'Forty' represents completeness because 'four' and 'ten' both mean what is complete. Forty is the product of four and ten. Compound numbers have a meaning similar to the simple numbers which compose them, and all numbers in the Word represent spiritual realities.

(Референци: Arcana Coelestia 9437; Exodus 24:18)

4785. 'For I will go down to my son, to the grave mourning' means that the Ancient Church was perishing. This is clear from the representation of Jacob - who says this about himself - as the Ancient Church, dealt with above in 4680, 4700, 4772; from the representation of Joseph, to whom 'my son' refers here, as the Divine Spiritual or Divine Truth, dealt with above; and from the meaning of 'going down to the grave mourning' as dying, and in reference to the Church, and also to Divine Truth, as perishing.