893. Verse 13. And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the beginning, on the first of the month, that the waters were dried up from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and saw, and behold, the faces of the ground were dry. “And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year” signifies a last boundary [or ending]; “in the beginning, on the first of the month” signifies a first boundary [or new beginning]; “the waters were dried up from off the earth” signifies that falsities did not then appear; “and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked” signifies on the removal of falsities there was the light of the truths of faith, which he acknowledged and in which he had faith; “and behold the faces of the ground were dry” signifies regeneration. And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year. That this signifies a last boundary, is evident from the signification of the number “six hundred” concerning which in the preceding chapter (Genesis 7:6, and n. 737), as being a beginning, and there indeed the beginning of temptation, its end being here designated by the same number, a whole year having passed, so that what took place was at the end of the year, and therefore it is added, “in the beginning, on the first of the month” by which is signified a first boundary [or new beginning]. Any whole period is designated in the Word as a “day” a “week” a “month” a “year” even though it be a hundred or a thousand years, as the “days” in the first chapter of Genesis, by which are meant periods of the regeneration of the man of the Most Ancient Church; for “day” and “year” in the internal sense signify nothing else than a time, and because they signify a time they signify a state, and therefore in the Word a “year” is continually used with the meaning of a time and a state. As in Isaiah:

To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn (Isaiah 61:2),

where the coming of the Lord is treated of. Again:

For the day of vengeance was in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed had come (Isaiah 63:4),

where also “day” and “year” denote a time and state.

In Habakkuk:

O Jehovah, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known (Habakkuk 3:2),

where “years” denote a time and state.

In David:

Thou art God Himself, and Thy years are not consumed (Psalms 102:27),

where “years” denote times, and it is shown that with God there is no time. So in the passage before us, the year of the flood by no means signifies any particular year, but a time not determined by fixed years, and at the same time a state. (See what has been said before about “years” n. 482, 487, 488, 493)

493. That by “days” and “years” are signified times and states needs no further explication, except to say that in the world there must needs be times and measures, to which numbers may be applied because they are in the ultimates of nature; but whenever they are applied in the Word, the numbers of the days and years, and also of the measures, have a signification abstractedly from the times and measures, in accordance with the signification of the number; as where it is said that there are six days of labor, and that the seventh is holy, of which above; that the jubilee should be proclaimed every forty-ninth year, and should be celebrated in the fiftieth; that the tribes of Israel were twelve, and the apostles of the Lord the same; that there were seventy elders, and as many disciples of the Lord; and so in many other instances where the numbers have a special signification abstractedly from the things to which they are applied; and when thus abstracted, then it is states that are signified by the numbers.