9437. 'And Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights' means the instructions given and influx in their completeness. This is clear from the meaning of 'forty' as completeness. 'Forty' means completeness because 'four' means that which is complete, 9103, as similarly does 'ten', 3107, 4638, and forty is the product of four multiplied by ten. For compound numbers have a meaning similar to the simple numbers of which they are the product, 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973; and all numbers in the Word mean spiritual realities, see 575, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265, 6175. All this goes to explain why Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights. The fact that 'forty' here means the instructions given and the influx in their completeness is evident from Chapters 25-32 which come next, recording the instructions Moses received, that is, instructions regarding the ark, Aaron, the urim and thummim, and sacrifices. The reason why influx in its completeness is also meant is that at that time Moses began to represent the outward holiness of the Word, which acted as the intermediary between the Lord and the people, and mediation is accomplished by means of influx through that holiness into the representative existing among that people, 9419.

[2] It was because 'forty' represented completeness that Moses remained on Mount Sinai forty days and forty nights not only this time but also on another occasion, Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:18, 25; 10:10. For the same reason the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness forty years until, as it says in Numbers 14:33-34; 32:13, all that generation had been consumed; Jonah told the Ninevites that their city would be overturned after forty days, Jonah 3:4; the prophet was commanded to lie on his right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days, Ezekiel 4:6; it says regarding Egypt that it would be made completely desolate for forty years, after which they would be gathered from the peoples, Ezekiel 29:11-13; and the earth was rained on forty days and forty nights, so that it was inundated with the flood, Genesis 7:4, 12, 17. From all this it is evident why the wicked person was to receive forty blows, Deuteronomy 25:3, for 'forty blows' meant the punishment in its completeness. It is also evident what should be understood in the prophecy of Deborah and Barak when it says that no shield or spear was seen among the forty thousand of Israel, Judges 5:8, 'among the forty thousand of Israel' meaning among them all. It is in addition evident why the temple built by Solomon was forty cubits long, 1 Kings 6:17, as was the new temple, according to Ezekiel 41:2; for in the highest sense 'the temple' means the Lord, and in the internal sense heaven and the Church, so that 'forty' means completeness in respect of representation. And it has a like meaning in other places.

1895. 'She had an Egyptian servant-girl' means the affection for knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'a servant-girl' and from the meaning of 'Egypt'. Sarai, who is the mistress or lady, represents and means truth allied to good, as stated already. Truth allied to good is in the genuine sense intellectual truth, but rational truth comes below this and so is inferior. The latter is born from knowledge and cognitions that have been made living by means of an affection corresponding to them. Because this affection is part of the exterior man, it ought to be subservient to intellectual truth, which resides inmostly, in the way that a servant-girl is subservient to her mistress or a maid to the lady of - the house. That affection therefore is what is represented and meant by 'the servant-girl Hagar'.

[2] No one can have much understanding of anything said about these matters until he knows what intellectual truth is in the genuine sense and also in what way the rational is born, namely from the internal man as the father, and from the exterior or natural man as the mother. Unless the two are joined together nothing rational ever comes into being. The rational is not born from knowledge and cognitions, as people suppose, but from the affection for them, as becomes clear merely from the fact that nobody can possibly become rational unless some delight in or affection for such knowledge and cognitions burns within him. The affection constitutes the maternal life itself, while the celestial and spiritual within that affection constitute the paternal life. Consequently it is the degree and the quality of a person's affection that determine the degree and the quality of the rationality that is developed in him. In themselves facts and cognitions are nothing other than things that are dead, or instrumental causes, which are made alive by the life that belongs to affection. This is how everyone's rational man is conceived. The reason why the servant-girl was Egyptian and why that fact is mentioned is that 'Egypt' means knowledge, as has been shown already in 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462,