843. In the spiritual world Jews trade in various commodities, just as they do in this world - especially in precious stones. In ways that I do not know about, they acquire gems from heaven, where precious stones exist in great abundance. The reason why they deal in precious stones is that they read the Word in its original language and consider its literal meaning holy. Precious stones correspond to the literal meaning. (I have shown above in the chapter on Sacred Scripture, 217, 218, that the spiritual origin of precious stones is the Word's literal meaning and that as a result those stones and that meaning correspond to each other.) They also possess the skill to make fake gems and fool buyers, but if they actually commit this fraud they are severely punished by the governors.