23. Nothing is more common in the Word than for the word 'day' to be used to mean the particular time at which events take place, as in Isaiah,

The day of Jehovah is near. Behold, the day of Jehovah comes. I will make heaven tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, on the day of My fierce anger. Its time is close at hand, and its days will not be prolonged. Isaiah 13:6, 9, 13, 22.

And in the same prophet,

Her antiquity is in the days of antiquity. On that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. Isaiah 23:7, 15.

Since 'day' stands for the particular time it also stands for the state associated with that particular time, as in Jeremiah, Woe to us, for the day has declined, for the shadows of evening have lengthened! Jeremiah 6:4

And in the same prophet,

If you break My covenant that is for the day and My covenant that is for the night, so that there is neither daytime nor night at their appointed time. Jeremiah 33:20, 25.

Also,

Renew our days as of old. Lamentations 5:21.

8690. 'And all the people are standing before you from morning until evening' means that at this time it was the source of every act of the will which those belonging to the spiritual Church possessed, in every state. This is clear from the representation of Israel, to whom 'the people' refers here, as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with above in 8645; from the meaning of 'standing before Moses' as obedience to God's truth, also dealt with above, in 8686, and - since obedience is meant - as an act of the will (obedience springs from the will, but from a will to do the truth because it has been commanded, not out of affection for it; and this will is obedience); and from the meaning of 'from morning until evening' as in every state, inwardly and outwardly, dealt with above in 8687.

[2] The subject here is the first state a person passes through before regeneration. During this state he does good in a spirit of obedience and not as yet out of affection. But this good is truth as done by him, since he does it solely because it has been commanded, and so is still acting under compulsion, not in freedom. It is done by him in freedom when he does it out of affection; for everything that flows from love and affection is free. While a person passes through the first state the Lord flows in and leads him directly; but direct influx from the Lord does not come to be perceived because it is an influx into the inmost parts of a person's being and does not therefore generate affection. But when the Lord's influx is direct and at the same time indirect it does come to be perceived and generate affection, since it is an influx not only into the inmost parts of a person but also into the middle and outermost. This latter state is dealt with in the verses following below in this chapter, the former state in the present verses, where it says that Moses judged alone; see what has been stated above in 8685.