10235. 'And you shall make a laver of bronze' means the good within the natural degree in a person, in which purification takes place. This is clear from the meaning of 'the laver', in which there is water for washing, as the natural degree within a person, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'bronze' as its good, dealt with in 425, 1551. Washing is the subject in the verses that come now. They state that Aaron and his sons were to wash their hands and their feet whenever they entered the tent of meeting or approached the altar to minister; and elsewhere it is stated that those who became unclean should wash themselves and their garments, and that if they did so they would be clean. From all this it may be recognized that washing represented purification from evils, so that the washing of body and garments represented the purification of heart and mind. Everyone who is at all enlightened in his thinking may see that washing does not purge away evils in the heart and mind, only dirt on the body and clothes, and that after this has been purged away the evils still remain; also that evils could not ever be washed away by means of water, only through repentance.

[2] All this shows yet again that what had been established among the Israelite nation consisted of external forms which represented internal realities, and that the internal realities were the real holy things of the Church among them, not the external forms without those realities. But that nation nevertheless thought that holiness lay entirely in the external forms and not at all in internal realities, as is clear from the Lord's words in Matthew,

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You cleanse the exterior of the cup and the plate, but the interiors are full of pillage and lack of restraint. Blind Pharisee! Cleanse first the internal of the cup and the plate, in order that the external may be made clean also. You make yourselves like white-washed sepulchres, which outwardly do indeed appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and of all uncleanness. Matthew 23:25-27.

See also Mark 7:2-8 and Luke 11:39.

[3] The reason why 'the laver' means the natural degree is that 'washing' in the laver means purification from evils, and purification from evils takes place in the natural degree. Furthermore vessels in general mean those things that belong to the natural man, 3068, 3079, 9394, since the natural is a recipient of spiritual realities belonging to the internal man. By the natural degree the external part of a person should be understood, that is, the part that is called the external man. The idea that 'the laver' means the natural degree within a person may seem to be far-fetched, but it should be remembered that purification from evils is the subject at this point in the internal sense; and that which undergoes purification is a person. From this it follows that some part of a person is meant by that object in which washing - meaning purification - took place. That part is the natural degree, because this is where purification takes place, as has been stated. Furthermore all the objects which had been made among the Israelite and Jewish nation for the sake of worship were signs of those things that belong to heaven and the Church and therefore of such things as exist within a person; for unless they had been signs of something that exists within a person they would not have represented anything at all.

[4] 'The laver' means the natural degree within a person, 'the water' in the laver means the truths of faith, and 'washing' purification from evils. From this it may be seen what the bronze sea next to the temple meant, and also what the twelve oxen which were carrying it meant. In like manner it may be seen what the other ten lavers, also placed next to the temple, meant; what the engraved lions, oxen, and cherubs there ¹ meant; and also what the chariot-like wheels underneath them meant. What all these were signs of is evident once it is known what the laver, water, and washing mean, and once it is known what the purification from evils that takes place with a person entails. For all these things without exception were representative of celestial and spiritual realities.

[5] The bronze sea made by Solomon and placed next to the temple is described as follows,

He made the sea [of] cast [bronze], ten cubits from brim to brim, completely round ² ; five cubits was its height; and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference ³ . Below the brim were gourds going round, ten to a cubit ⁴ , all the way around the sea ⁵ . It was standing on twelve oxen, three looking north, and three looking west, and three looking south, and three looking east; but the sea was upon them above, and all their hinder parts were inwards. Its thickness was a hand's breadth; its brim was shaped like ⁶ the brim of a cup, [like] the flower of a lily. It contained two thousand baths ⁷ . And the sea was placed on the right side ⁸ of the house towards the southeast ⁹ . 1 Kings 7:23-26, 39.

[6] This vessel or laver is called a sea because a sea means factual knowledge in general, and all factual knowledge belongs to the natural man.

'A sea' means factual knowledge in general, see 28, 2850, 8184.

Factual knowledge belongs to the natural man, 1486, 3019, 3020, 3309, 3310, 5373, 6004, 6023, 6071, 6077, 9918.

The reason why this laver was shaped like the rim of a cup was that 'a cup' too means factual knowledge present in the natural man, on the level of the senses, 9557, 9996. 'Twelve oxen' served to mean all forms of good in their entirety present in the natural man, on the level of the senses, because they existed there in place of a pedestal, and 'a pedestal' means that which is last and lowest and provides support - 'twelve' meaning all things in their entirety, see 3272, 3858, 3913, and 'ox' the good of the natural man, 2781, 9135.

[7] The reason why the oxen looked towards all four quarters of the world was that the good present in the natural man is the receptacle of all things that flow in from the world, both those connected with good and those connected with truth. A diameter of ten cubits meant that which is complete, 3107, and a circumference of thirty cubits meant completeness all round, 9082. 'Two thousand baths' meant goodness and truth joined together, thus purification and regeneration; for regeneration is nothing other than the joining together of goodness and truth. Two thousand has the same meaning as two, for compound numbers are similar in meaning to the simple ones of which they the product, 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973, 'two' meaning a joining together, see 5194, 8423. The placement of the bronze sea on the right side towards the southeast meant that it was directed towards the Lord, for the Lord is the East, 101, 9668; the house or temple is heaven and the Church, where the Lord is, 3720. From all this it now becomes clear what 'the bronze sea' meant, and consequently what 'the laver' means, namely the natural degree within a person, in which purification takes place.

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