9667. 'And you shall overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings from gold, houses for the bars; and you shall overlay the bars with gold' means a representative sign of the good from which and through which everything derives its existence. This is clear from the meaning of 'overlaying with gold' and 'making from gold' as a representative sign of good, dealt with in 9510, in addition to which good that lends support is meant by 'boards', 9634, good and truth joined together by 'rings', 9493, 9495, and the power of truth from good by 'bars' or 'poles', 9496. The reason why everything should derive its existence from and through the good is that everything throughout creation has connection with good and with truth, and good is that from which truth and so from which everything derives its existence. And good has its origin in the Divine Himself. The Lord's Divine Love constitutes Divine Good; for all good belongs to love. Divine Love itself and so Divine Good is Being itself (ipsum Esse), which is called Jehovah and also the Lord, and the Manifestation (Existere) of that Being is Truth. From all this it may be seen that everything derives its existence from good.

9510. 'From solid gold you shall make them' means a representative sign of [that] good. This is clear from the meaning of 'gold' as the good of love, dealt with in 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914. The fact that gold is not the good of love, only a representative sign of it, is self-evident. The like applies to the olive wood which the cherubs in the Jerusalem temple were made of, 1 Kings 6:23; 'olive wood' is a sign of the good of love, see 886, and so too is the oil itself, 3728, 4582, 4638.