Like other common verbs, the meaning of "give" in the Bible is affected by context: who is giving what to whom? In general, though, giving relates to the fact that the Lord provides us all with true teachings for our minds and desires for good in our hearts, and for the fact that we need to accept those gifts while acknowledging that they come from the Lord, and not from ourselves. One of the most common and significant uses of "give" in the Bible is the repeated statement that the Lord had given the land of Canaan to the people of Israel. This springs from the fact that Canaan represents heaven, and illustrates that the Lord created us all for heaven and will give us heaven if we will accept the gift.

889. "To him who thirsts I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely." This symbolically means that to those who desire truths for some useful spiritual purpose, the Lord will give of Himself through the Word everything conducive to that useful purpose.

One who thirsts symbolizes someone who desires truth for some useful purpose, as will be seen next. The fountain of the water of life symbolizes the Lord and the Word (no. 384). To give freely means, symbolically, that it comes from the Lord, and not from any intelligence of the person's own.

Thirsting symbolizes a desire for something for some useful spiritual purpose because one may thirst for or desire concepts of truth from the Word for some natural purpose and also for some spiritual purpose. People who do so for some natural purpose have a reputation for learning as their goal, and in consequence of their learning prestige, honor and material gain. Thus they have themselves and the world in view. But people who do so for some spiritual purpose have serving the neighbor as their goal, out of a love for the neighbor, and they consider the welfare of his soul, as well as their own. Thus they have the Lord, the neighbor, and salvation in view. Such people are given truth from the fountain of the water of life, that is, from the Lord through the Word, to the extent that it is conducive to that purpose. No others are given truth from that source. They read the Word, and either they do not see any doctrinal truth in it, or if they do, they turn it into falsity - not so much in speech when reading aloud from the Word, but in the idea of their thought concerning it.

That to hunger symbolically means to desire good, and to thirst to desire truth, may be seen in nos. 323, 381.