1856. In the fourth generation they shall return hither. That this signifies the time and state of restoration, is evident from the signification of “the fourth generation.” “The fourth generation” signifies the same as “forty” and as “four hundred;” namely, the duration and the state of temptation, spoken of at verse 13; it is a sort of diminutive from these. Whether a number be larger or smaller, provided it be of the same stock, it involves the same; as has already been stated several times. That “the fourth generation” does not signify any generation from Abram, or from Isaac, or from Jacob, is evident from the historicals of the Word; for there were more generations, and these people were very different from their fathers when they returned. “The fourth generation” is an expression that occurs likewise in other places, yet in the internal sense it never signifies any generation; and here it signifies the time and state of restoration, because it signifies the end of those things which are signified by “forty” or by “four hundred” (see n. 862, 1847).

1847. Four hundred years. That this signifies the duration and state, namely, of the temptations, is evident from the signification of “four hundred,” which number signifies the same as “forty,” namely, the durations and states of temptations (see n. 730, 862). The durations of temptations, both the shorter and the more lasting, are described in the Word by “forty.” In the literal sense the words before us relate to the stay of the sons of Jacob in Egypt; and that this was four hundred and thirty years is evident from Exodus 12:40; though the time was not so great as reckoned from Jacob’s coming into Egypt, but it was reckoned from Abram’s sojourn there, as has been observed before. The number four hundred and thirty is mentioned, from Abram’s sojourn, for the reason that this number involves the temptations which they represented by their servitude in Egypt, and afterwards also by the forty years’ afflictions in the wilderness.