9569. And thou shalt make the lamps thereof, seven. That this signifies holy spiritual things from it, is evident from the signification of a “lamp,” as being the faith and intelligence of truth, which are from the Lord alone (see n. 9548), thus what is spiritual, for the Divine truth which is from the Lord, and through which are faith, intelligence, and wisdom, is the spiritual; and from the signification of “seven,” as being what is holy (n. 395, 433, 716, 881, 5265, 5268). The lamps were seven in number because the Divine truth, from which are faith, intelligence, and wisdom, is what is called “holy,” for the reason that it proceeds from the Divine good of the Lord’s Divine love; and the Divine good of the Divine love is that which makes holy. It was from this that sanctifications were effected with oil, as the sanctification of the tent, and of all things therein, of the altar, of Aaron and his sons, and of their garments, and afterward of the kings, from which they were called “the anointed;” for “oil” signifies the good of love (n. 886, 3728, 4582, 4638).

5265. The seven good kine are seven years. That this signifies states of the multiplication of truth in the interior natural, is evident from the signification of “kine,” as being in a good sense truths of the interior natural (see n. 5198); and from the signification of “years,” as being states (n. 482, 487, 488, 493, 893). That there were seven is because “seven” signifies what is holy, and hence adds holiness to the subject treated of (n. 395, 433, 716, 881); and it also involves an entire period from beginning to end (see n. 728). Hence it is that seven kine and seven ears of corn were seen in the dream, and afterward that there were seven years of plenty, and seven years of famine. Hence also it is that the seventh day was hallowed, and that in the representative church the seventh year was the sabbatical year, and that after seven times seven years was the jubilee.

[2] That “seven” signifies holy things comes from the signification of numbers in the world of spirits, where every number involves some thing. Numbers, simple and compound, have sometimes appeared to my sight, and once in a long series; and when I wondered what they signified, I was told that they came forth from angelic speech, and that sometimes real things are wont to be expressed by numbers. These numbers do not appear in heaven, but in the world of spirits, where such things are presented to view. This was known to the most ancient people who were celestial men and conversed with angels, and hence they formed an ecclesiastical reckoning by means of numbers, by which they expressed universally the things they expressed particularly by words. But what each number had involved did not remain with their posterity, except only what was signified by the simple numbers, two, three, six, seven, eight, twelve; and derivatively by twenty-four, seventy-two, and seventy-seven-especially that by “seven” was signified what is most holy, in the supreme sense the Divine Itself, and in the representative sense the celestial of love. This is the reason why the state of the celestial man was signified by the “seventh day” (n. 84-87). That numbers signify real things, is obvious from very many numbers in the Word, as from these in Revelation:

Let him that hath intelligence compute the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred and sixty-six (Revelation 13:18).

And again:

The angel measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is of an angel (Revelation 21:17).

The number a hundred and forty-four is from twelve multiplied into itself, and from this comes seventy-two.