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.

4619. 'And was gathered to his peoples' means that it was now among the things which belonged to the Divine Natural. This is clear from the meaning, when representatives are involved, of 'being gathered to his peoples' as its ceasing to be the subject any longer, dealt with in 3255, 3276, and so here that it was now among the things which belonged to the Divine Natural, as also follows from what has been stated immediately above in 4618. The ancients used to say, when anyone died, that he was gathered to his peoples; and when they said this they meant in the proximate sense that he was among his own in the next life. For every human being while living in the body is in company with spirits and angels as to his spirit, and also comes among the same after death, 1277, 2379. This was what they meant by 'the peoples' to whom he was gathered. But in the internal sense of the Word, where the goods and truths of the Church, or the Lord's kingdom, are the subject, 'being gathered to one's peoples' means being among truths and goods which accord or correspond. Truths and goods exist with all heavenly communities, but because truths and goods there are interrelated as in blood relationships and relationships by marriage on earth, with every variation involved in these, 685, 917, 3815, 4121, 'his peoples' therefore means the truths which govern concordant communities, that is, communities which abide in those truths. As regards 'peoples' meaning truths, see 1259, 1260, 2928, 3295, 3581.