8920. 'Speak yourself to us, [and we will hear]' means the reception of truth in an adjusted form, which - in that form - they will obey. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking' as influx and communication, dealt with in 2951, 3060, 4131, 5481, 5797, 6225, 7270, 8128, and therefore also as reception since what flows in and is communicated is received; and from the representation of Moses, the one who should speak, as the truth from God below heaven joined to God's truth in heaven, thus the intermediary between the Lord and the people, dealt with in 8760, 8787, 8805. So it is that here 'Moses' is truth in an adjusted form.

[2] As regards truth in an adjusted form, it should be recognized that when God's truth comes down by way of the heavens to people in the world, as the Word came down, it undergoes adjustment for all on its way down, both for those in heaven and for those on earth. But the form in which God's truth exists in the heavens is completely different from that in which it exists in the world. In the heavens that truth is as it exists in the internal sense of the Word, in the world it is as it appears in the literal sense. Indeed in the heavens themselves it exists in diverse forms - in one form in the inmost or third heaven, in another in the middle or second heaven, and in yet another in the first or lowest heaven. The form that God's truth takes - that is, the perception, thought, and utterance of it - in the inmost or third heaven is so superior to the form it takes in the middle or second heaven that it is not comprehensible there; it is so Divine and matchless. It contains countless things which cannot find utterance in the second heaven; it consists of nothing other than the changes of state which the affections inherent in love undergo. Yet the form God's truth takes in the middle or second heaven is in like manner superior to the one it takes in the first or lowest heaven, and is even more superior to the form God's truth takes in the world. So it is that the things which find utterance in those heavens are of a kind that no human mind has ever perceived or any ear has heard, as those who have been raised to heaven know from experience.

[3] People who have no knowledge of this suppose that those in the heavens think in the same way and speak in the same way as on earth. But they suppose this because they do not know that the interior aspects of a person belong to a higher level of existence than exterior ones do, or that the thought and speech of those in the heavens is celestial and spiritual, whereas on earth it is natural, the difference between the two being so great that words cannot describe it. But regarding those types of speech, see 1634-1650, 1757-1759, 1876, 2157, 2472, 2476, 3342-3345, 4104, 4609, 5225, 5287, 6040, 6982, 7002, 7089, 7131, 7191, 7381, 8343, 8733, 8734.

[4] From all this also it is evident that unless God's truth or the Word appeared in an adjusted form it would be unintelligible. For if it were above people's level of perception it would not pass into understanding or accordingly into faith. This is why God's truth has been given to mankind in the form taken by the Word in the letter; for if it were to appear in the form in which it exists in heaven, it would be unintelligible to anyone in the world. As soon as anyone glanced at it and saw what was in it, it would be cast aside, since it would not consist in images such as belong to natural light. Furthermore it would be full of arcana which could not possibly find a place in a person's way of thinking because they would be entirely at odds with the appearances and illusions derived from the world through the outward senses - not to mention the copious chain of deeper arcana which lie hidden within those arcana and cannot be expressed except by variations and changes in the state of heavenly light and flame, by means of which angelic speech and thought are carried on.

7191. 'And God spoke to Moses' means something that is new yet continues what has gone before. This is clear from the fact that one often reads in the continuous thread of the narrative 'Jehovah said' and 'Jehovah spoke', as in the present chapter also. The expression 'Jehovah said to Moses' occurs in verse 1, then 'God spoke to Moses' in the present verse, and in like manner in verses 10, 13, 28-29. And the same use of these expressions may be seen elsewhere. Nothing else is meant by the repetition than something new beginning at that point, which however is to be taken in conjunction with what goes before it. (For the meaning of 'Jehovah said' as a new phase of perception, see 2061, 2238, 2260.) It should be realized that in its original language the Word lacks punctuation marks to indicate pauses, and therefore such expressions as those in this chapter have been used instead. And instead of marks to indicate minor pauses or divisions 'And' has been used, which is why that conjunction occurs so frequently. Angelic speech is likewise continuous, with pauses, to be sure, but every prior matter presented there links up in a remarkable manner with the one that follows it. For angels' ideas are extremely full of things, countless and indescribable, that go beyond a person's understanding while he is in the world. Consequently the ends of foregoing sentences can be fully linked up to the beginnings of ensuing sentences, and in this way a single series can be formed out of many. What is astounding and unbelievable, angelic speech exhibits within itself the form which heaven takes. For this reason all angelic speech possesses a song-like harmony in which each phrase ends with a monosyllable, and so in unison. And I have been told that this happens because every single thing in heaven looks to the one God as its end. From all this it has also become clear to me that every element of thought and therefore of speech flows in from the Lord by way of heaven, and that this accounts for the song-like harmony in speech ending in unison.