487. 'Days means periods of time and states in general. This has been shown in Chapter 1, where the 'days of creation' have no other meaning. In the Word it is very common for a whole period of time to be called 'a day', as it clearly is in the present verse and in verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 31, below; and therefore the states that belong to periods of time in general are meant by 'days' as well. And when 'years' is attached, then periods of years mean the natures of those states, and so the states in particular.

[2] The most ancient people had their own particular numbers which they would use to mean different aspects of the Church - for instance, the numbers three, seven, ten, twelve, and many which they obtained from these and other numbers - and in so doing incorporated states of the Church. These numbers therefore contain arcana that would require considerable effort to unravel. Really a number was an evaluation of the states of the Church. The same feature occurs throughout the Word, especially in the prophetical. And the religious ceremonies of the Jewish Church also entail numbers specifying periods of time as well as quantities; for example, in connection with sacrifices, minchahs, oblations, and other practices, which in every case have special reference to holy things. Consequently eight hundred in this verse, nine hundred and thirty in the next, and the numbers of years mentioned in the verses that follow after that, embody in particular more matters than can possibly be retold; matters, that is to say, which have to do with changes in the state of their Church in relationship to their own general state. Later on, in the Lord's Divine mercy, the meaning of the simple numbers up to twelve will be given, for without knowing these first of all no one can grasp what compound numbers mean.

1877. Those souls or spirits - especially evil ones - who are in the world of spirits retain to begin with the things which they had during their lifetime, that is, things that are earthly, bodily, and worldly, and together with these whatever assumptions they have adopted. Among these spirits are those who do not wish to hear anything about the internal sense of the Word, but only about the literal sense. Indeed they go so far as to believe that the twelve apostles are to sit on twelve thrones and to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. They believe too that none but the poor, the wretched, and those who have suffered persecution can enter heaven, when in fact both the wealthy and the powerful who have led lives of charity and faith in the Lord have their place in heaven. Since such spirits claim that heaven is theirs because they deserve it by their merits, I have seen them running this way and that, and whichever way they go they laugh scornfully at the things which belong to the internal sense of the Word, because these things are contrary to their persuasions and desires, in that they wish to merit heaven and to be placed above all others. But they are like the corrupt and harmful things which enter into the bloodstream, pass through the veins and arteries, and contaminate most of the blood.