891. 'The dove did not return to him any more' means a state of freedom. This follows from what was said above, in particular from the fact that the dove, or the truth of faith - like the other birds, and also the beasts, and so Noah too - was no longer confined to the ark on account of the flood-waters. All the time he was in the ark it was a state of slavery, that is, a state of bondage or imprisonment, with the flood-waters, or falsities, tossing him about. That state is described along with the state of temptation in Chapter 7:17 above, where it is said that 'the waters increased and lifted up the ark, and raised it above the earth', and also in 7:18 that 'the waters grew stronger and the ark went over the face ¹ of the waters'. His state of freedom is described in verses 15-18 of the present chapter not only by Noah's going out of the ark but also by all the other living things accompanying him - the dove, that is, the truth of faith deriving from good, first of all, for all freedom has its origin in the good of faith, that is, in the love of good.

Footnotes:

493. There is no need to pause too long over the consideration that 'days' and 'years mean periods of time and states. Only this need be stated here, that in the world periods of time and measurements to which numbers may be applied are indispensable, for they belong within the ultimate realms of nature. But whenever such application occurs, the numbers of days and years, and also the numbers applied to measurements, mean something which is completely different from periods of time or from measurements, and which is determined by the meaning of the number used, as in the statements about there being six days for work, and the seventh being holy, which are dealt with above; in the statement about a jubilee having to be announced every forty-ninth year and celebrated in the fiftieth; about the tribes of Israel being twelve, the same number as the Lord's Apostles; and about there being seventy elders, the same number as the Lord's disciples. And there are many other examples where the numbers mean some special characteristic completely different from the persons or objects to which they apply. And when completely separated one from the other the states meant by the numbers are then left.