487. The symbolism of days as those times and states in general was shown in the first chapter [§23], where the days of creation symbolize nothing else.

It is very common for the Word to call all units of time "days." ¹ In this verse the practice is quite obvious, as it also is in verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, and 31 below. The general states at those times accordingly are symbolized by days as well. When years are mentioned in conjunction with days, the time spans represented by those years symbolize the nature of the states then; in other words, they symbolize the specific states.

[2] The earliest people had particular numbers they used for symbolizing various aspects of the church: three, seven, ten, twelve, and additional ones that they compounded out of these and others. This allowed them to sum up the states of the church. As a result, these numbers contain hidden wisdom that would require a long explanation. It was a way of evaluating different states in the church.

The same phenomenon occurs at many other places in the Word, especially in the prophets. In the rites of the Jewish religion there are also numbers for both timing and measurement in connection with sacrifices, minhas, ² oblations, and other acts of worship; and everywhere those numbers occur they symbolize holiness in the thing they are applied to.

What these numbers specifically involve, then — the eight hundred in this verse, the nine hundred thirty in the next, and so on for the numbers of years in the following verses — is more than I can ever convey. They all come down to changes in the state of religion among those people, seen in relation to their general state.

Later on, by the Lord's divine mercy, I will need to tell what the simple numbers up to twelve symbolize. ³ Unless this is known first, the symbolism of their products cannot be grasped.

Footnotes:

1686. Four kings against five symbolizes the unity of the truth and goodness and the disunity of the evil and falsity, as the symbolism of four and of five shows. Four symbolizes unity because it symbolizes pairings, just as two does when it has to do with a marriage between things, as noted at §720. Five, however, symbolizes disarray because it symbolizes a small amount, as illustrated at §649. All meanings depend on the subject under discussion.

2075. Will Sarah, a daughter of ninety years, give birth? means that truth united with goodness would accomplish it. This can be seen from the representation and symbolism of Sarah as truth united with goodness, or divine truth, and from the symbolism of ninety or, similarly, of nine. No one can help being amazed to hear that Abraham's hundred years mean that the rational powers of the Lord's human side would become one with his divine side, or that Sarah's ninety years mean that truth united with goodness would accomplish it. Since the Lord's Word contains only what is heavenly and divine, though, even the numbers there hold something heavenly and divine. The first two volumes demonstrated that every number in the Word has symbolic meaning, just as each of the names does (§§482, 487, 488, 493, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 893, 1988).

[2] Nine, then, symbolizes union. Ninety, the product of nine times ten, is an even stronger symbol of union, because ten symbolizes a remnant [of goodness and truth], and a remnant is the means to union, as is evident from earlier remarks at the end of §1988. This symbolism of ninety can also be seen from the representative and symbolic numbers in the following examples.

It was commanded that on the tenth day of the seventh month there was to be a day of atonement, and that this was to be an absolute Sabbath; and on the ninth of the seventh month in the evening, from evening to evening, they were to celebrate the Sabbath (Leviticus 23:27, 32).

[3] On an inner level these things symbolize union through a remnant, nine symbolizing union, and ten, a remnant. If you look at the months and days of the year that were to be considered holy, you see plainly that a divine secret lies hidden in such numbers. Every seventh day, for instance, was to be a Sabbath; the seventh month (as mentioned here) was to contain an absolute Sabbath, as was the seventh year; and seven times seven years was when the jubilee was to start [Leviticus 23:3, 27-32; 25:4, 8-9]. It is similar with all the other numbers in the Word: three, which has almost the same symbolism as seven; twelve, which symbolizes all aspects of faith; ten, which (like tenths) symbolizes a remnant (§576); and so on. So in this passage in Leviticus if the numbers ten and nine had not held secrets inside them, the people would hardly have been ordered to hold this absolute Sabbath on the tenth of the seventh month or to celebrate it on the ninth of the month. That is what the Word of the Lord is like in its inner sense, even though nothing of the kind is apparent in the literal narrative.

[4] Something similar is meant by the tale told of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the ninth year of Zedekiah, and of the city's breach in the eleventh year on the ninth day of the month. This is how it is told in the second book of Kings:

It happened in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem, and the city came into a siege lasting till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. On the ninth of the month the famine grew strong in the city and there was no bread for the people of the land, and the city was breached. (2 Kings 25:1, [25:2,] 25:3, 4)

The ninth year in the tenth month, and the eleventh year on the ninth of the month, when there was famine in the city and no bread for the people of the land–in an inner sense these mean that no attributes of faith or charity created a bond anymore. Famine in the city and a lack of bread for the people of the land means that no faith or charity was left. Such is the inner meaning of these words, which does not show at all in the letter. Symbolism of this type is even harder to see in the narrative parts of the Word than in the prophetic parts, because the story captures the attention so completely that the reader can hardly believe any deeper import lies hidden there. The fact of the matter, though, is that everything in Scripture is representative, and the words themselves are invariably symbolic. This is incredible but true. see §§1769-1772.