2000. And God spake with him, saying. That this signifies a degree of perception, is evident from the signification of Jehovah’s “saying,” which is to perceive (n. 1898, 1899). Here it signifies a degree of perception, because He was in a state of humiliation or of adoration, in which He was conjoined and united to Jehovah in proportion to the degree of the humiliation; for humiliation carries this with it. (That perceptions are more and more interior may be seen above, n. 1616)

1899. Behold I pray, Jehovah hath shut me up from bearing. That this signifies the state before the interior or Divine rational man was born, is evident from what has been already said about the conception and birth of the rational man, namely, that the Lord’s Divine rational man is represented by Isaac, but His first rational man, which was to become Divine, by Ishmael. In order that these things might be represented, Sarai remained so long barren, even until Ishmael had become a lad (spoken of in Genesis 21); on which account it is here said that “Jehovah shut her up from bearing.”