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.

2557. 'My father's daughter but not my mother's daughter' means that the rational was conceived from celestial good as the father but not from spiritual truth as the mother. This becomes clear from the conception of the rational, that is to say, it comes into being through an influx of Divine celestial good into the affection for factual knowledge, dealt with in 1895, 1902, 1910. Two arcana are present here, the first being that man's rational is conceived from Divine celestial good as the father, and that there is no other way in which any rational may come into being; and the second, that the rational is not conceived from spiritual truth as the mother. As regards the first arcanum - that man's rational is conceived from Divine celestial good as the father, and that there is no other way in which any rational comes into being - this may become clear from what has been stated already in 1895, 1902, 1910, as well as from what anybody may know if he reflects.

[2] For it is well known that man is born without any knowledge and without any actual rationality, and with only the ability to acquire these; also that after he is born he learns and absorbs all things gradually, chiefly by means of sensory impressions received through hearing and sight; and as he learns and absorbs them so he becomes rational. The fact that these things are accomplished by way of the body, which is an external way, because they are accomplished through hearing and sight, is self-evident. But the thing man does not know, because he does not reflect on the matter, is that something is flowing in constantly from within which receives those things that thus enter in and are implanted through hearing and sight, and arranges them into order. That which flows in, receives, and arranges them is Divine celestial good, which comes from the Lord. This is the source of the life of those things, the source of their order, and the source of all the separate relationships among them, as has been stated. From all this it may become clear that man's rational springs from Divine celestial good as the father, in accordance with the words in this verse, 'she is my father's daughter'.

[3] As regards the second arcanum - that the rational is not conceived from spiritual truth as the mother - this becomes clear from what has been stated in 1902. For if spiritual truth were to flow in from within, as good does, man would be born with total rationality and at the same time with complete knowledge, so that he would have no need to learn anything. But since man is such that because of his heredity he is under the influence of every evil and consequently of every falsity, so that if truths themselves also were to flow in he would adulterate them and falsify them and in so doing would perish for ever, the Lord has provided against any truth at all flowing in by way of man's internal being, only by way of his external. From this it becomes clear that man's rational does not spring from spiritual truth as the mother, in accordance with the words in this verse, 'but not my mother's daughter'. It pleased the Lord that His own Rational as well should be formed according to the same order, to the end that by His own power He might make Divine all things with Him that were Human, and might implant Divine spiritual Truth in, and unite it to, Divine celestial Good, and implant Divine celestial Good in, and unite it to, Divine spiritual Truth.