8400. 'On the fifteenth day of the second month' means this state considered in relation ... This is clear from the meaning of the number 'fifteen', from the meaning of 'day', and from the meaning of 'month'. 'Month' means the end of the previous state and the beginning of the next, thus a new state, 3814; 'day' means a state in general, 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 7680, and 'the fifteenth' means that which is new. For 'fourteen days' or two weeks mean a whole period or state from the beginning to the end of it, 728, 2044, 3845; 'fifteen' therefore means something new, in this instance newness of life, meant by the manna which they received from heaven, 'manna' being the good of truth, which is the life of a spiritual person. Fifteen is similar in meaning to eight, because the eighth day is the first day of a following week. For the meaning of 'the eighth day' as any beginning whatever, thus something new that is distinct and separate from what has gone before, see 2044, 2866; and for the fact that all numbers in the Word have spiritual realities as their meaning, 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265, 6175.

575. 'The days of man were to be a hundred and twenty years' means that he ought to have remnants of faith. At verses 3, 4 of the previous chapter it was stated that 'days' and 'years' meant periods of time and states, and that the most ancient people meant states and changes in the states of the Church by the numbers which they compounded variously. The exact nature of their computation of things that had to do with the Church is one of those matters that have been lost. Here in like manner numbers of years occur, whose meaning nobody can possibly know unless he knows what is concealed in each of the numbers 1-12, and so on. It is quite apparent that they embody some arcanum or other, for in saying that they would live a hundred and twenty years this verse contradicts those that go before it. Nor subsequently did they live a mere hundred and twenty years, as is clear from what Chapter 11 says about those who lived after the Flood - that Shem lived 500 years after he beget Arpachshad, Arpachshad 407 years after he beget Shelah, Shelah 403 years as well after he beget Eber, and Eber 430 years after he beget Peleg. Chapter 9:28 says that Noah lived 350 years after the Flood; and other examples could be given. What the number 120 embodies however is clear merely from the numbers to and 12, for 120 is the product of 10 times 12. It means remnants of faith. In the Word the number ten has the same meaning as tenths, representing remnants which are preserved by the Lord within the internal man. And since these are the Lord's alone they are holy. The number twelve means faith, that is, all things belonging to faith in their entirety. So this composite number means remnants of faith.