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.

585. That 'the evil of man had been increased on the earth' means that the will for good started to go out of existence is clear from what has been stated before about no will existing any longer, but only evil desire, and also from the meaning of 'man on the earth'. In the literal sense 'the earth' is where mankind is, in the internal sense, where love is. And because love consists either in the will or else in evil desire, 'the earth' stands for man's will itself. In fact it is from willing rather than from knowing and understanding that a person is human, for knowing and understanding flow from his willing. Anything that does not flow from his willing, he does not wish to know or to understand. Indeed when he says or does something other than what the wills there is still something of the will, remote from speech and action, which governs him. That the land of Canaan, or the Holy Land, stands for love and so for the will of the celestial man may be confirmed from many places in the Word; and in like manner that the lands of various nations stand for their loves, which taken in general are self-love and love of the world. But as this point occurs so frequently there is no need to delay over it here. From these considerations it is clear that 'the evil of man on the earth' means his natural evil, which resides in the will, and which is said to have 'increased', because that natural evil had not become so bad with every one - though their intentions were selfish - that they did not wish good to others. 'The imagination of the thoughts of his heart' however means that such perversity became complete.