487. 'Days means periods of time and states in general. This has been shown in Chapter 1, where the 'days of creation' have no other meaning. In the Word it is very common for a whole period of time to be called 'a day', as it clearly is in the present verse and in verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 31, below; and therefore the states that belong to periods of time in general are meant by 'days' as well. And when 'years' is attached, then periods of years mean the natures of those states, and so the states in particular.

[2] The most ancient people had their own particular numbers which they would use to mean different aspects of the Church - for instance, the numbers three, seven, ten, twelve, and many which they obtained from these and other numbers - and in so doing incorporated states of the Church. These numbers therefore contain arcana that would require considerable effort to unravel. Really a number was an evaluation of the states of the Church. The same feature occurs throughout the Word, especially in the prophetical. And the religious ceremonies of the Jewish Church also entail numbers specifying periods of time as well as quantities; for example, in connection with sacrifices, minchahs, oblations, and other practices, which in every case have special reference to holy things. Consequently eight hundred in this verse, nine hundred and thirty in the next, and the numbers of years mentioned in the verses that follow after that, embody in particular more matters than can possibly be retold; matters, that is to say, which have to do with changes in the state of their Church in relationship to their own general state. Later on, in the Lord's Divine mercy, the meaning of the simple numbers up to twelve will be given, for without knowing these first of all no one can grasp what compound numbers mean.

7191. 'And God spoke to Moses' means something that is new yet continues what has gone before. This is clear from the fact that one often reads in the continuous thread of the narrative 'Jehovah said' and 'Jehovah spoke', as in the present chapter also. The expression 'Jehovah said to Moses' occurs in verse 1, then 'God spoke to Moses' in the present verse, and in like manner in verses 10, 13, 28-29. And the same use of these expressions may be seen elsewhere. Nothing else is meant by the repetition than something new beginning at that point, which however is to be taken in conjunction with what goes before it. (For the meaning of 'Jehovah said' as a new phase of perception, see 2061, 2238, 2260.) It should be realized that in its original language the Word lacks punctuation marks to indicate pauses, and therefore such expressions as those in this chapter have been used instead. And instead of marks to indicate minor pauses or divisions 'And' has been used, which is why that conjunction occurs so frequently. Angelic speech is likewise continuous, with pauses, to be sure, but every prior matter presented there links up in a remarkable manner with the one that follows it. For angels' ideas are extremely full of things, countless and indescribable, that go beyond a person's understanding while he is in the world. Consequently the ends of foregoing sentences can be fully linked up to the beginnings of ensuing sentences, and in this way a single series can be formed out of many. What is astounding and unbelievable, angelic speech exhibits within itself the form which heaven takes. For this reason all angelic speech possesses a song-like harmony in which each phrase ends with a monosyllable, and so in unison. And I have been told that this happens because every single thing in heaven looks to the one God as its end. From all this it has also become clear to me that every element of thought and therefore of speech flows in from the Lord by way of heaven, and that this accounts for the song-like harmony in speech ending in unison.