4987. 'And it happened after these events' means a third state. This is clear from the meaning of 'it happened' or 'so it was' as that which implies something new, as above in 4979, and therefore at this point a third state; and from the meaning of 'after these events' as after those things were completed. In the original language one line of thought is not separated from another by punctuation marks, ¹ as in other languages, but the text seems to run so to speak from start to finish without any breaks in it. Ideas in the internal sense follow one another in a similar way without breaks, moving on from one state of a thing into another state of it. But when one state comes to an end and another major one takes its place, this is indicated by the expression 'so it was' or 'it happened', while a minor change of state is indicated by the word 'and'. This is the reason why these expressions occur so frequently. This third state described now is more internal than the previous one.

Footnotes:

4979. 'And it happened from the time he put him in charge in his house and over all that he had' means a second state, after this good had applied itself to that truth and had made all that belonged to it seemingly subject to the power and control of that truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'it happened' or 'so it was' - an expression used many times in the Word - as that which implies something new and therefore a second state (similarly in verses 7, 10-11, 13, 15, 18-19 below); from the meaning of 'from the time he put him in charge in his house' as after good had applied itself to that truth, dealt with above in 4977; and from the meaning of 'over all that he had' as all that belonged to such good was made seemingly subject to the power and control of that truth, also dealt with above, in 4978.