4576. 'And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you' means Divine Good when made over [to the Natural] as its own. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' as good (for in the internal sense the land of Canaan, understood by 'the land' here, means the Lord's kingdom and consequently the Church, which is the Lord's kingdom on earth, 1607, 3481, 3705, 4447, 4517. And as these are meant good is meant, for good is the essential element in the Lord's kingdom and in the Church. But in the highest sense the land of Canaan means the Lord's Divine Good, for the good which exists in the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth originates in the Lord); from the representation of 'Abraham and Isaac' as the Lord's Divine, 'Abraham' being the Divine itself and 'Isaac' the Divine Human, in particular the Lord's Divine Rational (regarding Abraham, see 1989, 2011, 3245, 3251, 3439, 3703, 4206, 4207, and Isaac, 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 2774, 3012, 3194, 3210, 4180); and from the meaning of 'giving it (the land) to you' as making over to the Natural as its own, for Jacob, to whom 'you' refers here, represents the Lord's Divine Natural, as has often been shown. From all this it is evident that 'the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you' means Divine Good when made over [to the Natural] as its own.

2010. Now because the word 'names means the essential nature, and also the knowledge of that nature, the meaning of the statement made in this verse becomes clear. That is to say, 'No longer will you be called by your name Abram, but your name will be Abraham' means, not what his nature had been previously but what it was going to be. The fact that Abram served other gods and worshipped the god Shaddai was shown above in 1992; but because he was to represent the Lord, and in particular His Internal Man, and so the celestial side of His love, his previous nature had to be effaced, that is, the name Abram had to be altered to another which was such that the Lord could be represented by means of it. The letter H therefore was taken from the name Jehovah - which letter alone in the name Jehovah entails the Divine, and means I AM or TO BE - and was inserted into his name, so that he was called Abraham. The same happened with Sarai further on; the same letter was added to her name, so that she was called Sarah. From this it also becomes clear that in the internal sense of the Word Abraham represents Jehovah or the Lord.

[2] It should be realized however that in representations no significance is attached to the nature or character of the one who represents, for in those representations no attention is paid to the person representing but to the thing which he represents, as stated and shown already in 665, 1097 (end), 1361. Therefore the meaning of the words here in the internal sense is that the Lord cast off the human and put on the Divine, which is also the particular point in the train of thought both before and after this statement, for the promise is now made concerning Isaac his son, who was to represent the Lord's Divine Rational.