10624. 'On the third and on the fourth [generations]' means the condemnation of falsities and the evils arising from them. This is clear from the meaning of 'sons' as falsities of evil, dealt with immediately above in 10623. The reason why 'on the third and on the fourth [generations of them]' is added is that 'three' is associated with truths or falsities, and 'four' with forms of good or evils. In the Word all numbers serve to mean real things, some numbers belonging to the spiritual group, others to the celestial group. The numbers three, six, and twelve belong to the spiritual group, while two, four, and eight belong to the celestial. Numbers in the spiritual group are associated with truths or falsities, while those belonging to the celestial are associated with forms of good or evils. 'Three' also means all truth in its entirety, and 'four' all good in its entirety. All this explains why 'the third and fourth [generations]' means falsities and the evils arising from them. But this meaning of those words is their heavenly meaning because it arises out of the association of these numbers with those things. What evils and the falsities arising from them are, and what falsities and the evils from these are, may be seen in the places referred to in 10109. But something must also be stated about them here. Evils are the source from which all falsities arise, because falsities are what serve to justify evils and act in unison with them in a person as will and understanding do, in that what a person wills to do he also wills to understand. For by means of his understanding a person gives shape to his own evil, for himself in what he thinks and for others in what he utters. From this it is evident what evil and the falsity arising from it, or the falsity of evil, are. But the evil of falsity exists when a person, having in his own mind justified some evil and then concluded that it is no evil, goes on to do it. In this case the evil he does arises out of falsity. Take, for example, someone who, having justified adultery as a non-evil to his own satisfaction, goes on to commit it. The evil of falsity exists with him because his commission of it is due to a false assumption. It is in matters of religious belief that the evils of falsity exist primarily; for falsities contained in religious teachings convince a person that something is good when in fact it is bad, and sometimes that something is bad when in fact it is good.