9855. 'And you shall put the small chains of slender rope in the sockets' means being joined to the good from which truths spring, and so the preservation of the spiritual kingdom by all exertion and power. This is clear from the meaning of 'small chains' made from the work 'of slender rope' as coherence with good and being joined to it, dealt with above in 9852, 9854; and from the meaning of 'the sockets of gold' as the good that brings truths into being and keeps them in being, also dealt with above, in 9847. The preservation of good and truth in the spiritual kingdom, or what amounts to the same thing, the preservation of the spiritual kingdom by all exertion and power, is meant by the two shoham stones placed on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, on which the names of the sons of Israel were engraved, 9836, 9848, 9849.