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.

5244. 'And Pharaoh sent' means the inclination of the new natural. This is clear from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the new natural man, dealt with in 5079, 5080. An inclination to accept the celestial of the spiritual is the meaning of the words 'sent and called Joseph'. Such an inclination is evident from what follows, in verses 40-43, where it is stated that Pharaoh set him over his house and over all the land of Egypt and said that all his people would kiss him on the mouth. The implications of this are that when the state is complete, that is, when everything has been made ready in the natural to accept an influx from what is interior or higher and to link itself to what flows into it, the natural too possesses that inclination, which is an affection disposed to accept [the celestial of the spiritual]. The one accordingly becomes compatible with the other when a person is being renewed by the Lord.