The Bible

 

Genesis 1:14

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14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Commentary

 

Mourn

  

In a general sense, mourning in the Bible represents a state of grief over the lack of desires for good and true ideas about life. This often happens when a church or an aspect of a church has fallen away from the Lord and has been devastated. It can also be when a new church or state of a church is soon to begin, and there is nothing yet in place. In particular, especially when paired with "weeping," "mourning" has do with the loss of all desire for good and the presence of evil; "weeping" in those cases has to do with the devastation of thought and knowledge.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #664

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664. Verse 11. And after the three days and a half, signifies when it is finished, thus the end of the old church and the beginning of the New Church. This is evident from the signification of "the three days and a half," as being fullness and completion as to the end of the old church, when there is the beginning of the New Church (See above, n. 658). It is said "after the three days and a half" because in the Word "days" signify states, here the last state of the church; for in the Word all times, as "hours," "days," "weeks," "months," "years," "ages," signify states, as here the last state of the church, when there is no longer any good of love or truth of faith left. Because "days" signify states, and the establishment of the Most Ancient Church is treated of in the first chapter of Genesis, and it becomes established successively from one state to another, it is there said:

That there was evening and there was morning the first day, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth days, even to the seventh, when it was finished (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; 2:2);

and the "days" there do not mean days, but the successive states of the regeneration of men at that time, and the consequent establishment of the church with them. So also elsewhere in the Word.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.