9601. 'And the breadth four cubits' means the marriage of truth to good. This is clear from the meaning of 'the breadth' as truth, dealt with in 1613, 3433, 3434, 4482, 9487; and from the meaning of 'four' as a joining together, dealt with in 1686, 8877, and so a marriage since truth and good joined together is called the heavenly marriage, 2173, 2618, 2728, 2729, 2803. 'Four' means a joining together or a marriage because this number is the product of two multiplied by itself, and 'two' means a joining together, 5194, 8423, multiple numbers being similar in meaning to the simple ones that are their factors, as stated immediately above in 9600. All numbers in the Word mean spiritual realities, see the places referred to in 9488.

917. 'According to their families' means pairs. This is clear from what has been stated already in Chapter 7:2, 3, 15, about them going into the ark 'seven by seven of the clean, and two by two of the unclean', whereas in the present verse it is said that they went out 'according to families'. The reason no reference is made to seven by seven of the clean and two by two of the unclean but to 'families' is that the Lord has now brought all things into such order that they represent families. With a regenerate person goods and truths, that is, the things of charity and those of faith deriving from it, interrelate like blood relatives and relatives through marriage, and so they are like families descended from a single stock or parent, in the way they are in heaven, 685. This is the order which the Lord brings to goods and truths. The express meaning in the present verse is that every single good looks upon its own truth as one joined to it in marriage. And just as in general charity looks to faith, so in every individual part good looks to truth. For unless the general whole is the product of the individual part there is no general whole. It is from the individual parts that the general comes into being, and it is by virtue of that that it is called the general. With every person the situation is as follows: As is the person in general so are the most individual details of his affections and ideas. These are what he is composed of or what make him what he is in general. People therefore who have been regenerated become in the most individual details of their person what they are in general character.