9490. 'And you shall overlay it with pure gold' means that all those aspects must be founded on good. This is clear from the meaning of 'overlaying' - when the subject is heaven, meant by 'the ark' - as founding on, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'gold' as good, dealt with in 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917. The reason why 'overlaying' means founding on is that good emanating from the Lord as the Sun (for the heat from that Sun is the good of love) surrounds heaven not merely as a general whole but also every heavenly community within heaven specifically, and each angel individually too, and thereby protects them from the intrusion of evil from hell. That which surrounds in heaven serves to stabilize it; for heaven rests against it like a house on its foundation and like the surfaces of the body against the lower and upper layers of air bearing down around them. For that which surrounds also bounds, confines, and contains, and in so doing supports and sustains. From all this it is evident that 'overlaying' means founding on, and 'overlaying with gold' founding on good.

A congregation is a group of people with common loves, interests, and purposes. It often refers to a church group. In the Word it is almost always used to speak of the whole group of the Children of Israel, as the tabernacle of the congregation, or the people of the congregation. Sometimes the original Hebrew is translated as assembly, too. This is a case where readers and translators need to be aware of the context and potential nuances of meaning. Swedenborg writes that,'The congregation of the people' stands for people who are ruled by truths constituting intelligence, since 'congregation' is used with reference to truths... as also is 'people'... 'the assembly of the old' stands for people who are ruled by good. The usage of the term congregation also implies an ordering, or arrangement of truths.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 417; Arcana Coelestia 6338, 7843, 7891; The Apocalypse Explained 724 [17])