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.

2382. 'And the men who were at the door of the house' means rational concepts and matters of doctrine deriving from these by means of which violence is offered to good flowing from charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'the men' as rational concepts, dealt with in 158, 1007; from the meaning of 'a door' as something that introduces or affords access, which leads either to truth or to good, and so means something to do with doctrine, dealt with above in 2356; and from the meaning of 'a house' as good that flows from charity, dealt with in various places. The subject here being those who 'came near to break down the door', that is, who tried to destroy the good of charity as well as the Lord's Divinity and His Holiness, 2376, rational concepts that are evil and derivative matters of doctrine that are false are meant, by means of which violence is offered to the good of charity.