Swedenborg says that time and space are aspects of the physical world, but do not exist as we know them in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, it says, people’s sense of place and time are a matter of their spiritual states – their thoughts and affections.
So when the Bible talks about hours – or any other measurement of time – it is referring to a specific spiritual state, with further definition depending on the context in which it is used.
Passages from Swedenborg
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 194
194. And thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. That this signifies man’s ignorance of that time, and of his state then, is evident from the signification of hour, as being the time when man is to die, and also his state at the time; and from the signification of not knowing it, as being ignorant.
It is said, what hour I will come upon thee, namely, as a thief; and in the sense of the letter is hereby meant that the Lord would thus come, but in the spiritual sense it is meant that evils and falsities would steal the knowledges which they have from the Word; for, in the sense of the letter of the Word, it is attributed to Jehovah, or the Lord, that He does evil, but, in the spiritual sense it is meant that He does evil to no one, but that man does evil to himself (as may be seen, Arcana Coelestia, n. 2447, 5798, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7643, 7877, 7679, 7710, 7926, 8227, 8228, 8284, 8483, 8632, 9010, 9128, 9306, 10,431).
[2] The reason why hour also signifies state is, because in the Word all times, as a day, a week, a month, a year, an age, signify states of life, and hence hour has a similar signification. (The cause of this may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell, n. 162-169, where time in heaven is treated of.) But because hour signifies both time and state, therefore, where hour is mentioned in the Word it may to some extent be known that something other than time is signified by it.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 875
The reason why it is called the hour of judgment is, that hour signifies not only time but also state, like day, week, month, year, and time in general; as may be seen above (n. 571, 610, 664, 673, 747, 761). And concerning the signification of hour in particular, see above (n. 194, 488, 673). Hour and day are so often mentioned in the Word because of the spiritual sense which is in every part of it. For while man thinks of hour and day, and thence of time, the angels, who are in the spiritual sense of the Word, think of state. The reason is, that angels have no idea of time, because they have no days, weeks, months, and years, such as are in the world; but they have changes of state, by which they measure things successive; concerning which see the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 162-169), where time in heaven is treated of.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 389
389. There was silence in heaven for about half an hour. This symbolically means that angels from the Lord’s spiritual kingdom were quite dumbfounded when they saw people who claimed to have faith to be in the state they were.
The silence in heaven means nothing else than an astonishment there over people who claim to have faith and yet are in such a state. For their state is described in the following verses, and their character can be seen from the explanations given.
Half an hour means, symbolically, much or quite, because an hour symbolizes a completed state.
That time symbolizes state is something that will be seen below.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4334
4334. But of that day and hour no one knows means that the state of the Church at that time so far as forms of good and truth are concerned is not going to be visible to anyone either on earth or in heaven, for ‘day’ and ‘hour’ in this case are not used to mean day and hour, that is, a period of time, but a state so far as good and truth are concerned. Periods of time in the Word mean states, see 2625, 2788, 2837, 3254, 3356, and ‘day’ also has the same meaning, 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785. ‘Hour,’ too therefore is descriptive of state, but some specific aspect. The reason why state so far as good and truth are concerned is meant is that the subject is the Church, for good and truth constitute the Church.