3251. And these are the days of the years of the lives of Abraham, which he lived. That this signifies a state representative by Abraham of the Lord as to the Divine Itself, is evident from the signification of “days” and “years,” as being states (n. 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788); and from the signification here of “lives,” as also being states (n. 2904), here, states that were represented by Abraham; for all his life, as it is described in the Word, and the end of which is now treated of, was representative. That Abraham represented the Lord as to the Divine Itself, has been shown in the explications. In order that he might represent, he was called by the name Abraham, the letter “h” being inserted, which was taken from the name “Jehovah” (n. 2010). Abraham represented both the Divine Itself, which is called the “Father,” and the Divine Human, which is called the “Son,” thus he represented the Lord as to both the Divine Itself and the Divine Human, but that Divine Human which is from eternity, from which came forth and to which He reduced or brought the Human that was born in time, when He glorified it. This is the representation of the Lord by Abraham.

2010. Since therefore the “name” signifies the quality and to know what the quality is, we can see what is signified by the words in this verse, “thy name shall no more be called Abram, and thy name shall be Abraham;” to wit, that he was not to be such in quality as in the past, but such as he was about to be. That Abram served other gods, and worshiped the god Shaddai, was shown above (n. 1992); but because he was to represent the Lord, and in fact His internal man, and thus the Celestial of His Love, his former quality was to be blotted out, that is, the name “Abram” was to be so changed in character that the Lord could be represented by it. Therefore the letter H was taken from the name of Jehovah-which letter is the only one in the name “Jehovah” that involves the Divine, and which signifies I AM or BEING (Esse)—and was inserted in his name, and he was called “Abraham.” The case is similar with “Sarai,” spoken of in what follows; to whose name the same letter was also added, and she was called “Sarah.” From this also we can see that in the internal sense of the Word Abraham represents Jehovah or the Lord.

[2] Be it known however that in representations it matters not what a man’s quality is, for in them no attention is paid to the person, but to the thing which he represents (as was said and shown before, n. 665, 1097 the end, 1361). Therefore in the internal sense the signification of these words is that the Lord will put off the human, and will put on the Divine; which also is in a series with what goes before, and likewise with what follows; for a promise is now made concerning the son Isaac, by whom was to be represented the Lord’s Divine rational.