2280. That 'perhaps twenty will be found there' means even if there is no existence of conflict but good is nevertheless present is clear from the meaning of 'twenty'. As all the numbers mentioned in the Word mean real things and states, as stated and shown in various places already, see 2252, so also does 'twenty'; and what twenty means becomes clear from how it may be obtained, namely from twice ten. In the Word ten, as also tenths, means remnants, and by these are meant everything good and true which the Lord instills into a person from earliest childhood through to the final period of life. Such remnants are referred to in the verse that follows this. Twice ten, or two tens, that is, twenty, is similar in meaning to ten, but to a higher degree, namely that of good.

[2] Three kinds of goods are meant by 'remnants' - those instilled in earliest childhood, those instilled when want of knowledge is still present, and those instilled when intelligence is present. The goods of earliest childhood are those instilled into a person from birth up to the age when he starts to be taught and to know something. The goods received when want of knowledge is still present are instilled when he is being taught and starting to know something. The goods that come with intelligence are instilled when he is able to reflect on what good is and what truth is. Good instilled in earliest childhood is received up to his tenth year.

[3] Good instilled when want of knowledge is still present is instilled from then until his twentieth year; and from this year the person starts to become rational and to have the ability to reflect on good and truth, and to acquire the good received when intelligence is present. The good instilled when want of knowledge is still present is that which is meant by 'twenty', because those with whom merely that good exists do not enter into any temptation. For no one undergoes temptation until he is able to reflect on and to perceive in his own way what good and truth are. Those who have acquired goods by means of temptations were the subject in the two verses previous to this, while in the present verse the subject is those who do not undergo temptations but who nevertheless possess good.

[4] It is because these who possess the good called 'good instilled during want of knowledge' are meant by 'twenty' that all those who had come out of Egypt were included in the census - from 'a son of twenty years and over', and who, as it is stated, were every one 'going into the army'- by whom were meant those whose good was no longer merely that instilled during want of knowledge, referred to in Numbers 1:20, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 45; 26:4. It is also said that all who were over twenty years of age died in the wilderness, Numbers 14:29; 32:10-11, because evil could be attributed to them, and because they represented those who yield in temptations. Also the value set for a male who was between five years of age and twenty years was twenty sheckels, Leviticus 27:5, whereas a different value was set for one between twenty years old and sixty, namely fifty shekels, Leviticus 27:3.

[5] As regards the nature of these different kinds of goods - those instilled in earliest childhood, those when want of knowledge is still present, and those when intelligence is present - the last of these is the best, since it is an attribute of wisdom. The good which precedes it, namely that instilled during want of knowledge, is indeed good, but because it has only a small amount of intelligence within it, it cannot be called the good of wisdom. The good that belongs to earliest childhood is indeed in itself good, but it is nevertheless less good than the other two kinds, because it has not as yet had any truth of intelligence allied to it, and so has not become in any way the good of wisdom, but is merely a plane enabling it to become such. Cognitions of truth and good are what enable a person to be wise in the way possible to man. Earliest childhood itself, by which is meant innocence, does not belong to earliest childhood but to wisdom, as may become clearer from what will be stated at the end of this chapter about young children in the next life.

[6] In this verse 'twenty' means no other kind of good, as has been stated, than the good that belongs to not knowing. This good is a characteristic not only, as has been stated, of those under twenty years of age but also of all with whom the good of charity exists but who at the same time have no knowledge of truth. The latter consists of those inside the Church with whom the good of charity exists but who, for whatever reason, do not know what the truth of faith is - as is the case with the majority of those who think about God with reverence and think what is good about the neighbor - and also of all those outside the Church called gentiles who in a similar way lead lives abiding in the good of charity. Though the truths of faith do not exist with such persons outside the Church and inside it, nevertheless because good does so, they have the capacity, no less than young children do, to receive the truths of faith. For the understanding part of their mind has not yet been corrupted by false assumptions nor has the will part been so confirmed by a life of evil, for they do not know what falsity and evil are. Furthermore the life of charity is of such a nature that the falsity and evil that go with want of knowledge can be turned without difficulty towards what is true and good. This is not so in the case of those who have confirmed themselves in things contrary to the truth and who at the same time have led a life immersed in things contrary to good.

