10217. 'As they have been numbered' means as they have been arranged and set in order. This is clear from the meaning of 'numbering' - when it refers to all things of the Church, which are truths and forms of the good of faith and love - as an arrangement and setting of them in order, so that 'those who have been numbered' means the things which have been arranged and set in order. 'Numbering' has this meaning because numbering implies reviewing, and that which the Lord reviews is also arranged and set in order by Him. Furthermore the word used here to express the idea of numbering means in the original language reviewing, counting up, taking note of, and also visiting, giving orders, and taking control of, thus arranging and setting in order. That word has these meanings because in the spiritual sense each of these activities implies the next, and the spiritual sense consists in that inner meaning which the words of languages, especially eastern ones, frequently possess.

[2] The fact that in the spiritual sense, in which truths and forms of the good of faith and love are the subject, 'numbering' means arranging and setting in order is also clear from places in the Word in which the verb 'numbering' or else the noun 'number' is used, as in Isaiah,

The noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Jehovah Zebaoth is numbering (arranging in order) an army of war. Isaiah 13:4.

In the same prophet,

Lift up your eyes on high and see; who created these? He who brought out their host by number; He calls them all by name. From the multitude of the powerful and of the mighty not a man is lacking in strength. Isaiah 40:26.

In David,

Jehovah who counts the number ¹ of the stars gives names to them all. Psalms 147:4.

In these places it is self-evident that 'numbering' means arranging and setting in order, for they refer to Jehovah, that is, the Lord, who does not number any army or count the stars, but arranges and sets such things in order as are meant by 'an army' and 'the stars', namely truths and forms of the good of faith and love. For the subject is not wars in the natural world but wars in the spiritual world, which are the wars or conflicts of truths springing from good against falsities arising from evil.

'Wars' in the spiritual sense are those kinds of conflicts, see 1664, 2686, 8273, 8295.

'An army' is the truths and forms of good belonging to the Church and heaven, 7988, 8019.

'The stars' are cognitions or knowledge of truth and good, 2495, 2849, 4697.

[3] Once it is known what 'numbering' and 'the children of Israel' mean it may be seen why it was that David was not allowed to number the people, and why after he had numbered them the prophet Gad was sent to him to intimate a punishment, 2 Samuel 24:1-15, and why here [in Exodus 30:12] it says that each one should make expiation for his soul, that there may be no plague among them when they are numbered. By 'the children of Israel' the Church's truths and forms of good are meant, and by 'numbering' arranging and setting in order is meant. The arranging and setting in order of the truths and forms of the good of faith and love that are present with each person in the Church and in heaven belongs to the Lord alone. Consequently when such numbering is done by man, as was done by David through Joab, an arranging and setting in order of those things by man, and not by the Lord, is meant; and this is not an arranging or setting in order but a destruction. If the numbering of the children of Israel had not held such things within it, no sin or guilt at all would have been attached to their being numbered.

[4] By 'the children of Israel' spiritual truths and forms of good, which are the Church's and heaven's truths and forms of good, are meant, see 5414, 5801, 5803, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833, 5879, 5951, 7957, 8234, 8805.

Much the same is meant by 'the tribes' into which the children of Israel were divided, 3858, 3926, 4060, 6335, 6397.

Since such things are meant by 'the children of Israel' and 'the tribes' and those things are countless, the Word states regarding them,

Their number will be as the sand of the sea, which will not be measured nor numbered. Hosea 1:10.

Who will number the dust of Jacob and the number of Israel? Numbers 23:10.

Jehovah said to Abraham,

I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, so also will it be that your seed may be numbered. Genesis 13:16; 16:10.

And elsewhere,

Look towards heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them. So will your seed be. Genesis 15:5.

The expressions 'the children of Israel' and 'the seed of Abraham' were not used to mean his descendants but spiritual truths and forms of good, which are countless and also for the most part beyond description. This becomes clear from the consideration that they were no greater in number than any other nation, as also Moses bore witness,

Jehovah has desired you, that He might choose you, not because you are more in number than all peoples; indeed you are fewer than all peoples. Deuteronomy 7:7.

[5] 'Numbering' again means arranging and setting in order in Jeremiah,

In the cities of Jerusalem and Judah flocks will again pass under the hands of him who numbers them. Jeremiah 33:13.

