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.

8099. 'The Sea Suph' means the damnation which they first had to pass through. This is clear from the meaning of 'the Sea Suph' as the hell where those spirits are who are governed by faith separated from charity and lead a life of evil; and since 'the Sea Suph' means hell it also means damnation. The reason why they first had to pass through damnation is this: There were people belonging to the spiritual Church who were held back on the lower earth until the Lord's Coming, where they were molested by those governed by faith separated from charity. These have been the subject in the preceding chapters. When those people were delivered from that place they were not raised to heaven immediately. Before this they were led into a second state - a state of purification, which is a state of temptations. For truths and forms of the good of faith can be neither firmly accepted nor bonded together without temptations; and until these had been firmly accepted and bonded together those people could not be raised into heaven. These things were represented by the children of Israel, by their not being led straightaway into the land of Canaan but living first in the wilderness, where they remained for forty years, undergoing various temptations, which are described in the books of Moses.

[2] In regard to this matter, that they first passed through the Sea Suph, which means the hell of those who are governed by separated faith and lead an evil life, thus that they first passed through the middle of damnation, it should be recognized that this hell is situated deep down out in front beneath the adulterers' hells, stretching rather widely towards the left. It is separated from the adulterers' hells by waters like those of the sea on the right there, but higher up, is the place where those governed by the truth of faith but not by the good of faith are gathered - those meant by 'the Philistines', who are referred to just above in 8096. But the lower earth, the region where those who suffer molestation are, is beneath the soles of the feet, slightly out in front. Those who are delivered from molestation are not led towards the right since the ones meant by the Philistines are there. Instead they are led towards the left, through the midst of the hell that has been mentioned and they come out on the left, where there is a kind of wilderness. I have been allowed on two occasions to see that this is the way which they pass through when rescued from molestations. As they pass through they are protected by the Lord in such a way that nothing bad at all can touch them, let alone any damnation. For they are encompassed by a pillar of angels with whom the Lord is present.

[3] This is represented by the passage of the children of Israel through the Sea Suph. Such was also meant by the following in Isaiah,

Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah. Were You not that which dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, which made the deep places of the sea a road, in order that the redeemed might pass through? Isaiah 51:9-10.

'The arm of Jehovah' is the Lord's Divine Human. 'The waters of the great deep' and 'the depths of the sea' are the hell in which those live who are governed by faith separated from charity and lead a life of evil. The waters like those of the sea beneath which they live are falsities; for in the next life falsities appear as thick, dark clouds, and also as deluges of water, 739, 4423, 7307. The redeemed who were to pass through them are those whom the Lord has delivered.

[4] In the same prophet,

Jehovah remembered the days of old, Moses, [and] His people, [saying,] Where is He who caused them to come up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who put the spirit of His holiness in the midst of them? Isaiah 63:11.

In this prophetic utterance 'Moses' is used to mean the Lord, who is also 'the shepherd of the flock'. 'The people whom He caused to come up out of the sea' are those who were delivered from damnation. In Jeremiah,

At the noise of their fall the earth shook; [as for their] cry, the noise of it was heard in the Sea Suph. Jeremiah 49:21.

'The Sea Suph' stands for hell, for Edom and its damnation is the subject there. It says that the noise of it was heard coming out of the Sea Suph, when yet they were not the ones who were drowned in that sea but the Egyptians. From this it is evident that 'the Sea Suph' means hell and damnation 'Edom' there means those who are led by the evil of self-love to reject the truths taught by doctrine and to embrace falsities, 3322.

From all this one may now see what is meant in the representative internal sense by 'the sea Suph', and what is meant by the passage through it of the children of Israel and the drowning in it of the Egyptians, events described in the next chapter.