The number "four" in the Bible represents things being linked together or joined. This is partly because four is two times two, and two represents the ultimate linking between our desire to be good and our understanding of truth. We can also see this in the fact that most buildings are rectangular, with the four sides linking together to make a whole. We also divide directions into four -- north, east, south and west -- and talk about the "four corners" of something meaning all of it. So our special thinking naturally looks at four sides as linking together into a whole.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 417; Arcana Coelestia 1686, 9103, 9601, 9767, 9864)

9102. 'He shall repay five oxen for the ox' means the corresponding punishment, carried to a great degree. This is clear from the meaning of 'five' as something, dealt with in 4638, 5291, and also much or a great amount, 5708, 5956; and from the meaning of 'repaying' as amendment, 9087, and as restoration, 9097. The reason why it also means punishment is that when good that has been alienated has to receive amendment, or has to be restored, a person undergoes hard experiences. For either he is abandoned to his evil, thus also to the punishment accompanying evil since evil carries punishment with it, 8214, or he is brought into temptations by means of which evil is tamed and removed, which is the punishment meant here by 'repaying'. It is the corresponding punishment because the evil incurred as punishment and the evil of the wrong-doing correspond, 1857, 6559, 8214.