435. As regards 'the man and his wife' here being used to mean the new Church which earlier on was meant by 'Adah and Zillah', this nobody can know or deduce from the sense of the letter, for previously 'the man (homo) and his wife' meant the Most Ancient Church and its descendants. The point is clear however from the internal sense, and also from the fact that a little further on, in verses 3-4 of the next chapter, reference is again made, though the wording is entirely different, to the man and his wife begetting Seth. At that point the first generation of the descendants of the Most Ancient Church is meant. Unless something different were meant at this point there would be no need to say the same thing again. A parallel to this exists in Chapter 1, where the subject is the creation of man, and also of the fruits of the earth, and of beasts; followed by Chapter 2, where similar events are described, the reason for the similarity being, as has been stated, that Chapter 1 deals with the creation of the spiritual man, Chapter 2 with the creation of the celestial man. When this kind of repetition of one and the same person or thing occurs, something different is meant on the first occasion from the second. But the exact meaning cannot possibly be known except from the internal sense. The actual train of thought in like manner establishes the meaning here. And there is the added consideration that 'man and wife' is a general expression meaning that Church, which is the subject here and from which the new Church was born.

5955. 'And to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver' means that to the intermediary a complete amount of truth from good was imparted. This is clear from the representation of 'Benjamin' as the intermediary, dealt with in 5600, 5631, 5639, 5688, 5822; from the representation of Joseph, the one who 'gave', as internal good, dealt with in 5826, 5827, 5869, 5877; from the meaning of 'three hundred' as a complete amount, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, 2954, 5658. From all this it is evident that 'to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver' means that he imparted to the intermediary a complete amount of truth from good; for the intermediary, represented by 'Benjamin', is interior truth, through an influx into it from the internal celestial, 5600, 5631. The reason why 'three hundred' means a complete amount is that this number is the product of three multiplied by a hundred - 'three' meaning what is complete, 2788, 4495, and 'a hundred' meaning much, 4400. For the meaning held by compound numbers is clear from the simple numbers that are their factors.

[2] 'Three hundred' holds a similar meaning when mentioned elsewhere in the Word, as in Genesis 6:15, where it says that Noah's ark was three hundred cubits long, also in the reference to the three hundred men whom Gideon used to strike a blow at Midian, spoken of in Judges as follows,

The number of those who lapped in their hand to their mouth was three hundred men. Jehovah said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who were lapping I will give Midian into your hand. Gideon divided the three hundred men into three lines of battle, and he put a trumpet into the hand of each one of them, and empty water-pots, and torches in the middle of the water-pots. When they sounded the blast on the three hundred trumpets, Jehovah set the sword of [each] man against his companion and against the whole camp. Judges 7:6-8, 16, 22.

By 'the three hundred men' in this description too a complete amount is meant, and the same is meant by 'three lines of battle' into which the three hundred were divided. And by 'a hundred', the number in each line of battle, is meant much or enough, consequently that there were enough men to stand against Midian. Besides, every detail in this description was representative - the selection of those who lapped the water in their hand; the trumpet given to each man; and the water-pots with the torches inside them. This was so because 'Midian', whom they were opposing, represented truth that was not truth because there was no goodness of life in it. But such details will in the Lord's Divine mercy be explained elsewhere. The fact that numbers too were representative is evident from many other places, for example the number seven in Joshua, when they were going to capture Jericho. The command was given for seven priests to carry seven trumpets of rejoicing in front of the Ark; and on the seventh day they were to go round the city seven times, Joshua 6:4.