2822. 'And said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am' means a perception of comfort in the Divine Good of the Rational following temptation. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'saying' in historical parts of the Word as perceiving, often dealt with already. The reason why here it is a perception in the Divine Good of the Rational is that 'Abraham' here means the Divine Good within the Lord's Rational or Human. What perception in the Divine Good of the Rational is cannot be explained intelligibly, for prior to any explanation of it an idea of the Lord's Divine Human must be formed from knowledge of many things. Until such an idea has been formed all things offered by way of explanation would fall into ideas that were either empty or obscure, which would either pervert truths or bring these among ideas out of keeping with them.

[2] In this verse the Lord's first state following temptation is the subject, which is a state of comfort. This explains why the name God is not now used any more but Jehovah, for God is used when reference is being made to the truth from which the battle is fought, but Jehovah when reference is being made to the good from which comfort springs, 2769. All comfort following temptation is instilled into good, for good is the source of all joy, and from the good it passes over into truth. Here therefore 'Abraham' means the Divine Good of the Rational, as he also does in other places, and wherever the name Jehovah occurs in the same verse.

2080. That 'God said' means the reply that was perceived is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perceiving, dealt with just above in 2077. And because in the previous verse the words 'Abraham said' were used, which meant perception, and in this verse the words 'God said' (or replied) occur, a perceived reply, that is, a reply received in the form of perception, is consequently meant. All perception entails both a proposition and a reply, the perception of the two being expressed here in the historical sense by the phrases 'Abraham said to God' and 'God said'. That 'God's saying' means perceiving, see 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, and in various places above in this chapter.