2010. Since therefore the “name” signifies the quality and to know what the quality is, we can see what is signified by the words in this verse, “thy name shall no more be called Abram, and thy name shall be Abraham;” to wit, that he was not to be such in quality as in the past, but such as he was about to be. That Abram served other gods, and worshiped the god Shaddai, was shown above (n. 1992); but because he was to represent the Lord, and in fact His internal man, and thus the Celestial of His Love, his former quality was to be blotted out, that is, the name “Abram” was to be so changed in character that the Lord could be represented by it. Therefore the letter H was taken from the name of Jehovah-which letter is the only one in the name “Jehovah” that involves the Divine, and which signifies I AM or BEING (Esse)—and was inserted in his name, and he was called “Abraham.” The case is similar with “Sarai,” spoken of in what follows; to whose name the same letter was also added, and she was called “Sarah.” From this also we can see that in the internal sense of the Word Abraham represents Jehovah or the Lord.

[2] Be it known however that in representations it matters not what a man’s quality is, for in them no attention is paid to the person, but to the thing which he represents (as was said and shown before, n. 665, 1097 the end, 1361). Therefore in the internal sense the signification of these words is that the Lord will put off the human, and will put on the Divine; which also is in a series with what goes before, and likewise with what follows; for a promise is now made concerning the son Isaac, by whom was to be represented the Lord’s Divine rational.