The number "two" has two different meanings in the Bible. In most cases "two" indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see if we consider the conflicts we tend to have between our "hearts" and our "heads" -- between what we want and what we know. Our "hearts" tell us that we want pie with ice cream for dinner; our "heads" tell us we should have grilled chicken and salad. If we can bring those two together and actually want what's good for us, we'll be pretty happy. We're built that way -- with our emotions balanced against our intellect -- because the Lord is built that way. His essence is love itself, or Divine Love, the source of all caring, emotion and energy. It is expressed as Divine Wisdom, which gives form to that love and puts it to work, and is the source of all knowledge and reasoning. In His case the two aspects are always in conjunction, always in harmony. It's easy also to see how that duality is reflected throughout creation: plants and animals, food and drink, silver and gold. Most importantly, it's reflected in the two genders, with women representing love and men representing wisdom. That's the underlying reason why conjunction in marriage is such a holy thing. So when "two" is used in the Bible to indicate some sort of pairing or unity, it means a joining together. In rare cases, however, "two" is used more purely as a number. In these cases it stands for a profane or unholy state that comes before a holy one. This is because "three" represents a state of holiness and completion (Jesus, for instance, rose from the tomb on the third day), and "two" represents the state just before it.

4283. 'He said, Let me go, for the dawn is coming up' means that the temptation came to an end when the joining together was at hand. This is clear from the meaning of 'letting me go' - that is to say, 'give up wrestling with me' - as the ending of the temptation (for 'wrestling' means temptation, see above in 4274; and the fact that it did come to an end is evident from what follows); and from the meaning of 'the dawn' as the joining of natural good, meant by 'Jacob', to the celestial-spiritual, that is, to the Divine good of truth, also dealt with above in 4275.

[2] The reason why the wrestling began before the dawn came up and why it finished after it came up, and why what happened when the sun had risen is mentioned after that, is that the times of day, like the seasons of the year, mean states, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3785. At present the state of conjunction effected by temptations is meant; for when the joining of the internal man to the external takes place it is 'dawn' to him, because at that time he enters a spiritual or a celestial state. At that time also light like that at dawn is seen by him, if his state is such that he is able to observe it. What is more, the understanding part of his mind receives light and becomes for him like the experience of waking up in the morning from sleep, when dawn first sheds her light and starts off the day.