2000. 'And God spoke to him, saying' means a degree of perception. This is clear from the meaning of 'Jehovah saying' as perceiving, 1898, 1899. Here it means a degree of perception because He was passing through a state of humiliation or adoration, in which He was joined and united to Jehovah according to the degree of perception present, for this is what humiliation entails. That perceptions are more and more interior, see 1616.