in Chapter Exodus 28 - further explanation of them can be dispensed with.

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