4591. 'That she called his name Ben-oni' means the nature of that state. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling the name' as the essential nature, often dealt with already. The state that is described here in the internal sense is a state of temptations, the nature of this state being meant by 'Ben-oni'; for in the original language Ben-oni means Son of my pain (or sorrow). In ancient times infants were given names by which states were meant spiritually, see 1946, 2643, 3422, 4298.

3422. 'Like the names which his father had called them' means meaningful signs of truth. This is clear from the fact that the names which were given in ancient times to persons, places, and things all carried spiritual meanings, see 340, 1946, 2643. Thus the names given to springs and wells were meaningful signs of the things which springs and wells had been used to mean in former times; and those things were matters of truth, as shown in 2702, 3096. And because names carried a spiritual meaning, the expressions 'name' and 'calling by name' also mean in general the essential nature either of a real thing or of a state, as said immediately above in 3421. That being so, any name used in the Word does not in its internal sense mean some person, or some nation, or some kingdom, or some city, but in every case some real thing. Anyone may deduce from this that 'wells' here means something belonging to heaven, for if this were not the case, so many details concerning wells would not have been worth mentioning in the Divine Word - since knowledge of them would be no use at all, such as that the Philistines stopped up the wells which Abraham's servants had dug; that Isaac dug them again and called them by names like those they had had previously; and that after that Isaac's servants dug a well in the valley, a well over which the herdsmen disputed; and that he dug yet another, which they also disputed over; and following that another which they did not dispute over; and yet another; and at length that they gave him an account of the new well, verses 15, 18-22, 25, 32-33. But the thing belonging to heaven that is meant by these is now evident from the internal sense.