1856. That 'in the fourth generation they will return from here' means the period of time and the state of restoration is clear from the meaning of 'fourth generation'. 'Fourth generation' has the same meaning as forty and four hundred - namely the duration and the state of temptation, dealt with above at verse 13 - for four is a kind of diminutive of each of those numbers. Any number, whether large or small, provided it is a multiple of the same quantity, embodies the same meaning, as stated frequently already. That 'the fourth generation' does not mean any generation descended from Abram, or from Isaac, or from Jacob, is clear from the historical sections of the Word; for there were more than four generations, and these were very different from their fathers when they returned. 'The fourth generation' occurs again in other places, but in the internal sense it never means a generation. Here it means the period of time and the state of restoration because it means the conclusion of those things meant by forty and four hundred - see 862, 1847.