3183. 'And her nurse' means from the innocence belonging to that affection, that is to say, which also they sent away, or separated from themselves. This is clear from the meaning of 'a nurse' or wet nurse, as innocence. Sucklings and those who suckle them are mentioned frequently in the Word, where they mean the first state that young children pass through, which is plainly a state of innocence. For as soon as anyone is born he is brought into a state of innocence. This state then serves as the basis of all other states and is the inner core of them all; and this state is meant in the Word by 'a suckling'. After he has been brought into a state of innocence he is led into a state of affection for celestial good, that is, into a state of love towards parents, which with them exists in place of love to the Lord; this state is meant by 'a young child'. After that he is led into a state of affection for spiritual good, which is mutual love, or charity towards those who are children like himself, which state is meant by the expression 'boys'. When he grows up further still he is led into a state of affection for truth; this is meant by the expression 'young men'. Subsequent states however are meant by 'men' and at last 'old men'. This final state, which is meant by the expression 'old men', is a state of wisdom which has the innocence of earliest childhood within it, and so the first state and the last are united. And when he is old, being so to speak a small child again yet one who is now wise, that person is led into the Lord's kingdom.

[2] From this it becomes clear that innocence is the first state, which is that of 'a suckling'. A woman who suckles an infant other than her own also means innocence therefore, for the state of giver and receiver, as with the one who acts and the other who is acted upon, is perceived as being similar. The reason why here it is said that they sent away 'the nurse' or wet nurse too is so that the affection for truth might be described, that is to say, that it sprang from innocence; for it is not the affection for truth unless it has innocence within it, 2526, 2780, 3111. Indeed it is by means of innocence that the Lord flows into that affection, doing so together with wisdom since true innocence is wisdom itself, see 2305, 2306; and those who possess it are seen in the eyes of angels as infants or small children, 154, 2306.

[3] That 'a suckling' in the Word means innocence is also evident from other places, as in David,

Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have founded strength. Psalms 8:2; Matthew 21:16.

Here 'infants' stands for celestial love, 'sucklings' for innocence. In Jeremiah,

Why are you committing great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling from the midst of Judah, so that I cause no remnant to be left to you? Jeremiah 44:7.

Here similarly 'infant and suckling' stands for celestial love and its innocence. When these cease to exist no remnants exist any longer, that is, no good or truth that has been stored away by the Lord in the internal man remains any longer, remnants being good and truth stored away there by Him, see 1906, 2284. For when innocence perishes so do all goods and truths, for innocence comes directly from the Divine Himself, and so is the essential element in them. In the same prophet,

The infant and the suckling faint in the streets of the city. Lamentations 2:11.

Here the meaning is similar. In the same prophet,

The sea monsters give the breast, they suckle their young; the daughter of My people is cruel, the tongue of the suckling has cleaved to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the little children begged for bread, none held it out to them. Lamentations 4:3-4.

Again 'suckling' stands for innocence, 'little children' for affections for good. In Moses,

Outside the sword will bereave - and out of the chambers terror - both young man and virgin, and suckling together with old man. Deuteronomy 32:25.

'The sword will bereave young man, virgin, and suckling together with old man' stands for the fact that falsity will destroy the affection for truth and the affection for good, and also innocence together with wisdom. In Isaiah,

They will bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulder; and kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your wet nurses. Isaiah 49:22-23.

'Kings as foster fathers' stands for intelligence, 'queens as wet nurses' for wisdom, which, as stated above, is the wisdom that goes with innocence.

9873. All this now makes clear what the twelve precious stones in the breastplate of judgement served to mean, namely all the kinds of good and truth of heaven in their proper order. Heaven is divided into two kingdoms, the celestial and the spiritual. The good of the celestial kingdom was represented by the first two rows, which were on the right side of the breastplate, and the good of the spiritual kingdom by the next two rows, which were on the left side. The internal good of the celestial kingdom is the good of love to the Lord; this is the good that is meant by the celestial love of good. The external good of the celestial kingdom however is the good of mutual love; this is the good that is meant by the celestial love of truth. But the internal good of the spiritual kingdom is the good of charity towards the neighbour; this is the good that is meant by the spiritual love of good. And the external good of the spiritual kingdom is the good of faith; this is the good that is meant by the spiritual love of truth. These kinds of good and truth in this order constitute the heavens, see 9468, 9473, 9680, 9683, 9780.

