Spiritual Meaning of

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As regards the number six in particular that it signifies combat is evident from the first chapter of Genesis, where the six days are described in which man was regenerated, before he became celestial, and in which there was continual combat, but on the seventh day, rest. It is for this reason that there are six days of labor and the seventh is the sabbath, which signifies rest. And hence it is that a Hebrew servant served six years, and the seventh year was free (Exod. 21:2; Deut. 15:12; Jer. 34:14); also that six years they sowed the land and gathered in the fruits thereof, but the seventh year omitted to sow it (Exod. 23:10-12), and dealt in like manner with the vineyard; and that in the seventh year was a sabbath of sabbath unto the land, a sabbath of Jehovah (Lev. 25:3, 4). As six signifies labor and combat, it also signifies the dispersion of falsities, as in Ezekiel:--Behold six men came from the way of the upper gate which looketh toward the north, and every one had his weapon of dispersion in his hand (Ezekiel 9:2); and again, against Gog:--

Here six and to reduce to a sixth, denote dispersion; the north, falsities; Gog, those who derive matters of doctrine from things external, whereby they destroy internal worship. In Job:--

meaning the combat of temptations.

[3] But six occurs in the Word where it does not signify labor, combat, or the dispersion of falsities, but the holy of faith, because of its relation to twelve, which signifies faith and all things of faith in one complex; and to three, which signifies the holy; whence is derived the genuine signification of the number six; as in (Ezekiel 40:5), where the reed of the man, with which he measured the holy city of Israel, was six cubits; and in other places. The reason of this derivation is that the holy of faith is in the combats of temptation, and that the six days of labor and combat look to the holy seventh day.

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