The world is to last six thousand years. Two thousand of these are termed the period of disorder, two thousand be long to the dispensation of the law, and two thousand are the days of the Messiah; but because of our iniquities a large fraction of the latter term is already passed and gone without the Messiah giving any sign of His appearing.
Sanhedrin, fol. 97, col. 1.
As the land of Canaan had one year of release in seven, so has the world one millennium of release in seven thousand years; for it is said (Isa. ii. 17), “And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day;” and again (Ps. xcii. 1), “A psalm or song for the Sabbath day,” which means a long Sabbatic period, and again (Ps. xc. 4), “For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as the day of yesterday.”
Ibid.
Tradition records that the ladder (mentioned Gen. xxviii. 12) was eight thousand miles wide, for it is written, “And behold the angels of God ascending and descending upon it.” Angels ascending, being in the plural, cannot be fewer than two at a time, and so likewise must those descending, so that when they passed they were four abreast at least. In Daniel x. 6 it is said of the angel,
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“His body was like Tarshish,” and there is a story that Tarshish extended two thousand miles.
Chullin, fol. 91, col. 2.