754. Verse 11 In the six hundredth year of the years of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were split open, and the floodgates of heaven were opened.

'The six hundredth year, the second month, and the seventeenth day' means the second state of temptation. 'All the fountains of the great deep were split open' means the full extent of temptation involving things of the will. 'The floodgates of heaven were opened' means the full extent of temptation involving those of the understanding.

3252. 'A hundred and seventy-five years' means the things constituting that state. This becomes clear from the fact that every number used in the Word means some real thing, see 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, and so with this particular number which consequently means the things which constitute the state that is the subject here. As long as the mind confines itself to the historical sense it seems as though numbers, such as these ¹ which give Abraham's age, do not hold any interior meaning within them. The fact that they do nevertheless hold such meaning within them is evident from all that has been shown already concerning numbers, and becomes clear from the consideration that no number as to its numerical value contains anything holy, and yet the smallest detail of all in the Word is holy.

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