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.

8505. 'Today you will not find it in the field' means that [then] there will no longer be any acquiring of good through truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'not finding', when it refers to good that is obtained through truth, as no longer acquiring; and from the meaning of 'the field' as a person, at this point a person's mind in which good is implanted through truth. For a person is called a field because he receives the truths of faith, which are the seeds, and brings forth the fruit of the seeds, that is, forms of good.

[2] What this implies will be stated briefly. Before regeneration a person's actions spring from truth; but through that truth good is acquired, for during this time truth becomes good with him when it becomes part of his will and so of his life. But after regeneration his actions spring from good, and through that good truths are gained. To put it more intelligibly, before regeneration a person's actions spring from a spirit of obedience, but after regeneration from affection. The two states are the antithesis of each other; for in the former state truth is dominant, but in the latter good is dominant. Or, in the former state the person looks downwards or backwards, but in the latter upwards or forwards.

[3] When a person has reached the latter state, that is to say, when his actions spring from affection, he is no longer allowed to look back and do good from truth; for now the Lord is flowing into good, and leading him through that good If in this state he were to look back, that is, to do good from truth, his actions would spring from what is his own; for when a person's actions spring from truth he is guided by self, but when they spring from good he is guided by the Lord. These things are what is meant by the Lord's words in Matthew,

When you see the abomination of desolation, let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not return to take his clothes. Matthew 24:15-18.

And in Luke,

On that day, whoever will be on the housetop with his vessels in the house let him not come down to take them away; and whoever is in the field, let him likewise not return to the things behind him. Remember Lot's wife. Luke 17:31-32.

For more about what these words imply, see the explanations in 3652, 5895 (end), 5897, 7923, and below in 8506, 8510.

Such are the things meant in the internal sense by the words stating that the man[na] will not be found in the field on the seventh day and that some of the people went out to gather it but did not find any.