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.

7887. 'Even on the first day you shall remove yeast from your houses' means that there must be no falsity whatever in good. This is clear from the meaning of the first 'day' as the beginning of that state, day' being state, see just above in 7881; from the meaning of 'yeast' as falsity, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'house' as good, dealt with in 2233, 2134, 2559, 3652, 3720, 7833-7835, 7848. From these meanings it is evident that 'on the first day you shall remove yeast from your houses' means that from the very beginning of that state there must be no falsity whatever in good. So far as good is concerned, the forms of it are unendingly various; and they derive their specific quality from truths. Consequently the good has the same quality as the truths that enter it. The truths that enter are rarely genuine. Instead they are appearances of truth, and also falsities, though not however opposites of truths. Even so, when these falsities enter good - which happens when a person leads a life in accordance with them - as a result of ignorance, ignorance that has innocence within it, and when the person's end in view is that of doing good, they are regarded by the Lord and in heaven not as falsities but as the equivalents of truth. And according to the character of the person's innocence they are accepted as truths. Such is the way that good obtains its specific quality. From all this one may recognize what is meant by the explanation that there must be no falsity whatever in good.