5335. And Joseph was a son of thirty years. That this signifies a full state of remains, is evident from the signification of “thirty,” as being full of remains (of which below); and from the signification of “years,” as being states (see n. 482, 487, 488, 493, 893). The number “thirty” in the Word signifies somewhat of combat, and it also signifies full of remains. The reason why it has this twofold signification, is that it is composed of five and six multiplied together, and also of three and ten so multiplied. From five multiplied by six it signifies somewhat of combat (n. 2276), because “five” signifies somewhat (n. 4638, 5291), and “six” combat (n. 720, 730, 737, 900, 1709); but from three multiplied by ten it signifies full of remains, because “three” signifies what is full (n. 2788, 4495), and “ten” remains (n. 576, 1906, 2284); that a compound number involves the like as its components, see n. 5291. (That remains are the truths joined to good stored up by the Lord in man’s interiors, see n. 468, 530, 560, 561, 576, 660, 1050, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135)

[2] A fullness of remains is signified also by “thirty,” by “sixty,” and by a “hundred,” in Mark:

The seed that fell into the good ground yielded fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought forth, one thirty, and another sixty, and another a hundred (Mark 4:8, 20);

as all these numbers arise from ten by multiplication, they signify a fullness of remains. And as man cannot be regenerated, that is, be admitted to the spiritual combats through which regeneration is effected, until he has received remains to the full, it was ordained that the Levites should not do any work in the tent of meeting until they had completed thirty years, which work or function is also called “warfare,” as we read in Moses:

Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from the midst of the sons of Levi, from a son of thirty years and upward to a son of fifty years, everyone that cometh to the warfare, to do the work in the tent of meeting (Numbers 4:2-3

Something similar is said of the sons of Gershon, and of the sons of Merari (Numbers 4:22-23, 29-30, 35, 39, 43). The like is involved in David’s being thirty years old when he began to reign (2 Samuel 5:4).

[3] From all this it is now plain why the Lord did not manifest Himself until He was thirty years of age (Luke 3:23); for He was then in the fullness of remains. But the remains the Lord had He Himself procured for Himself, and they were of the Divine; and by means of them He united the Human essence to the Divine essence, and made the Human essence Divine (n. 1906). From Him then it is that “thirty years” signify a full state as to remains, and that the priests the Levites entered upon their functions when they were thirty years old, and that David, because he was to represent the Lord as to the royalty, did not begin to reign until he was thirty; for every representative is derived from the Lord, and therefore every representative looks to the Lord.

737. Noah was a son of six hundred years. That this signifies his first state of temptation, is evident, because here and as far as to Ber in the eleventh chapter, numbers and periods of years and names mean nothing else than actual things; just as do also the ages and all the names in the fifth chapter. That “six hundred years” here signify the first state of temptation, is evident from the dominant numbers in six hundred, which are ten, and six, twice multiplied into themselves. A greater or less number from the same factors changes nothing. As regards the number “ten” it has been shown already (at chapter 6,verse 3) that it signifies remains; and that “six” here signifies labor and combat is evident from many passages in the Word. For the case is this: In what has gone before the subject is the preparation of the man called “Noah” for temptation-that he was furnished by the Lord with truths of the understanding and goods of the will. These truths and goods are remains, which are not brought out so as to be recognized until the man is being regenerated. In the case of those who are being regenerated through temptations, the remains in a man are for the angels that are with him, who draw out from them the things wherewith they defend the man against the evil spirits who excite the falsities in him, and thus assail him. As the remains are signified by “ten” and the combats by “six” for this reason the years are said to be “six hundred” in which the dominant numbers are ten, and six, and signify a state of temptation.

[2] As regards the number “six” in particular that it signifies combat is evident from the first chapter of Genesis, where the six days are described in which man was regenerated, before he became celestial, and in which there was continual combat, but on the seventh day, rest. It is for this reason that there are six days of labor and the seventh is the sabbath, which signifies rest. And hence it is that a Hebrew servant served six years, and the seventh year was free (Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12; Jeremiah 34:14); also that six years they sowed the land and gathered in the fruits thereof, but the seventh year omitted to sow it (Exodus 23:10-12), and dealt in like manner with the vineyard; and that in the seventh year was “a sabbath of sabbath unto the land, a sabbath of Jehovah” (Leviticus 25:3-4). As “six” signifies labor and combat, it also signifies the dispersion of falsities, as in Ezekiel: Behold six men came from the way of the upper gate which looketh toward the north, and everyone had his weapon of dispersion in his hand (Ezekiel 9:2);

and again, against Gog:

I will make thee to turn again, and will make thee a sixth, and will cause thee to come up from the sides of the north (Ezekiel 39:2).

Here “six” and “to reduce to a sixth” denote dispersion; the “north” falsities; “Gog” those who derive matters of doctrine from things external, whereby they destroy internal worship.

In Job:

In six troubles He shall deliver thee, yea, in the seventh there shall no evil touch thee (Job 5:19),

meaning the combat of temptations.

[3] But “six” occurs in the Word where it does not signify labor, combat, or the dispersion of falsities, but the holy of faith, because of its relation to “twelve” which signifies faith and all things of faith in one complex; and to “three” which signifies the holy; whence is derived the genuine signification of the number “six;” as in Ezekiel 40:5, where the reed of the man, with which he measured the holy city of Israel, was “six cubits;” and in other places. The reason of this derivation is that the holy of faith is in the combats of temptation, and that the six days of labor and combat look to the holy seventh day.