8540. 'And an omer is the tenth part of an ephah' means the amount of good then. This is clear from the meaning of 'an omer', in that it was the tenth part of an ephah, as the sufficient amount, for 'ten' means that which is complete, 3107, so that 'the tenth part' means the sufficient amount, 8468; and from the meaning of 'an ephah' as good. The reason why 'an ephah' means good is that the ephah and the homer were used to measure dry commodities that served as food, such as wheat, barley, or fine flour; and things that serve as food mean forms of good. And the bath and the hin were used to measure liquid commodities that served as drink; therefore these latter measures mean truths. The container takes its meaning from it contents.

[2] The fact that 'an ephah' was used as a measure is evident from the following places: In Moses,

You shall have a just ephah, and a just hin. Leviticus 19:36.

In Ezekiel,

You shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. Ezekiel 45:10.

In the same prophet, The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, for the ephah is a tenth of a homer. Ezekiel 44:11.

A like use of it as a measure occurs in Amos 8:5.

[3] The meaning of 'an ephah' as good is evident from places where the minchah is referred to; the amount of flour or fine flour for it is measured by the ephah, for example at Leviticus 5:11; Numbers 5:15; 28:5; Ezekiel 45:24; 26:7, 11. And 'minchah' too means good, 4581. That meaning is also evident from the following in Zechariah,

The angel talking to me said to me, Lift your eyes now; what is this going out? And I said, What is this? He said, This is an ephah going out. He said further, This is their eye in all the earth. And behold, a talent of lead was lifted up, and at the same time a woman ¹ sitting in the middle of the ephah. Then he said, She is wickedness. ² And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah, and threw a stone of lead ³ over the mouth of it. And I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, two women going out, and the wind was in their wings. Each had two wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between earth and heaven. And I said to the angel talking to me, Where are they taking away the ephah? And he said to me, To build her a house in the land of Shinar; and she will be prepared and will remain there on her seat. Zechariah 5:5-11.

[4] No one can ever know what all this means except from the internal sense. He will never know unless he knows from that sense what 'an ephah' means, and what 'the woman in the middle of it', 'the stone of lead over the mouth of the ephah', and also 'Shinar' mean. Once these particular meanings have been brought to the surface it is plain that the profanation existing in the Church at that time is meant. For 'an ephah' means good; 'the woman' means wickedness or evil, as it is explicitly stated there; and 'a stone of lead' means falsity arising from evil which shuts it away, 'a stone' being outward truth, and therefore in the contrary sense falsity, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, and 'lead' evil, 8298. So it is that the woman in the middle of the ephah, over the mouth of which a stone of lead was placed, means evil shut up in good by falsity, which is the same thing as profanation. For profanation is evil joined to good, 6348. The two women lifting up the ephah between earth and heaven are Churches, 252, 253, by which the profanation was banished. 'Shinar', to which the woman in the ephah was taken away, is external worship that has profanity within it, 1183, 1292

脚注:

3108. These two verses deal with the introduction of truth into good. But the nature of this introduction does not fit easily into the pattern of thought of anyone whose mind is illumined solely by such things as are seen in the light of the world, and not at the same time by those seen in the light of heaven, by which those belonging to the light of the world are illumined. People who are devoid of good and consequently of faith have no other ideas in their minds than those formed from objects seen in the light of the world. They do not know what the spiritual is, nor even what the rational is in the genuine sense, but only the natural, to which they ascribe everything. Here also is the reason why those things stated in the internal sense about the introduction of truth into good appear to them too remote to mean anything at all. Yet to those who see in the light of heaven they are considered most precious.

[2] With regard to the introduction of truth into good, before truth has been introduced and rightly joined it does indeed reside with man, yet it has not so to speak become his or his own. But as soon as it is introduced into its own good it does become his own. It goes out of his external memory and passes over into the internal memory. Or what amounts to the same, it ceases to exist in the natural or external man, and passes over into the rational or internal man, where it clothes itself with the person himself and constitutes his humanity, that is, his own human character. This is the situation with all truth that is being joined to its good, as also in a similar way with falsity that is being joined to evil which it calls good. The difference however is that truth opens the rational and so makes a person rational, whereas falsity closes the rational and makes him irrational, though he seems to himself while in the darkness enveloping him at this time to be more rational than others.