6097. '[Few] and evil have been the days of the years of my life' means that the state of life of the natural has been full of temptations. This is clear from the meaning of 'the days' and 'the years' as states, as above in 6093, 6095; and from the meaning of 'Jacob's life' as spiritual life in the natural, also as above in 6093. Temptations in that state are meant by the statement that the days had been 'evil'. All temptations appear to be evil because they are inner feelings of anxiety and distress, and of seeming damnation. For at such times a person is thrown into a state involving his own evils, as a consequence of which he is in the midst of evil spirits who make accusations and thereby torment his conscience. But the angels still protect him, that is, the Lord does so through the angels. The Lord preserves in him a sense of hope and trust, which are fighting strengths from within that enable him to offer resistance. The natural is particularly subjected to temptations when it is to receive the spiritual, for in it reside evils of life and falsities of doctrine. That is the reason why Jacob says what he does about himself, for here he represents the natural in respect of truth.