664. And after three days and a half.- That this signifies when completed, thus the end of the old church, and the beginning of a new church, is evident from the signification of three days and a half, as denoting fulness or completion at the end of the old church, when there is the beginning of a new church, concerning which see above (n. 658). The reason why it is said, after three days and a half, is, that days, in the Word, signify states, here, the last state of the church. For all times, in the Word, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, and ages, signify states in the Word, as in this case, the last state of the church, when there is no longer any good of love or truth of faith remaining. Because days signify states, and since in the first chapter of Genesis the establishment of the Most Ancient Church is treated of which was accomplished successively from one state to another, therefore it is said there that there was evening and there was morning the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and sixth days, unto the seventh, when it was completed (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), and the days there do not mean days, but the successive states of the regeneration of men at that time, and the consequent establishment of the church with them. So also elsewhere in the Word.

781. Verse 16 And those who were going in, male and female of all flesh, went in, as God had commanded him; and Jehovah closed the way behind him.

'Those who were going in' means things residing with the member of the Church. 'Male and female of all flesh went in' means that truths and goods of every kind resided with him. 'As God had commanded' means for the reception of which he had been made ready. 'And Jehovah closed the way behind him' means that man no longer had the kind of communication with heaven that the member of the celestial Church had had.