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Exodus 36

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1 Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every man that was wise-hearted, in whom Jehovah had put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work of the service of the sanctuary -- according to all that Jehovah had commanded.

2 And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every man that was wise-hearted, in whose heart God had put wisdom, every one whose heart moved him to come to the work to do it.

3 And they took from Moses every heave-offering that the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it. And they still brought him voluntary offerings morning by morning.

4 And all the wise men that wrought all the work of the sanctuary came, every man from his work which they wrought,

5 and spoke to Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work that Jehovah commanded to be done.

6 Then Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed through the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the heave-offering of the sanctuary! So the people were restrained from bringing;

7 for the work they had was sufficient for all the work to do it, and it was too much.

8 And every wise-hearted man among those that wrought the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of twined byssus, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: [with] cherubim of artistic work did he make them.

9 The length of one curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits -- one measure for all the curtains.

10 And he coupled five of the curtains one to another, and [the other] five curtains coupled he one to another.

11 And he made loops of blue on the edge of one curtain at the edge of the coupling; he did likewise in the edge of the outermost curtain in the other coupling.

12 He made fifty loops in one curtain, and he made fifty loops at the end of the curtain that was in the other coupling: the loops were opposite to one another.

13 And he made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains together with the clasps, so that the tabernacle became one.

14 And he made curtains of goats' [hair] for the tent over the tabernacle: eleven curtains did he make them.

15 The length of one curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits the breadth of one curtain -- one measure for the eleven curtains.

16 And he coupled five of the curtains by themselves, and six of the curtains by themselves.

17 And he made fifty loops on the edge of the outermost curtain in the coupling, and fifty loops made he on the edge of the curtain in the other coupling.

18 And he made fifty clasps of copper to couple the tent, that it might be one.

19 And he made a covering for the tent [of] rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins above [that].

20 And he made the boards for the tabernacle of acacia-wood, standing up;

21 ten cubits the length of the boards, and one cubit and a half the breadth of one board;

22 two tenons in one board, connected one with the other: thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle.

23 And he made the boards for the tabernacle: twenty boards for the south side southward;

24 and he made forty bases of silver under the twenty boards, two bases under one board, for its two tenons, and two bases under another board for its two tenons.

25 And for the other side of the tabernacle, on the side toward the north, he made twenty boards,

26 and their forty bases of silver, two bases under one board, and two bases under another board.

27 And at the rear of the tabernacle, westward, he made six boards;

28 and he made two boards for the corners of the tabernacle at the rear;

29 and they were joined beneath, and were coupled together at the top thereof into one ring: thus he did to both of them in both the corners;

30 and there were eight boards, and their silver bases: sixteen bases, under every board two bases.

31 -- And he made bars of acacia-wood: five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

32 and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle at the rear, westward.

33 And he made the middle bar in the midst of the boards reach from one end to the other.

34 And he overlaid the boards with gold; and made their rings of gold [as] receptacles for the bars; and overlaid the bars with gold.

35 And he made the veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined byssus: of artistic work he made it [with] cherubim.

36 And he made four pillars of acacia[-wood] for it, and overlaid them with gold; their hooks were of gold; and he cast for them four bases of silver.

37 And he made a curtain for the entrance of the tent of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined byssus, of embroidery;

38 and its five pillars with their hooks; and he overlaid their capitals and their connecting-rods with gold; and their five bases were of copper.

   

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Sacred Scripture # 97

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97. Further still, we need to realize that the literal meaning of the Word serves to protect the real truths that lie hidden within it. Its protection consists of its being susceptible to being turned in different directions and interpreted to agree with our own grasp of it, so that the inner content is not damaged or transgressed. It does no harm if different people understand the literal meaning of the Word differently. It does do harm, though, if the divine truths that lie hidden within are distorted. This in fact does violence to the Word.

To prevent this from happening, the literal meaning offers protection, and it offers protection for people who take for granted the false beliefs of their religion but do not convince themselves that those false beliefs are true. These people do no harm.

[2] This protection is the meaning of angel guardians in the Word, and the description of angel guardians [in Ezekiel] is a depiction of this protection.

