9674. 'And you shall hang it upon four pillars of shittim [wood]' means the good of merit, which is the Lord's alone, linking them together and providing support. This is clear from the meaning of 'four' as a joining or linking together, dealt with in 1686, 8877 ('four' means a joining together because this number is the product of two multiplied by itself, and multiple numbers have the same meaning as the simple ones that produce them, 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973, 'two' meaning a joining together, see 5194, 8423); from the meaning of 'pillars' as support, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'shittim wood' as the good of merit, which is the Lord's alone, dealt with in 9472, 9486, this good being the one and only good that reigns in heaven, see 9486, and so also that lends support to heaven. Support is meant by 'the pillars' because these supported the veil, just as the boards also made from shittim wood supported the curtains of the dwelling-place, 9634.

[2] 'Pillars' in the spiritual sense means those things that support heaven and the Church, which are forms of the good of love and forms of the good of faith from the Lord. These forms of good are meant by 'pillars' in David,

I will judge uprightly. ¹ The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolving; I will set its pillars firm. Psalms 75:2-3.

In Job,

God shakes the earth out of its place, to the extent that its pillars tremble. Job 9:6.

'The pillars of the earth' stands for the forms of good and the truths that support the Church; for 'the earth' in the Word is the Church, 9325. Plainly they are not pillars supporting this planet that are going to tremble. In John,

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go outside any more. And I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. Revelation 3:12.

'A pillar in the temple' stands for the Church's forms of good and its truths, which are also 'the name of God' and 'the name of the city, new Jerusalem'. 'The name of God' is everything good and true in the Church, or everything in its entirety through which the Lord is worshipped, see 2724, 3006, 6674, 9310.

Fusnotat:

5708. 'Five measures more' means that it was much increased. This is clear from the meaning of 'five' as much, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'measures' as states of truth received from good, dealt with in 3104. As regards 'five', this is a number which can mean little, or else something, or even much. Whatever its specific meaning, this stems from its relationship with the number of which it is a factor, 5291. When it is a factor of ten, much the same as ten, but in a smaller degree, is implied, five being half the number ten. For just as compound numbers have a similar meaning to the simple ones of which they are the product, 5291, 5335, so do divisors have a similar meaning to the compound numbers they divide, as with the relationship of five to ten, also to twenty, as well as to a hundred, a thousand, and so on. 'Ten' means what is full and complete, see 3107, 4638. 'Five measures more' were given to Benjamin than to the rest of his brothers on account of what was meant by this in the spiritual sense. Ten measures could not be given because that amount would have been far too much. The ancients knew from what had been handed down to them from the Most Ancient Church the meanings that certain numbers carried; they therefore used those numbers whenever something cropped up, the meaning of which could be conveyed by those numbers, as is the case with five here. At other times they employed many other numbers, such as three to mean what was complete from start to finish, seven to mean what was holy, or twelve to mean all things in their entirety.