2269. 'And He said, I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there' means that mankind would not perish if [goods and truths] could be joined together. This is clear from the meaning of the number 'forty-five' as a joining together. It has been shown already that simple numbers retain their own meaning even when they are multiplied; and so larger numbers have a similar meaning to smaller. So it is with 'forty-five', a number which is the product of five times nine; and because it is the product of five times nine it has the same meaning as five and nine. 'Five' means that which is small, as has been shown already in 649, and 'nine' means conjunction or that which is joined together, 2075; so that the meaning here is, If goods have in some measure been joined to truths. That numbers in the Word mean real things or else states is clear from what has been stated above in 2252 about 'fifty', and also from what has been shown already concerning numbers, in 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988.

[2] It is because 'five' means that which is small, and 'forty-five' a joining together, that those numbers are used in the way they are in this verse. That is to say, first it is said, 'Perhaps the fifty righteous persons will lack five', which means, If it were something less. Then it is said, 'Will You for five destroy the whole city?' which means, Will they perish for the small amount that is lacking? But after that, because five means a small amount, the number five is not used again but it is said, 'I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there', which means that they would not perish if [goods and truths] could be joined together. And a further reason why the expression 'forty-five' is used, and not 'if the fifty are lacking five', is that 'five' not only means that which is small, as shown in 649, but also severance, as has also been shown in Volume One, in 1686. Consequently so that a joining together might be meant and not a severance, this number, that is to say, forty-five is used, for forty-five means some joining together, as stated above. Thus in a very beautiful way every detail follows in its particular sequence in the internal sense.

[3] As regards good and truth when joined together, this is an arcanum that cannot be described in such a way that the ordinary mind is able to grasp it. Let merely a brief explanation be given here. The more genuine and pure truth is, the better is good from the Lord able to be accommodated to it as the recipient vessel; but the less genuine and pure truth is, the less is good from the Lord able to be accommodated. For they must each answer to the other; and to the extent that they do, they are joined together. Goods cannot possibly be received into falsities, nor evils into truths as their recipient vessels, for they are by nature and disposition contrary. The one rejects the other as its very enemy; indeed if they tried to join together, each of them would throw up - good would throw up evil as though it were poison, and evil would throw up good as though it were something that induces vomiting. Such enmity between evil and good has been provided by the Lord to prevent the possibility of their being mixed together, for if they were so mixed a person would perish. Those who are deceivers and hypocrites come near to having the two joined together in them; yet even in their case the Lord takes care to prevent them becoming joined together. This is the reason why in the next life deceivers and hypocrites suffer more dreadfully than all others.

730. 'Forty days and nights' means the duration of temptation. This is quite clear from the Word of the Lord. The reason 'forty' means the duration of temptation is the fact that the Lord allowed Himself to be tempted for forty days, as is clear in Matthew 4:1-2; Luke 4:2; Mark 1:13. And because every single requirement in the Jewish Church and in all other representative Churches before the Lord's Coming was merely a type and shadow of Him, so too were forty days and nights. In general they represented and meant all temptation, and in particular however long its duration. And since anyone undergoing temptation experiences vastation of all things that belong to the proprium and of things that are bodily - for things of the proprium and those that are bodily have to die, doing so indeed through conflict and temptation, before he is reborn a new man, that is, before he becomes spiritual and celestial - 'forty days and nights' therefore also means the duration of vastation. The same applies here where the subject is both the temptation of the member of the new Church called Noah and also the destruction of those who lived before the Flood.

[2] That 'forty' means not only the duration of temptation but also of vastation, whether long or short, is clear in Ezekiel,

You shall lie on your right side and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days, a day for each year I assign you. Ezekiel 4:6.

This stands for the duration of the vastation of the Jewish Church and also for a representation of the Lord's temptation, for it is said that he was 'to bear the iniquity of the house of Judah'. In the same prophet,

I will make the land of Egypt waste places, an utter desolation. The foot of man will not pass through it, and the foot of beast will not pass through it, and it will be uninhabited for forty years. And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated lands, and her cities in the midst of devastated cities will be a lonely place for forty years. Ezekiel 29:10-11.

This too stands for the duration of vastation and desolation. Here the meaning in the internal sense is not forty years but solely the desolation of faith in general, whether within a short or a long period of time. In John,

The court outside the Temple, leave that out and do not measure it, for it has been given over to the nations ¹ who will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. Revelation 11:2.

[3] And in the same author,

The beast was given a mouth uttering great things and blasphemies, and it was given power to act for forty-two months. Revelation 13:5.

This stands for the duration of vastation, for a period of forty-two months is not meant at all, as anyone may see. In these quotations the number is in fact forty-two, but this has the same meaning as forty. It is obtained from 'seven days' meaning the finish of vastation and a new beginning, and from 'six' meaning labour because of the six days of labour or conflict. Consequently seven multiplied by six, which produces the number 'forty-two', means the duration of vastation and the duration of temptation, that is, the labour and conflict of someone who is to be regenerated, which period of time involves holiness. The round number forty however has been adopted instead of the less round number forty-two, as is clear in these quotations from the Book of Revelation.

[4] The people of Israel's being led about in the wilderness for forty years before being brought into the land of Canaan in a similar way represented and meant the duration of temptation, and also the duration of vastation - the duration of temptation by the fact that they were subsequently brought into the Holy Land, and the duration of vastation by the fact that, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, all who were more than twenty years old when they left Egypt died in the wilderness. And temptations are also meant by the things they grumbled about so often, and vastations by the plagues and destruction they suffered so often. The fact that temptations and vastations are meant will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown in their proper places. They are referred to in Moses as follows,

You shall remember all the way that Jehovah your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness to afflict you, to tempt you, to know what is in your heart, whether you will keep His commandments or not. Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 16.

Moses' forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai similarly mean the duration of temptation - that is, the temptation of the Lord - as is clear in Moses,

He was on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights, eating no bread, drinking no water, pleading for the people not to be destroyed. Deuteronomy 9:9, 11, 18, Deuteronomy 9:25-end; Deuteronomy 10:10.

[See also]Numbers 14:33-35; 32:8-14

[5] The reason 'forty days' means the duration of temptation is, as has been stated, that the Lord allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil for forty days. Consequently in the days when all things were representatives of the Lord, whenever the idea of temptation existed with angels, that idea was represented in the world of spirits by such things as exist in the world - as happens with all angelic ideas when they come down into the world of spirits and manifest themselves there in a representative fashion. The same accordingly applies to the number forty, for the Lord was to be tempted for forty days. With the Lord, and consequently in the angelic heaven, the future and the present are one and the same, for what is future is already present, or what is to take place has taken place. This is the origin of the representation of temptations and also of vastations by forty in the representative Church. But these matters cannot as yet be understood satisfactorily because people do not know about the influx of the angelic heaven into the world of spirits or the nature of it.

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