9817. 'And you shall speak to all the wise at heart' means an influx from the Lord through the Word into all who are governed by the good of love. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking' as influx, dealt with in 2951, 5481, 5743, 5797, 7270; and from the meaning of 'the wise at heart' as those who are governed by the good of love, dealt with below. The reason why influx from the Lord through the Word is meant is that for members of the Church the main channel by which the Lord flows in is the Word. This is so because the nature of the Word is such that all things without exception there correspond to the Divine spiritual and Divine celestial realities that exist in the heavens; and as a result of this a person shares affections and thoughts with angels, in so complete a manner that he and they are seemingly one. So it is that the world has been joined to heaven through the Word, but only among those who are governed by the good of faith and love. From all this it becomes clear that for members of the Church the Lord flows in through the Word; for the Lord is the all in the heavens, since what is Divine and emanates from the Lord, and is received by angels, composes heaven.

[2] The reason why 'the wise at heart' means those who are governed by the good of love is that the presence of wisdom in a person is attributable to the life of heaven in him, also that 'heart' means the good of love. In the Word 'spirit' and 'heart' are expressions that have regard to the life of heaven present with a person, 'spirit' being used to mean that life in the understanding part of the person's mind and 'heart' that life in the will part. To the understanding part belongs truth, but to the will part belongs good; the former has to do with faith, but the latter with love. For the understanding receives truths that constitute faith, and the will forms of good that are aspects of love. From this it is evident that by 'the wise at heart' those governed by the good of love received from the Lord are meant. The good of love is celestial good, through which spiritual good comes into being; and spiritual good is that which covers celestial good, like garments the body. And since Aaron's garments represented the Lord's spiritual kingdom lying adjacent to His celestial kingdom, and the former comes into being through the latter, the present verse goes on to say that 'the wise at heart', that is, those governed by the good of love received from the Lord, should make the garments for Aaron and his sons. As regards 'heart', that it means the good of love or celestial good, see 3635, 3880, 3883-3896, 9050; and that it therefore means the will, 2930, 3888, 7542, 8910, 9113, 9300, 9495.

3432. 'And dug another well, and they did not dispute over that' means the literal sense of the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'a well' as the Word, dealt with in 2702, 3096, 3424, here the Word as regards the literal sense. For the words 'he moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not dispute over that' mean that sense of the Word which is more external and which people do not refuse to recognize, namely that sense which is called the literal sense. The literal sense of the Word is threefold - historical, prophetical, and doctrinal. Each of these is such that it is intelligible even to those who see only external things.

[2] As regards the Word, this did not exist in most ancient times when the Church was celestial, for members of that Church had the Word inscribed on their hearts. Indeed the Lord taught them directly by way of heaven what good was and from this what truth was, and enabled them to perceive each of these from love and charity, and to know each of them from revelation. To them the very Word itself was the Lord. This Church was succeeded by another which was not celestial but spiritual. At first this Church did not have a Word other than that which had been acquired from the most ancient people, a Word which was representative of the Lord and served spiritually to mean His kingdom. Thus to them the internal sense was the Word itself. The fact that they also had a written Word, both historical and prophetical, which is no longer extant, and that this in a similar way had an internal sense within it which was concerned with the Lord, see 2686. Consequently the wisdom of those times consisted in both speaking and in writing by means of representatives and meaningful signs - inside the Church about Divine things, and outside the Church about other matters, as is evident from the writings of these ancients which we possess. But in the course of time that wisdom perished, so that at length people were not aware that any internal sense existed even in the books of the Word. That was what the Jewish and Israelitish nation were like. They regarded the prophetical part of the Word to be holy because it sounded ancient and they heard the name of Jehovah when the sense of the letter was read, but at the same time they did not believe that anything deeper and Divine lay concealed in it. Nor does the Christian world think that the Word has any deeper holiness.

[3] From this it becomes clear how as time went by wisdom shifted from things that were the most internal to those that were the most external, and how mankind removed itself from heaven and at length sank as low as the dust of the ground in which wisdom is now seen to reside. Since this is what happened to the Word, that is to say, its internal sense has gradually been effaced, so that at the present day its existence is not known, and yet that sense is the very Word itself in which the Divine is most nearly present, this chapter therefore describes its consecutive states.