257. Since in this prophetical book numbers are often mentioned, and no one can know the spiritual sense of the things contained therein unless it is known what the particular numbers signify (for all numbers in the Word, like all names, signify spiritual things), and since the number "seven" is often mentioned among others, I will here show that "seven" signifies all persons and all things, likewise fullness and totality; for that which signifies all persons and all things signifies also fullness and totality, for fullness and totality are predicated of the magnitude of a thing, and all persons and all things are predicated of multitude. That "seven" has such a signification can be seen from the following passages. In Ezekiel:

They that dwell in the cities of Israel shall set fire to and burn the arms, and the shield, and the buckler, with the bow and with the arrows, and the hand-staff, and the spear; and they shall make a fire with them seven years. And they shall bury Gog and all his multitude, and they shall cleanse the earth seven months (Ezekiel 39:9, 11-12).

Here the desolation of all things in the church is treated of: "those that dwell in the cities of Israel" signify all goods of truth; "to set fire" signifies to consume by evils. "The arms, the shield, the buckler, the bow, the arrows, the hand-staff, the spear," are all things pertaining to doctrine; "to make a fire with them seven years" means to consume them all and fully by evils. "Gog" signifies those who are in external worship and in no internal worship; "to bury them and cleanse the earth" means to destroy all such, and completely purge the church of them.

[2] In Jeremiah:

The widows shall be multiplied more than the sand of the seas, and I will bring to them upon the mother of the youths the waster at noonday. She that hath borne seven shall languish, she shall breathe out her soul (Jeremiah 15:8-9).

"The widows," that shall be multiplied, signify those who are in good and who long for truths, and in a contrary sense, as here, those who are in evil and desire falsities; "the mother of the youths" signifies the church; "the waster at noonday" signifies the vastation of that church, however much it may be in truths from the Word; "she that hath borne seven shall languish, she shall breathe out her soul," signifies that the church, to which all truths were given because the Word was given to it, is to perish; for "she that hath borne seven" signifies to whom all truths were given. This was particularly said of the Jews.

[3] Likewise in the first book of Samuel:

They that were hungry have ceased; the barren hath borne seven, and she that hath many children hath failed (1 Samuel 2:5).

"They that were hungry," who have ceased, are those who long for the truths and goods of the church; "the barren bearing seven" signifies those who are outside of the church, and are ignorant of truths, because they have not the Word, thus the Gentiles, to whom all things will be given; "she that hath many children failing" signifies those who have, from whom will be taken away. In David:

Render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom (Psalms 79:12).

And in Moses:

That the Jews should be punished seven times for their sins (Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28);

"seven times" here signifying fully.

[4] In Luke:

If thy brother sin against thee seven times in the day, and seven times in the day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him (Luke 17:4).

"To forgive seven times, if he should turn again seven times," means to forgive as often as he turns, thus every time. But lest it should be understood to mean seven times, the Lord explained his meaning to Peter, who supposed seven times to be meant, in Matthew:

Peter said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Until seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22).

"Seventy times seven" means always, without counting.

In David:

Seven times a day do I praise thee for the judgments of righteousness (Psalms 119:164).

"Seven times a day" means always, or at all times.

[5] In the same:

The sayings of Jehovah are pure sayings, as silver refined in a crucible purified seven times (Psalms 12:6).

"Silver" signifies truth from the Divine; "purified seven times" means wholly and fully pure.

[6] in Isaiah:

The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days (Isaiah 30:26).

"The light of the sun" signifies Divine truth from Divine good; that "this light shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days," signifies that Divine truth in heaven shall be without any falsity, thus altogether and fully pure.

[7] In Matthew:

The unclean spirit shall take seven other spirits more evil than himself, and shall dwell there (Matthew 12:45; Luke 11:26).

Here profanation is treated of, and "the seven unclean spirits" with which the unclean spirit would return, signify all the falsities of evil, thus a complete destruction of good and truth.

[8] The "seven times" that were to pass over the king of Babylon have a like meaning, in Daniel:

His heart shall be changed from man, and a beast's heart shall be given unto him, while seven times shall pass over him (Daniel 4:16, 25, 32).

"The king of Babylon" signifies those who profane the goods and truths of the Word; that "his heart should be changed from man, and a beast's heart be given him," means that nothing spiritual, which is the truly human, should remain, but instead there should be the diabolical; "the seven times which were to pass over him" signify profanation, which is the complete destruction of truth and good.

