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Exodus 38

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1 And he made the altar of burnt-offering of acacia-wood; five cubits the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof, square, and three cubits the height thereof.

2 And he made its horns on the four corners thereof; its horns were of itself; and he overlaid it with copper.

3 And he made all the utensils of the altar: the pots, and the shovels, and the bowls, the forks, and the firepans; all its utensils made he of copper.

4 And he made for the altar a grating of network of copper under its ledge from beneath, to the very middle of it.

5 And he cast four rings for the four corners of the grating of copper, as receptacles for the staves.

6 And he made the staves of acacia-wood, and overlaid them with copper.

7 And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, with which to carry it. Hollow with boards did he make it.

8 And he made the laver of copper, and its stand of copper, of the mirrors of the crowds of women who crowded before the entrance of the tent of meeting.

9 And he made the court. On the south side southward, the hangings of the court were of twined byssus, a hundred cubits;

10 their pillars twenty, and their bases twenty, of copper; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting-rods of silver.

11 And on the north side, a hundred cubits; their pillars twenty, and their bases twenty, of copper; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting-rods of silver.

12 And on the west side, hangings of fifty cubits; their pillars ten, and their bases ten; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting-rods of silver.

13 And for the east side, eastward, fifty cubits;

14 the hangings on the one wing of fifteen cubits, their pillars three, and their bases three;

15 and on the other wing, on this side as on that side of the gate of the court, hangings of fifteen cubits, their pillars three, and their bases three.

16 All the hangings of the court round about were of twined byssus;

17 and the bases of the pillars of copper, the hooks of the pillars and their connecting-rods of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals of silver; and all the pillars of the court were fastened together with [rods of] silver.

18 -- And the curtain of the gate of the court was of embroidery of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined byssus; and the length was twenty cubits, and the height like the breadth, five cubits, just as the hangings of the court;

19 and their pillars four, and their bases four, of copper; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals and their connecting-rods of silver.

20 And all the pegs for the tabernacle and for the court round about were of copper.

21 These are the things numbered of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, which were counted, according to the commandment of Moses, by the service of the Levites, under the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.

22 And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that Jehovah had commanded Moses;

23 and with him Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and artificer, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and in byssus.

24 All the gold that it took for the work in all the work of the sanctuary -- the gold of the wave-offering, was twenty-nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

25 And the silver of them that were numbered of the assembly was a hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary:

26 a bekah the head -- half a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that passed the numbering from twenty years old and upward, [of] the six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty.

27 And there were a hundred talents of silver for casting the bases of the sanctuary, and the bases of the veil; a hundred bases of a hundred talents, a talent for a base.

28 And of the thousand seven hundred and seventy-five [shekels] he made the hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their capitals, and fastened them [with rods].

29 And the copper of the wave-offering was seventy talents, and two thousand four hundred shekels.

30 And he made with it the bases for the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the copper altar, and the copper grating for it, and all the utensils of the altar.

31 And the bases of the court round about, and the bases of the gate of the court, and all the pegs of the tabernacle, and all the pegs of the court round about.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 9394

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9394. 'And put it in bowls' means present with a person, in the things forming his memory. This is clear from the meaning of 'bowls' as the things which form the memory. The reason why 'bowls' are things forming the memory is that vessels in general mean known facts, 1469, 1496, 3068, 3079, and known facts are nothing other than things forming the memory. Consequently 'bowls' here are the kinds of things forming the memory which hold within themselves God's truths, meant in general by 'blood'. What known facts are in relation to the truths and forms of the good of life with a person must be stated briefly. All the things which are learned and stored in the memory, from where they can be called forth before the sight of the understanding, are called known facts. In themselves they are things which constitute the understanding part of the natural or external man. Since known facts include items of knowledge concerning inner realities, or cognitions, they serve the sight of the internal or rational man as a sort of mirror. For they then become things that can be seen by the internal man, just as fields full of plants, flowers, and various kinds of crops and trees, or as gardens adorned with various things growing there for use and to delight the senses, are accustomed to be seen in the material world by the external man. But internal sight, which is the understanding, sees in the fields or gardens of things forming the memory only those which are in keeping with the loves that govern a person, and which are also in agreement with the chief ideas he loves.

