9. The third state is one of repentance, a state in which he speaks piously and devoutly from the internal man and brings forth goods, like charitable acts which are nevertheless inanimate since he imagines that they originate in himself. They are called a tender plant, then a seed-bearing plant, and finally a fruit tree.

7285. 'And Aaron a son of eighty-three years' means the state and essential nature of the doctrinal teachings. This is clear from the representation of 'Aaron' as the teachings of the Church, dealt with in 6998, 7009, 7089; and from the meaning of the number 'eighty-three' as the state and essential nature, that is to say, of those teachings. But what that state and essential nature are specifically cannot be known unless that number is broken down into the simple numbers from which it is compounded, and these are then applied to the people among whom the doctrinal teachings exist. For more about numbers in the Word, see immediately above in 7284.