10562. And Thou hast said, I know thee by name. That this signifies his quality, is evident from the signification of “knowing,” when said of Jehovah, as being to know and foresee from eternity (see n. 5309); and from the signification of “name.” as being the quality of a state, thing, or man (n. 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3004-3011, 3421, 6674, 6887, 8274, 8882, 9310). The quality of Moses is involved in the things which follow. From this it is evident that by, “I know thee by name,” when said by Jehovah, is signified to know and foresee from eternity what is his quality.

5309. Forasmuch as God hath caused thee to know all this. That this signifies because it has foresight and providence, is evident from the signification of “knowing,” when predicated of God, as being foresight and providence; for it cannot be said of God that He takes knowledge of a thing, because He knows all things from Himself, and the faculty of taking knowledge in man is from Him. Therefore in God “to know” is to foresee and to provide: to foresee is to know from eternity to eternity, and to provide is to do this. The reason why the celestial of the spiritual has foresight and providence, is that in the internal sense the Lord is here treated of, who is the celestial of the spiritual represented by Joseph.