574. And I heard the number of them.- This signifies their quality perceived, as is evident from the signification of hearing, as denoting to perceive (see above, n. 14, 529); and from the signification of number, as denoting the quality of the thing treated of, concerning which, see above (n. 429); here, the quality of the falsities of evil that conspire against the truths of good, from which and on behalf of which are the reasonings of the sensual man, which are signified by the number of the armies of the horsemen, spoken of just above. But the quality of these is further described in the next verse in these words: "And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breast-plates fiery, and purple, and sulphurous; and the heads of the horses as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths went forth fire, smoke, and brimstone." These words are expressive of the quality that is here signified by number. Some reference to number appears to be meant here by number, but in the spiritual world numbers do not exist, for spaces and times there are not measured and determined by numbers, as in the natural world, therefore all numbers, in the Word, signify things, and the number itself signifies the quality of the thing treated of, see above (n. 203, 336, 429, 430); and in Heaven and Hell 263).

5689. 'And he said, God be gracious to you, my son' means that the Divine was also present with the spiritual of the celestial, which is the intermediary, because it goes forth from the celestial of the spiritual, which is truth from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'God be gracious - when this is said by the celestial of the spiritual, which is 'Joseph', to the spiritual of the celestial, which is 'Benjamin', and when the latter is also addressed by the former as 'son' - as the Divine presence also with the spiritual of the celestial, which is the intermediary, because this goes forth from the celestial of the spiritual, which is truth from the Divine. For 'Benjamin' is the spiritual of the celestial, see 3969, 4592; he is the intermediary too, 5411, 5413, 5443, 5639.

[2] Since, as stated above, the Lord's inner man was the celestial of the spiritual, and this was truth from the Divine or the clothing next to the Divine Himself within the Lord, and since the spiritual of the celestial, which is the intermediary, went forth from that, it follows that the Divine was also present with this intermediary. What goes forth from something acquires its essential being from that from which it goes forth; but it is clothed with coverings such as serve to enable communication to take place and thereby enable a useful purpose to be realized in a lower sphere. The coverings that clothe it are derived in part from such things as exist in that lower sphere, to the end that the internal from which it goes forth can operate in the lower sphere through the kinds of things present there.

[3] What provides its essential being is so to speak its father, since that essential being is its soul; and what provides its clothing is its mother, for that clothing is the body belonging to this soul. This is why, as stated above, the intermediary must be derived from both if it is to be an intermediary - from the internal as its father and from the external as its mother.