4168. 'These twenty years I have been with you' means the proprium. This is clear from the meaning of 'twenty' as the good present in remnants, 2280. But when the term remnants is used in reference to the Lord nothing else is meant than His proprium, 1906. 'Twenty years' means states of the proprium - 'years' meaning states, see 487, 488, 493, 893. In the highest sense the content of Jacob's words addressed to Laban refers to the proprium within the Natural which the Lord acquired to Himself by His own power, in particular to the various states of that proprium.