448. And I heard the number of them. This symbolizes their character perceived, that it was as described hereafter.

To hear means, symbolically, to perceive. A number symbolizes the character of a thing or a state (nos. 10, 348, 364). It is the character of these people's state as described hereafter because that is what is now described in the following verses, which is why it begins, "And thus I saw."

6183. 'And you are to carry me out of Egypt' means so that there may be a raising up from factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'carrying me' as a raising up (for when people pass from Egypt to the land of Canaan they are said 'to go up , which means a raising up, 3084, 4539, 4969, 5406, 5817, 6007; and the same is meant by 'carrying someone there out of Egypt'); and from the meaning of 'Egypt' as factual knowledge, dealt with already. A brief statement must be made to explain what a raising up from factual knowledge is. The regeneration of the natural is effected by an instilling of spiritual life from the Lord through the internal man into the known facts residing in the natural (this instilling has been the subject in the present chapter). But once a person has been regenerated thus far, and if he is the kind whose regeneration can go further, he is raised up from the exterior to the interior natural, which is subject to the direct control of the internal man. But if he is not that kind of person, his spiritual life exists in the exterior natural. The raising up is effected by a withdrawal from sensory impressions and factual knowledge and so by a raising up above them, and then the person comes into a state of interior thought and affection; thus interiorly he is raised into heaven. People who attain this state are in the internal Church, whereas those who attain only the first state are in the external Church. The latter are represented by 'Jacob', the former by 'Israel'. It was therefore so that Jacob might be Israel, and so that spiritual good present in the interior natural - thus the internal spiritual Church - may thereby be represented by him as Israel, that these words were uttered by Jacob.