By 'flocks' too the Church's forms of good and its truths are meant, 6048, 8937, 9135, while 'under the hands of him who numbers them' means according to the order set by the Lord. In David,

Who knows the strength of Your anger? Teach us ² to number our days, that we may gain ³ a heart of wisdom. Psalms 90:11-12.

'Numbering days' stands for arranging and setting states of life in order; and days are said to be numbered after they have been arranged and set in order, thus when they are finished, as in Isaiah,

Through the cutting off of my days ⁴ I shall go away to the gates of hell; I am numbered [as to] ⁵ the residue of my years. Isaiah 38:10.

And in Daniel,

The writing appeared before Belshazzar the king, Numbered, weighed, and divided. Daniel 5:25.

When 'numbering' means arranging and setting in order, 'numbered' means what is brought to a conclusion, as when a line is drawn under a list of figures at the end of a calculation.

[6] 'Numbering' means arranging and setting in order because 'number' means the specific quality of some reality or some state, and that quality is defined by the number attached to it. Consequently numbering something means bringing specific quality to it, and specific quality is brought to spiritual realities through their being arranged and set in order by the Lord. This is what 'the number' means in John,

He causes all to receive ⁶ a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and no one to be able to buy or sell except him who has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of its name. Here ⁷ is wisdom. Let him who has intelligence reckon the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man (homo), that is, its number is six hundred and sixty-six. Revelation 13:16-18.

[7] This chapter deals with the beast from the sea and the beast from the land. 'The beast from the sea' means the Church's truth falsified by factual knowledge derived from the world, and 'the beast from the land' means the Church's truth falsified by the use of the literal sense of the Word to support the evils of self-love and love of the world. For 'the land' means the Church in respect of its goodness and truth, see the places referred to in 9325; and 'the sea' means factual knowledge in general, 28, 2120, 2850. 'Having its mark on the hand and on the forehead' means accepting and loving those falsities; 'having its name' or 'the number of its name' means accepting all things, irrespective of what they are like. For 'the forehead' means the love, 9936, and 'name' the whole nature of the one who is the subject, 3006, 3421, 6674, 8274, 9310.

[8] 'Reckoning the number of the beast' means examining and becoming acquainted with those falsified truths of the Church. 'The number of a man' means the reality that is the Church and the state of that Church; 'six hundred and sixty-six' means its specific quality so far as all its falsified truths and falsities arising from evil in their entirety are concerned, also its profanation of what is holy, and its end as well. Being acquainted with them and examining them is an attribute of one who possesses wisdom and understanding, and that is why it says, 'Here ⁷ is wisdom. Let him who has intelligence reckon its number'. For the number 'six' has the same meaning as the number 'twelve', since it is a half of it, 3960(end), 7973, 8148; and 'twelve' means all the truths and forms of good the Church possesses in their entirety, 2129(end), 2130(end), 3272, 3858, 3913, 7973, and therefore also in the contrary sense all falsities and evils in their entirety. The tripling of the digit 'six' also implies the end, and the end comes when truth has been made altogether profane.

[9] From all this it is plainly evident that numbers in the Word have to do with different realities and states, each serving to mean a specific quality that accords with its numerical value, as also in these words John,

The angel measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man (homo), that is, of an angel. Revelation 21:17.

The numerical value here serves to mean all truths springing from good in their entirety; for 'a hundred and forty-four' has the same meaning as 'twelve', 7973, being the product of twelve multiplied by itself. Therefore also it says in this verse that the measure of it is 'the measure of a man', just as in the verses explained above it says that the number given there is 'the number of a man'. But since truths springing from good are meant in this verse it states in addition that that measure is the measure 'of an angel'; for in the Word 'an angel' means truths springing from good, an angel being a recipient of Divine Truth from the Lord, 8192.

Footnotes:

8995. 'If she is bad in the eyes of her master' means if the affection for truth springing from natural delight is not in agreement with spiritual truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'female slave', to whom the word 'bad' refers, as an affection springing from natural delight, dealt with in 8993, 8994, and from the meaning of 'bad', when it refers to that affection and its relationship with spiritual truth, as being not in agreement with, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'in the eyes of' as in the perception of, dealt with in 2789, 2829, 4083, 4339; and from the meaning of 'master' as spiritual truth, dealt with in 8981.

