487. 'Days means periods of time and states in general. This has been shown in Chapter 1, where the 'days of creation' have no other meaning. In the Word it is very common for a whole period of time to be called 'a day', as it clearly is in the present verse and in verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 31, below; and therefore the states that belong to periods of time in general are meant by 'days' as well. And when 'years' is attached, then periods of years mean the natures of those states, and so the states in particular.

[2] The most ancient people had their own particular numbers which they would use to mean different aspects of the Church - for instance, the numbers three, seven, ten, twelve, and many which they obtained from these and other numbers - and in so doing incorporated states of the Church. These numbers therefore contain arcana that would require considerable effort to unravel. Really a number was an evaluation of the states of the Church. The same feature occurs throughout the Word, especially in the prophetical. And the religious ceremonies of the Jewish Church also entail numbers specifying periods of time as well as quantities; for example, in connection with sacrifices, minchahs, oblations, and other practices, which in every case have special reference to holy things. Consequently eight hundred in this verse, nine hundred and thirty in the next, and the numbers of years mentioned in the verses that follow after that, embody in particular more matters than can possibly be retold; matters, that is to say, which have to do with changes in the state of their Church in relationship to their own general state. Later on, in the Lord's Divine mercy, the meaning of the simple numbers up to twelve will be given, for without knowing these first of all no one can grasp what compound numbers mean.

2479. A certain person who had recently become a spirit was angry because he could not remember many of the things he had known during his lifetime. He grieved for the delight which he had now lost and in which he had taken very great pleasure. But he was told that he had lost absolutely nothing and still knew every single one of them, but that in the next life he was not allowed to summon such things up. It was sufficient that he was now able to think and speak far better and more perfectly and was unable to submerge the rational side of himself, as had happened previously, in dense, obscure, material, and bodily things which were of no use in the kingdom he had now entered. As for the things that existed in the kingdom of the world he was told that they were left behind, and that now he possessed whatever was suited to use in eternal life and that he could become blessed and happy in no other way. Thus anybody is wanting in knowledge who believes that in the next life, where the physical memory is not used, intelligence ceases. The reality is that to the extent the mind can be drawn from sensory and bodily interests it is lifted up to spiritual and celestial things.