900. The symbolism of the second month as all the stages that precede rebirth can be seen from the symbolism of two in the Word. Two symbolizes the same thing as six, which is the fighting and hard work that come before rebirth. So here it means all the stages we go through before becoming regenerate.

The longest and shortest intervals in the Word are generally split in three or in seven and are called days, weeks, months, years, or "ages." ¹ Three and seven are holy; two and six, being just one less, are not holy but relatively profane, as shown before (§720).

Three and seven also mean something sacrosanct, each because of its connection with the Last Judgment, predicted as coming on the third or else the seventh day. ² Every person — both collectively and individually — has a last judgment when the Lord comes. There was a last judgment when the Lord came into the world. There will be a last judgment when he enters into his glory. There is a last judgment when he comes individually to each person. There is also a last judgment for each person who dies. This last judgment is the third day and the seventh day, which is holy for those who have lived good lives but unholy for those who have lived evil lives. Consequently, a third day and a seventh is predicted for those judged worthy of death and for those judged worthy of life, so that the numbers symbolize what is unholy for those with a verdict of death but what is holy for those with a verdict of life.

Two and six, the numbers just before three and seven, bear a relationship to them and symbolize in general every preceding stage. This is the meaning of the numbers two and six, and the meaning adapts to the subject at hand and to whatever the subject applies to, which the numbers describe.

All of this will become clearer from the discussion of the number twenty-seven in the next section.

Footnotes:

728. The symbolism of in seven days here as the beginning of their inward trials can be seen from the inner meaning of all the words in the current verse, which deal with the trials of the people referred to as Noah. The general subjects are both the inward trials of the "Noah" element and the total devastation that befell some in the earliest church. As a result, in seven days symbolizes not only the start of trials but also the end of ruin.

The reason in seven days symbolizes these things is that seven is a holy number, as has been said and shown at verse 2 of this chapter [§§716-717], at Genesis 4:15 and 24 [§§395, 433], and at §§84-87. It symbolizes the Lord's arrival in the world and his entry into glory, and it specifically symbolizes every time that the Lord comes to us.

Every arrival of the Lord entails a beginning for those who are regenerating and an end for those who are being destroyed. For the people of this church, his coming was the start of adversity, because when tested, an individual begins to turn into a new person and to regenerate. At the same time it was the end for those in the earliest church who had developed in such a way that the only possible outcome was extinction. By way of a parallel, at the time of the Lord's advent into the world the church was in the final stage of its destruction and a new church was formed.

[2] This symbolism of in seven days can be seen in Daniel:

Seventy weeks have been decreed upon your people and upon your holy city, to bring an end to transgression, and to seal up their sins, and to atone for wickedness, and to introduce everlasting justice, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holiest One. And you will know and perceive that from the issuing of the Word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem up to the time of Messiah the prince, there will be seven weeks. (Daniel 9:24-25)

The seventy weeks and the seven weeks here symbolize the same thing as seven days: the Lord's Coming. But since this is explicitly a prophecy, the numbers involving a seven mark the period as being even more holy and certain. The use of seven to describe this period symbolizes not only the Lord's arrival but the start of a new church at the same time, as indicated by the statement that the Holiest One would be anointed and Jerusalem would be restored and rebuilt. It also symbolizes a final devastation at the same time, as indicated by the statement that those weeks were decreed upon the holy city in order to bring an end to transgression and to seal up its sin.

[3] Similar words occur elsewhere in the Word, as in Ezekiel, where the prophet says of himself:

I came to the captives at Tel-abib, who were sitting by the river Chebar, and I sat there seven days, thunderstruck among them, and it happened at the end of seven days that the word of Jehovah came to me. (Ezekiel 3:15-16)

Here too the seven days stand for the start of a divine visitation, seeing that after the seven days during which Ezekiel sat with the captives the word of Jehovah came to him. In the same author:

They will bury Gog, in order to cleanse the land for seven months. At the end of seven months, they will make a careful search. (Ezekiel 39:12, 14)

Again the period of seven stands for the final point of devastation and the start of divine visitation. In Daniel:

Nebuchadnezzar's heart will change from [that of] a human, and the heart of an animal will be given to him, and seven seasons will pass over him. (Daniel 4:16, 25, 32)

This likewise stands for the end of devastation and the start of becoming a new person.

