737. 'Noah was a son of six hundred years' means his initial state of temptation. This is clear from the fact from here down to Eber in Chapter 11 nothing else is meant by numbers, years of age, or names than real things, as was the case also with the ages and names of all those mentioned in Chapter 5. Here 'six hundred years' means the initial state of temptation. This becomes clear from its prime factors which are ten and six multiplied again by ten. When the same factors are involved it makes no difference whether the number arrived at is large or small. As for ten, this has been shown already at 6:3 to mean remnants, while the meaning of six here as labour and conflict is clear from places throughout the Word. For the situation is this: What has gone before dealt with man's preparation for temptation, that is to say, he was supplied by the Lord with truths of the understanding and with goods of the will. These truths and goods are remnants, but they are not brought forth so as to be acknowledged until man is being regenerated. In the case of those who are being regenerated by means of temptations the remnants existing with any man are for the angels present with him. From these remnants they draw out those things with which they protect him against the evil spirits who activate falsities with him and in this way attack him. It is because remnants are meant by 'ten' and conflict by 'six' that six hundred years are spoken of, a number in which ten and six are the prime factors and which means a state of temptation.

[2] As regards conflict being the particular meaning of 'six', this is clear from Genesis 1, which describes the six days of man's regeneration prior to his becoming celestial. During those six days there was constant conflict, but on the seventh day came rest. Consequently there are six days of labour, and the seventh is the sabbath, a word which means rest. This also is why a Hebrew slave was to serve for six years and in the seventh was to go free, Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12; Jeremiah 34:14, and why for six years they were to sow the land and gather in the produce, but in the seventh they were to leave it alone, Exodus 23:10-12. The same applied to a vineyard. It is also the reason why in the seventh year the land was to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to Jehovah, Leviticus 25:3-4. Because 'six' means labour and conflict it also means the dispersion of falsity, as in Ezekiel,

Behold, six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, which looks towards the north, every man with a weapon of dispersion in his hand. Ezekiel 9:2.

And in the same prophet, against Gog,

I will cause you to turn about, and I will split you into six, and cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north. Ezekiel 39:2.

Here 'six' and 'splitting into six' stand for dispersion, 'the north' for falsities, and 'Gog' for people who seize on doctrinal matters based on things of an external nature with which they destroy internal worship. From Job,

He will deliver you in six troubles, and in a seventh no evil will touch you. Job 5:19.

This stands for the conflict that constitutes temptations.

[3] 'Six' occurs in other parts of the Word where it does not mean labour, conflict, or the dispersion of falsity, but the holiness of faith. In these instances it is related to twelve, which means faith and all things of faith in their entirety, and to three which means that which is holy. Consequently there is also a genuine derivative meaning to the number six, as in Ezekiel 40:5, where the man's measuring rod with which he measured the holy city of Israel was six cubits long; and in other places. The reason for this derivative is that in the conflict of temptation the holiness of faith is present, and also that six days of labour and conflict look forward to the holy seventh day.

6044. 'And the men are shepherds of the flock' means that they lead to good. This is clear from the meaning of 'shepherds of the flock' as those who lead to good, dealt with in 343, 3795, 5201; for a shepherd or pastor is one who teaches and leads, and the flock one who is taught or led; but in the internal sense truths that lead to good are meant since the sons of Israel, to whom 'the men are shepherds of the flock' refers here, represent spiritual truths, 6040, and also since truths present with those who teach are what do the leading. It has been shown previously that truths, which are the essence of faith, lead to good, which is the essence of charity. This is also evident from the consideration that every single thing is related to an end and has that end in view, and that things which do not have an end in view cannot remain in being. For the Lord has never created anything for any other reason than its end in view. So true is this that one may speak of the end as the all in all created things. And created things exist within this state of order: Even as the end looks from Him who is the First through means to what is last, so the end within what is last looks to the end in Him who is the First. This is the way things link together. By virtue of its very own origin the end itself is nothing else than the Divine Good of Divine Love, thus the Lord Himself, which also is why in the Word He is called the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; 48:12; Revelation 1:8, 11, 17; 2:8; 21:6; 22:13.

[2] This being so, every single aspect of the life a person has looks to an end and has that end in view. Anyone who is at all rational can see that the factual knowledge a person has looks to truths as its end in view, and that truths look to forms of good as their end in view, and that forms of good look to the Lord as their last and first ends in view, their last when motivated by truths, their first when motivated by good. This is how it is with the truths the Church possesses, in that they lead to good, meant by 'the men are shepherds of the flock' and by 'they are keepers of livestock', as in what follows below.