2175. 'And he said' means as it related to the Lord's state of perception at that time. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' in the historical sense as perceiving, dealt with already in 1898, 1919, 2080.

The internal meaning of “blood” is a little tricky. In most cases, blood is linked with Divine Truth and it’s relationship with the Lord. But in some cases, especially when discussing the first half of Genesis, the Works of Swedenborg link blood to a state of caring, or love to the neighbor. No absolute explanation is offered for this, but it’s worth noting that blood takes a number of forms in the body – it sometimes carries nutrients and oxygen, sometimes waste products, and sometimes nutrients and carbon dioxide. So it’s not unreasonable for blood to have different meanings in different contexts.