2. Before the New Jerusalem and its doctrine are treated of, something shall be said of the New Heaven and the New Earth. What is meant by "the first heaven and the first earth," which passed away, is shown in the small work Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed. Immediately after that event, that is, after the Last Judgment was completed, a New Heaven was created or formed by the Lord. This heaven was formed of all those who, from the coming of the Lord to the present time, had lived the life of faith and charity, since these alone were forms of heaven. For the form of heaven, according to which all consociations and communications therein are effected, is the form of the Divine truth from the Divine good proceeding from the Lord; and this form man as to his spirit acquires by a life according to the Divine truth. That the form of heaven is thence may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 200-212), and that all the angels are forms of heaven (n. 51-58, and 73-77). From these things it may be known, who they are of whom the New Heaven consists; and thereby what its quality is, namely, that it is altogether unanimous. For he who lives the life of faith and charity, loves another as himself, and by love conjoins him to himself, and thus reciprocally and mutually; for in the spiritual world, love is conjunction. Wherefore, when all act thus, then from many, yea from innumerable individuals consociated according to the form of heaven, unanimity exists, and they become as one; for then nothing separates and divides, but everything conjoins and unites.

1059. This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is upon the earth. That this signifies that the indication of the Lord’s presence in charity was not only with the man of the church, but also with the man outside the church, is evident from the signification of “all flesh” as being every man, and consequently the whole human race. That the whole human race is meant, both within the church and without the church, is evident not only from its being said “all flesh” but also from its not being said as before, “every living soul of all flesh;” and this is made still plainer from its being added, “that is upon the earth.” That with those who are outside the church, and are called Gentiles, the Lord is equally present in charity as with those who are within the church, you may see stated above n. 932,1032). He is even more present, for there is not so great a cloud in their intellectual part as there is in general with those who are called Christians. For the Gentiles are ignorant of the Word, nor do they know what the Lord is, consequently not what the truth of faith is; and therefore they cannot be against the Lord and against the truth of faith. Hence their “cloud” is not against the Lord and the truth of faith; and such a cloud may be easily dispersed when they are enlightened. But the cloud of Christians is against the Lord and against the truths of faith, and this cloud is so dense as to be darkness. And when there is hatred in place of charity, then it is thick darkness. Still darker is it with those who profane the truths of faith, which the Gentiles cannot do because they live in ignorance of the truth of faith. No one can profane that of which he does not know the nature or the existence. This is why more of the Gentiles are saved than of Christians, in accordance with what the Lord also said in Luke 13:23, 28-30, besides that their children all belong to the Lord’s kingdom (Matthew 18:10, 14; 19:14; Luke 18:16).

5708. 'Five measures more' means that it was much increased. This is clear from the meaning of 'five' as much, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'measures' as states of truth received from good, dealt with in 3104. As regards 'five', this is a number which can mean little, or else something, or even much. Whatever its specific meaning, this stems from its relationship with the number of which it is a factor, 5291. When it is a factor of ten, much the same as ten, but in a smaller degree, is implied, five being half the number ten. For just as compound numbers have a similar meaning to the simple ones of which they are the product, 5291, 5335, so do divisors have a similar meaning to the compound numbers they divide, as with the relationship of five to ten, also to twenty, as well as to a hundred, a thousand, and so on. 'Ten' means what is full and complete, see 3107, 4638. 'Five measures more' were given to Benjamin than to the rest of his brothers on account of what was meant by this in the spiritual sense. Ten measures could not be given because that amount would have been far too much. The ancients knew from what had been handed down to them from the Most Ancient Church the meanings that certain numbers carried; they therefore used those numbers whenever something cropped up, the meaning of which could be conveyed by those numbers, as is the case with five here. At other times they employed many other numbers, such as three to mean what was complete from start to finish, seven to mean what was holy, or twelve to mean all things in their entirety.