8421. 'And it shall be on the sixth day' means at the end of each state. This is clear from the meaning of 'day' is state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 7680; and from the meaning of 'the sixth' as the end of a state. The reason why 'the sixth day' means the end of a state is that 'seven days' or 'a week' means a whole period or complete state, 2044, 3845, 6508, and therefore the day before the seventh, which is 'the sixth', means the end of that state, while the day after, which is 'the eighth', means the beginning of the same state, 2044, 8400.

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.