2866. 'These eight Milkah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother' means a second group of people who are saved. This is clear from the meaning of 'eight' and from the repetition of the statement 'Milkah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother'. Since the eighth day is the first day of the following week 'eight' consequently means something distinct and separate from that which has gone before, see 2044. Here therefore it means a second group. It was for the sake of this meaning that this number was added. The fact that 'Milkah bore them to Nahor, Abraham's brother' means people outside the Church who dwell in a brotherly relationship by virtue of good has been shown above in 2863, 2865. And being the concluding statement it has the same meaning, yet with the addition of the fact that they are saved.

2044. That 'a son eight days old' means any beginning whatever to purification is clear from the meaning of 'the eighth day'. 'A week', which consists of seven days, means the entire period of any state and length of time - of reformation, regeneration, or temptation, either of the individual in particular or of the Church in general. So the expression 'week' is used whether the period is one of a thousand years, or of a hundred, or of ten, or else one of days, hours, or minutes, and so on, as may become clear from the places quoted in Volume One, in 728. And because the eighth day is the first day of the following week it here means any new beginning whatever. From this it is also clear that just as circumcision itself was a representative of purification, so also was the time when it took place, namely the eighth day. Not that the uncircumcised on that day entered a purer state and on that account were made pure. Rather even as 'circumcision' was a sign meaning purification, so 'the eighth day' meant that such purification ought to go on all the time and so always to be taking place as if from a new beginning.