5877. 'And Joseph said to his brothers' means that the internal celestial imparted a power of perception to the truths in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' in the historical narratives of the Word as perception, dealt with in 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509, 5687, 5743, in this case an imparting of a power of perception, dealt with below; from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal celestial, dealt with just above in 5869; and from the representation of the ten sons of Jacob, to whom 'brothers' refers here, as the truths in the natural, dealt within 5403, 5419, 5458, 5512. The internal sense is therefore this, that the internal celestial imparted a power of perception to the truths in the natural. The reason why 'saying' here means imparting a power of perception is that the subject in what follows below is the joining of the internal celestial, which is 'Joseph', to the truths in the natural, which are 'the sons of Jacob'. And when that joining together takes place an ability to perceive is imparted - through the affection for truth and thus for good.

10290. 'And Jehovah said to Moses' means enlightenment and perception once again from the Lord through the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying', when it refers to Jehovah, as enlightenment and perception (for its meaning enlightenment, see 7019, 10215, 10234, and for its meaning perception, 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2862, 3509, 5877); and from the representation of 'Moses' as the Word, dealt with in 6752, 7014, 7089, 'Jehovah' in the Word being the Lord, see in the places referred to in 9373. From all this it is evident that 'Jehovah said to Moses' means enlightenment and perception from the Lord through the Word.

[2] These things are meant because the Lord speaks to a member of the Church in no other way than through the Word; for when He does so He sheds light to enable the person to see the truth, and also provides perception to enable him to perceive it to be such. How far He does so however is determined by the nature of the person's desire for truth, and that desire is determined by his love. Those who love truth for truth's sake possess enlightenment, and those who love truth for goodness' sake have perception. What perception is, see 483, 495, 521, 536, 597, 607, 784, 1121, 1387, 1919, 2144, 2145, 2171, 2515, 2831, 5228, 5920, 7680, 7977, 8780. But the Lord spoke to Moses and the prophets by word of mouth, to the end that the Word might be disseminated, its nature being such that every detail had an inner meaning. This also is the reason why these words, Jehovah said to Moses, are used. The angels, who discern that inner meaning, have no awareness of Moses, for the names of persons do not pass into heaven, 10282. Instead of Moses they perceive the Word, while the verb 'to say' is with them converted into something congruous with it, thus in this instance into 'to be enlightened' and 'to perceive'. Nothing else furthermore is understood, in the angelic way of thinking, by 'saying' or 'speaking' when done by the Lord through the Word.