489. And the holy city shall they trample forty-two months, signifies that it would disperse every truth of the Word, even so that nothing would remain. By "the holy city" is meant the holy Jerusalem; and by "the holy Jerusalem" is meant the New Church which is in truths of doctrine, for "holy" is predicated of the Divine truth (n. 173); and "a city" signifies doctrine (n. 194); therefore by "trampling" that metropolis or city is signified to disperse the truths of its doctrine; by "forty-two months" is signified until there is an end, when there is nothing left; by truths of doctrine are meant truths from the Word, because the doctrine of the church, and all that relates to it, is thence derived. That they who are, at this day, in the internals of the church, have so dispersed the truths of the Word, and thence the doctrines of the church, and everything of it, is described in this chapter by "the beast coming up out of the abyss," in that "he killed the two witnesses" (verse 7), and may also be seen from the Relations from the spiritual world, annexed to each chapter.
[2] By "forty-two months" is signified even to the end, and till no truth and good of the church is left, because the same thing is signified by forty-two and by six weeks, for six times seven is forty-two, and by "six weeks" is signified what is complete even to the end; for "six" has this signification, and "a week" signifies state, and "the seventh week" a holy state, which is a new state of the church, when the Lord begins His reign. This number has a similar signification in the following passage:
And there was given unto the beast which came up out of the sea a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty-two months (Rev. 13:5). (See n. 583.)
The reason why "six" signifies what is complete to the end, is, because "three" has that signification (n. 505), and "six" is double that number, and a number doubled has the same signification as the simple number; besides, the same is signified by this number as by three and a half, because "forty-two months" make three years and a half. "Months" are mentioned because by "a month" is signified a full state (as in Isaiah 66:23; Revelation 22:1, 2; Genesis 29:14; Numbers 11:18-20; Deuteronomy 21:11, 13).