7992. 'For all the children of Israel (to observe] throughout their generations' means those belonging to the spiritual Church among whom there is good resulting from truth and truth springing from good. This is clear from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with often; and from the meaning of 'generations' as matters of faith and charity, dealt with in 2010, 2584, 6239. Those among whom there is good resulting from truth and truth springing from good are accordingly meant; for people belonging to the spiritual Church are led through the truth of faith into the good of charity, and having been led into good are then led from good to truths. Those led from good to truths are people who constitute the internal Church, whereas those led through truth into good are people who constitute the external Church.

2010. Now because the word 'names means the essential nature, and also the knowledge of that nature, the meaning of the statement made in this verse becomes clear. That is to say, 'No longer will you be called by your name Abram, but your name will be Abraham' means, not what his nature had been previously but what it was going to be. The fact that Abram served other gods and worshipped the god Shaddai was shown above in 1992; but because he was to represent the Lord, and in particular His Internal Man, and so the celestial side of His love, his previous nature had to be effaced, that is, the name Abram had to be altered to another which was such that the Lord could be represented by means of it. The letter H therefore was taken from the name Jehovah - which letter alone in the name Jehovah entails the Divine, and means I AM or TO BE - and was inserted into his name, so that he was called Abraham. The same happened with Sarai further on; the same letter was added to her name, so that she was called Sarah. From this it also becomes clear that in the internal sense of the Word Abraham represents Jehovah or the Lord.

[2] It should be realized however that in representations no significance is attached to the nature or character of the one who represents, for in those representations no attention is paid to the person representing but to the thing which he represents, as stated and shown already in 665, 1097 (end), 1361. Therefore the meaning of the words here in the internal sense is that the Lord cast off the human and put on the Divine, which is also the particular point in the train of thought both before and after this statement, for the promise is now made concerning Isaac his son, who was to represent the Lord's Divine Rational.