Arcana Coelestia # 9854
9854. 'With the work of slender rope' means the mode of the joining together. This is clear from the meaning of 'slender rope' as that which serves to join things together. The reason why 'slender rope' means that which so serves to join things together is that such a cord is used to join one object to another. But in this instance it means the mode of the joining together, for the narrative is saying that the small chains of pure gold had to be made 'with the work' of slender rope. 'Slender rope' is used in the original language to describe a cord made from twisted and intertwined work, by which is meant in the internal sense a joining together such as that of truths within known facts and interlinking such facts, thus a joining together in the natural or external memory. The reason why this kind of joining together is meant is that the subject at this point is the joining together of truths through good in the last and lowest parts of the spiritual kingdom. For 'the ephod' and 'the breastplate', to which [the shoulder-pieces] were joined by means of the small chains made from 'the work of slender rope', mean the lowest levels of the spiritual kingdom, 9824. As regards what is intertwined or tangled, that it denotes factual knowledge, see 2831.
[2] In the next life also ropes appear, varying in the ways in which their strands are twisted together and varying in thickness; and they represent the varying modes by which things are joined together. This explains also why in the Word things which serve to join others together are meant by 'ropes', as in the following places: In Isaiah,
Woe to those who draw iniquity with ropes of vanity, and [whose] sin is like a cart rope! Isaiah 5:18.
'Ropes of vanity' are joinings together of falsities, through which iniquity or evil in life is brought in. In the same prophet,
Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feast. May your eyes see Jerusalem, a quiet dwelling-place, a tent which will not be overthrown. Its pegs will never be removed, and none of its ropes will be pulled away. Your ropes have been loosed; they will not strengthen their mast. Isaiah 33:20, 23.
'Pegs' and 'ropes' stand for the things which serve to join together heaven's truths and forms of good; for the dwelling-place and tent, which the ropes spoken of here belong to, are heaven, 9457, 9481, 9485, 9615, 9784.
[3] In the same prophet,
Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwelling-places; do not stop [them]. Lengthen your ropes, and make your pegs firm. Isaiah 54:2.
And in Jeremiah,
My tent has been laid waste, and all My ropes torn away. Jeremiah 10:20.
Here also 'ropes' stands for things that serve to join others together and make them firm. 'Tent' stands for the Church, which is the Lord's heaven on earth. In Hosea,
I drew them with ropes of human kindness, 1 with thick ropes of love. Hosea 11:4.
Here 'ropes' plainly stands for things which join others together; for love is spiritual togetherness. In Ezekiel,
Asshur and Kilmad, they were your traders with the treasures of garments tied by means of ropes. Ezekiel 27:23-24.
This refers to Tyre, by which cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth are meant, 1201. Outward joinings together of these are meant by 'garments tied by means of ropes'. In addition 'ropes' is also used in the Word to mean apportionments of inheritances and of the land, because ropes were used in measurements of them, as in Deuteronomy 32:9; Amos 7:17; Micah 2:4-5; Zechariah 2:1; Psalms 16:6; 78:55; 105:11; 140:5; and many times elsewhere.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. literally, with ropes of man (homo)
Ezekiel 9
1
Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause those who are in charge of the city to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
2
Behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which lies toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man in the midst of them clothed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side. They went in, and stood beside the bronze altar.
3
The glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer's inkhorn by his side.
4
Yahweh said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in its midst.
5
To the others he said in my hearing, Go through the city after him, and strike: don't let your eye spare, neither have pity;
6
kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but don't come near any man on whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the old men that were before the house.
7
He said to them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go forth! They went forth, and struck in the city.
8
It happened, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell on my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord Yahweh! will you destroy all the residue of Israel in your pouring out of your wrath on Jerusalem?
9
Then he said to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion: for they say, Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn't see.
10
As for me also, my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.
11
Behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as you have commanded me.
