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.

468. A tree means man, as is proved by the following passages in the Word:

All the trees of the countryside shall know that I, Jehovah, will lay low the tall tree, and raise up the low tree; and I will wither the green tree and make the dry tree sprout, Ezekiel 17:24.

Blessed is he whose pleasure is in the law; he shall be like a tree planted near streams of water, which shall give fruit at its proper time, Psalms 1:2-3; Jeremiah 17:8.

Praise Jehovah, fruit-trees, Psalms 148:9.

Jehovah's trees are fully watered. Ps. 'Psalm 104:16.

The axe lies at the root of the tree; every tree which does not produce good fruit will be cut out, Matthew 3:10; 7:16-21.

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten [and its fruit rotten]; for by its fruit the tree is known, Matthew 12:33; Luke 6:43-44.

I shall light a fire which will consume every green tree and every dry tree, Ezekiel 20:47.

It was because a tree means man, that it was commanded that the fruit of a tree used for food in the land of Canaan should be accounted uncircumcised (Leviticus 19:23-24). Since an olive-tree means a man of the celestial church, it is said of the two witnesses who were prophesying, that they were two olive-trees standing close by the God of the whole earth (Revelation 11:4; similarly Zechariah 4:3, 11-12). Also, in David's Psalms:

I am like a flourishing olive-tree in the house of God. Psalms 52[:8].

Also, in Jeremiah:

A flourishing olive-tree with fair fruit has Jehovah called your name, Jeremiah 11:16-17.

There are many other passages, too numerous to quote here.