84. Verses 2-3 And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made, and rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, for on that day He rested from all His work which God had created when making it.

The celestial man is 'the seventh day'; and because throughout the six days it has been the Lord at work, that man is called 'His work'. In addition, because conflict at that point ceases, the Lord is said 'to rest from all His work'. It was for this reason that the seventh day was made holy and was called the Sabbath from a word for 'rest'; and it was in this manner that man was created, formed, and made, as may be seen plainly from the words themselves.

433. 'Cain's being avenged sevenfold' means that it was utterly forbidden to violate separated faith meant by Cain. See what has been shown at verse 15. 'Seventy-sevenfold' means that it was something even more inviolable on account of which condemnation follows the number seven is a holy number is that the seventh day means the celestial man, the celestial Church, the celestial kingdom, and in the highest sense the Lord Himself. Consequently whenever the number seven occurs in the Word it means that which is holy or utterly inviolable. And this holiness or inviolability has reference to, or else is determined by, the subject being dealt with. The same applies to the meaning of the number seventy consisting of seven ages (saecule), ¹ for in the Word an age (saeculum) is a span of ten years. When anything extremely holy or utterly inviolable needed to be expressed people used the phrase 'seventy-sevenfold', as the Lord did, when He said that people were to forgive their brother not seven times but seventy times seven, Matthew 18:21-22. By this He meant that they were to forgive as often as he sinned. Their forgiveness was to know no limits, that is, was to be eternal and timeless, which is holy. In the present instance his being avenged seventy-sevenfold means condemnation, for it was utterly and completely forbidden to violate.

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