8942. 'For if you move your chisel over it' means if a product of the proprium or self. This is clear from the meaning of 'chisel' as counterfeit truth, thus a product of the self. For a chisel is a piece of iron used to carve and shape figures out of stones, and therefore the human self is meant here since this shapes things which are to compose religion, to make them look like the truth. Instead of the word 'chisel' some places elsewhere have '[a piece of] iron', while others elsewhere have 'axe', as in Deuteronomy 27:5; Joshua 8:30-31; 1 Kings 6:7; Isaiah 44:10-12; Hosea 13:2; Jeremiah 10:3-4; and these tools mean such things as are implements of self-intelligence used for fabrication.

10687. 'And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant' means the Word, through which heaven is joined to a person. This is clear from the meaning of 'the tablets', on which the Law has been written, as the Word, dealt with in 9416, 10375, 10376, 10453, 10461; and from the meaning of 'the covenant' as a joining together, dealt with in the places referred to above in 10632. The reason why the joining of heaven to a person is meant is that pure correspondences were used when the Word was written, which makes it such that it joins heaven to a person. Heaven is conscious of the internal sense of the Word, to which sense the external sense corresponds; when therefore a person reads the Word the angels present with the person perceive its spiritual meaning, which is the internal sense. As a consequence of this a holy influence is received from the angels, which leads to a joining together; and it is with that end in view that a Word such as this has been given. Regarding the truth that the Lord, and so heaven, is joined to a person through the Word, see in the places referred to in 10375. As for what the correspondences are of which the written Word consists, this has been shown wherever explanations have been provided.