4759. 'For twenty pieces of silver' means the value set upon it. This is clear from the meaning of 'twenty' as the good and truth stored away by the Lord within the interior man, which are called remnants, dealt with in 2280, and so as holy good or truth. In this case holy truth is meant because the phrase 'twenty pieces of silver' is used, 'silver' meaning truth, 1551, 2954. The same number also means that which is not holy, for most things in the Word have a contrary meaning also, here truth that is not holy in the case of those who alienated Divine Truth, or 'sold Joseph', 4758, but is holy in the case of those who accepted it or 'bought him'. The meaning here therefore is that which is not holy separated from charity, but which is holy in the case of the Ishmaelites, that is, those in whom simple good is present. These are the things that are meant by the value set upon it. The reason why 'twenty' also means that which is not holy is that 'twenty' means remnants, as stated above. If people do not have any remnants of good and truth within their interior man, only evil and falsity instead, their holiness is not holiness, and depending on the kind of evil and falsity present in them it is either filthiness or else profanity.

[2] This further meaning which 'twenty' has of that which is not holy is clear in Zechariah,

I looked, and behold, a flying scroll. And he said to me, What do you see? I said to him, I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, its breadth ten cubits. And he said to me, This curse is going out over the face of the whole land. Zechariah 5:1-3.

In Haggai,

When one came to the winevat to draw fifty measures from the winevat, there were only twenty; I smote you with blight, and all the work of your hands with mildew. Haggai 2:16-17.

[3] In Ezekiel,

Your food which you eat shall be in weight twenty shekels each day; from time to time shall you eat it; and you shall eat it indeed as a barley-cake. As regards that cake, with human excrement you shall make it in their sight. For thus, Jehovah said, shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations. Ezekiel 4:10, 12-13.

In these places 'twenty' stands for that which is unholy, unclean, and profane. The death in the wilderness of all over twenty years - a prediction recorded in Numbers 14:29; 32:11 - also represented that which was holy in the case of those under that age, and that which was not holy in the case of those over it. For all numbers in the Word mean spiritual realities, see 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670; and remnants are good and truth stored away by the Lord within the interior man, 468, 530, 560, 561, 576, 660, 798, 1050, 1738, 1906, 2284.

647. It is bound to seem strange and very far-fetched to everybody that these details have this meaning, that is to say, that the numbers three hundred, fifty, and thirty mean remnants, and in particular that they were few; also that 'length, breadth, and height' means holiness, truth, and good. But in addition to what has been stated and shown above about numbers at verse 3 of this chapter, where a hundred and twenty means the remnants of faith, this matter may also become clear to anybody from the fact that people who possess the internal sense, as good spirits and angels do, are beyond anything earthly, bodily, or purely worldly, and so beyond anything involving numbers and measurements. Yet the Lord enables them to perceive the Word fully, and to do so quite independently from such concepts. This being so, it becomes quite clear that numbers and measurements embody celestial and spiritual things. The latter however are so remote from the sense of the letter that such things cannot possibly be seen. This applies to every single celestial or spiritual thing. From this also anyone may recognize how insane it is to desire to inquire into matters of faith through sensory evidence and factual knowledge and to refuse to believe unless one grasps them by that method.