5527. 'And you will wander through the land, trading' means that truths from good will thereby be made fruitful and will all afford some useful purpose and lead to some form of gain. This is clear from the meaning of 'trading' as acquiring for oneself cognitions of good and truth, and so truths known to the Church, and communicating the same, dealt with in 4453; and those who possess such truths are called 'traders', 2967. Consequently 'going through the land, trading' is gathering such truths, wherever they are. From this it follows that 'going through the land, trading' also means the fruitfulness of truths from good. For once the joining together through the intermediary, which is 'Benjamin', has been accomplished, that is to say, once the external man, which is 'the ten sons of Jacob', has been joined to the internal, which is 'Joseph' - which joining together is dealt with here - or what amounts to the same, once a person has been regenerated, good is constantly making truths fruitful.

[2] For someone who is governed by good possesses the ability to see particular truths that derive from general ones, and to see them in a continuing sequence. This is more especially the case at a later stage in the next life when worldly and bodily matters cease to cast a shadow over them. I have been allowed to know from considerable experience that good brings this ability with it. Such experience has included spirits who had possessed not so much of that ability when they lived as people in the world but who had nevertheless led charitable lives. I have seen those spirits raised up into heavenly communities, where they have then possessed intelligence and wisdom akin to that of the angels there; indeed these knew no other than that such intelligence and wisdom existed within those spirits. For the good which had governed the lives they had led gave them the ability to receive everything that flowed into them from the angelic communities in which they were present. This kind of ability exists within good and so therefore does that kind of fruitfulness. But the truths which with them are made fruitful by good do not remain as truths; these people make them matters of life, in which case they come to be assigned to some useful purpose. Therefore 'wandering through the land, trading' also means that all truths will afford some useful purpose and lead to some form of gain.

425. Up to now the world has not known that 'bronze' means natural good, nor indeed that every metal mentioned in the Word has some definite meaning in the internal sense. For example 'gold' means celestial good, 'silver' spiritual truth, 'bronze' natural good, 'iron' natural truth, and so on with all the rest. The same applies to stone and wood. These were the meanings of the gold, silver, bronze, and wood in the Ark and the Tabernacle, and of similar objects in the Temple, which in the Lord's Divine mercy will be dealt with later on. In the Prophets it is plain that such things are meant, as in Isaiah,

You will suck the milk of nations, and the breast of kings will you suck. Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron, I will bring silver, and instead of wood, bronze, and instead or stones, iron. And I will make peace your assessment and righteousness your tax-collectors. Isaiah 60:16-17.

This refers to the Coming of the Lord and to His kingdom, and to the celestial Church. 'Gold instead of bronze' means celestial good instead of natural good. 'Silver instead of iron' means spiritual truth instead of natural truth. 'Bronze instead of wood' means natural good instead of bodily good. 'Iron instead of stones' means natural truth instead of sensory truth. In Ezekiel,

Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were your merchants in the souls of men, and they gave vessels of bronze for your merchandise. Ezekiel 27:13

This refers to Tyre, which means people who are in possession of spiritual and celestial riches. 'Vessels of bronze' stands for natural goods. In Moses,

A land whose stones are Iron, and from whose mountains you will dig out bronze. Deuteronomy 8:9.

Here similarly 'stones' stands for sensory truth, 'iron' for natural or rational truth, and 'bronze' for natural good. In the cases of the four living creatures or the cherubim seen by Ezekiel, whose feet sparkled like burnished bronze, Ezekiel 1:7, 'bronze' in a similar way means natural good, for the human foot represents that which is natural. Something similar was seen by Daniel,

A man clothed in linen whose loins were girded with gold of Uphaz and whose body was like tarshish. ¹ His arms and feet were like the appearance of burnished bronze. Daniel 10:5-6

And for the fact that the bronze serpent mentioned in Numbers 21:9 represented the Lord's good, sensory and natural, see what has been said already [in 197].

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