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.

5413. 'For he said, Perhaps harm may come to him' means that without the celestial of the spiritual, which is 'Joseph', that intermediary will perish. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming to harm' here as perishing. These words were spoken by Benjamin's father because he loved him and was afraid that he would perish among his brothers, as Joseph had done. But they have been quoted and incorporated into the Word because of the internal sense, which is that if the intermediary is present with external things alone without the internal it will perish, the intermediary being 'Benjamin', the external things 'the sons of Jacob', and the internal 'Joseph'. Indeed the intermediary perishes whenever it exists with external things alone without the internal, for the situation with the intermediary is this: It derives its being from what is internal and is therefore also kept in being from there; for it is brought into being when the internal beholds the external, when the affection and intention exists there to link that external to itself. Accordingly what is intermediate exists joined to the internal; and extending from the internal it is joined to the external, but not to the external without the internal. From this it is evident that if the intermediary is present with the external alone it will perish. What is more, it is a law common both to things in the spiritual world and to those in the natural world that anything prior can remain in being with what is prior to that, but not with what is posterior without what is prior to it. If it exists solely with what is posterior it will perish. The reason for this is that everything unconnected to something prior to itself is unconnected to Him who is the First, the Source of all that comes into being and is kept in being.