9026. 'And he does not die' means, and it is not wiped out. This is clear from the meaning of 'dying' as ceasing to be such, dealt with in 494, 6587, 6593, and therefore as being wiped out, at this point not being wiped out. Since the internal sense deals here with the agreement of the truths of faith with things stated in the literal sense of the Word, and since things stated in the literal sense of the Word cannot be wiped out, being truths on the lowest level of order, no reference is made here to a man who is struck and as a result dies, only to a man who is struck but does not as a result die. For things stated in the literal sense of the Word can, it is true, be weakened but they cannot be wiped out; and also after they have been weakened they can be separated, and then be restored by the use of explanations. This is what is meant by the regulations regarding a man who, having been struck by a companion, rises up and walks on his staff.

[2] A person who probes into the inner contents of the Word can see that there was some hidden reason - a reason beyond human understanding unless this is enlightened by the light of heaven - why the Lord stipulated that the striker should be guiltless if the one who had been struck rose from his bed and walked outside on his staff; and especially why the Lord stipulated that no vengeance should be taken on someone if he strikes his slave but the slave does not die within a day or two, because he is his silver (in spite of the fact that it is the taking of human being's life, for one who is a slave is still a human being). But the hidden reason why the Lord made these stipulations is not evident except with the aid of the internal sense, in which the Church's truths derived from the Word are the subject. What can happen to these truths is similar, for by a man quarrelling with and striking his companion, and also by a man striking his male or female slave, are meant the kinds of things to which those actions correspond in the spiritual sense, which are being explained here. Among the Israelite nation it was a representative Church that was established, that is, a Church in which the inner realities of heaven and the Church were to be represented by means of outward things. Therefore things were stipulated, indeed commanded, such as would cease to have any validity as laws once the Lord had disclosed and revealed the inner realities of the Church. Since then people have been required to lead an inward life, which is a life of faith and charity, as well as an outward life shaped by inner realities.

493. There is no need to pause too long over the consideration that 'days' and 'years mean periods of time and states. Only this need be stated here, that in the world periods of time and measurements to which numbers may be applied are indispensable, for they belong within the ultimate realms of nature. But whenever such application occurs, the numbers of days and years, and also the numbers applied to measurements, mean something which is completely different from periods of time or from measurements, and which is determined by the meaning of the number used, as in the statements about there being six days for work, and the seventh being holy, which are dealt with above; in the statement about a jubilee having to be announced every forty-ninth year and celebrated in the fiftieth; about the tribes of Israel being twelve, the same number as the Lord's Apostles; and about there being seventy elders, the same number as the Lord's disciples. And there are many other examples where the numbers mean some special characteristic completely different from the persons or objects to which they apply. And when completely separated one from the other the states meant by the numbers are then left.