Years signify states. In Gen. 41:47, 48, 53, the years of plenty are states of the multiplication of truth in the natural principle. The years of famine, though, are states of defect and privation of truth in the natural principle.

In general, the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine in the land of Egypt, in the internal sense describe the states of man's reformation and regeneration, and in the supreme sense the states of the glorification of the Lord's human. To the intent that these things might be represented, such things came to pass in the land of Egypt, which represents natural or scientific knowledge.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 5275)