[2] Those therefore who are governed by self-love and love of the world see only such things as agree with those loves. They call them truths and also by means of illusions and appearances make them like truths. And they go on to see such things as accord with the chief ideas they have adopted and love because they themselves are the author of them. From this it is evident that known facts and cognitions, which are the things forming the memory, serve people governed by those two loves as the means to lend support to falsities against truths and evils against forms of good, and so as the means to destroy the Church's truths and forms of good. So it is that the learned who are like this are less sane than simple people; privately they reject the existence of God, providence, heaven, hell, life after death, and the truths of faith. This is transparently evident from the learned of the present-day European world who are in the next life, where a huge number of them are atheists at heart. For in the next life people's hearts speak and not their lips. From all this it is now clear what use it is to which cognitions and known facts are put by those whose thoughts are ruled by delights belonging to self-love and love of the world.

[3] But it is altogether different with those who are governed by delights belonging to heavenly loves, which are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour. Because they are guided in their thinking by the Lord through heaven, they see and select in the fields and gardens of the things forming their memory only those which are in agreement with the delights belonging to those loves and which are in agreement with their Church's teachings that they love. For these people the things that form the memory are like the paradise gardens of heaven; they are also represented and in the Word are meant by paradise gardens, see 3220.

[4] Furthermore it should be recognized that when known facts or things in the memory become part of a person's life they fade from his exterior memory, in the same way as other things normally do when continual practice or habit makes them spontaneous and instinctive so to speak - the way he carries himself and acts, the things he speaks, contemplates, and intends, and in general all his thoughts and affections. But no other facts become part of the person's life except those which enter into and give form to the delights that belong to his loves, thus those which enter his will. On these matters see what has been stated and shown in 8853-8858; and regarding the exterior memory, which belongs to the body, and the interior memory, which belongs to its spirit, 2469-2494.

[5] The reason why known facts are vessels, and in the Word are meant by every type of vessel, such as bowls, cups, waterpots, and the like, is that each known fact is a kind of general container holding particular and specific truths that accord with their general container. Such general containers in the Word have been arranged into series and so to speak into bundles; and these bundles and series have in turn been so set in order that they resemble the form that heaven takes, thus are set in order from most specific truths to most general ones. An idea of such series can be gained from the series and bundles of muscular tissue in the human body. Each bundle there consists of a number of motor fibres, and each motor fibre consists of blood vessels and nerve fibres. Each bundle of muscular tissue too, which taken as a whole is called a muscle, is enveloped in its own outer covering which sets it apart from others; and the same is so for the smaller bundles within, called motor fibres. Yet all the muscles and motor fibres within them, which are present in the whole body, have been so set in order that they may co-ordinate with one another to act in whatever way the will pleases; and they do so in a manner that surpasses all understanding. The situation is similar with known facts in the memory. These in a similar way are aroused and made to act by that which is the delight of a person's love, that is, of his will, but through the instrumentality of the understanding part. What has become part of a person's life, that is, what has become part of his will or love, is that which arouses them. For the inner man always has these things in his field of vision and takes delight in them to the extent that they are in agreement with his loves. And whatever enters fully into those loves, becoming spontaneous and so to speak instinctive, fades from the external memory but remains ingrained in the internal memory from which it can never be blotted out. This is how known facts become part of life.

[6] From all this it is also evident that known facts are as it were the vessels that belong to the interior man's life, and that this is why known facts are meant by various types of vessels, and in the present instance by 'bowls'. The same is meant by 'vessels' and 'bowls' in Isaiah,

I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, so that he may be a throne of glory to his father's house; and on him they may hang all the glory of the house of his father, sons, and grandsons, every small vessel - from the vessels of bowls even to all the vessels of stringed instruments. Isaiah 22:23-24.

This refers in the internal and representative sense to the Lord's Divine Human, declaring that all truths and forms of good from first to last come through Him and from Him. Factual knowledge of truth of a celestial type is meant by 'the vessels of bowls', and factual knowledge of truth of a spiritual type by 'the vessels of stringed instruments'. And in Zechariah,

On that day there will be on the horses' bells, Holiness to Jehovah. And the pots in the house of Jehovah will be as the bowls before the altar. Zechariah 14:20.

'The horses' bells' stands for factual knowledge of truth which comes from an enlightened understanding, 2761, 2762, 5321; and 'the bowls before the altar' stands for factual knowledge of good. Similar knowledge is meant by 'the bowls of the altar' at Exodus 27:3; 38:3.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.