9847. 'Enclosed in sockets of gold you shall make them' means their being brought into being and kept in being by good. This is clear from the meaning of 'gold' as the good of love, dealt with in 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 9490, so that 'being enclosed in sockets of gold' means being a continuation from good and deriving being from it. And since deriving being is meant, being kept in being is also meant; for that which brings something into being also keeps it in being, since being kept in being is unceasing coming into being. The relationship between the good and truth is like that between gold and a precious stone enclosed by it. For the good resembles the ground, and the truths resemble seeds there, since the truths are born nowhere else than in the good, and also how well they flourish is determined by the character of the good.

1552. 'And gold' means goods deriving from truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'gold' as celestial good, or the good of wisdom and love, as is clear from what has just been shown and also from what was shown previously in 113. That here they are goods deriving from truths follows from what was stated in the previous chapter about the Lord's joining intellectual truths to celestial things.