3845. 'Complete this week' means the continuance of the diligent effort. This is clear from the meaning of 'completing' here as serving or completing by serving, and so as meaning diligent effort, dealt with in 3824; and from the meaning of 'a week' as a state and also a whole period, dealt with in 728, 2044, in this case therefore the state and the subsequent period, and so a continuance. What has been said in 3814 about the meaning of 'a month' applies equally to the meaning of 'a week'. When used in the singular 'week' means the end of some previous state and the beginning of the one that follows it, and so a new state; and by the completing of this is meant from its beginning to its end. The reason why 'a week', like every other time-measurement specifically, means a state and also a period of time is that all states also have their own individual periods of the beginning, the continuance, and the end. In the next life however these are not perceived as periods of time but as states and their integral cycles. Here it is quite evident what 'a week' meant to the ancients, namely - in the proper sense - every period that was divided into seven phases, whether it was a period of seven days or of seven years or of seven ages, and so whether it was a long period or a short one. Here it is plainly a period of seven years. And because 'seven' with those people meant that which was holy, see 84-87, 395, 433, 716, 881, 'a week' therefore meant a holy period, and also the holiness of a period.

3814. 'And he dwelt with him for a full month' means a new state of life. This is clear from the meaning of 'dwelling' as life, dealt with in 1293, 3384, 3613, and from the meaning of 'a full month' as a new state. All periods of time mean states, see 1274, 1382, 2625, 2788, 2837, 3254, 3356, 3404, so that years, months, and days mean such. What kind of states are meant however is clear from the numbers attached to them. When however year, month, or day is used in the singular, an entire state is meant, and so the end of the previous state and the beginning of the next, as has also been shown in various places in the explanations. Here therefore 'month' means the end of the previous state and the beginning of the next, and so means a new state, as in other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

At length from month to its month, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh will come to bow down before Me, said Jehovah. Isaiah 66:23.

In John,

He showed me a pure river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that, was the tree of life bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month. Revelation 22:1-2.

'Yielding its fruit each month' stands for a state for ever new as regards the reception of good and the consequent practice of it. In Moses, Count the sons of Levi according to their father's house and according to their families. Every male a month old and over shall you count. Count every firstborn male of the children of Israel, a month old and over, and take the number of their names. Numbers 3:15, 40.

[2] It was because the end of the previous state and the beginning of the next, that is, a new state, was meant by 'a month' that they were ordered to count those who were 'a month old and over'. In the same author,

If you see among captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her so that you would take her to yourself for a wife, she shall remove the clothing of her captivity from upon her, and she shall sit in your house and lament her father and her mother for a full month. After that you shall go in to her and know her, and she shall be your wife. Deuteronomy 21:11, 13.

Here 'a full month' clearly stands for the end of the previous and the beginning of the next or new state.