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.

10646. 'For Jehovah the Jealous One is His name, God the Jealous One is He' means that if any other is worshipped Divine Good and Divine Truth depart. This is clear from the meaning of 'a jealous one' as somebody who does not allow anyone other than himself to be loved and worshipped; and from the meaning of 'Jehovah's name' as everything by means of which the Lord is worshipped, dealt with in 2724, 3006, 6674, 9310. And since this is Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Human, the Lord's Divine Human is what 'Jehovah's name' is used to mean in the highest sense, 2628, 6887, 8274. Divine Truth is the Lord Himself as He exists in heaven; for what emanates from Him is Himself. From the Divine nothing other than what is Divine can emanate; and what is Divine is one. From this it is evident that 'the Jealous One is His name' means that the Lord does not allow anyone other than Himself to be worshipped, because He alone is the Source of all the truth and all the good that lead to salvation. The Lord is called the Jealous One because as soon as any other is worshipped all truth and good depart. For goodness and truth, of which the Lord is the Source, are the means by which a person is linked to Him; therefore as soon as another is worshipped the link is severed, and falsity replaces truth and evil replaces good.

[2] The reason why He is called the Jealous One twice - Jehovah the Jealous One and God the Jealous One - is that Jehovah is used to mean Divine Good and God to mean Divine Truth. (In the Word the Lord is called Jehovah where Divine Good is the subject, but He is called God where Divine Truth is the subject, see 2586, 2769, 2921, 6303, 6905, 10158, 10617.) And since both depart from a person when someone other than the Lord is worshipped He is called the Jealous One twice.

[3] It is said that the Lord alone is to be worshipped. Anyone unacquainted with the nature of true worship of the Lord may think that the Lord loves to be worshipped and desires glory from people, like someone who grants another person what he requests because that other person pays him respect. Anyone who thinks like that has no idea at all of what love is like, let alone of what God's love is like. God in His love does not desire worship and glory for His own sake but for that of man and his salvation. For humility exists in those who worship the Lord and give Him glory, and from those in whom humility exists the proprium or what belongs to self departs. And so far as this departs, the Divine is received; for the proprium or self, being evil and false, is the one thing that stands in the way of the Divine. This is the glory of the Lord, and worship of Him exists to that end. Glory for the sake of self exists as a result of self-love; but heavenly love, and infinitely more so God's love, is as different from self-love as heaven is from hell.