664. And after three days and a half.- That this signifies when completed, thus the end of the old church, and the beginning of a new church, is evident from the signification of three days and a half, as denoting fulness or completion at the end of the old church, when there is the beginning of a new church, concerning which see above (n. 658). The reason why it is said, after three days and a half, is, that days, in the Word, signify states, here, the last state of the church. For all times, in the Word, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, and ages, signify states in the Word, as in this case, the last state of the church, when there is no longer any good of love or truth of faith remaining. Because days signify states, and since in the first chapter of Genesis the establishment of the Most Ancient Church is treated of which was accomplished successively from one state to another, therefore it is said there that there was evening and there was morning the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and sixth days, unto the seventh, when it was completed (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), and the days there do not mean days, but the successive states of the regeneration of men at that time, and the consequent establishment of the church with them. So also elsewhere in the Word.

3987. 'And now, when shall I, even I, provide for my own house?' means that now its own good will be made fruitful from this. This is clear from the meaning of 'house' as good, dealt with in 2231, 2233, 3128, 3652, in this case 'my own house' as the good meant by Jacob. 'Providing for his own house' means that the good from this is to be made fruitful, as is evident from the fact that the fruitfulness of good and the multiplication of truth is the subject now because the joining of the interior man to the external has taken place; for 'Joseph', the one born last, means that fruitfulness, 3965, 3969, 3971, and 'the flock' which Jacob acquired to himself by means of Laban's flock, dealt with below, describes that fruitfulness. As regards good not being made fruitful nor truth being multiplied until the external man has been joined to the internal, this becomes clear from the consideration that the desire that another shall have what is good, and consequently the thought of good, belong to the interior man, whereas doing good and consequently making known what is good belong to the external man. Unless doing good has been joined to the desire for what is good, and making good known to the thought of good, a person possesses no good at all. For the wicked can desire what is evil and yet do good, and also think evil and yet declare what is good, as anyone can well know. Hypocrites and unholy persons are more bent on this and better at it than others, so much so indeed that they are able to pass themselves off as angels of light, when in fact they are devils within. This proves that good cannot be made fruitful with anyone unless doing what is good has been joined to the desire for good, and making good known to the thought of it; that is, unless the external man has been joined to the internal.