103. We can tell from the books of Moses that there was a Word among the ancients because he mentioned it and excerpted from it (Numbers 21:14-15, 27-30). We can tell that the narrative portions of that Word were called “The Wars of Jehovah, ” and that the prophetic portions were called “Pronouncements.” Moses quoted the following from the historical narratives of that Word:

Therefore it says in The Book of the Wars of Jehovah, “Waheb in Suphah and the rivers Arnon, a watercourse of rivers that goes down to [where] Ar is inhabited and rests along the border of Moab.” (Numbers 21:14-15)

In that Word as in ours, the wars of Jehovah were understood to be, and served to describe in detail, the Lord’s battles against hell and his victories over it when he would come into the world. These same battles are meant and described time after time in the historical narratives of our Word - in Joshua’s battles against the nations of the land of Canaan, for example, and in the wars of the judges and the kings of Israel.

[2] Moses quoted the following from the prophetic portions of that Word:

Therefore those who make pronouncements say, “Come to Heshbon! The city of Sihon will be built up and fortified, because fire has gone out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, those who occupy the heights of Arnon. Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, people of Chemosh; he has made his sons fugitives and sent his daughters into captivity to Sihon, king of the Amorites. With arrows we have dealt with them; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon, and we have spread destruction as far as Nophah, which extends to Medeba.” (Numbers 21:27-30)

Translators change [the title of] this to “Composers of Proverbs, ” but it should be called “Makers of Pronouncements” or “Prophetic Pronouncements, ” as we can tell from the meaning of the word moschalim in Hebrew. It means not only proverbs but also prophetic utterances, as in Numbers 23:7, 18; 24:3, 15 where it says that Balaam gave forth his pronouncement, which was actually a prophetic utterance and was about the Lord. In these instances each of his pronouncements is called a mashal in the singular. There is also the fact that what Moses quoted from this source are not proverbs but prophecies.

[3] We can see that this Word was similarly divine or divinely inspired from a passage in Jeremiah where we find almost the same words:

A fire has gone out from Heshbon and a flame from the midst of Sihon, which has devoured the corner of Moab and the top of the children of tumult. Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished, for your sons have been carried off into captivity and your daughters into captivity. (Jeremiah 48:45-46)

Further, both David and Joshua mention another prophetic book of the former Word, The Book of Jasher or The Book of the Righteous One. Here is where David mentions it:

David lamented over Saul and over Jonathan and wrote, “‘To Teach the Children of Judah the Bow.’ (You will find this written in The Book of Jasher.)” (2 Samuel 1:17-18)

Here is where Joshua mentions it:

Joshua said, “‘Come to rest, O sun, in Gibeon; and, O moon, in the valley of Aijalon.’ Is this not written in The Book of Jasher?” (Joshua 10:12-13)

Then too, I have been told that the first seven chapters of Genesis are right there in that ancient Word, so that not the slightest word is missing.

5265. 'The seven good cows are seven years' means a state when truth within the interior natural is multiplied. This is clear from the meaning of 'the cows' in the good sense as the truths belonging to the interior natural, dealt with in 5198; and from the meaning of 'years' as states, dealt with in 482, 487, 488, 493, 893. There were seven because 'seven' means that which is holy and therefore adds the idea of holiness to the matter under discussion, dealt with in 395, 433, 716, 881, as well as implying a whole period from start to finish, 728. This explains why in the dream seven cows and seven heads of grain were seen, and after that why there were seven years of abundance of corn and seven years of famine. It also explains why the seventh day was made holy, why in the representative Church the seventh year was a sabbatical year, and why after seven times seven years there was a Jubilee.

[2] 'Seven' means things that are holy because of the meanings that numbers have in the world of spirits. Each number there holds some spiritual reality within it. Visual indications of numbers have appeared to me frequently, simple and compound ones, and also on one occasion a long sequence of them, when I have wondered what meanings they possessed. I have been told that they have their origin in conversations held by angels, and that it is customary from time to time to use numbers to express spiritual realities too. These numbers are not seen in heaven but in the world of spirits, where the visual presentation of such things takes place. The most ancients, who were celestial people and who talked to angels, knew all about this, which was why they used numbers to express an evaluation of the Church. The numbers used by them conveyed a general overall idea of matters for which words served to provide a detailed description. The meaning contained within every number did not however continue to be known among the descendants of these people; only the meanings of the simple numbers survived, that is to say, the meanings of two, three, six, seven, eight, twelve, and from these the meanings of twenty-four, seventy-two, and seventy-seven. In particular their descendants knew that 'seven' meant that which was most holy - that is to say, that in the highest sense 'seven' meant the Divine Himself, and in the representative sense the celestial element of love - and that the state of the celestial man was therefore meant by 'the seventh day', 84-87.

[3] It is quite evident from the numbers used plentifully in the Word that numbers mean spiritual realities, such as the following ones in John,

Let him who has intelligence reckon the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, that is, its number is six hundred and sixty-six. Revelation 13:18.

And elsewhere in the same book,

The angel measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. Revelation 11:17.

The number one hundred and forty-four is twelve squared and twice seventy-two.