9102. 'He shall repay five oxen for the ox' means the corresponding punishment, carried to a great degree. This is clear from the meaning of 'five' as something, dealt with in 4638, 5291, and also much or a great amount, 5708, 5956; and from the meaning of 'repaying' as amendment, 9087, and as restoration, 9097. The reason why it also means punishment is that when good that has been alienated has to receive amendment, or has to be restored, a person undergoes hard experiences. For either he is abandoned to his evil, thus also to the punishment accompanying evil since evil carries punishment with it, 8214, or he is brought into temptations by means of which evil is tamed and removed, which is the punishment meant here by 'repaying'. It is the corresponding punishment because the evil incurred as punishment and the evil of the wrong-doing correspond, 1857, 6559, 8214.

5708. 'Five measures more' means that it was much increased. This is clear from the meaning of 'five' as much, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'measures' as states of truth received from good, dealt with in 3104. As regards 'five', this is a number which can mean little, or else something, or even much. Whatever its specific meaning, this stems from its relationship with the number of which it is a factor, 5291. When it is a factor of ten, much the same as ten, but in a smaller degree, is implied, five being half the number ten. For just as compound numbers have a similar meaning to the simple ones of which they are the product, 5291, 5335, so do divisors have a similar meaning to the compound numbers they divide, as with the relationship of five to ten, also to twenty, as well as to a hundred, a thousand, and so on. 'Ten' means what is full and complete, see 3107, 4638. 'Five measures more' were given to Benjamin than to the rest of his brothers on account of what was meant by this in the spiritual sense. Ten measures could not be given because that amount would have been far too much. The ancients knew from what had been handed down to them from the Most Ancient Church the meanings that certain numbers carried; they therefore used those numbers whenever something cropped up, the meaning of which could be conveyed by those numbers, as is the case with five here. At other times they employed many other numbers, such as three to mean what was complete from start to finish, seven to mean what was holy, or twelve to mean all things in their entirety.