5423. And spoke hard things with them. That this signifies hence also non-correspondence, is evident from the same explication that was given above of his "making himself strange" to them. To "make one's self strange" has regard to the affection of the will, and to "speak hardly" has regard to the thought of the understanding, for in the internal sense "to speak" is to think (see n. 2271, 2287, 2619); and the internal appears strange to the external when there is no affection, and the internal appears to speak hard things when there is no correspondence. Correspondence is the appearing of the internal in the external, and its representation therein; wherefore when there is no correspondence, there is no appearing of the internal in the external, and therefore no representation of it therein. Hence comes the hardness.