2348. 'From boy even to old man' means falsities and evils, both recent and confirmed. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'a boy' and of 'an old men' when used in reference to falsities and evils. That is to say, 'boys' means evils and falsities that were not yet fully developed, and so those that were recent, while 'old men' means evils and falsities that had matured, and so that had been confirmed. 'Boy' and 'old man' have a similar meaning when they occur elsewhere in the Word, as in Zechariah,

Old men and old women will again dwell in the streets of Jerusalem. And the streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in the streets. Zechariah 8:4-5.

Here 'Jerusalem' stands for the Lord's kingdom and Church, 402, 2117. 'Streets' stands for truths there, 2336. 'Old men' accordingly stands for confirmed truths, 'old women' for confirmed goods, 'boys playing in the streets' stands for recent truths, 'girls' for recent goods, and for their affections and resulting joys. This shows how celestial and spiritual things are converted into those of a historical nature when they come down into the worldly things that constitute the sense of the letter, in which it seems scarcely otherwise than that old men and boys, [old] women and girls, are meant.

[2] In Jeremiah,

Pour it out upon the small child in the street of Jerusalem and upon the gathering of young men equally; for even man together with woman will be taken, old man together with one full of days. Jeremiah 6:11.

Here 'the street of Jerusalem' stands for falsities which reign within the Church, 2336. Those that are recent and those that are more developed are called 'the small child' and 'young men', those that are well established and those that have been confirmed are called 'old man' and 'one full of days'. In the same prophet,

In you I will scatter the horse and its rider, and in you I will scatter the chariot and him who rides in it; and in you I will scatter men and women, and in you I will scatter old man and boy. Jeremiah 51:21-22.

Here similarly 'old man and boy' stands for truth both confirmed and recent.

[3] In the same prophet,

Death has come up into four] windows; it has entered our palaces, cutting off the small child in the street, and the young men from the lanes. Jeremiah 9:21.

Here 'the small child' stands for truths which are newly born and which are cut off when 'death has entered [our] windows and palaces', that is, things of the understanding and those of the will - 'windows' meaning things of the understanding, see 655, 658 and 'palaces' or houses those of the will, 710.

2089. 'Twelve princes will he beget' means the first and foremost commandments [of faith] inhering in charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'twelve' as all things belonging to faith, and from the meaning of 'princes' as first and foremost features. King and princes are mentioned in various places in the Word, but in the internal sense they nowhere mean king or princes but the first and foremost features of the subject under discussion. That 'kings' means truths taken as a whole has been shown already in 2015, and that 'princes' means the first and foremost aspects of truth, which are commandments, in 1482. For this reason angels, especially spiritual angels, are called principalities, because they are governed by truths. Princes have reference to truths which go with charity because, as stated above in 2088, spiritual people receive charity from the Lord through truths which to them look like truths, and through charity they receive conscience.

[2] Up to now the world has not known that 'twelve' means all things of faith. Yet every time the number twelve occurs in the Word, in historical or in prophetical sections, it has no other meaning. The twelve sons of Jacob, and therefore the twelve tribes named after them, have no other meaning. And the same applies to the Lord's twelve disciples. Each one of Jacob's sons and each of the disciples represented some essential and primary aspect of faith. What each son of Jacob represented, and therefore what each tribe of Israel represented, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on at Genesis 29, 30, where the sons of Jacob are the subject.