Arcana Coelestia #737
737. 'Noah was a son of six hundred years' means his initial state of temptation. This is clear from the fact from here down to Eber in Chapter 11 nothing else is meant by numbers, years of age, or names than real things, as was the case also with the ages and names of all those mentioned in Chapter 5. Here 'six hundred years' means the initial state of temptation. This becomes clear from its prime factors which are ten and six multiplied again by ten. When the same factors are involved it makes no difference whether the number arrived at is large or small. As for ten, this has been shown already at 6:3 to mean remnants, while the meaning of six here as labour and conflict is clear from places throughout the Word. For the situation is this: What has gone before dealt with man's preparation for temptation, that is to say, he was supplied by the Lord with truths of the understanding and with goods of the will. These truths and goods are remnants, but they are not brought forth so as to be acknowledged until man is being regenerated. In the case of those who are being regenerated by means of temptations the remnants existing with any man are for the angels present with him. From these remnants they draw out those things with which they protect him against the evil spirits who activate falsities with him and in this way attack him. It is because remnants are meant by 'ten' and conflict by 'six' that six hundred years are spoken of, a number in which ten and six are the prime factors and which means a state of temptation.
[2] As regards conflict being the particular meaning of 'six', this is clear from Genesis 1, which describes the six days of man's regeneration prior to his becoming celestial. During those six days there was constant conflict, but on the seventh day came rest. Consequently there are six days of labour, and the seventh is the sabbath, a word which means rest. This also is why a Hebrew slave was to serve for six years and in the seventh was to go free, Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12; Jeremiah 34:14, and why for six years they were to sow the land and gather in the produce, but in the seventh they were to leave it alone, Exodus 23:10-12. The same applied to a vineyard. It is also the reason why in the seventh year the land was to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to Jehovah, Leviticus 25:3-4. Because 'six' means labour and conflict it also means the dispersion of falsity, as in Ezekiel,
Behold, six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, which looks towards the north, every man with a weapon of dispersion in his hand. Ezekiel 9:2.
And in the same prophet, against Gog,
I will cause you to turn about, and I will split you into six, and cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north. Ezekiel 39:2.
Here 'six' and 'splitting into six' stand for dispersion, 'the north' for falsities, and 'Gog' for people who seize on doctrinal matters based on things of an external nature with which they destroy internal worship. From Job,
He will deliver you in six troubles, and in a seventh no evil will touch you. Job 5:19.
This stands for the conflict that constitutes temptations.
[3] 'Six' occurs in other parts of the Word where it does not mean labour, conflict, or the dispersion of falsity, but the holiness of faith. In these instances it is related to twelve, which means faith and all things of faith in their entirety, and to three which means that which is holy. Consequently there is also a genuine derivative meaning to the number six, as in Ezekiel 40:5, where the man's measuring rod with which he measured the holy city of Israel was six cubits long; and in other places. The reason for this derivative is that in the conflict of temptation the holiness of faith is present, and also that six days of labour and conflict look forward to the holy seventh day.
Leviticus 25
1
Yahweh said to Moses in Mount Sinai,
2
"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh.
3
Six years you shall sow your field, and Six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits;
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but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
5
What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.
6
The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you.
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For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.
8
"'You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.
9
Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
10
You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.
11
That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines.
12
For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field.
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"'In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property.
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"'If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
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According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you.
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According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you.
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You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am Yahweh your God.
18
"'Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.
19
The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20
If you said, "What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;"
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then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.
22
You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.
23
"'The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.
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In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
25
"'If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold.
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If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it;
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then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property.
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But if he isn't able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee: and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.
29
"'If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption.
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If it isn't redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee.
31
But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
32
"'Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.
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The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
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But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
35
"'If your brother has become poor, and his hand can't support him among you; then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like an alien and a temporary resident.
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Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you.
37
You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.
38
I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39
"'If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave.
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As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee:
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then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers.
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For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves.
43
You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.
44
"'As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have; of the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.
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Moreover of the children of the aliens who live among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property.
46
You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them may you take your slaves forever: but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.
47
"'If an alien or temporary resident with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger's family;
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after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him;
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or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself.
50
He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him.
51
If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
52
If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption.
53
As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight.
54
If he isn't redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him.
55
For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.
