Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9569

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9569. 'And you shall make its seven lamps' means the holy spiritual things from it. This is clear from the meaning of 'lamps' as faith and an intelligent understanding of truth that come from the Lord alone, dealt with in 9548, thus the Spiritual, since Divine Truth, which comes from the Lord and through which faith, intelligence, and wisdom are received, is the Spiritual; and from the meaning of 'seven' as that which is holy, dealt with in 395, 433, 716, 881, 5265, 5268. The lamps were seven in number because Divine Truth, from which faith, intelligence, and wisdom spring, is that which is called holy; for that Divine Truth emanates from the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Love, and the Divine Good of Divine Love is what makes things holy. This explains why consecrations were carried out with the use of oil, as at the consecration of the tent and everything there, of the altar, Aaron and his sons, also their garments, and later on of kings, on account of which they were called the anointed. For 'oil' means the good of love, 886, 3728, 4582, 4638.


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