10660. 'All that opens the womb is Mine' means that all the good of innocence, charity, and faith is to be ascribed to the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'that which opens the womb' as that which is born from the Lord; for a person is conceived and born from parents in a natural manner, but from the Lord in a spiritual one. This birth from Him is what should be understood in the internal sense by 'that which opens the womb'. If such were not meant what would be the point of the law that the firstborn of cattle were to be Jehovah's, that is, the Lord's? Furthermore the person who is being regenerated is conceived, born, and brought up anew, and in this manner is led away from the evils of the natural condition which he acquired from his parents. The subject here is the firstborn of cattle; but by cattle the forms of good and the truths that reside with a person should be understood. For cattle of every kind correspond to affections such as exist in the human being, as becomes clear from the places referred to in 9280. From these it becomes clear that 'that which opens the womb, which is Jehovah's' means the good of innocence, charity, and faith, which are imparted by the Lord to those who are born anew, that is, who are being regenerated. It is said that these are to be ascribed to the Lord, that is, it should be acknowledged that they come from Him; for unless people acknowledge and believe that they come from the Lord they are not forms of good. All good comes from Him, and what does not come from Him comes from man; and whatever comes from man, though it seems to outward appearance to be good, is nevertheless bad. For the human proprium is nothing but evil, and from what is bad no good can be brought forth.

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)