883. 'The dove returned to him at evening time' means that these started to show themselves a little; and 'evening time' is similar to pre-morning twilight. This in like manner becomes clear from that has been stated already at verse 8, and also from the fact that here it is called 'evening time'. Concerning 'evening', see what has been stated in Genesis 1, where six times the statement is made 'there was evening and there was morning'. 'Evening' is a word that has to do with regeneration and indeed with that state when a person is still in near-darkness, or when there is still only a tiny quantity of light showing itself to him. Morning itself is described in verse 13 below by 'he removed the roof from the ark and saw out'. Because 'evening' meant the pre-morning twilight, mention of the evening is made so many times in the Jewish Church. This also is why sabbaths and festivals began from evening onwards, and why Aaron was commanded to light the sacred lamp 'in the evening', Exodus 27:21.

798. 'From fifteen cubits upwards the waters prevailed and covered the mountains' means that no trace of charity remained; and 'fifteen' means things so few as to be scarcely any at all. This becomes clear from the meaning of the number 'five', dealt with in Chapter 6:15. There it was shown that in the style of the Word, that is, in the internal sense, 'five' means those that are few. And since the number fifteen is the sum of five, which means few, and of ten, which means remnants, as has been shown at 6:3, this number has regard to remnants, which with those people were hardly anything at all. For so great were the persuasions of falsity that they did away with everything good. With regard to the remnants residing with man, the false assumptions, as stated already, and still more the persuasions of falsity, were of such a nature with the people before the Flood that they shut in and shut away remnants so completely that they could not be brought out. And if they had been brought out they would have been falsified in an instant. Indeed the life inherent in persuasions is such that it not only rejects everything true and soaks up everything false, but also perverts any truth that goes near it.