AC 1666 - Twelve; AC 1668 - Thirteen; AC 1670 - Fourteen

 AC 1666 [4]

Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer,
and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
(Genesis 14:4)

"Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer,"
means that the evils and falsities
did not appear in childhood,
but that they served the apparent goods and truths;
"and in the thirteenth year they rebelled,"
means the beginning of temptations in childhood.

AC 1668

The thirteenth year is intermediate
between the twelfth and the fourteenth.
. . . The intermediate between
no temptation and temptation is "thirteen."

Evils or evil spirits rebel in proportion
as the person who desires to be in good and truth
confirms in himself any evils and falsities,
that is, in proportion as evil greeds and falsities
insinuate themselves into his goods and truths.
. . . This is so with all who have conscience;
and much more was it the case with the Lord
when a child,
who had perception.
With those who have conscience
there arises therefrom a dull pain;
but with those who have perception, a sharp one,
and the more interior the perception is,
the sharper is the pain.
From this we may see
what was the nature of the Lord's temptation
in comparison with that of all people,
for He had interior and inmost perception.

AC 1670

In the fourteenth year.
(Genesis 14:5)

That this means the first temptation,
may be seen from the meaning of "fourteen,"
or the end of the second week . . .
where the time of seven days or of one week
means the beginning of temptation.
"Fourteen," or the term of two weeks, means the same.