10127. 'Seven days you shall make propitiation on the altar' means the completeness of the influx into heaven and into the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'seven days' as what is complete, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'making propitiation' as purification from evils and consequently falsities, also dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the altar' as that which is representative of the Lord's Divine Human in respect of Divine Good, dealt with in 9388, 9389, 9714, 9964, at this point in heaven and in the Church, 10123. The reason why the sacrifice of a young bull to make propitiation and sanctify the altar should be carried out for seven days was that 'seven days', the same as 'a week', means a whole period, long or short, from start to finish. Therefore also 'seven days' means what is complete. The number three likewise means a whole period from start to finish, and therefore also what is complete. But the difference is that the word 'seven' is used where something holy is referred to, but 'three' when anything whatever is the subject.

[2] It should be remembered that spiritual realities are meant by all numbers in the Word, as is very well known in the next life, where sometimes sheets of paper full of numbers are sent down from heaven to spirits below. Those spirits who receive influx from the Lord see in them a whole chain of realities meant by the numbers, just as if letters had been used. I too have been allowed on several occasions to see such sheets of paper; and also I have been told about certain of the most ancient people, who inwardly lived in fellowship with angels, that they used numbers to embody matters of importance to their Church, and heavenly arcana, and stored those numbers away for themselves as a way of remembering. From this it becomes clear that all numbers in the Word serve to mean spiritual realities. For in the Word not a syllable is devoid of meaning, since the Word has been written not only for people in the world but also at the same time for angels in heaven. Consequently the Word consists of the Divine passing through all the heavens.

[3] All numbers in the Word mean spiritual realities or real things, see 575, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265, 6175, 9659.

Seven in the Word implies holy things, 395, 433, 716, 881, 5265, 5268.

Seven also means a whole period from start to finish, thus a complete state, 6508, 9228, as does 'a week', 2044, 3845.

The number three has the same meaning, 2788, 4495, 4901, 5123, 5159, 7715, 9198, 9488, 9489, 9825.

[4] As regards 'making propitiation', it means purification from evils and consequently falsities, or what amounts to the same thing, the removal of them. And since 'making propitiation and expiation' has this meaning it also implies the implantation of goodness and truth and the joining together of the two by the Lord. The reason why this implantation is also implied is that to the extent that a person is purified from evils and falsities, goodness and truth are implanted and joined together by the Lord. When therefore the one has been postulated, the other is postulated. For the Lord is present with every person with the good of love; He loves all people and in His love wishes to join them to Himself, which is achieved through the good of love and the truth of faith. But the evils and consequent falsities which a person makes his own by a life of evil stand in the way and block influx from Him. From all this it is evident what propitiation and expiation is; see also 9506.

5265. 'The seven good cows are seven years' means a state when truth within the interior natural is multiplied. This is clear from the meaning of 'the cows' in the good sense as the truths belonging to the interior natural, dealt with in 5198; and from the meaning of 'years' as states, dealt with in 482, 487, 488, 493, 893. There were seven because 'seven' means that which is holy and therefore adds the idea of holiness to the matter under discussion, dealt with in 395, 433, 716, 881, as well as implying a whole period from start to finish, 728. This explains why in the dream seven cows and seven heads of grain were seen, and after that why there were seven years of abundance of corn and seven years of famine. It also explains why the seventh day was made holy, why in the representative Church the seventh year was a sabbatical year, and why after seven times seven years there was a Jubilee.

[2] 'Seven' means things that are holy because of the meanings that numbers have in the world of spirits. Each number there holds some spiritual reality within it. Visual indications of numbers have appeared to me frequently, simple and compound ones, and also on one occasion a long sequence of them, when I have wondered what meanings they possessed. I have been told that they have their origin in conversations held by angels, and that it is customary from time to time to use numbers to express spiritual realities too. These numbers are not seen in heaven but in the world of spirits, where the visual presentation of such things takes place. The most ancients, who were celestial people and who talked to angels, knew all about this, which was why they used numbers to express an evaluation of the Church. The numbers used by them conveyed a general overall idea of matters for which words served to provide a detailed description. The meaning contained within every number did not however continue to be known among the descendants of these people; only the meanings of the simple numbers survived, that is to say, the meanings of two, three, six, seven, eight, twelve, and from these the meanings of twenty-four, seventy-two, and seventy-seven. In particular their descendants knew that 'seven' meant that which was most holy - that is to say, that in the highest sense 'seven' meant the Divine Himself, and in the representative sense the celestial element of love - and that the state of the celestial man was therefore meant by 'the seventh day', 84-87.

[3] It is quite evident from the numbers used plentifully in the Word that numbers mean spiritual realities, such as the following ones in John,

Let him who has intelligence reckon the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, that is, its number is six hundred and sixty-six. Revelation 13:18.

And elsewhere in the same book,

The angel measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. Revelation 11:17.

The number one hundred and forty-four is twelve squared and twice seventy-two.