Like most numbers in the Bible, "six" can have various meanings depending on context, but has a couple that are primary. When used in relation to time -- six days, six hours, six years, etc. -- six generally represents a state of labor, struggle and conflict, especially the conflict involved with spiritual growth. The six days of creation, for instance, represent the stages we go through in our lives, working toward the peaceful seventh day, in which our evil desires are removed from us and we can rest. In most other references, six represents all desires for good and all the true ideas that come from those desires for good -- or in the contrary sense, all evil and all the resulting false thinking.

4761. 'And Reuben returned to the pit' means the Church's faith in general. This is clear from the representation of 'Reuben' as the Church's confession of faith in general, dealt with in 4731, 4734, and from the meaning of 'the pit' as falsities, dealt with in 4728. Consequently the statement that 'Reuben returned to the pit' means that the Church's faith in general came to behold the falsities that belong to faith separated from charity.