is that the Word is spiritual, and therefore each and all things therein contained are spiritual; and spiritual things are not numbered and measured, and yet they fall into numbers and measures as they descend out of the spiritual world, or out of heaven where angels are into the natural world or the earth where men are. And in like manner when they descend out of the spiritual sense of the Word, in which the angels are, into the natural sense of the Word in which men are. (The natural sense of the Word is the sense of its letter.) This is the reason why there are numbers in this sense, and why they signify things spiritual, or such things as relate to heaven and the church. That the spiritual things of heaven, and such things also as angels think and say, fall into numbers has been often shown to me. When they have been talking with each other their conversation has been determined into mere numbers, which were seen upon paper; and they afterwards said it was their conversation determined into numbers, and that those numbers contained in a series all that they had said. I was also told what they signified, and how they were to be understood.
There are simple numbers which are significative above others, and from which the greater numbers derive their significations; namely, the numbers two, three, five, and seven. The number two signifies union, and is predicated of good; the number three signifies full, and is predicated of truths; the number five signifies much and some; and the number seven signifies what is holy. From the number two arise the numbers 4, 8, 16, 400, 800, 1600, 4000, 8000, 16,000; which numbers have a similar signification to that of the number two, because they arise from the simple number multiplied into itself, and by multiplication by 10. From the number three arise 6, 12, 24, 72, 144, 1440, 144,000; which numbers also have a similar signification to that of the number three, because they arise from this simple number by multiplication. From the number five arise 10, 50, 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000; which numbers also have a similar signification to that of the number five, because they arise from it by multiplication. From the number seven arise 14, 70, 700, 7000, 70,000; which numbers have a similar signification too with seven, because they arise out of it. Since the number three signifies full, and full denotes all, from this the number twelve derives its signification of all things and all persons. It is predicated of truths from good; because it arises out of 3 multiplied into 4, and the number 3 is predicated of truths, and 4 of good, as was said above. He who does not know that the number twelve signifies all things, and that the numbers multiplied from it have a similar signification; and who does not know that each tribe signifies some universal and essential of
