2148. He lifted up his eyes. That this signifies that the Lord saw within Himself, is evident from the signification of “lifting up the eyes.” By “eyes” in the Word is signified the interior sight, or the understanding, as may be seen from the passages cited above (n. 212). Hence to “lift up the eyes” means to see and perceive things which are above self. Things that are interior are expressed in the Word by those which are higher, as “looking upward,” “lifting up the eyes to heaven,” “thinking high things,” the reason of which is that man supposes heaven to be on high, or above himself; when yet it is not on high, but is in things internal-as when a man is in the celestial things of love, his heaven is then within him (see n. 450). From this it follows that to “lift up the eyes” signifies to see within oneself.

212. That by having the “eyes opened” is signified an interior dictate, is evident from similar expressions in the Word, as from what Balaam says of himself, who in consequence of having visions calls himself the “man whose eyes are opened” (Numbers 24:3). And from Jonathan, who when he tasted of the honeycomb and had a dictate from within that it was evil, said that his “eyes saw” that is, were enlightened, so that he saw what he knew not (1 Samuel 14:29). Moreover in the Word, the “eyes” are often used to denote the understanding, and thus an interior dictate therefrom, as in David:

Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death (Psalms 13:3),

where “eyes” denote the understanding. So in Ezekiel, speaking of those who are not willing to understand, who “have eyes to see, and see not” (Ezekiel 12:2).

In Isaiah:

Shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes (Isaiah 6:10),

denotes that they should be made blind, lest they should understand. So Moses said to the people,

Jehovah hath not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear (Deuteronomy 29:4),

where “heart” denotes the will, and “eyes” denote the understanding.

In Isaiah it is said of the Lord, that “He should open the blind eyes” (Isaiah 42:7). And in the same Prophet: “The eyes of the blind shall see out of thick darkness and out of darkness”

(Isaiah 29:18).