3306. 'And Isaac was a son of sixty years when she bore them' means the state of Rational Truth at that time. This becomes clear from what has been stated above about numbers in 3252, 3275. What the number 'sixty' entails however becomes clear from the simple numbers of which it is the product - from five and twelve, since five times twelve makes sixty (for the meaning of five, see 649, 1686, of twelve, 2372); also from six and ten, since six times ten makes sixty (for the meaning of six, see 720, 737, 900, and of ten, 576, 2284, 3107); from two and thirty as well, since two times thirty makes sixty (for the meaning of two, see 720, 900, 1335, 1686, and of thirty, 2276). Since the number sixty is the product in each of these multiplications of numbers, it embodies the things meant by such numbers in their order, all of which constitute the state experienced by the Lord's Rational at that time. Those things are displayed by the Lord in a clear light before the eyes of the angels, but before the eyes of men, especially of someone who does not believe that numbers in the Word have any meaning at all hidden within them, they cannot be disclosed, not only because of lack of belief but also because so many things contained in those numbers cannot be arranged into a sequence of ideas within man's mental grasp.

2089. 'Twelve princes will he beget' means the first and foremost commandments [of faith] inhering in charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'twelve' as all things belonging to faith, and from the meaning of 'princes' as first and foremost features. King and princes are mentioned in various places in the Word, but in the internal sense they nowhere mean king or princes but the first and foremost features of the subject under discussion. That 'kings' means truths taken as a whole has been shown already in 2015, and that 'princes' means the first and foremost aspects of truth, which are commandments, in 1482. For this reason angels, especially spiritual angels, are called principalities, because they are governed by truths. Princes have reference to truths which go with charity because, as stated above in 2088, spiritual people receive charity from the Lord through truths which to them look like truths, and through charity they receive conscience.

[2] Up to now the world has not known that 'twelve' means all things of faith. Yet every time the number twelve occurs in the Word, in historical or in prophetical sections, it has no other meaning. The twelve sons of Jacob, and therefore the twelve tribes named after them, have no other meaning. And the same applies to the Lord's twelve disciples. Each one of Jacob's sons and each of the disciples represented some essential and primary aspect of faith. What each son of Jacob represented, and therefore what each tribe of Israel represented, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on at Genesis 29, 30, where the sons of Jacob are the subject.