[2] The implications of all this must be stated. 'A female slave' is an affection for truth springing from the delights that belong to self-love and love of the world, as stated above in 8993, 8994; and this affection is able to be joined to spiritual truth. This may be recognized from the consideration that an affection for spiritual truth is an internal affection or one that resides in the internal man, whereas an affection for truth springing from natural delight resides in the external man. The internal affection that belongs to the spiritual man is joined unceasingly to the external affection that belongs to the natural man, yet in such a way that the internal affection for truth acts as master and the external affection as slave. For it is in keeping with Divine order that the spiritual man should be master over the natural man, 8961, 8967. When the spiritual man is master the person is looking upwards; this is represented by having the head in heaven. But when the natural man is master the person is looking downwards, which is represented by having the head in hell.

[3] To make this transparently clear something more must be stated. By the truths they learn and the good deeds they perform most people hope to acquire some gain from their country, or some important position. If these are regarded as the end in view, the natural man is the master and the spiritual man the slave. But if they are regarded not as the end, only as the means to the end, the spiritual man is the master and the natural man the slave, as accords exactly with the things stated in 7819, 7820. For when people consider gain or position as the means to an end and not the end itself, they are not considering gain or position but the end, which is useful service. A person for example who desires wealth, and acquires it for the sake of useful service which he loves above all things, does not delight in wealth for its own sake; he delights in it for the sake of useful service. The spirit of useful service itself constitutes spiritual life in a person, and the wealth merely serves him as means, see 6933-6938. From this one may also see what the natural man must be like if it is to be joined to the spiritual - it must regard gain and important positions, that is, wealth and eminence, as the means and not the end. What a person regards as the end constitutes the actual life within him, since he loves it more than all things. For what a person loves, that is his end in view.

[4] Anyone who does not know that a person's end in view, or what amounts to the same thing, his love, constitutes the person's spiritual life, consequently that a person is where his love is - in heaven if that love is heavenly, in hell if it is hellish - cannot grasp the situation in these matters. He may suppose that the delight belonging to natural kinds of love - self-love and love of the world - cannot be in agreement with spiritual truth and good. He may suppose this because he does not know that when a person is being regenerated he must be turned upside down, and that when he has been turned upside down he is positioned with his head in heaven, whereas before being turned upside down he was positioned with his head in hell. He was positioned with it in hell when he had the delights of self-love or love of the world as his end in view; but he is positioned with his head in heaven when he has those delights as the means to his end. For the person's end or love, and this alone, has life. The means to the end however have no life of their own but receive life from the end; therefore the means in relation to the final end are called intermediate ends, which have life in the measure that they look to the final end, which is the chief one. So it is that, when a person has been regenerated, consequently when he has loving the neighbour and loving the Lord as his end, he has loving self and the world as the means. When a person is like this, when he looks to the Lord, he rates himself and also the world as nothing. If he does rate himself as something, it is in order that he may be able to serve the Lord. Before this however his attitude had been the opposite. Then he had been full of self-regard and had rated the Lord as nothing; or if had rated Him as something, it had been in order that gain or position might consequently come his way.

[5] All this makes clear the nature of the arcanum concealed in these regulations regarding female slaves from among the daughters of Israel, that is to say, the regulations that although they were slaves they were, if 'good', betrothed to their master who had bought them, or to his son; but if they were 'bad' they were not betrothed but either redeemed or sold, according to the contents of these verses. Betrothing even female slaves, or having them as concubines, was permitted in the representative Church, particularly in the Jewish and Israelite, because a wife represented the affection for spiritual truth, whereas a female slave represented the affection for natural truth, so that a wife represented the internal aspect of the Church with a person, but a female slave the external aspect. The latter was represented by Hagar who was betrothed to Abraham, and also by the two female slaves betrothed to Jacob.

[6] All this now shows what is meant in the internal representative sense by the regulation that 'if she is bad' a female slave cannot be betrothed. That is to say, 'if she is bad' means if the affection springing from natural delight - 'a female slave' - is not in agreement with the spiritual man. This lack of agreement is brought about primarily because that affection wishes to be the master and is of a disposition and mind that cannot be bent towards a love of the Lord. Furthermore the agreement or disagreement of the affection springing from natural delight with the spiritual is determined by the essential nature of them both; but a division of them into their numerous categories would be too long and tedious. A female slave or servant-girl may also mean an affirmative means that serves to join together the external man and the internal man, see 3913, 3917, 3931.