127. Internal Meaning of Ezekiel, Chapter 4

Representation of the perverted church in the church. (2)

1-2 He should represent the falsities of the church, and the church besieged by them. (2)

3 He should represent the hardness of their heart, from which it is that they have no fear; (2)

4-8 he should also represent the church besieged by falsities of evil and evils of falsity. (2)

9-16 He should represent the falsification and adulteration of the sense of the letter of the Word, (2)

17 by which everything of the church has perished. (2, 3)

'Forty' represents completeness because 'four' and 'ten' both mean what is complete. Forty is the product of four and ten. Compound numbers have a meaning similar to the simple numbers which compose them, and all numbers in the Word represent spiritual realities.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 9437; Exodus 24:18)