2325. 'And Lot saw' means [their] conscience - that is to say, the conscience of those with whom the good of charity exists but whose worship is external. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'seeing'. 'Seeing' in the Word means understanding, see 897, 1584, 1806, 1807, 2150. In the internal sense however 'seeing' means having faith, a meaning which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed at Genesis 29:32. The reason why conscience is meant here is that people who have faith have conscience as well. Conscience is inseparable from faith, so inseparable in fact that it makes no difference whether you speak of faith or of conscience. By faith is meant faith through which charity comes, and which derives from charity. This being so, it is charity itself, for faith without charity is not faith at all. And just as faith is not possible without charity, neither is conscience possible without it.

649. But here the numbers, or the measurements of the ark, mean nothing other than the remnants that existed with the member of this Church when he was being reformed, and in particular that they were few. This is clear from the fact that among those numbers five is predominant, which in the Word means some, or a little, as in Isaiah,

Gleanings will be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries on the top of the highest branch, four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree. Isaiah 17:6.

Here 'two or three' and 'five' stands for a few. In the same prophet,

One thousand at the rebuke of one, at the rebuke of five will you flee, until you are left like a flagstaff on top of a mountain. Isaiah 30:17.

This also stands for a few. The minimum penalty when making restitution was a fifth part, Leviticus 5:16; 6:5; 22:14; Numbers 5:7, and the minimum increase when they redeemed an animal, a house, a field, or tithes, was a fifth part, Leviticus 27:13, 15, 19, 31.