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.

5157. 'And the birds will eat your flesh from upon you' means that falsity originating in evil will consume every one of those sensory impressions. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as consuming, dealt with above in 5149; from the meaning of 'the birds' as falsity, also dealt with above in 5149; from the meaning of 'flesh' as good, dealt with in 3812, 3813, and therefore in the contrary sense as evil (for most things in the Word also have a contrary sense, which is discerned from their meaning in the genuine sense); and from the meaning of 'from upon you as from the sensory impressions subject to the will part, since those impressions are represented by 'the baker', 5078, 5082. The fact that these were evil and had therefore to be cast aside is clear from what has gone before.

[2] The significance of all this - that the sensory impressions subject to the understanding part, which are represented by 'the cupbearer', were retained, whereas those subject to the will part, which are represented by 'the baker', were cast aside - is an arcanum that is completely unintelligible unless it has light shed on it. Let the following serve to shed some such light. By sensory impressions are meant those known facts and those delights which have been introduced through the five external or bodily senses into a person's memory and into his longings, and which together constitute the exterior natural, by virtue of which a person is called one governed by the senses. The facts are subject to the understanding part of his mind, whereas the delights are subject to the will part. Also, the facts link up with the truths which belong to the understanding, while the delights link up with the forms of good which belong to the will. The former are represented by 'the cupbearer' and were retained, but the latter are represented by 'the baker' and were cast aside.

[3] The reason those known facts were retained is that in time they were able to accord with ideas in the understanding; but the reason the delights were cast aside is that they were by no means able to accord with what was in the will. For the will within the Lord, who is the subject in the highest internal sense, was from conception Divine and was the Divine Good itself; but the will received through His birth from His mother was evil and therefore had to be cast aside, and a new will had to be acquired in place of it. This new will was to be acquired from the Divine Will through the [Divine] Understanding, that is, from Divine Good through Divine Truth, and so was acquired by His own power. This is the arcanum which is described here in the internal sense.