3449. 'And Isaac said to them, For what reason have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?' means, Why should they desire that which is Divine seeing that they refused to recognize it and loathed that which is contained in the internal sense of the Word? This becomes clear from what has been stated above at verses 15-16, 19-21.

1482. That 'Pharaoh's princes saw' means the first and foremost commandments, which are 'pharaoh's princes', is clear from the meaning of 'princes' and of 'Pharaoh'. In the Word, in both its historical and its prophetical parts, princes mean the things that are first and foremost. 'pharaoh' has the same meaning as Egypt, Egypt or Pharaoh being used in the best sense here, since they refer to knowledge comprised of cognitions which the Lord took in first in childhood. That first and foremost commandments from the Word are meant is clear from the meaning of these princes in the internal sense. That in general 'Pharaoh' in the Word has the same meaning as Egypt may be confirmed from many references, even as the kings of other kingdoms who are mentioned by name have the same meaning as the actual names given to their kingdoms. But by 'the princes' are meant their first and foremost features, as in Isaiah,

The princes of Zoan are foolish, the wise counselors of Pharaoh. . . . How do you say to Pharaoh, I am a son of the wise, a son of the kings of old? The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Noph deluded. Isaiah 19:11, 13.

Here 'the princes of Zoan and the wise counselors of Pharaoh' stands for facts that are first and foremost. And since wisdom flourished initially in Egypt, as stated already, it is called 'a son of the wise, and a son of the kings of old'. And there are many other places in the Word where in the same way 'princes' stands for features that are first and foremost.