4126. 'And said to him, Take care not to speak to Jacob either good or evil' means that no communication existed any longer. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking either good or evil' as speaking good but thinking evil, and at length consequently speaking evil and practicing it. For anyone who thinks evil at length speaks it and practices it. Anyone like this is no longer joined to another, since it is people's thought and also their will which join them together, not their words. In the world words do, it is true, join people together, but in this case the hearer believes that the speaker also thinks good and wills it. But in the next life all thought stands revealed, for it is communicated by a certain kind of sphere, a spiritual sphere which emanates from another and reveals the nature of his inclination and mind, that is, of his will and thought. Consequently it is in accordance with this sphere that he becomes joined to others. From this it is evident that the words forbidding Laban 'to speak good or evil' in the internal sense mean that no communication existed any longer.