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.

7724. 'Your little children also will go with you' means that [they may worship Him] from truth. This is clear from the meaning here of 'little children' as truth, for 'little children' implies boys, adolescents, and young men, In short, their sons, who mean aspects of intelligence, thus truths, see 7668; and from the meaning of 'going with you' as an assurance that they are to be left alone in order that they may worship the Lord their God. Let me say what worshipping the Lord from good is, and what worshipping the Lord from truth without good is, meant here when Pharaoh says that the flocks and herds are to stay behind and the little children to go. The truest kind of worship consists in an offering made from good through truth, for the Lord is present in good; but worship offered from truth without good is not worship, only outward religious ceremony and action alone with nothing real in them since without good truth is no more than the knowledge of truth. To become the truth of faith that knowledge must be combined with good, and when combined with good it passes into the internal man and becomes faith. (The fact that faith without charity is not faith has been shown often.) From this one may see what worship from good is and what worship from truth without good is. By the good from which worship springs one should understand the good of life, good that has been made spiritual through combination with truth, for spiritual good derives its particular nature from truth, and the essence of truth is good, so that good is the soul of truth. From this one may again see what truth without good is like, namely like a body without its soul, that is, like a corpse.