[4] Seventy years of captivity in Babylon represented the same thing. Whether it is seventy or seven, it involves the same meaning — seven days or seven years or the seven "ages" or decades that make up seventy years. The process of devastation was represented by the years of captivity; the beginning of a new church was represented by the liberation and rebuilding of the Temple.

Similar things were represented by Jacob's service with Laban, described in these words:

"I will serve you seven years for Rachel," and he served seven years. Laban said, "Fill out this week and we will give you her as well for the service that you serve with me yet another seven years." And Jacob did so and filled out this week. (Genesis 29:18, 20, 27-28)

The seven years of servitude here involve a similar meaning, as does the fact that marriage and liberty followed the days of the seven years. This span of seven years was called a week, as it also was in Daniel [9:24-25].

[5] The command that the people circle Jericho seven times to make the wall fall represented the same thing. It says that on the seventh day they got up at dawn and circled the city in the customary way, seven times, "and it happened on the seventh time that the seven priests blew their seven horns and the wall fell" (Joshua 6:1-20). Had such details been devoid of symbolic meaning, it never would have been ordered that they circle seven times or that there be seven priests and seven horns.

These and many other passages (such as Job 2:13; Revelation 15:1, 6-7; 21:9) show that in seven days symbolizes the beginning of a new church and the end of the old. Since the present verse deals both with the people of the church called Noah and their trials and with the last descendants of the earliest church, who destroyed themselves, the seven days more cannot symbolize anything else than the start of Noah's trials and the end of the earliest church, or its final ruination and death.

395. Anyone who kills Cain will suffer sevenfold vengeance means there was a sacred ban on violating the faith detached in this way. This is established by the symbolism of Cain as a detached faith and of seven as a sacred ban.

The number seven was held sacred, as is known, ¹ because of the six days of creation and because of the seventh day — which is the heavenly kind of person — on which there is peace, repose, a Sabbath. This is why the rituals of the Jewish religion so often involve the number seven, and each time it is seen to stand for something sacred. ²

For this reason, different stretches of time, long and short, were divided in seven and called weeks. One instance is the long periods before the coming of the Messiah in Daniel 9:24-25. Laban and Jacob call a period of seven years a week in Genesis 29:27-28. So wherever the number seven occurs, it is considered as standing for something sacred, or else for a sacred ban, as in David:

Seven times in a day do I praise you. (Psalms 119:164)

In Isaiah:

The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times as strong, like the light of seven days. (Isaiah 30:26)

Here the sun is love and the moon is faith from love, which will be like love.

[2] Just as the stages of a person's regeneration are divided into six, which precede the seventh, or the stage of being heavenly, so too are the stages of devastation, which continues until nothing heavenly remains. This was represented by the Jews' many captivities, including the last, in Babylon — a captivity of seven "ages" or seventy years; ³ and several times it is said that the land was to rest during its Sabbaths. ⁴ Devastation was also represented by Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel:

His heart will change from [that of] a human, and the heart of an animal will be given to him, until seven seasons change upon him. (Daniel 4:16, 25, 32)

Concerning the devastation of the final days as described by John:

I saw another sign in the sky, great and awesome: seven angels having the seven final plagues. (Revelation 15:1, 6-7)

Revelation 11:2 says that the holy city will be trampled for forty-two months, which is six times seven. In the same author:

I saw a book written inside and on the back, ⁵ sealed with seven seals. (Revelation 5:1)

Accordingly, different severities and levels of punishment were expressed in sevens, as in Moses:

If after all this you do not obey me, I will castigate you seven times harder for your sins. (Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28)

In David:

Return seven times as much into our neighbors' lap. (Psalms 79:12)

Since a sanction was placed on the violation of faith, then, because faith could be of service (as has already been said [§372]), the present verse states that the person who kills Cain will suffer sevenfold vengeance.

Footnotes: