Arcana Coelestia #1429
1429. Abram was a son of five years and seventy years. That this signifies that as yet there was not very much of the Divine, is evident from the signification of the number “five” as being a little, and of the number “seventy” as being what is holy. That “five” denotes a little, has been shown above (n. 649); and also that “seventy,” like “seven,” signifies what is holy (n. 395, 433, 716, 881): here, because “seventy” is a predicated of the Lord, it signifies the holy Divine. That in the internal sense the numbers of Abram’s years also signify other things, is evident from what has been said and shown before concerning years and numbers (n. 482, 487, 493, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813); and also from the fact that there is not a syllable or iota in the Word which has not an internal sense; and unless spiritual and celestial things were involved, it would not have been mentioned that Abram was then five years and seventy years old; neither would this have taken place at this age of Abram; as is evident also from other numbers, both of years and of measures, that occur in the Word.
Arcana Coelestia #649
649. But here the numbers or measures of the ark signify nothing else than the remains which were with the man of this church when he was being reformed, and that they were but few. This is evident from the fact that in these numbers five predominates, which in the Word signifies some or a little, as in Isaiah:
There shall be left therein gleanings, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the branches of a fruitful one (Isaiah 17:6),
where “two or three” and “five” denote a few. Again:
One thousand at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee; until ye be left as a pole upon the top of a mountain (Isaiah 30:17),where also “five” denotes a few. So too the least fine, after restitution, was a “fifth part” (Leviticus 5:16; 6:5; 22:14; Numbers 5:7). And the least addition when they redeemed a beast, a house, a field, or the tithes, was a “fifth part” (Leviticus 27:13, 15, 19, 31).
