46. And girt about the paps with a golden girdle, signifies the proceeding, and, at the same time, the conjoining Divine, which is the Divine good. That "a golden girdle" has this signification, is, because by "the Lord's breast," and especially by "the paps," His Divine love is signified; thence, by "the golden girdle" which girded them, is signified the proceeding and at the same time the conjoining Divine, which is the Divine good of the Divine love: moreover "gold" signifies good; see below (n. 913). "A zone" or "girdle," in the Word, also signifies the common bond, whereby all things are held together in order and connection; as in Isaiah:
There shall go forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, justice shall be the girdle of His loins, and truth the girdle of His thighs (Isa. 11:1, 5). "The rod going forth out of the stem of Jesse" is the Lord. That the girdle of the ephod and the belt of Aaron's coat, signified conjunction, may be seen in The Arcana Coelestia, published at London (n. 9837, 9944). Since "a girdle" signifies the bond conjoining the goods and truths of the church, therefore when the church with the sons of Israel was destroyed, Jeremiah the prophet was commanded:
To buy himself a girdle, and put it upon his loins, and then to hide it in a hole of a rock near the Euphrates; and at the end of days, when he took it, behold it was rotten, and was profitable for nothing (Jer. 13:1-12).
By this was represented that at that time there was no good in the church, and thence that truths were dissipated. The like is signified by "girdle" in Isaiah:
Instead of a girdle there shall be a rent (Isa. 3:24);
and elsewhere. That by the "paps" or "breasts" the Divine love is signified, is evident from those passages in the Word where they are named, as also from their correspondence with love.
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