6505. 'And forty days were completed for him' means states of preparation through temptations. This is clear from the meaning of the number 'forty' as temptations, dealt with in 730, 862, 2272, 2273; and from the meaning of 'days' as states, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850. The fact that they are states of preparation is meant by the words 'days were completed for him'; for the completion of that number of days allowed preparation to be made so that bodies might be preserved from putrefaction, by which in the spiritual sense is meant the preparation that is made so that souls may be preserved from the corruption of evil. For more about the removal of evils and falsities by means of temptations, and a person's preparation through temptations to receive truths and forms of good, see 868, 1692, 1717, 1740, 2272, 3318, 4341, 4572, 5036, 5356, 6144.

913. 'Let them spread out into the earth' means the action of the internal man into the external, while 'be fruitful' means increases in good, 'and multiply' increases in truth, and 'over the earth' means with the external man. This is clear from the train of thought and also from what has been stated and shown already about the meaning in the Word of 'being fruitful' as having reference to goods, and of 'multiplying' to truths. That 'the earth' means the external man has in like manner been shown already, so there is no need to pause and confirm these points. Here the subject is the action of the internal man into the external after a person has been regenerated. That is to say, when good starts 'to be fruitful' and truth 'to multiply', the external man is rendered correspondent or obedient. Until then this is not possible because the desires of the body are incompatible with goods, and the illusions of the senses with truths. The former annihilate the love of good, the latter the love of truth. The fruitfulness of good and the multiplication of truth take place in the external man - the fruitfulness of good in his affections, the multiplication of truth in his memory. The external man is here called 'the earth' into which mankind spreads out and over which they are fruitful and multiply.