4875. 'Your cord' means through truth, that is to say, truth accompanying the token of consent. This is clear from the meaning of 'a cord' as truth. The reason 'a cord' means truth is that it is one of the items associated with 'garments', and 'garments' in general means truths, for the reason that as garments clothe the flesh, so truths clothe good, 297, 2132, 2576, 4545, 4763. Among the ancients therefore whatever clothing they wore meant some specific or individual truth. Consequently a tunic had one meaning, a chlamys another, and a toga another; also coverings for the head, such as a turban and a mitre, had one meaning, coverings for the thighs and feet, such as breeches, stockings, and so on, had another meaning. But 'a cord' meant outermost or lowest truth, for it was made from threads twisted together, by which the final demarcation of that kind of truth was meant. This kind of truth is again meant by 'a cord' in Moses,

Every open vessel on which there is no covering [or] cord [to fasten it] is unclean. Numbers 19:15.

By this was meant that nothing should exist without having an outer limit, for that which does not have an outer limit is 'open'. Furthermore outermost truths serve as the outer limit and terminus of interior truths.

6337. 'And I will show you what will happen to you at the end of days' means the nature of the Church's state within the order in which they were arranged at that time. This is clear from the meaning of 'showing what will happen' as communicating and foretelling; and from the meaning of 'the end of days' as the final phase of the state in which they exist together - 'days' being states, 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, and 'the end' the final phase, so that 'the end of days' is the final phase of a state, that is to say, of the state in which truths and forms of good in general exist together when arranged in their proper order. The reason why it is the Church's state which is meant is that the truths and forms of good represented by 'Jacob and his sons' are what constitute the Church, on account of which 'Jacob' represents the Church, 4286, 4439, 4514, 4520, 4680, 4772, 5536, 5540, and so also 'his sons', 5403, 5419, 5427, 5458, 5512. And the reason why the nature of that state is meant is that the way the Church's truths and forms of good are represented depends on the order in which Jacob's sons or the tribes are mentioned in the Word, see 3862, 3926, 3939. For its nature is different if Reuben's name comes first from what it is if Judah's comes first. When Reuben is first the nature of the state is such that it starts with faith; but when Judah is first it is such that it starts with love; and the nature of it is different again when it starts with something other than faith or love. For variation in the nature of the state is also indicated by the order in which the rest are named after those two.

[2] The variations that are produced in this way are incalculable, indeed infinite, especially so when the truths and forms of good in general that are meant by 'the twelve tribes' also take on specific variations, countless ones for each - for then each truth and form of good in general assumes a different appearance - and even more especially so when those specific truths or forms of good take on countless individual variations, and so on. The infinite variations produced in this way may be illustrated by very many things that exist in the natural world. From all this one may now see that the twelve tribes have a different meaning when their names occur in the Word in one order from when they do so in another. Thus in this chapter they carry a meaning different from that seen elsewhere.