Arcana Coelestia #54
54. Male and female He created them. What 'male and female' is used to mean in the internal sense was very well known in the Most Ancient Church, but when among later generations the interior sense of the Word was lost, so too was this particular arcanum. Marriages gave them their highest forms of happiness and delight; and they used to liken to a marriage anything that could be likened to it, in order that from it they might feel the happiness of marriage. And because they were internal men they took delight solely in internal things. As to external things, they did no more with them than take them in with their eyes, but their thoughts involved what those things represented - so much so that external things meant nothing to them except insofar as they could reflect internal things in them, and in those internal things reflect celestial things, and in so doing reflect the Lord, who was to them everything. Consequently they reflected the heavenly marriage in those things, which, they perceived, was the source of the happiness in their own marriages. For this reason they called the understanding in the spiritual man Male and the will Female, and when the two acted as one, they called it Marriage. From that Church sprang the common usage of referring to the Church itself, because of its affection for good, as 'a daughter', and also 'a virgin' - as in Virgin of Zion, Virgin of Jerusalem - and 'a wife' as well. On these matters however see verse 23 of the next chapter, and Chapter 3:15.
Exodus 25
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And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
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Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.
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And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,
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And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair,
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And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood,
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Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,
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Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.
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And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
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According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.
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And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
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And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.
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And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.
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And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.
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And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.
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The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it.
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And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.
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And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
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And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.
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And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.
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And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.
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And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.
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And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.
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Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
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And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about.
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And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.
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And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof.
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Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table.
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And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with them.
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And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them.
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And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.
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And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.
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And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side:
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Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and Three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick.
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And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.
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And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick.
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Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold.
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And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.
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And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold.
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Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels.
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And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.