[9] Because "seven" and "seven times" signified all things and fullness, the following commands were given:

Seven days the hands [of Aaron and his sons] should be filled (Exodus 29:35).

Seven days [the altar] should be sanctified (Exodus 29:37).

Seven days Aaron should be clothed with the garments when he was to be initiated (Exodus 29:30).

For seven days Aaron and his sons were not to go out of the tabernacle when they were to initiated into the priesthood (Leviticus 8:33, 34).

Seven times was the altar to be sprinkled for expiation upon its horns (Leviticus 16:18, 19).

Seven times was the altar to be sanctified with oil (Leviticus 8:11).

Seven times was the blood to be sprinkled towards the veil (Leviticus 4:16, 17).

Seven times was the blood to be sprinkled with the fingers eastward, when Aaron went towards the mercy-seat (Leviticus 16:12-15).

Seven times was the water of separation to be sprinkled towards the tent (Numbers 19:4).

Seven times the blood was to be sprinkled in the cleansing of leprosy (Leviticus 14:7, 8, 27, 38, 51).

The lampstand was to have seven lamps (Exodus 25:32, 37; 37:18-25).

For seven days were the feasts to be kept (Exodus 34:18, Leviticus 23:4-9, 39-44; Deuteronomy 16:3, 4, 8).

For the seven days of the feast there was to be a burnt-offering of seven bullocks, and seven rams daily (Ezekiel 45:23).

Balaam built seven altars, and sacrificed seven oxen and seven rams (Numbers 23:1-7, 15-18, 29, 30).

They numbered seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, and then they were to cause the trumpet of the jubilee to be sounded in the seventh month (Leviticus 25:8, 9).

From the signification of the number "seven" it can be seen what is signified:

By the seven days of creation (Genesis 1);

Also by the fact that four thousand men were satisfied by seven loaves and that seven basketful remained (Matthew 15:34-38; Mark 8:5-9).

From this then it is evident what is signified in Revelation:

By the seven churches (Revelation 1:4, 11);

By the seven golden lampstands, in the midst of which was the Son of man (Revelation 1:13);

By the seven stars in His right hand (Revelation 1:16, 20);

By the seven spirits of God (Revelation 3:1);

By the seven lamps of fire before the throne (Revelation 4:5);

By the book sealed with seven seals (Revelation 5:1);

By the seven angels to whom were given seven trumpets (Revelation 8:2);

By the seven thunders which uttered their voices (Revelation 10:3, 4);

By the seven angels having the seven last plagues (Revelation 16:1, 6);

And by the seven vials full of the seven last plagues (Revelation 16:1; 21:9);

and elsewhere in the Word, where "seven" is mentioned.

3419. 'Isaac came back and dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father' means that the Lord disclosed the truths that had existed with the Ancients. This is clear from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Lord's Divine Rational, dealt with already; from the meaning of 'coming back and digging again' as disclosing once again; from the meaning of 'the wells of water' as truths that are the sources of cognitions - 'wells' being truths, see 2702, 3096, and 'waters' cognitions, 28, 2702, 3058; and from the meaning of 'the days of Abraham his father' as a former time and state as regards truths, which are meant by 'which they had dug in those days', and so which had existed with the Ancients - 'days' meaning a time and a state, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 893. When a state is meant by 'days', 'Abraham his father' represents the Lord's Divine itself before this had joined the Human to Itself, see 2833, 2836, 3251; but when a time is meant by 'days', 'Abraham his father' means the goods and truths which came from the Lord's Divine before this had allied the Human to Itself, and so which had existed with the Ancients.

[2] The truths which existed with the Ancients have been completely effaced at the present time, so much so that scarcely anybody knows that they have ever existed or that they could have been anything different from those also taught today. But those truths were indeed quite different. People had representatives and meaningful signs of celestial and spiritual things in the Lord's kingdom, and so of the Lord Himself; and those who understood them were called the wise. They were also wise, because they were accordingly able to talk to spirits and angels; for when angelic speech which is spiritual and celestial and therefore unintelligible to man comes down to someone in the natural realm, it falls into representatives and meaningful signs like those that occur in the Word and consequently make the Word a sacred document. To make correspondence complete the Divine cannot present Itself before man in any other way. And because with the Ancients there were manifested representatives and meaningful signs of the Lord's kingdom, which hold nothing else than celestial and spiritual love within them, the Ancients also possessed matters of doctrine too which wholly and completely were concerned with love to God and charity towards the neighbour, by virtue of which also they were called the wise.

