7600. Verses 31-end And the flax and the barley were struck; for the barley was a ripening ear, and the flax a stem. ¹ And the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they were hidden. ² And Moses went out from Pharaoh, from the city, and spread out his palms towards Jehovah; and the voices' and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth. And Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the voices ³ had ceased; and he continued to sin, and made his heart stubborn, he and his servants. And Pharaoh's heart was made unyielding, and he did not send the children of Israel away, as Jehovah had spoken through the hand of Moses.

'And the flax' means the truth of the exterior natural. 'And the barley' means its good. 'Were struck' means that they were destroyed. 'For the barley was a ripening ear, and the flax a stem' means that that good and truth were conspicuous and looked downwards. 'And the wheat and the spelt' means the good of the interior natural and its truth. 'Were not struck' means that they were not destroyed. 'For they were hidden' means because they were not conspicuous and because they turned in an inward direction. 'And Moses went out from Pharaoh, from the city' means a separation from them. 'And spread out his palms towards Jehovah' means intercession. 'And the voices and the hail ceased' means the end of that state. 'And the rain was not poured on the earth' means that those falsities no longer made their appearance. 'And Pharaoh saw' means a discernment. 'That the rain and the hail and the voices had ceased' means that it was the end of that state. 'And he continued to sin' means a departure still further away. 'And made his heart stubborn, he and his servants' means obstinacy. 'And Pharaoh's heart was made unyielding' means that evil was the cause of their obstinate behaviour. 'And he did not send the children of Israel away' means so that they did not leave. 'As Jehovah had spoken' means as accorded with what had been foretold. 'Through the hand of Moses' means by means of the law from God.

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Seven, as in Revelation 15:1, signifies everything in an universal sense. The number 'seven' was considered holy, as is well known, because of the six days of creation, and the seventh, which is the celestial self, where peace, rest, and the Sabbath is. The number seven occurs so frequently in the rites of the Jewish church and is held holy everywhere.

So times were divided into seven, longer and shorter intervals, and were called weeks, like the great intervals of times till the coming of the Messiah, in Daniel 9:24-25. The time of seven years is called 'a week' by Laban and Jacob, as in Genesis 29:27-28. So wherever the number seven occurs, it is considered holy and sacred, as in Psalm 119:164, and in Isaiah 30:26.

As the periods of a person's regeneration are distinguished into six, prior to the seventh, or the celestial self, so the times of vastation are also distinguished, until nothing celestial is left. This was represented by the many captivities of the Jews, and by the last Babylonian captivity, which lasted seven decades, or seventy years. This was also represented by Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 4:16, 22, 29. It also refers to the vastation of the end times, in Revelation 15:1, 7-8. They should 'tread the holy city under foot, forty and two months, or six times seven,' as in Revelation 11:2 and Revelation 5:1. So the severity and increments of punishment were expressed by the number seven, as in Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28 and Psalm 79:12.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 5, 7-8, 15; Arcana Coelestia 395; Daniel 9, 9:24, 9:25; Psalms 119)