6582. 'Joseph lived a hundred and ten years' means its state and essential nature. This is clear from the meaning of numbers in the Word as real things, dealt with in 575, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 5265, 6175; in particular the state and essential nature of a real thing is meant, 4670. Thus it is also with the number one hundred and ten, which contains the idea of the state and essential nature of the life of factual knowledge from the internal.

3252. 'A hundred and seventy-five years' means the things constituting that state. This becomes clear from the fact that every number used in the Word means some real thing, see 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, and so with this particular number which consequently means the things which constitute the state that is the subject here. As long as the mind confines itself to the historical sense it seems as though numbers, such as these ¹ which give Abraham's age, do not hold any interior meaning within them. The fact that they do nevertheless hold such meaning within them is evident from all that has been shown already concerning numbers, and becomes clear from the consideration that no number as to its numerical value contains anything holy, and yet the smallest detail of all in the Word is holy.

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