4607. 'The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin' means interior goods and truths. This is clear from the representation of 'Rachel' as the affection for interior truth, dealt with in 3758, 3782, 3793, 3819, and therefore 'the sons of Rachel' are interior goods and truths, the essential characteristics of which are represented by 'Joseph and Benjamin'. In the highest sense 'Joseph' means the Divine Spiritual, in the internal sense the spiritual kingdom, and in the external sense the good of that kingdom, dealt with in 3969, while 'Benjamin' means the Divine spiritual of the celestial, dealt with in 3969, 4592. These are the essential characteristics within interior goods and truths.

Like "say," the word "speak" refers to thoughts and feelings moving from our more internal spiritual levels to our more external ones -- and ultimately from the Lord, who is in a sense the most internal spiritual level of all. This is generally called "influx" and "perception" in the Writings, meaning they are thoughts and feelings that flow in in a complete way from the Lord, rather than being things we have to think about and figure out. On a number of occasions "speak" and "say" are used together; in these cases "speak" refers more to intellectual instruction in matters of thought and "say" refers more to feelings and affections that flow in directly.