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Exodus 26

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1 And thou shalt make the Habitation, ten curtains; of fine· twined ·linen, and blue, and crimson, and scarlet twice-dyed, with cherubim, the work of a thinker, shalt thou make them.

2 The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits; and the breadth four cubits, for one curtain; one measure for all the curtains.

3 Five curtains shall be coupled one to the other*; and five curtains shall be coupled one to the other.

4 And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the lip of the one curtain at the edge in the coupling, and so shalt thou do in the lip of the curtain at the edge in the second coupling.

5 Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and Fifty loops shalt thou make in the extremity of the curtain who is in the second coupling; the loops shall be received one to the other.

6 And thou shalt make fifty clasps of gold, and shalt couple the curtains one to the other by the clasps, and it shall be one Habitation.

7 And thou shalt make curtains of goatswool for a tent over the Habitation; eleven curtains shalt thou make them.

8 The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth four cubits, for one curtain; one measure for the eleven curtains.

9 And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain over against the faces of the Tabernacle.

10 And thou shalt make fifty loops on the lip of the one curtain at the edge in the coupling, and fifty loops on the lip of the curtain of the second coupling.

11 And thou shalt make fifty clasps of bronze, and shalt bring the clasps into the loops, and shalt couple the Tabernacle, that it may be one.

12 And the drape left·​·over in the curtains of the Tabernacle, the half of the curtain left·​·over, thou shalt drape over the back-parts of the Habitation.

13 And the cubit from this side, and the cubit from that, in what is left·​·over in the length of the curtains of the Tabernacle, shall drape over the sides of the Habitation, from this side and from that, to cover it.

14 And thou shalt make for the Tabernacle a covering of skins of red rams, and a covering of the skins of badgers from above.

15 And thou shalt make the planks for the Habitation of shittim* wood, standing up.

16 Ten cubits shall be the length of a plank, and a cubit and half a cubit the breadth of one plank.

17 Two hands shall there be for one plank connected, each to the other; so shalt thou make for all the planks of the Habitation.

18 And thou shalt make the planks for the Habitation, twenty planks for the quarter of the south toward the south.

19 And thou shalt make forty bases of silver under the twenty planks; two bases under one plank for its two hands, and two bases under one plank for its two hands.

20 And for the second rib of the Habitation, at the quarter of the north, twenty planks;

21 and their forty bases of silver; two bases under one plank, and two bases under one plank.

22 And for the two flanks of the Habitation toward the sea thou shalt make six planks.

23 And two planks shalt thou make for the edges of the Habitation in the two flanks.

24 And they shall be twinned from below, and they shall be twinned together at the head of it to one ring; so shall it be for the two of them; they shall be at the two edges*.

25 And there shall be eight planks, and their bases of silver, sixteen bases; two bases under one plank, and two bases under one plank.

26 And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the planks of the one rib of the Habitation;

27 and five bars for the planks of the second rib of the Habitation, and five bars for the planks of the rib of the Habitation at the two·​·flanks toward the sea*.

28 And the middle bar in the middle of the planks shall pass through from extremity to extremity.

29 And thou shalt overlay the planks with gold, and make their rings of gold, houses for the bars; and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold.

30 And thou shalt raise·​·up the Habitation according·​·to the manner which thou wast made to see in the mountain.

31 And thou shalt make a veil of blue, and crimson, and scarlet twice-dyed, and fine· twined ·linen; the work of a thinker shall he make it, with cherubim;

32 and thou shalt put it on four pillars of shittim overlaid with gold, and their links of gold, on four bases of silver.

33 And thou shalt put the veil under the clasps, and shalt bring in thither inside the veil the ark of the Testimony; and the veil shall make·​·a·​·distinction for you between the holy place and the holy of holies.

34 And thou shalt put the place of atonement upon the ark of the Testimony in the holy of the holies.

35 And thou shalt set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand opposite the table on the rib of the Habitation toward the south; and thou shalt put the table on the north rib.

36 And thou shalt make a sheltering for the entrance of the Tabernacle of blue, and crimson, and scarlet twice-dyed, and fine· twined ·linen, the work of the embroiderer.

