737. 'Noah was a son of six hundred years' means his initial state of temptation. This is clear from the fact from here down to Eber in Chapter 11 nothing else is meant by numbers, years of age, or names than real things, as was the case also with the ages and names of all those mentioned in Chapter 5. Here 'six hundred years' means the initial state of temptation. This becomes clear from its prime factors which are ten and six multiplied again by ten. When the same factors are involved it makes no difference whether the number arrived at is large or small. As for ten, this has been shown already at 6:3 to mean remnants, while the meaning of six here as labour and conflict is clear from places throughout the Word. For the situation is this: What has gone before dealt with man's preparation for temptation, that is to say, he was supplied by the Lord with truths of the understanding and with goods of the will. These truths and goods are remnants, but they are not brought forth so as to be acknowledged until man is being regenerated. In the case of those who are being regenerated by means of temptations the remnants existing with any man are for the angels present with him. From these remnants they draw out those things with which they protect him against the evil spirits who activate falsities with him and in this way attack him. It is because remnants are meant by 'ten' and conflict by 'six' that six hundred years are spoken of, a number in which ten and six are the prime factors and which means a state of temptation.

[2] As regards conflict being the particular meaning of 'six', this is clear from Genesis 1, which describes the six days of man's regeneration prior to his becoming celestial. During those six days there was constant conflict, but on the seventh day came rest. Consequently there are six days of labour, and the seventh is the sabbath, a word which means rest. This also is why a Hebrew slave was to serve for six years and in the seventh was to go free, Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12; Jeremiah 34:14, and why for six years they were to sow the land and gather in the produce, but in the seventh they were to leave it alone, Exodus 23:10-12. The same applied to a vineyard. It is also the reason why in the seventh year the land was to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to Jehovah, Leviticus 25:3-4. Because 'six' means labour and conflict it also means the dispersion of falsity, as in Ezekiel,

Behold, six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, which looks towards the north, every man with a weapon of dispersion in his hand. Ezekiel 9:2.

And in the same prophet, against Gog,

I will cause you to turn about, and I will split you into six, and cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north. Ezekiel 39:2.

Here 'six' and 'splitting into six' stand for dispersion, 'the north' for falsities, and 'Gog' for people who seize on doctrinal matters based on things of an external nature with which they destroy internal worship. From Job,

He will deliver you in six troubles, and in a seventh no evil will touch you. Job 5:19.

This stands for the conflict that constitutes temptations.

[3] 'Six' occurs in other parts of the Word where it does not mean labour, conflict, or the dispersion of falsity, but the holiness of faith. In these instances it is related to twelve, which means faith and all things of faith in their entirety, and to three which means that which is holy. Consequently there is also a genuine derivative meaning to the number six, as in Ezekiel 40:5, where the man's measuring rod with which he measured the holy city of Israel was six cubits long; and in other places. The reason for this derivative is that in the conflict of temptation the holiness of faith is present, and also that six days of labour and conflict look forward to the holy seventh day.

7342. 'And he did not take this to heart' means resistance arising in the will and consequent obstinacy. This is clear from the meaning of 'not taking something to heart' as paying no attention; and since among the evil paying no attention to Divine things is the result of resistance arising in the will, this too is meant by those same words. And since 'not taking it to heart' implies the same as being unyielding, obstinacy is also meant, as previously in 7272, 7300, 7338. With respect to resistance arising in the will, it should be recognized that the will is what rules a person. Some people think that the understanding rules; but the understanding does not do so unless the will has the same leanings. The understanding accords with the will, for regarded in itself the understanding is nothing other than the outward form which the will takes. The expression 'the will' is used here to mean the desires that belong to a person's love, for his will is nothing other. Those desires are what rule a person, for they are his life. If a person's desires are those of self-love and love of the world, then his entire life is nothing else than such desires. Nor can he resist them, for to do so would be to resist his own life. Fundamental ideas of truth make no impression whatever. If the desires belonging to those kinds of love predominate they haul truth over to their own side and so falsify it, or if it does not fully support them reject it. This explains why fundamental ideas of truth taught by faith have no effect whatever on a person unless the Lord instills desires belonging to spiritual love, that is, love towards the neighbour. And in the measure that he receives those desires he receives also the truths of faith. The desires belonging to this love are what constitute the new will. From all this it may now be seen that a person never takes any truth to heart if his will is resistant to it. So it is that those in hell, having an affection or desires for evil within them, cannot receive the truths of faith, consequently cannot undergo correction. So it is too that the evil falsify the truths of faith, so far as they can.