Pots" and other large vessels in the Bible represent facts and factual ideas, which serve as containers for truth the same way pots serve as containers for water or wine. Pots fill their function because they are hard, strong and impervious; facts are also absolute and unchanging, filling their function the same way. And pots must be filled to serve any use, just as facts must be filled with truth to serve any purpose. To some extent this meaning also applies to cups, bowls and other smaller vessels, though it is a little more immediate. Generally you don't fill a cup so you can store a liquid; you fill it to drink it. Smaller vessels then often take more of their meaning from the substance they contain, and in many cases ("cup" and "wine" especially) actually mean the same thing.

8585. And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel' means the accomplishment by means of leading truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'Moses did so' as the accomplishment; and from the meaning of 'the elders of Israel' as leading truths, dealt with above in 8578. The reason why previously it said that Moses was to take with him some of the elders of Israel, and now that he did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel, is that faith is imparted through truths, and in fact through leading ones since they shed light that allows clear perception of the truths flowing from them, called secondary truths.