In the Word three terms are used to refer to bad actions: transgression, iniquity, and sin. Transgression is the least bad. It means a violation of what is true in an external context, a violation of what is right and orderly. Iniquity is next and denotes acts that violate more interior truths. Sin is the worst. It is a violation of what is holy and righteous, a violation against the Lord. Sin is the deepest kind of evil. Regarding iniquity -- to be in charity, or live a life of charity is to live a life where the acts and thoughts that have top priority are those that have within them a love for the neighbor. Sometimes our love of self, our inborn desire to put ourselves first, is stronger than our charity and we do something for ourselves at the expense of our neighbor, or even do harm to our neighbor. Such an act, if our motive is selfish, is an iniquity.

(Verweise: Arcana Coelestia 9156, 9965 [2-3])

9895. 'Against the join above the girdle of the ephod' means where the joining together of all things is accomplished, immediately within the outward bond holding everything in connection and form. This is clear from the meaning of 'against the join of the ephod' as where the joining together of all the things meant by 'the ephod' is accomplished, those things being the forms of good and the truths in the spiritual kingdom in an outward form, 9824; and from the meaning of 'above the girdle of the ephod' as immediately within the outward bond holding everything in connection and form. For 'above' means within, because things that are more internal are meant by those said to be higher above, 2148, 3084, 4599, 5146, 8325; and 'the girdle of the ephod' means an outward bond holding all things in connection and form, 9828, 9837.

[2] What the situation is in this must be stated briefly. The tying of the breastplate to the shoulder-pieces above it, on its inside, and below, means the joining to all things of heaven, as shown above in 9891; and this lowest tying, above the girdle, means the preservation of the things in the lowest part, where good and truth present themselves in a natural form, 9893. As regards those things which are lowest, or which stand last, and their holding higher or more internal ones in connection and form, see 9828; and that which is lowest or last is represented by the girdle of the ephod, 9828, 9837. But what lies immediately within or above was represented by the part 'against the join above the girdle', where the breastplate was tied below to the ephod.