This song initially sounds like it is about sex, but if you read/listen carefully, it also sounds like it is about Moses in the book of Exodus. (Considering that there are other bible references on the album, this makes sense.)
The first verse, "Don't you wish you could go back / to when your heart sang like a burning branch / to when your songs sang themselves from the bottom of a well..." is in this case a memory, from when Moses was exiled from Egypt, with the shepherds in Midian. He was welcomed into the group because he defended some shepherdesses at a well, and famously encountered the burning branch on Mt. Sinai.
As for the chorus, the lines "Understand me, I want nothing but the best for everyone / gold dust river runs / deputize the sun / the great Separator comes for me" indicate the placement of the story in the timeline. Moses was forbidden from entering the promised land, and thus had to "deputize" Aaron to lead the Israelites the rest of the way. The "gold dust river" would then be the desert, and the "great separator" would be God or Death, sundering him from both life and from his people and the potential of the promised land.
The second verse sounds like the 40 years lost in the desert. "Howling at the moon / hide it in your room" could be a veiled reference to the Israelites' brief stint with paganism re: the golden calf. "My hands are filthy" could refer to the state of sin that will bar Moses from the promised land, and "I've got a rib to spare from the garden" is a clear reference to the creation myth, where Eve was said to be created from Adam's rib. Taking it a step further, Moses is likely with his wife, having sex, knowing that he will soon die as they approach their destination.
This song initially sounds like it is about sex, but if you read/listen carefully, it also sounds like it is about Moses in the book of Exodus. (Considering that there are other bible references on the album, this makes sense.)
The first verse, "Don't you wish you could go back / to when your heart sang like a burning branch / to when your songs sang themselves from the bottom of a well..." is in this case a memory, from when Moses was exiled from Egypt, with the shepherds in Midian. He was welcomed into the group because he defended some shepherdesses at a well, and famously encountered the burning branch on Mt. Sinai.
As for the chorus, the lines "Understand me, I want nothing but the best for everyone / gold dust river runs / deputize the sun / the great Separator comes for me" indicate the placement of the story in the timeline. Moses was forbidden from entering the promised land, and thus had to "deputize" Aaron to lead the Israelites the rest of the way. The "gold dust river" would then be the desert, and the "great separator" would be God or Death, sundering him from both life and from his people and the potential of the promised land.
The second verse sounds like the 40 years lost in the desert. "Howling at the moon / hide it in your room" could be a veiled reference to the Israelites' brief stint with paganism re: the golden calf. "My hands are filthy" could refer to the state of sin that will bar Moses from the promised land, and "I've got a rib to spare from the garden" is a clear reference to the creation myth, where Eve was said to be created from Adam's rib. Taking it a step further, Moses is likely with his wife, having sex, knowing that he will soon die as they approach their destination.