901. The symbolism of the twenty-seventh day as holiness is established by this: The number is the product of three multiplied by itself twice; three times three is nine, and nine times three is twenty-seven, so that three is dominant in the number. This is how the earliest people calculated their numbers, and they understood them purely as standing for some quality.

The fact that three symbolizes the same thing as seven can be seen from remarks in the previous section. The secret reason is that the Lord rose again on the third day. The Lord's resurrection in itself involves everything that is sacred and entails the resurrection of all people. That is why the Jewish religion came to use this number in a representative way and why it is a holy number in the Word. The situation resembles that in heaven, where there are no numbers; a generalized and reverent idea of the Lord's resurrection and of his arrival in the world replaces the numbers three and seven there.

[2] The symbolism of three and seven as holiness is established by the following passages in the Word. In Moses:

Those touching a dead body will be unclean seven days. They shall atone for themselves in this matter on the third day, and on the seventh day they will be clean. And if they have not atoned for themselves on the third day, then on the seventh day they will not be clean. Those who touch one stabbed by a sword, or a dead body, or a human bone, or a grave will be unclean seven days. A clean person shall spatter [water] on the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day, and the clean one will expiate the unclean on the seventh day. The unclean shall wash their clothes and rinse with water and will be clean in the evening. (Numbers 19:11-12, 16, 19)

It is quite clear that these things are representative, in other words, that the outward circumstances symbolize something internal. This is true, for instance, of the uncleanliness ascribed to one who had touched a dead body, a victim of stabbing, a human bone, or a grave. All these things on an inner level symbolize a person's own propensities, which are dead and profane. The same is also true of the fact that they were to wash with water and would then be clean in the evening. So the third and seventh days were representative too, symbolizing holiness, since on those days the person would achieve atonement and would therefore be clean.

[3] The same applies to those who returned from battle against the Midianites, of whom it says,

Camp outside the camp seven days, every one of you who has killed a soul and every one who has touched a victim of stabbing. You shall atone for yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day. (Numbers 31:19)

Had this been mere ritual, neither the third day nor the seventh would have represented or symbolized holiness and atonement. They would have been something dead, like a result without means and a means without a purpose, or to put it another way, like a result separated from a means separated from its purpose. ¹ So it would not have been the least bit divine.

The coming of the Lord to Mount Sinai clearly indicates that the third day represented and therefore symbolized something holy. These are the commandments concerning that event:

Jehovah said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, [telling them] to wash their clothes and be ready for the third day, because on the third day, Jehovah will come down, in the eyes of all the people, onto Mount Sinai." (Exodus 19:10-11, 15-16)

[4] Joshua's passage across the Jordan on the third day suggests the same thing. It is described this way:

Joshua commanded, "Pass through the middle of the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Get provisions ready for yourselves, because in three days you are crossing this Jordan, to come in to inherit the land.'" (Joshua 1:11; 3:2)

The crossing of the Jordan represented the entrance of the children of Israel — regenerate people, that is — into the Lord's kingdom. Joshua, who led them in, represented the Lord himself, and it occurred on the third day.

Since the third day like the seventh was holy, the third year was set up as a "year of tithes," and the people then behaved in a godly way by doing charitable work (Deuteronomy 26:12 and following verses). Tithes represented the remnant in us, which is holy because it is the Lord's alone.

Jonah's three days and three nights in the fish's belly (Jonah 1:17) obviously represented the Lord's burial and resurrection on the third day (Matthew 12:40).

[5] The symbolism of three as this kind of sanctity can also be seen in the prophets, as in Hosea:

Jehovah will bring us to life after two days; on the third day he will revive us, so that we may live before him. (Hosea 6:2)

Here too the third day plainly stands for the Lord's Coming and his resurrection. In Zechariah:

It will come about in all the earth that two parts in it will be cut off, will die, and a third will be left in it. And I will lead the third part through fire, and smelt them as silver is smelted, and test them as gold is tested. (Zechariah 13:8,

[9])

The third part, or the number three, here again stands for holiness. One third involves the same thing as three, as does a third of a third, which comes up in the current verse, since three is a third of a third of twenty-seven.

Footnotes:

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: