The number "two" has two different meanings in the Bible. In most cases "two" indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see if we consider the conflicts we tend to have between our "hearts" and our "heads" -- between what we want and what we know. Our "hearts" tell us that we want pie with ice cream for dinner; our "heads" tell us we should have grilled chicken and salad. If we can bring those two together and actually want what's good for us, we'll be pretty happy. We're built that way -- with our emotions balanced against our intellect -- because the Lord is built that way. His essence is love itself, or Divine Love, the source of all caring, emotion and energy. It is expressed as Divine Wisdom, which gives form to that love and puts it to work, and is the source of all knowledge and reasoning. In His case the two aspects are always in conjunction, always in harmony. It's easy also to see how that duality is reflected throughout creation: plants and animals, food and drink, silver and gold. Most importantly, it's reflected in the two genders, with women representing love and men representing wisdom. That's the underlying reason why conjunction in marriage is such a holy thing. So when "two" is used in the Bible to indicate some sort of pairing or unity, it means a joining together. In rare cases, however, "two" is used more purely as a number. In these cases it stands for a profane or unholy state that comes before a holy one. This is because "three" represents a state of holiness and completion (Jesus, for instance, rose from the tomb on the third day), and "two" represents the state just before it.

757. Hieruit blijkt tevens, dat de woorden ‘de sluizen van de hemelen geopend’ het uiterste van de verzoeking ten aanzien van de dingen van het verstand betekenen; de verzoeking ten aanzien van de dingen van de wil of van de begeerten kan nooit gescheiden worden van de verzoeking ten aanzien van de dingen van het verstand; werd zij daarvan gescheiden, dan zou zij geen verzoeking zijn, maar een overstroming, zoals deze plaats vindt bij hen, die in het vuur van de begeerten leven, waarin zij, net als de helse geesten, de lust van hun leven smaken. Sluizen van de hemelen worden zij genoemd wegens de overstroming van de valsheden of van de redeneringen, waaromtrent ook bij Jesaja staat:

‘Wie voor de stem van de angst vluchten zal, die zal in de kuil vallen, en die uit het midden van de kuil opklimt, die zal in de strik gevangen worden, want de sluizen in de hoogte zijn opengedaan, en de fundamenten van de aarde zijn bewogen’, (Jesaja 24:18).