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.

3637. In relation to man the Grand Man is the whole of the Lord's heaven, but in the highest sense the Grand Man is the Lord Himself; for it is from Him that heaven has its being, and to Him everything there corresponds. Since the human race had become utterly corrupted on account of a life of evil and consequent false persuasions, and since at that time the lower things with man were beginning to take control over the higher, that is, natural things were taking control over spiritual, and as a result Jehovah or the Lord was no longer able to flow in by way of the Grand Man, that is, by way of heaven, and bring those things back into proper order, it was consequently necessary for the Lord to come into the world. It was necessary because in so doing He assumed a human and made this Divine. Then by means of that human made Divine He restored order so that the whole of heaven might have reference to Himself as the one and only Man and might correspond to Him alone, once those who were under the influence of evil and so of falsity had been trodden down and so cast outside the Grand Man. This explains why people in heaven are said to be 'in the Lord', indeed in His body; for the Lord is the All of heaven, and being in Him every single angel there is assigned to a particular province and function.