[3] From those matters of doctrine they knew that the Lord was going to come into the world, that Jehovah would be within Him, and that He would make the Human within Him Divine and in so doing would save the human race. From them they also knew what charity was, namely the affection for serving others without any thought of reward; and what was meant by the neighbour to whom they were to exercise charity, namely all persons throughout the world, though each one had to be treated differently. These matters of doctrine have now been completely lost, and instead there are matters of doctrine concerning faith, which the Ancients had regarded as being relatively worthless. These matters of doctrine, that is to say, those concerning love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, have at the present time been rejected on one hand by those who in the Word are referred to as Babylonians and Chaldeans, and on the other by people called Philistines and also Egyptians. They have become so completely lost that scarcely any trace of them remains. Who at the present day knows what charity is which is devoid of all self-regard and repudiates all self-interest? Who knows what is meant by the neighbour - that individual persons are meant who are to be treated each one differently according to the nature and amount of good that resides with him? Thus good itself is meant, and therefore in the highest sense the Lord Himself since He resides in good and is the source of good; for good that does not originate in Him is not good, however much it may seem to be. And because there is no knowledge of what charity is and of what is meant by the neighbour, there is no knowledge of who are really meant in the Word by the poor, the wretched, the needy, the sick, the hungry and thirsty, the oppressed, widows, orphans, captives, the naked, strangers, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the maimed, and others such as these. Yet the matters of doctrine which existed with the Ancients taught who each of these really was and to which category of the neighbour and so of charity each belonged. It is in accordance with those matters of doctrine that the whole Word so far as the sense of the letter is concerned has been written, and therefore those who have no knowledge of them cannot possibly know of any interior sense of the Word.

[4] As in Isaiah,

Is it not to break your bread to the hungry, and that you may bring afflicted outcasts to your house; when you see the naked and cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then will your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing will spring up speedily, and your righteousness will walk before you, the glory of Jehovah will gather you up. Isaiah 58:7-8.

Anyone who keeps rigidly to the sense of the letter believes that if he merely gives bread to the hungry, brings afflicted outcasts or wanderers into his house, and clothes the naked, he will on that account enter into Jehovah's glory, or into heaven. Yet those actions are solely external, which the wicked also can perform to merit the same. But by the hungry, the afflicted, and the naked are meant those who are spiritually such, thus differing states of wretchedness in which one who is the neighbour may find himself and to whom charity is to be exercised.

[5] In David,

He executes judgement for the oppressed, He gives bread to the hungry, Jehovah sets the bound free, Jehovah opens the blind [eyes], Jehovah lifts up the bowed down, Jehovah loves the righteous, Jehovah guards strangers, He upholds the orphan and the widow. Psalms 146:7-9.

Here the oppressed, the hungry, the bound, the blind, those bowed down, strangers, the orphan and the widow are not used to mean people who are ordinarily called such but those who are spiritually so, that is, as to their souls. It was who these were, what state and degree of the neighbour they belonged to, and so what charity needed to be exercised towards them, that was taught by the matters of doctrine which existed with the Ancients. Besides these verses from Psalms 146 there are others elsewhere throughout the Old Testament. Indeed when the Divine comes down into what is natural existing with man it comes down into such things as constitute the works of charity, each work differing from the rest according to its genus and species.

[6] The Lord also spoke in a similar way since He spoke from the Divine itself, as in Matthew,

The King will say to those at His right hand, Come, O blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you; for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me. Matthew 25:34-36.

The works listed here mean all the main kinds of charity and the degree of good to which each work - that is, to which each person who is a neighbour towards whom charity is to be exercised - belongs. Also taught is the truth that the Lord in the highest sense is the neighbour, for He says,

Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers you did it to Me. Matthew 25:40.

From these few places one may see what is meant by truths as they existed among the Ancients. The utter effacement of these truths however by those concerned with matters of doctrine concerning faith and not with the life of charity, that is, by those who in the Word are called 'the Philistines', is meant in the words that come next - 'the Philistines stopped up the wells after Abraham's death'.