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.

1887. Inspiration implies that every detail of the Word - within its historical narratives as well as in all other parts - has within it the celestial things of love or good, and the spiritual things of faith or truth, and so has Divine things within it. For that which is inspired by the Lord comes down from Him, coming down in fact by way of the angelic heaven, then in the same manner by way of the world of spirits, down to mankind, with whom it presents itself as it exists in the letter. But in its first origins it is something entirely different. In heaven nothing belonging to the history of the world ever has a place there, but everything is a representative of something Divine. Nor is anything else ever perceived there, as may also be recognized to be so from the fact that the things existing there are indescribable. Unless therefore the historical descriptions are representative of Divine things, and so heavenly things, they cannot possibly be divinely inspired. The nature of the Word in the heavens is recognizable solely from the internal sense, for the Internal Sense is the Word of the Lord in the heavens.