9416. 'And I will give you tablets of stone' means the book of the law, or the Word in its entirety. This is clear from the meaning of 'tablets' as objects on which matters of doctrine and life have been inscribed, in this instance matters of heavenly doctrine and of life in keeping with it. The reason why those tablets mean the book of the law or the Word in its entirety is that the things which had been inscribed on them contained in a general way all matters of life and of that heavenly doctrine. This also explains why the things inscribed on them are called the ten words, Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 10:4. For 'ten' in the internal sense means all, and 'words' means truths that are matters of doctrine and forms of good that are matters of life. For the meaning of 'ten' as all, see 3107, 4638, 8468, 8540, and for that of 'words' as truths and forms of good that are matters of life and doctrine, 1288, 4692, 5272. This is why those tablets mean the Word in its entirety, just as the Law does, which in a restricted sense means the things which had been inscribed on those tablets, in a less restricted sense the Word that was written through Moses, in a broad sense the historical section of the Word, and in the broadest sense the Word in its entirety, see what has been shown in 6752. Furthermore the things which had been inscribed on those tablets belonged to the first stage in the revelation of Divine Truth; they were also declared in actual words uttered by the Lord before all the Israelite people. What belongs to the first stage means all the rest in their proper order; and the fact that those things were declared in actual words uttered by the Lord means direct Divine inspiration in all other stages of revelation as well. The reason why those tablets were made of stone was that 'stone' means truth, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, the lowest levels of truth, to be exact, 8609. The lowest levels of God's truth constitute the letter of the Word as it exists on this planet, 9360.

[2] There was not one tablet but two, to represent the joining of the Lord to the Church through the Word, and through the Church to the human race. This also is why they are called the tablets of the covenant, Deuteronomy 9:9, 11, 15, and why the words inscribed on them are called the words of the covenant, Exodus 34:27-28, also the covenant, Deuteronomy 4:13, 23. And the ark itself in which the tablets had been deposited was called the ark of the covenant, Numbers 10:33; 14:44; Deuteronomy 10:8; 31:9, 25-26; Joshua 3:3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17; 4:7, 9, 18; 6:6, 8; 8:33; Judges 20:27; 1 Samuel 4:3-5; 2 Samuel 15:24; 1 Kings 3:15; 6:19; 8:1, 6; Jeremiah 3:16. For a covenant is a joining together, 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804, 8767, 8778, 9396. This explains why those tablets were divided from each other yet were joined together by being laid alongside each other. The writing on them ran across continuously from one tablet onto the other, like the writing on a single tablet. It was not, as people ordinarily think, that some commandments were written on one tablet and some on the other. For a single object divided in two, and the two parts then brought together or given each to the other, means the Lord and man joined together. The establishment of covenants was therefore accomplished in similar ways, that with Abraham for example by parting down the middle a heifer, she-goat, and ram, and laying each part opposite the other, Genesis 15:9-12; in verses 6 and 8 of the present chapter by putting blood in bowls and then sprinkling it half over the altar and half over the people; and generally in all sacrifices by burning one part on the altar and giving the other part to the people to eat. The like was also represented by the Lord when He broke bread, Matthew 14:19; 15:36; 26:26; Mark 6:41; 8:6; 14:22; Luke 9:16; 22:19; 24:30-31, 35. Here also is the reason why 'two' in the Word means things joined together, 5194, 8423, here the Lord and heaven, or the Lord and the Church, joined together, thus also goodness and truth joined together, which is called the heavenly marriage. From all this it becomes clear why it is that there were two tablets and that both sides of them were written on, from edge to edge, Exodus 32:15-16.

[3] Furthermore when the writing and engraving on tablets is mentioned in the Word it means those things that must be imprinted in people's memory and on their life, and so remain there, as in Isaiah,

Write it on a tablet among them, and express it in a book, ¹ so that it may be for time to come forever, even to eternity. Isaiah 30:8.

In Jeremiah,

The sin of Judah has been written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it has been engraved on the tablet of their heart, and at the horns of your altars. Jeremiah 17:1.

In Habakkuk,

Jehovah said, Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that one running by may read it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; if it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come. Habakkuk 2:2-3.

Footnotes:

8540. 'And an omer is the tenth part of an ephah' means the amount of good then. This is clear from the meaning of 'an omer', in that it was the tenth part of an ephah, as the sufficient amount, for 'ten' means that which is complete, 3107, so that 'the tenth part' means the sufficient amount, 8468; and from the meaning of 'an ephah' as good. The reason why 'an ephah' means good is that the ephah and the homer were used to measure dry commodities that served as food, such as wheat, barley, or fine flour; and things that serve as food mean forms of good. And the bath and the hin were used to measure liquid commodities that served as drink; therefore these latter measures mean truths. The container takes its meaning from it contents.

[2] The fact that 'an ephah' was used as a measure is evident from the following places: In Moses,

You shall have a just ephah, and a just hin. Leviticus 19:36.

In Ezekiel,

You shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. Ezekiel 45:10.

In the same prophet, The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, for the ephah is a tenth of a homer. Ezekiel 44:11.

A like use of it as a measure occurs in Amos 8:5.

[3] The meaning of 'an ephah' as good is evident from places where the minchah is referred to; the amount of flour or fine flour for it is measured by the ephah, for example at Leviticus 5:11; Numbers 5:15; 28:5; Ezekiel 45:24; 26:7, 11. And 'minchah' too means good, 4581. That meaning is also evident from the following in Zechariah,

The angel talking to me said to me, Lift your eyes now; what is this going out? And I said, What is this? He said, This is an ephah going out. He said further, This is their eye in all the earth. And behold, a talent of lead was lifted up, and at the same time a woman ¹ sitting in the middle of the ephah. Then he said, She is wickedness. ² And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah, and threw a stone of lead ³ over the mouth of it. And I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, two women going out, and the wind was in their wings. Each had two wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between earth and heaven. And I said to the angel talking to me, Where are they taking away the ephah? And he said to me, To build her a house in the land of Shinar; and she will be prepared and will remain there on her seat. Zechariah 5:5-11.

[4] No one can ever know what all this means except from the internal sense. He will never know unless he knows from that sense what 'an ephah' means, and what 'the woman in the middle of it', 'the stone of lead over the mouth of the ephah', and also 'Shinar' mean. Once these particular meanings have been brought to the surface it is plain that the profanation existing in the Church at that time is meant. For 'an ephah' means good; 'the woman' means wickedness or evil, as it is explicitly stated there; and 'a stone of lead' means falsity arising from evil which shuts it away, 'a stone' being outward truth, and therefore in the contrary sense falsity, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, and 'lead' evil, 8298. So it is that the woman in the middle of the ephah, over the mouth of which a stone of lead was placed, means evil shut up in good by falsity, which is the same thing as profanation. For profanation is evil joined to good, 6348. The two women lifting up the ephah between earth and heaven are Churches, 252, 253, by which the profanation was banished. 'Shinar', to which the woman in the ephah was taken away, is external worship that has profanity within it, 1183, 1292

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