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.

1965. This then is the internal sense of the details in this chapter concerning Abram, Hagar, and Ishmael. Yet how inexhaustible that sense is, that is, how limitless the details it contains, may be seen from the single consideration that, as every single thing in the Word looks in the internal sense to the Lord and has the Lord as its subject, the life of the Word, being the Word itself, arises out of this. In addition every single thing has at the same time in the internal sense the Lord's kingdom in heaven as its subject, and also His kingdom on earth, which is the Church. And in a similar way it has as its subject each individual who has the Lord's kingdom within him, besides having in general everything celestial or spiritual as its subject. For the Lord is the source of all these things, and this accounts for Abram's also representing the celestial Church, the celestial man, as well as the celestial itself, and so on. To extend the explanation any further however would take much too long.