7107. 'And Pharaoh said' means the will of those who molest the Church's truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as the will, dealt with below; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as those who molest the Church's truths, dealt with in 6651, 6679, 6683, thus who molest those who belong to the spiritual Church, for the latter are said to be in possession of the Church's truths. The reason why the word 'saying' means the will or act of willing is that that word also includes what follows it; for when anyone wills something he verbalizes it. Since the word 'says' includes what follows it, it has various meanings, for example, a command, 7036; an urgent demand or an admonition, 5012, 7073, 7090; communication, 3060, 4131, 6228; thought, 7094; or perception, which is its proper meaning, 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2862, 3509, 5687.

5687. 'And said' means perception. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' in the historical narratives of the Word as perception, often dealt with already. The reason 'saying' means perceiving is that in heaven, quite differently from what happens in the world, the actual thoughts that give rise to an utterance are perceived. And this is the reason why perceiving in the spiritual sense is 'speaking' or 'saying' in the literal sense, or what amounts to the same, the natural sense.