'Pharaoh,' in Genesis 40, represents the new natural self. 'Pharaoh' and 'the Egyptians' in the Word, signify the sensory and scientific principles. 'Let Pharaoh live,' as in Genesis 42:16, is a phrase that is employed to say something emphatically, thus to state a certainty. 'Pharaoh and his army' signify people who are in falsities from evil. 'Pharaoh' signifies false ideas infesting the truth of the church. It also signifies scientific ideas, or the natural principle in general.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 1487, Arcana Coelestia 5192; Exodus 16)

7031. 'And you are to do them before Pharaoh' means against molesting falsities. This is clear from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as falsity molesting the truths of the Church, dealt with in 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692. The reason why 'you are to do them before Pharaoh' means against those falsities is that this command follows in sequence the words that come before it. For these words - 'see all the portents which I have put in your hand' - mean the means used by power from the spiritual, that is, used against molesting falsities. In the internal sense the matters to which the words of the sense of the letter are applied follow one another in sequence.