1332. That “a hundred years” signifies the state of that church in general, is evident from what has been stated and shown before concerning numbers and years n. 482, 487, 488, 493, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 893), namely, that they signify times and states. But what and of what quality the states were that are signified by the number “a hundred” years, and by the numbers of years in the following verses of this chapter, it would be tedious to explain; moreover the subject is intricate.

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.