893. Verse 13. And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the beginning, on the first of the month, that the waters were dried up from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and saw, and behold, the faces of the ground were dry. “And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year” signifies a last boundary [or ending]; “in the beginning, on the first of the month” signifies a first boundary [or new beginning]; “the waters were dried up from off the earth” signifies that falsities did not then appear; “and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked” signifies on the removal of falsities there was the light of the truths of faith, which he acknowledged and in which he had faith; “and behold the faces of the ground were dry” signifies regeneration. And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year. That this signifies a last boundary, is evident from the signification of the number “six hundred” concerning which in the preceding chapter (Genesis 7:6, and n. 737), as being a beginning, and there indeed the beginning of temptation, its end being here designated by the same number, a whole year having passed, so that what took place was at the end of the year, and therefore it is added, “in the beginning, on the first of the month” by which is signified a first boundary [or new beginning]. Any whole period is designated in the Word as a “day” a “week” a “month” a “year” even though it be a hundred or a thousand years, as the “days” in the first chapter of Genesis, by which are meant periods of the regeneration of the man of the Most Ancient Church; for “day” and “year” in the internal sense signify nothing else than a time, and because they signify a time they signify a state, and therefore in the Word a “year” is continually used with the meaning of a time and a state. As in Isaiah:

To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn (Isaiah 61:2),

where the coming of the Lord is treated of. Again:

For the day of vengeance was in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed had come (Isaiah 63:4),

where also “day” and “year” denote a time and state.

In Habakkuk:

O Jehovah, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known (Habakkuk 3:2),

where “years” denote a time and state.

In David:

Thou art God Himself, and Thy years are not consumed (Psalms 102:27),

where “years” denote times, and it is shown that with God there is no time. So in the passage before us, the year of the flood by no means signifies any particular year, but a time not determined by fixed years, and at the same time a state. (See what has been said before about “years” n. 482, 487, 488, 493)

737. Noah was a son of six hundred years. That this signifies his first state of temptation, is evident, because here and as far as to Ber in the eleventh chapter, numbers and periods of years and names mean nothing else than actual things; just as do also the ages and all the names in the fifth chapter. That “six hundred years” here signify the first state of temptation, is evident from the dominant numbers in six hundred, which are ten, and six, twice multiplied into themselves. A greater or less number from the same factors changes nothing. As regards the number “ten” it has been shown already (at chapter 6,verse 3) that it signifies remains; and that “six” here signifies labor and combat is evident from many passages in the Word. For the case is this: In what has gone before the subject is the preparation of the man called “Noah” for temptation-that he was furnished by the Lord with truths of the understanding and goods of the will. These truths and goods are remains, which are not brought out so as to be recognized until the man is being regenerated. In the case of those who are being regenerated through temptations, the remains in a man are for the angels that are with him, who draw out from them the things wherewith they defend the man against the evil spirits who excite the falsities in him, and thus assail him. As the remains are signified by “ten” and the combats by “six” for this reason the years are said to be “six hundred” in which the dominant numbers are ten, and six, and signify a state of temptation.

[2] As regards the number “six” in particular that it signifies combat is evident from the first chapter of Genesis, where the six days are described in which man was regenerated, before he became celestial, and in which there was continual combat, but on the seventh day, rest. It is for this reason that there are six days of labor and the seventh is the sabbath, which signifies rest. And hence it is that a Hebrew servant served six years, and the seventh year was free (Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12; Jeremiah 34:14); also that six years they sowed the land and gathered in the fruits thereof, but the seventh year omitted to sow it (Exodus 23:10-12), and dealt in like manner with the vineyard; and that in the seventh year was “a sabbath of sabbath unto the land, a sabbath of Jehovah” (Leviticus 25:3-4). As “six” signifies labor and combat, it also signifies the dispersion of falsities, as in Ezekiel: Behold six men came from the way of the upper gate which looketh toward the north, and everyone had his weapon of dispersion in his hand (Ezekiel 9:2);

and again, against Gog:

I will make thee to turn again, and will make thee a sixth, and will cause thee to come up from the sides of the north (Ezekiel 39:2).

Here “six” and “to reduce to a sixth” denote dispersion; the “north” falsities; “Gog” those who derive matters of doctrine from things external, whereby they destroy internal worship.

In Job:

In six troubles He shall deliver thee, yea, in the seventh there shall no evil touch thee (Job 5:19),

meaning the combat of temptations.

[3] But “six” occurs in the Word where it does not signify labor, combat, or the dispersion of falsities, but the holy of faith, because of its relation to “twelve” which signifies faith and all things of faith in one complex; and to “three” which signifies the holy; whence is derived the genuine signification of the number “six;” as in Ezekiel 40:5, where the reed of the man, with which he measured the holy city of Israel, was “six cubits;” and in other places. The reason of this derivation is that the holy of faith is in the combats of temptation, and that the six days of labor and combat look to the holy seventh day.