247. 'The serpent going on its belly' means that the sensory part was no longer able to look upwards to celestial things, as previously, only downwards to bodily and worldly things. This is clear from the fact that in earliest times 'the belly' meant things closest to the earth, ‘the breast’ those that were above the earth, and ‘the head’ those that were the highest. This is why in this verse the sensory part, which in itself is the lowest part of man since it directs itself to what is earthly, is referred to as ‘going on its belly’. And in the Jewish Church lying flat with the belly on the ground and sprinkling dust over the head had the same meaning. In David it is said,

Why do You hide Your face ¹ and forget our misery and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust, and our belly cleaves to the ground. Rise up, as a help for us, and redeem us for Your mercy's sake. Psalms 44:24-26.

Here too it is clear that when a person turns away from the face of Jehovah he starts to cling with his belly to the dust and the ground. In Jonah also the belly of the great fish into which he was cast means the lower parts of the earth, as is clear from his own prophecy,

Out of the belly of hell I cried, and You did hear my voice. Jonah 2:2.

Here 'hell' stands for the lower earth.

Footnotes:

3405. 'And he reaped in that year a hundred measures' means an abundance. This is clear from the meaning of 'a year' as the entire state of that which is being discussed, dealt with in 487, 488, 493, 893; from the meaning of 'a hundred' as that which is much and complete, dealt with in 2636; and from the meaning of 'a measure' as the state of a thing in regard to truth, dealt with in 3104. Taken all together these expressions mean an abundance of truth. In the highest sense the subject here, as everywhere else, is the Lord. That is, even He, when in the human from the mother, was subject to appearances of truth; but He cast off that human, and the appearances too, and assumed the Infinite and eternal Divine itself.

[2] But in the internal or relative sense the subject is the appearances that belong to the higher degree, which, as has been stated, exist with angels; and it is the abundance of these appearances that is meant by the words 'he reaped in that year a hundred measures'. Thus the situation with the appearances of truth, or truths that come from the Divine, is that those belonging to the higher degree are immensely superior in their abundance and perfection to those that belong to the lower degree. For millions, indeed millions of millions, of things which beings on the higher degree perceive distinctly and separately appear as no more than a single whole with those on the lower degree; for the lower things are simply compound wholes made up of those things that are higher. This may be deduced from the two memories present in man, of which the interior memory, being on the higher degree, is immensely superior to the exterior which belongs to the lower degree, see 2473, 2674. This shows what wisdom angels enjoy in comparison with men. Indeed angels of the third heaven dwell in a fourth degree above man, and therefore, when shown to man, that wisdom can only be referred to as that which is above comprehension, indeed as that which defies description.