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.

7073. In addition I spoke to them about sheep and lambs, but they were unwilling to listen to such things because they saw them as earthly objects. The reason why they did so was that they lacked any understanding of what innocence was, which is meant by 'lambs'. I realized that they lacked it from the following experience: When I said that in heaven lambs are not seen represented as lambs but that innocence is perceived instead when mention is made of them, they said that they did not know what innocence was; they knew it merely as a word. The reason for this is that they have an affection only for knowledge, not for useful services, which are the ends that knowledge has in view, 6815. Thus not having any affection for the ends which knowledge has in view, neither can they have any inward perception that enables them to know what innocence is.