[2] From this it is now evident what the twelve stones, which were called the Urim and Thummim, represented. But in what way the Divine Truths which were answers were made known by means of them will be stated below in 9905. The fact that the good of love occupied the first place there and the truth of faith the last is clear from the first stone's being a ruby and the last's being a jasper, thus from the first stone's being red in colour, and the last's being white, both of them translucent. For the meaning of 'red' as the good of love, see 3300, 9467; and for that of 'white' as the truth of faith, 3301, 3993, 4007, 5319.

[3] Much the same as is meant by the stones in the breastplate was also meant by the materials used in weaving the ephod. The ephod was woven from violet, purple, twice-dyed scarlet, and fine linen, as is evident from verse 6 of the present chapter, and 'violet' meant the truth of celestial love, 'purple' the good of celestial love, 'twice-dyed scarlet' the good of spiritual love, and 'fine linen' the truth of spiritual love, 9833. The reason why much the same was meant is that 'the ephod' meant heaven on last and outermost levels, in the same way as 'the breastplate' does, 9824. But the kinds of good and truth are listed in a different order there, because 'the ephod' meant the spiritual heaven, whereas 'the breastplate' means all heaven from first to last. And since the dwelling-place along with the tent also represented heaven, 9457, 9481, 9485, 9615, the material from which its curtains and veils were woven were likewise violet, purple, double-dyed scarlet, and fine twined linen, see the previous Chapters, 26:1, 31, 36; 27:16, and 9466-9469.

[4] In addition it should be recognized that in the general sense SAPPHIRE means the external part of the celestial kingdom and SHOHAM the external part of the spiritual kingdom. And because these two stones had this meaning they were the middle stones belonging to the secondary rows, that is to say, the sapphire was the middle stone in the second row, and the shoham the middle stone in the fourth row. The stones belonging to the second row meant the external good of the celestial kingdom, which has been called the celestial love of truth, and the stones belonging to the fourth row meant the external good of the spiritual kingdom, which has been called the spiritual love of truth, see what has been stated about them above in this paragraph 9873.

[5] The fact that 'sapphire' means the external part of the celestial kingdom is evident from places in the Word where it is mentioned, such as in the Book of Exodus,

Seventy of the elders saw the God of Israel, and under His feet there was so to speak a work of sapphire, and it was like the substance of the sky for clearness. Exodus 24:10.

The external part of the celestial kingdom is so described, because the words 'under His feet', meaning what is external, are used, and where 'the God of Israel', who is the Lord, is, there heaven is. In Isaiah,

O afflicted one and storm-tossed, and receiving no comfort! Behold, I am arranging your stones with antimony, and will lay your foundations in sapphires. Isaiah 54:11.

The subject in this chapter is the celestial kingdom. The foundations which will be laid in sapphires, are the external things there; for foundations lie underneath.

[6] In Jeremiah,

Her Nazirites were brighter than snow, they were whiter than milk. Their bones ¹ were ruddier than pearls, ² polished like sapphires. ³ Lamentations 4:7.

Nazirites represented the celestial man, which is why it says 'polished like sapphires', 'polished' referring to what is external. In Ezekiel,

Above the expanse that was above the heads of the cherubs, in appearance like a sapphire stone, there was the likeness of a throne, and above the likeness of a throne there was the appearance of a man (homo) sitting upon it. Ezekiel 1:26; 10:1.

Here also 'sapphire' is used to describe the external part of the celestial kingdom; for what is above the expanse or round about is outside, that which is inmost being the one 'sitting upon a throne'.

[7] Just as sapphire stone means the external part of the celestial kingdom, so shoham stone means the external part of the spiritual kingdom. Therefore also this was the stone which was placed on the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod with the names of the sons of Israel inscribed on them, which are dealt with in verses 9-14 of the present chapter; for the ephod represented the external part of the spiritual kingdom, 9824. Since shoham and sapphire in the general sense meant the external parts of two heavens, they were placed in the middle of the sets of three stones forming the second and fourth rows, as stated above. For the middle includes the whole, as is also true of the robe, which in the general sense has represented the spiritual kingdom, because it comes in the middle, as shown above in 9825. Because those two stones include everything meant by all the other stones in those rows, it says in Job,

Wisdom cannot be compared with the gold of Ophir, with the precious shoham and the sapphire. Job 28:16.

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