2061. 'God said to Abraham' means perception. This is clear from the meaning of the expression used in the historical sense - God saying - which in the internal sense means perceiving, dealt with already in 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919. Because a different subject is taken up at this point - namely the things meant by the names 'Sarai' and 'Sarah', as well as by the promise of a son borne by Sarah, and by Ishmael's being a great nation in the future - it is introduced by a new perception which the Lord had, expressed here, as in many other places, by the words 'God said to Abraham'.

1791. 'Abram said, O Lord Jehovih' means the Lord's perception. This becomes clear from the fact that the Lord had the inmost and most perfect perception of all. As stated already, this perception was a perceptive feeling and awareness of all that was happening in heaven; it was also a constant communication and internal conversing with Jehovah, which the Lord alone had. This perception is what is meant in the internal sense by the statement 'Abram said to Jehovah', and thus is what was represented by Abram when he addressed Jehovah. The same applies in what follows whenever the expression 'Abram said to Jehovah' occurs.