4387. And Esau returned in that day unto his way, unto Seir. That this signifies the state then of the Divine good natural to which the goods of truth were adjoined, is evident from the signification of “day,” as being state (see n. 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462), whence his returning in that day denotes the state which it then put on; from the representation of Esau, as being Divine good natural (see n. 4340); from the signification of “way,” as being truth in the will and act (n. 4337, 4353); and from the signification of “Seir,” as being the conjunction of truth with good (see above,n. 4384); from all which, brought together into one sense, it is evident that by these words is signified the state then of Divine good natural to which the goods of truth were adjoined.

[2] That these things are signified by these words is by no means apparent from their historical sense, but nevertheless these are the things involved in the spiritual or internal sense. For heaven, which is in man, that is, the angels who are with him, care nothing whatever for worldly historicals, neither do they know what Esau was, nor Seir, and neither do they think of the day which Esau returned, nor of the way to Seir; but from the spiritual things which correspond to them they receive ideas, and instantly draw from them such a sense; for this is effected by the correspondences, which are circumstanced almost as when anyone is speaking in a foreign tongue, and his hearer instantly understands the meaning as if from his own; nor is he hindered by the words having a foreign sound and articulation. So is it with the internal sense of the Word, which coincides altogether with the universal language in which the angels are, or with the spiritual speech of their thought. Their speech is spiritual, because their thought is from the light of heaven, which is from the Lord.

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.