10332. 'To compose designs, to work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze' means in order to represent the interior and the exterior forms of good and truth that constitute an understanding animated by the will, thus that constitute faith springing from love. This is clear from the meaning of 'composing designs', or inventing devices, as that which is a product of the understanding, dealt with in 9598, 9688; from the meaning of 'working' as that which is a product of the will, dealt with in 9282, for what a person does is a product of his will, in this instance of the will operating through the understanding, since it says 'to compose designs, to work ...'; from the meaning of 'gold' as good, and of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 8932, 9490, 9881, 9874; and from the meaning of 'bronze' as the good of the natural or external man, dealt with in 425, 1551. Consequently interior and exterior forms of good and truth are meant by 'gold, silver, and bronze', interior good by 'gold', interior and exterior truth by 'silver', and external good by 'bronze'. The reason why that which is representative of these forms of good and truth is what is meant is that the representative Church is the subject, and all the things that Bezalel was going to make were representative.

[2] From all this it is evident that 'to compose designs, to work in gold, in silver, and in bronze' means in order to represent interior and exterior forms of good and truth that constitute an understanding animated by the will. The reason why they are also those that constitute faith springing from love is that truths belong to faith, and truths have connection with the understanding, while forms of good belong to love, and forms of good have connection with the will. The expressions 'an understanding animated by the will' and 'faith springing from love' are used because the understanding is nothing at all unless it is animated by the will. For what a person understands but does not also will is not an understanding that is his own but that of another within him; and as a consequence that understanding fades away. But it is different when the understanding is animated by the will; it is then that of the person himself, because the will is the person himself. The like applies to the faith and love; for as has been stated, the truths of faith have connection with the understanding, and forms of the good of love with the will.

10254. 'And sweet-smelling cinnamon' means the perception of and affection for natural truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'sweet-smelling cinnamon' as the perception of and affection for natural truth, which is the interior truth of the external man. A person has life on a sensory level and life on a natural level. Both belong to the external man, but the life on the sensory level is exterior, deriving its truths from objects that exist on the planet and in the body, whereas the life on the natural level is interior, deriving its truths from the causes of which those objects are the effects. The life of the internal man is in like manner exterior and interior. The exterior derives its truths from those things that exist in the lowest parts of heaven, whereas the interior derives them from those things that exist in the interior parts of heaven. These truths within the internal man are meant by the fragrances which follow.

[2] The reason why 'sweet-smelling cinnamon' means the perception of and affection for truth is that 'a sweet smell' means a pleasing perception. A pleasing perception arises from the affection belonging to love, for if perception has any other origin it does not bring any pleasure.

All odours mean perception, see 3577, 4626, 4748.

Pleasing odours mean the perception of truth arising from good, 1514, 1517-1519, 4628, 10054, thus from the affection belonging to love.

The spheres belonging to perceptions are converted among spirits and angels into odours, 4626.

[3] In addition it should be recognized that all the sweet-smelling substances from which the anointing oil was prepared belong to the celestial group, that is, to things of the celestial kingdom, whereas the sweet-smelling substances from which the incense was made belong to the spiritual group, that is, to things of the spiritual kingdom. This also is why in the original language the term that is used to denote the spices from which the anointing oil was prepared is different and has a different root from the term used to denote the spices from which the incense was made. For in the Word there are particular terms which serve to express things of the celestial kingdom and particular terms that serve to express those of the spiritual kingdom; and there are others common to both. But to know which of these is which, one must recognize that heaven is divided into two kingdoms, as is the Church, and that the dominant essential in the celestial kingdom is the good of love to the Lord, whereas in the spiritual kingdom it is the good of charity towards the neighbour. How these differ from each other, see in the places referred to in 9277.

[4] The fact that the spice named here means the perception of and affection for celestial truth is clear in Isaiah,

Instead of spice ¹ there will be rottenness, and instead of a girdle, a falling apart, and instead of well-set hair ² , baldness. Isaiah 3:24.

This refers to the daughters of Zion, by whom the celestial Church is meant, at this point when it has been perverted. Therefore the word used for spice is the same as that in the present verse in Exodus. 'Instead of spice there will be rottenness' means that instead of the perception of and affection for truth springing from good, and of the life these bring with them, there will be a perception of and affection for falsity arising from evil, which holds no life at all within it.

[5] In Ezekiel,

The traders of Sheba and Raamah, traders with the best of every spice, and with [every] precious stone, and gold, ... Ezekiel 27:22.

These things were said in reference to Tyre, by which cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth within the Church are meant, 'Sheba and Raamah' meaning those with whom cognitions of celestial things exist.

[6] The like is meant where the queen of Sheba is referred to in the first Book of Kings,

The queen of Sheba gave Solomon a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones. No quantity of spices such as this came ever again. 1 Kings 10:10.

'Sheba' means primarily those with whom cognitions of celestial things exist, see 1171, 3240.

From all this it is evident that these spices from which the anointing oil was prepared mean the perception of and affection for truth such as exist with those who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom.

[7] The reason why the sweet-smelling substances used in the preparation of the anointing oil - which were myrrh of the highest quality, sweet-smelling cinnamon, sweet-smelling calamus, and cassia - belong to the celestial group, that is, to things of the Lord's celestial kingdom, is that the anointing oil was the sign of the Divine Good of Divine Love within the Lord, which in heaven is His Divine Celestial. For this meaning of 'the anointing oil', see 9954, 10019.

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