8942. 'For if you move your chisel over it' means if a product of the proprium or self. This is clear from the meaning of 'chisel' as counterfeit truth, thus a product of the self. For a chisel is a piece of iron used to carve and shape figures out of stones, and therefore the human self is meant here since this shapes things which are to compose religion, to make them look like the truth. Instead of the word 'chisel' some places elsewhere have '[a piece of] iron', while others elsewhere have 'axe', as in Deuteronomy 27:5; Joshua 8:30-31; 1 Kings 6:7; Isaiah 44:10-12; Hosea 13:2; Jeremiah 10:3-4; and these tools mean such things as are implements of self-intelligence used for fabrication.

5901. 'but God' means that the Divine had done so. This is clear without explanation. What is involved in all this has been explained at the point where Joseph's being sold into Egypt is dealt with, in which country he first served in Potiphar's house. That explanation shows that because in a supreme sense Joseph represented the Lord and in a lower sense those who are being regenerated by the Lord, factual knowledge is what has to be acquired first. For that knowledge is the source from which truths have to be deduced and within which those truths have then to be encapsulated. After that, progress can be made to ideas of a more internal nature. These are the things that 'Joseph' represented, which was why it was the Divine who sent him to that country.