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.

64. This, then, is the internal sense of the Word, its very life, which is nowhere discernible from the sense of the letter. Yet so many are the arcana that several volumes would not be sufficient to explain them all. Here only a very few have been stated, such as may serve to confirm that the subject here is regeneration and that this starts with the external man and moves on to the internal. This is how angels perceive the Word. They know absolutely nothing of what belongs to the letter. They come nowhere near knowing the meaning of one single expression, let alone the names of the lands, cities, rivers, and persons which occur so frequently in historical and prophetical sections. They have a concept only of the things meant by expressions and names. By Adam in Paradise, for example, they Perceive the Most Ancient Church, yet not the Church but that Church's faith in the Lord; by Noah the Church surviving among its descendants, and which lasted down to the time of Abram; by Abraham they in no way perceive the historical character but a saving faith, which he represented; and so on. Angels in this manner perceive matters of a spiritual and celestial nature totally detached from expressions and names.