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.

7568. 'Stretch out your hand towards heaven' means attention drawn to heaven, which would then come nearer. This is clear from the meaning of 'stretching out the hand' as drawing attention to something, for an outstretched hand is used to draw attention to something and point it out; and from the meaning of 'heaven' as the angelic heaven. And since, when a person's attention is drawn to heaven and it is pointed out to him, he also turns his gaze and thought in that direction, its coming nearer is also meant; for in the spiritual world things are brought nearer by focusing thought on them. The nature of these matters has, it is true, been discussed already in 7519. Even so, since they are the kinds of things that are unknown in the world, let a little more be said to illustrate them. When any change of state needs to take place with the evil undergoing vastation, such as happens to those who are the subject in the present chapters, the change is brought about by a more immediate inflow of goodness and truth from heaven. For the closer heaven comes to them, the more internal are the evils and falsities which are activated with them. Goodness and truth from heaven reach in towards the interiors; and the nearer heaven gets, the further in they reach. This explains why those from hell do not dare to move towards any heavenly community but get away as far as they can, see 4225, 4226, 4299, 4533, 4674, 5057, 5058, 7519. From all this one now may see what one is to understand by attention drawn to heaven, which would then come nearer, meant when it says that Moses should stretch out his hand towards heaven. A new state is being described now, that is to say, a state in which falsities arising from evils are destructive of all the Church's forms of good and its truths residing with those who molest. And since this state is brought about by a more immediate inflow of truth from God and at the same time by heaven's drawing closer, Moses is therefore told to stretch out his hand towards heaven.