664. And after three days and a half.- That this signifies when completed, thus the end of the old church, and the beginning of a new church, is evident from the signification of three days and a half, as denoting fulness or completion at the end of the old church, when there is the beginning of a new church, concerning which see above (n. 658). The reason why it is said, after three days and a half, is, that days, in the Word, signify states, here, the last state of the church. For all times, in the Word, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, and ages, signify states in the Word, as in this case, the last state of the church, when there is no longer any good of love or truth of faith remaining. Because days signify states, and since in the first chapter of Genesis the establishment of the Most Ancient Church is treated of which was accomplished successively from one state to another, therefore it is said there that there was evening and there was morning the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and sixth days, unto the seventh, when it was completed (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), and the days there do not mean days, but the successive states of the regeneration of men at that time, and the consequent establishment of the church with them. So also elsewhere in the Word.

9544. 'And you shall make its dishes, its cups, and its small dishes, and its small brushes, with which it shall be covered' means cognitions of celestial good and truth. This is clear from the meaning of vessels in general as factual knowledge or cognitions, dealt with in 3068, 3079, so that the particular vessels that are mentioned here are cognitions of celestial good and truth. Celestial good is the good of love to the Lord, and celestial truth is the good of mutual love, cognitions of those kinds of good being meant by such vessels. And since cognitions of them are meant, and cognitions are contained in the memory belonging to the natural man, and the natural is external, it says that the table shall be covered with those vessels. For since the natural lies externally or below, covering over and enclosing what lies inwardly or above, it is called a covering, 6377. What use those vessels were to serve, see Leviticus 24:6-7; and Numbers 4:7-8.

9544a 'From pure gold you shall make them' means that they are derived from good. ¹

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