'The leathern girdle' which John the Baptist wore signifies an external band that receives and contains interior things.

(Посилання: Arcana Coelestia 9372)

4912. And said, She is more just than I. That this signifies that there was no conjunction of the external with the internal, but only of the internal with the external, is evident from what was said above (n. 4899) about the church with the Jewish nation, and in them, namely, that there was a church with that people, that is, the internal was conjoined with the external; but that there was no church in them, that is, the external was not conjoined with the internal; for that the church may be in a nation there must be reciprocity.