Like "say," the word "speak" refers to thoughts and feelings moving from our more internal spiritual levels to our more external ones -- and ultimately from the Lord, who is in a sense the most internal spiritual level of all. This is generally called "influx" and "perception" in the Writings, meaning they are thoughts and feelings that flow in in a complete way from the Lord, rather than being things we have to think about and figure out. On a number of occasions "speak" and "say" are used together; in these cases "speak" refers more to intellectual instruction in matters of thought and "say" refers more to feelings and affections that flow in directly.

5797. 'Let your servant, I beg you, speak a word in my lord's ears means a pleading to be received and heard. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking a word' as an influx, dealt with in 2951, 5481, and as it is an influx reception on the part of the other is meant, 5743; and from the meaning of 'ears' as obedience, dealt with in 4551, 4653, in this case a sympathetic listening or hearing, since an inferior is speaking to one superior to himself. From this it is evident that 'let your servant, I beg you, speak a word in my lord's ears' means a pleading to be received and heard.