37 And thou shalt make for the sheltering five pillars of shittim, and overlay them with gold; and their links shall be of gold; and thou shalt cast for them five bases of bronze.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Arcana Coelestia # 3540

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3540. 'And she put the skins of the kids of the she-goats' means the external truths clothing homeborn good. This is clear from the meaning of 'skins' as external things, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'the kids of the she-goats', coming as they did from the flock bred within the homestead, as the truths which clothe homeborn good, dealt with in 3518, 3519, where it is also evident what homeborn good is and what truths from that source are. Any good whatever has its own truths, and any truths whatever have their own good. And they must be joined together - good to truths - if anything at all is to exist. The reason why 'skins' means external things is that the skin is the outer covering of an animal to which its exterior parts extend, even as the skin or the cuticles is such with a human being. The latter receives its spiritual meaning from what is representative in the next life, where there are people who belong to the province of the skin. These will in the Lord's Divine mercy be described at the ends of chapters below where the Grand Man will be presented as a separate subject. They are people in whom none but external good and the truths which go with this are present. This is why the skin, human or animal, means things that are external. The same is also evident from the Word, as in Jeremiah,

On account of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts have been uncovered, your heels have suffered violence. Can the Ethiopian change his skin and the leopard its spots? Also are you able to do good, having been taught to do evil? Jeremiah 13:22-23.

Here 'skirts' means external truths, 'heels' the lowest goods - 'the heel' and 'shoes' being the lowest natural things, see 259, 1748. And because those truths and goods, as it is said, spring from evil, they are compared to an 'Ethiopian', who was black, and his 'skin', and also to 'a leopard and its spots'.

[2] In Moses,

If you take your neighbour's clothing as a pledge you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down; for this is his only covering; it is his clothing for his skin, in which he will lie down. Exodus 22:26-27.

Inasmuch as all the laws contained in the Word, including civil and judicial ones, have a correspondence with laws in heaven concerning what is good and true, and from this correspondence came to be laid down, so it was with the law just quoted. For why else would it have ever been laid down that they were to restore clothing that had been pledged before the sun went down, and why else is it said that 'it is his clothing for his skin, in which he lies down'? The correspondence is evident from the internal sense, which is that people were not to cheat their neighbour of external truths, which are the matters of doctrine by which they conduct their lives, and also religious observances - 'clothing' meaning such truths, see 297, 1073, 2576, and 'the sun' the good of love or of life that ensues from those truths, 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495. The prevention of that good from perishing is meant by the statement about the restoration of the pledge before the sun went down. And since the things laid down in those laws are the external coverings of interior things, or the outermost aspects of these, the words 'his clothing for his skin in which he lies down' are used.

[3] Because 'skins' meant external things it was commanded that there should be for the tent a covering made of red ram skins and over that a covering of badger skins, Exodus 26:14. For the tent was representative of the three heavens, and so of the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom. The curtains enveloping it represented natural things, which are external, 3478; and these are the ram skins and the badger skins. And since external things are those which cover internal, or natural things are those which cover spiritual and celestial, in the way that the body does the soul, that command was therefore given. It was for a like reason commanded that when the camp was on the move Aaron and his sons were to cover the ark of the testimony with the veil and were to place a badger-skin covering over it. And over the table and what was on it they were to spread a twice-dyed scarlet cloth and then cover that with a badger-skin covering. They were likewise required to place the lampstand and all its vessels under a covering made of badger skin - also all the vessels for ministering they were to place under a violet cloth, and then cover them with a badger-skin covering, Numbers 4:5-6, 8, 10-12. Anyone who thinks about the Word in a devout way may see that Divine things were represented by all these objects, such as the ark, the table, the lampstand, and the vessels for ministering, also the coverings of twice-dyed scarlet and of violet, as well as the coverings of badger skin, and that these objects represented Divine things contained within external ones.

[4] Because the prophets represented those who teach, and therefore represented teaching from the Word concerning what is good and true, 2534; and because Elijah represented the Word itself, 2762, as also did John, who for that reason is called the Elijah who is to come, Matthew 17:10-13; and in order that these might represent the nature of the Word in its external form, that is, in the letter,

Elijah wore a skin girdle around his loins. 2 Kings 1:8. And John had a garment of camel hair and a skin girdle around his waist. Matthew 3:4.

Because animal 'skin' and human 'skin' means external things, which in relation to spiritual and celestial are natural things, and because it was customary in the Ancient Church to speak and to write by means of meaningful signs, reference is also made to both types of skin, and with the same meaning, in Job, a book of the Ancient Church. This becomes clear from a number of places in that book, including the following,

I know my Redeemer; He is alive; and at the last He will rise above the dust; and afterwards these things will be encompassed by my skin, and out of my flesh shall I see God. Job 19:25-26.

'Encompassed by skin' stands for the natural as it exists with someone after he has died, dealt with in 3539. 'Out of one's flesh seeing God' is doing so from a proprium made alive. For the proprium is meant by 'flesh', see 148, 149, 780; and the Book of Job is a book of the Ancient Church, a fact which is evident, as has been stated, from its style which draws on representatives and meaningful signs. It is not however one of the books called the Law and the Prophets, the reason being that it has no internal sense in which the one subject is the Lord and His kingdom. For it is this alone that determines whether any book is a Book of the true Word.

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