45. This was how people who lived in most ancient times envisaged matters of the understanding and those of the will. Among the Prophets therefore, and consistently throughout the Old Testament Word, like matters are represented by various kinds of living creatures. There are two kinds of beasts - evil ones, because they are harmful, and good ones, because they are gentle. Evil [and harmful] things in man were meant by such beasts as bears, wolves, and dogs, while good and gentle things were meant by beasts such as calves, sheep, and lambs. As the subject here is those persons who are to be regenerated, 'the beasts' are good and gentle ones, which mean affections. Things of a baser nature that derive from the body are called 'wild animals of the earth'. These are desires and pleasures.

6174. 'Seventeen years' means the state there. This is clear from the meaning of 'seventeen' as from beginning to end, or from the beginning to something new, dealt with in 755, 4670 (end); and from the meaning of 'years' as states, dealt with in 487, 488, 493, 893, so that here 'seventeen years in which Jacob lived in Egypt' means the beginning of the state of spiritual life in the natural among known facts even to the end of that state. For all numbers in the Word serve to denote spiritual realities, see 575, 647, 648, 755, 817, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265.