[7] In other places in the Word 'two-tenths' means good, both celestial and spiritual. Celestial good and spiritual good derived from this are meant by the two-tenths from which each loaf of the shewbread or of the Presence was made, Leviticus 24:5, while spiritual good was meant by the two-tenths constituting the minchah that accompanied the sacrifice of a ram, Numbers 15:6; 28:12, 20, 28; 29:3, 9, 14. These matters will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with elsewhere.

2252. That 'perhaps there may be fifty righteous persons in the midst of the city' means that the truths may be full of goods is clear from the meaning of 'fifty' as full, from the meaning of 'righteous' as good, dealt with in 612, 2235, from [the meaning] of 'midst' as that which is within, 1074, and from [the meaning] of 'the city' as truth, 402. Thus 'fifty righteous persons in the midst of the city' in the internal sense means that the truths may be full of goods. That this meaning exists within these words cannot be seen by anyone from the letter, for the historical details of the literal sense lead the mind in an altogether different direction or to think in a different way; but that these words are nevertheless perceived according to that meaning by those who possess the internal sense, I know for certain. Moreover the actual numbers mentioned, such as fifty here, and forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and ten in what follows, are never perceived as numbers by those who possess the internal sense but as real things or as states, as shown in 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075.

[2] Indeed the ancients also used numbers to mark off one from another the states of their Church; and the nature of such numbers worked out by them becomes clear from the meaning of the numbers in the paragraphs that have just been mentioned. The meaning possessed by numbers was received by those people from the representatives which manifest themselves in the world of spirits. There when anything appears as that which is numbered, it does not mean something defined by means of numbers but means some real thing or else a state, as becomes clear from what has been presented in 2129, 2130, and also in 2089, regarding 'twelve' meaning all things of faith. It is similar with the numbers that now follow. This shows what the nature of the Word is in the internal sense.

[3] The reason 'fifty' means that which is full is that it is the number which comes after seven times seven, or forty-nine, and so marks the completion of the latter number. This explains why in the representative Church the feast of the seven sabbaths ¹ was held on the fiftieth day, and why a jubilee was held in the fiftieth year. Regarding the feast of the seven sabbaths the following is said in Moses,

You shall count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath; from the day you bring the sheaf of the wave-offering, seven sabbaths shall there be complete. Until the day after the seventh sabbath you shall count fifty days, and offer a new gift to Jehovah. Leviticus 23:15-16.

Regarding the jubilee in the same book,

You shall count for yourself seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years, and you shall have a time of seven sabbaths of years, forty-nine years. And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you. Leviticus 25:8, 10.

From this it is evident that 'the fiftieth' means that which marks the full completion of the sabbaths.

[4] What is more, whenever 'fifty' is mentioned in the Word it means that which is full, as in the case of the numbering of the Levites aged thirty years and over up to fifty years of age, Numbers 4:23, 35, 39, 43, 47; 8:25. Here 'fifty' stands for the full or final state of that period of ministerial service. A man found lying with a young woman who was a virgin had to give to the young woman's father fifty pieces of silver, and she had to be his wife; nor could he divorce her, Deuteronomy 22:29. Here 'fifty pieces of silver' stands for a full fine and a full recompense. David's giving to Araunah fifty pieces of silver for the threshing-floor, where he built an altar to Jehovah, 2 Samuel 24:24, stands for a full price and a full payment. Absalom's making ready for himself a chariot and horses, and his having fifty men running before him, 2 Samuel 15:1, and Adonijah's likewise having chariots and horsemen, and fifty men running before him, 1 Kings 1:5, stand for their full dignity and majesty. For these people received from the ancients certain numbers which were representative and carried spiritual meanings and which were observed by them. Those numbers were also commanded in their religious observances, though the majority of the people did not know what was meant by them.

[5] In the same way, because 'fifty' means that which is full and this number was also representative, as has been stated, the same thing is meant in the Lord's parable concerning the steward, who said to the man owing oil,

How much do you owe my master? He said, A hundred baths of oil. Then he said to him, Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty. Luke 16:5-6.

'Fifty' stands for the full discharge of the debt. Being a number it does indeed seem to imply nothing more than a number, when in fact in the internal sense this number is used in every case to mean that which is full, as also in Haggai,

One came to the winevat to draw fifty measures from the winevat, and there were only twenty. Haggai 2:16.

This means that instead of a full amount there was not much. 'Fifty' would not have been mentioned in the prophet if it had not carried this meaning.

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