This protection is the meaning of the angel guardians stationed at the entrance after Adam and his wife were expelled from the Garden of Eden, of whom we read,

When Jehovah God drove them out, he made angel guardians dwell to the east of the Garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword turning this way and that, to guard the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24)

The angel guardians mean protection; the way of the tree of life means entrance to the Lord, which we have through the Word; the flame of a sword turning this way and that means divine truth at its very boundaries, which is like the Word in its literal meaning - it too can be turned this way and that.

[3] There is a similar meaning to the angel guardians of gold placed on top of the two ends of the mercy seat that was on the ark in the tabernacle (Exodus 25:18-21). Because this was what the angel guardians meant, the Lord talked with Moses between them (Exodus 25:22; 37:9; Numbers 7:89). As noted in §§37-49 above, the Lord does not say anything to us unless it is complete, and divine truth is in its fullness in the literal meaning of the Word; so that is why the Lord talked with Moses between the angel guardians.

The meaning of the angel guardians on the curtains of the tabernacle and on its veils (Exodus 26:31) is no different, since the curtains and veils represent the boundaries of heaven and the church and therefore of the Word as well (see §46 above). The meaning of the angel guardians in the middle of the Jerusalem temple (1 Kings 6:23-28) and the angel guardians carved on the walls and gates of the Temple (1 Kings 6:29, 32, 35) is no different either. The same holds for the angel guardians in the new temple (Ezekiel 41:18-20; again, see §47 above).

[4] Since the angel guardians mean protection that keeps us from going straight to the Lord, heaven, and the divine truth of the Word as it is inwardly, and makes us instead move indirectly through its outermost forms, we read of the King of Tyre,

You had sealed your full measure and were full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in the Garden of Eden. Every precious stone was your covering. You, angel guardian, were the spreading of a covering. I destroyed you, covering angel guardian, in the midst of stones of fire. (Ezekiel 28:12-14, 16)

Tyre means the church in respect to its concepts of what is true and good, so the king of Tyre means the Word where these concepts can be found and where they come from. We can see that Tyre and the protecting angel guardians here mean the Word in its outermost form, which is its literal meaning, because it says “you had sealed your full measure,” “every precious stone was your covering,” and “you, angel guardian, were the spreading of a covering, ” as well as mentioning a “covering angel guardian.” The precious stones that are also mentioned mean truths of the literal meaning of the Word (see §45 above).

Since angel guardians mean the outermost form of divine truth as protection, it says in David,

Jehovah bowed the heavens and came down, riding upon angel guardians. (Psalms 18:9-10)

O Shepherd of Israel, who sits upon the angel guardians, shine forth! (Psalms 80:1)

and

... Jehovah who sits upon the angel guardians. (Psalms 99:1)

To ride and to sit upon angel guardians is [to rest] on the outermost meaning of the Word.

[5] The divine truth in the Word and its nature are described [through correspondences] as angel guardians in chapters 1, 9, and 10 of Ezekiel; but since no one can know what the details of the description mean except those for whom the spiritual meaning has been opened, the meaning of all the things it says about the angel guardians in the first chapter of Ezekiel has been disclosed to me in summary form, as follows:

There is a depiction of the outward divine aura of the Word (verse 4); that aura is represented as a human being (verse 5); it is shown to be united to spiritual and heavenly realities (verse 6). There is a depiction of the nature of the earthly level of the Word (verse 7), and of the nature of the spiritual and heavenly levels of the Word that are united to its earthly level (verses 8-9). There is a depiction of the divine love within the heavenly, spiritual, and earthly levels of goodness and truth in the Word, together as one and also distinct from one another (verses 10-11), and an indication that they share a common goal (verse 12). There is a depiction of the aura of the Word that comes from the Lord’s divine goodness and divine truth, which give life to the Word (verses 13-14), of the teachings of what is good and true that are in the Word and from the Word (verses 15-21), and of the divine nature of the Lord that is above it and within it (verses 22-23) and that comes from it (verses 24-25). It is shown that the Lord is above the heavens (verse 26) and that to him belong divine love and divine wisdom (verses 27-28).

These summary statements have been checked against the Word in heaven and are in accord with it.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.