15
Now as I saw the living creatures, behold, one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it.
Ezekiel 1:15
Ezekiel 41
1
He brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tent.
2
The breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured its length, forty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits.
3
Then went he inward, and measured each post of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the breadth of the entrance, seven cubits.
4
He measured its length, twenty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said to me, This is the most holy place.
5
Then he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side room, four cubits, all around the house on every side.
6
The side rooms were in three stories, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which belonged to the house for the side rooms all around, that they might have hold [therein], and not have hold in the wall of the house.
7
The side rooms were broader as they encompassed [the house] higher and higher; for the encompassing of the house went higher and higher around the house: therefore the breadth of the house [continued] upward; and so one went up [from] the lowest [room] to the highest by the middle [room].
8
I saw also that the house had a raised base all around: the foundations of the side rooms were a full reed of six great cubits.
9
The thickness of the wall, which was for the side rooms, on the outside, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side rooms that belonged to the house.
10
Between the rooms was a breadth of twenty cubits around the house on every side.
11
The doors of the side rooms were toward [the place] that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits all around.
12
The building that was before the separate place at the side toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length ninety cubits.
13
So he measured the house, one hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with its walls, one hundred cubits long;
14
also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, one hundred cubits.
15
He measured the length of the building before the separate place which was at its back, and its galleries on the one side and on the other side, one hundred cubits; and the inner temple, and the porches of the court;
16
the thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries around on their three stories, over against the threshold, with wood ceilings all around, and [from] the ground up to the windows, (now the windows were covered),
17
to [the space] above the door, even to the inner house, and outside, and by all the wall all around inside and outside, by measure.
18
It was made with cherubim and palm trees; and a palm tree was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces;
19
so that there was the face of a man toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. [thus was it] made through all the house all around:
20
from the ground to above the door were cherubim and palm trees made: thus was the wall of the temple.
21
As for the temple, the door posts were squared; and as for the face of the sanctuary, the appearance [of it] was as the appearance [of the temple].
22
The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits; and its corners, and its length, and its walls, were of wood: and he said to me, This is the table that is before Yahweh.
23
The temple and the sanctuary had two doors.
24
The doors had two leaves [apiece], two turning leaves: two [leaves] for the one door, and two leaves for the other.
25
There were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubim and palm trees, like as were made on the walls; and there was a threshold of wood on the face of the porch outside.
26
There were closed windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch: thus were the side rooms of the house, and the thresholds.
Arcana Coelestia # 8148
8148. 'And he took six hundred chosen chariots' means each and every doctrinal teaching that upholds falsity belonging to separated faith, in their own order. This is clear from the meaning of the number 'six hundred' as each and every aspect of the truth and good of faith taken all together, and so in the contrary sense as each and every aspect of the falsity and evil of faith separated from charity (this meaning of 'six hundred' may become clear from what has been shown regarding the number 'six hundred thousand' in 7973); and from the meaning of 'chariots' as doctrinal teachings upholding faith, in this instance separated faith, dealt with just above in 8146. 'Chosen chariots' means the chief doctrinal teachings that uphold that faith, to which all other teachings are subordinate. Those that are subordinate to them or serve them are meant by 'the chariots of Egypt', referred to immediately after the six hundred chosen ones.
[2] It should be recognized that these falsities - the ones that are meant here by Pharaoh, his army and people, and also his chariots, horses, and horsemen - are chiefly falsities present with people whose faith is no more than persuasion, that is, people who persuade themselves that the teachings of the Church they are in are true and who nevertheless lead a life of evil. This kind of faith, unlike saving faith, goes together with evil in life, because it is a faith in which people persuade themselves that everything the Church teaches is true, yet do so not for the sake of truth, or for the sake of life, or even for the sake of salvation (since they have scarcely any belief in this), only for their own advantage, that is, to acquire important positions and wealth, and reputation because of these. It is to gain such advantages that they imbibe religious teachings. Thus they do not learn them to the end that they may be of service to the Church and the salvation of souls, but to themselves and their dependents. Therefore it makes no difference to them whether those teachings are true or false. They do not care which they are, much less do they bother to find out; for they have no affection for truth because it is the truth. They endorse those teachings regardless of the character of them; and when they have endorsed them they tell themselves that they are true, without stopping to think that falsities can be endorsed just as much as truths, 4741, 5033, 6865, 7012, 7680, 7950.
[3] This is how faith that is no more than persuasion arises. And since it does not see the neighbour and the good of the neighbour, or therefore the Lord, as the end in view, only self and the world, that is, important positions and material gain, that kind of faith is linked to evil in life, and not to good in life. For faith, when linked to this good, is saving faith. This kind of faith is imparted by the Lord, but the other has its origin in people themselves. Faith imparted by the Lord remains forever, the other kind melts away in the next life. It even melts away in the world if they can gain nothing by it. As long as they can gain anything they fight for it as if for heaven itself, though in fact they do so not for that faith but for themselves. For the things that belong to faith, which are religious teachings, are for those people simply the means to an end, which is high position and wealth. People in the world with this type of faith are scarcely distinguishable from those possessing saving faith, since they speak and proclaim in favour of religious teachings with an ardour that seemingly belongs to true zeal, but is an ardour fired by selfish and worldly love.
[4] These are the people who are meant in particular by 'Pharaoh' and 'the Egyptians', who in the next life undergo vastation of that kind of faith. When that vastation is completed they are steeped in utter falsities arising from evil, for falsities now burst out of evil. Falsities do so because all evil has falsity present with it, since the two have been joined together. Those falsities make their appearance when such people are left exposed to the evil in their life. That evil is then like fire, and the falsities are like the light coming from a fire. This kind of evil, and the falsity arising from it, is altogether different from other kinds of evil and derivative falsities. It is more loathsome than all the rest, because it is contrary to the forms of good and the truths of faith, and that kind of evil consequently holds profanation within it. Profanation consists in acknowledging truth and good and yet living contrary to them, 593, 1008, 1010, 1059, 2051, 3398, 3898, 4289, 4601, 6959, 6963, 6971.
