2701. 'God opened her eyes' means intelligence. This is clear from the meaning of 'opening' - and that it is God who did so - and also from [the meaning] of 'the eyes', as conferring intelligence; for 'the eyes' means the understanding, see 212, as also does 'sight' or 'seeing', 2150, 2325. The expression 'God opens the eyes' is used when He opens interior sight or the understanding, which opening is accomplished by means of an influx into the rational part of the person's mind, or rather into the spiritual part of his rational. The route taken by this influx is the soul, that is, the internal route, of which the person himself is not aware. This influx is his state of enlightenment in which the truths he hears or reads about are confirmed for him by a kind of perception existing within, in the understanding part of his mind. The person himself believes that this enlightenment is innate within himself and that it springs from his own power of understanding; but in this he is very much mistaken. This enlightenment consists in an influx from the Lord by way of heaven into that person's dim, mistaken, and specious sight of things, and by means of the good there causes the things which he believes to become imitations of truth. Only those who are spiritual however are blessed with enlightenment in spiritual matters of faith; and this is the meaning of the expression 'God opens the eyes'.

[2] The reason why 'the eye' means the understanding is that the sight belonging to the body corresponds to that belonging to its spirit, which is the understanding. And because it has this correspondence 'the eye' in the Word, in almost every place where it is mentioned, means the understanding, even where people believe something other is meant, as where the Lord says in Matthew,

The lamp of the body is the eye. If the eye is sound, the whole body is full of light. If the eye has been evil the whole body has been made full of darkness. If therefore the light is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:22-23; Luke 11:34.

Here 'the eye' is the understanding, the spiritual constituent of which is faith, as also is shown by the explanation added here - 'if therefore the light is darkness, how great is the darkness!' Similarly in the same gospel,

If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. Matthew 5:29; 18:9.

'The left eye' is the understanding part of the mind, whereas 'the right eye' is its affection. The command to pluck out the right eye means that if it causes one to stumble one's affection must be disciplined.

[3] In the same gospel,

Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Matthew 13:16.

And in Luke, Jesus said to the disciples, Blessed are the eyes which see what you see. Luke 10:23.

Here 'the eyes which see' means intelligence and faith, for it was not the mere fact that they saw the Lord and also His miracles and works that caused any one of the disciples to be blessed but the fact that they could grasp things with their understandings and had faith, meant by 'seeing with the eyes', and that they were obedient, meant by 'hearing with the ears'. As regards 'seeing with the eyes' meaning to see with the understanding and also to have faith, see 897, 2325. For the understanding is the spiritual complement of sight, and faith the spiritual complement of the understanding. The sight of the eye is received from the light of the world, the sight of the understanding from the light of heaven flowing into things which belong to the light of the world; but the sight of faith is received from the light of heaven. This is the origin of such phrases as seeing with the understanding and seeing with faith. 'Hearing with the ear' means being obedient, see 2542.

[4] In Mark,

Jesus said to the disciples, Do you not yet know nor understand? Do you still have your heart hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? Mark 8:17-18.

Here it is evident that 'having eyes but not seeing' means not wishing to understand and not believing. In Luke,

Jesus said of the city, Would that you knew the things that make for your peace! But such is hidden from your eyes. Luke 19:41-42.

And in Mark,

By the Lord has this been done, and it is marvellous in our eyes. Mark 12:11.

Here 'hidden from the eyes' and 'marvellous in the eyes' mean to be so to the understanding, as is well known to everyone from the meaning of 'the eyes' even in everyday speech.

6774. 'And he dwelt next to a well' means an eagerness there for the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'dwelling' as leading a life, dealt with immediately above in 6773, here an eagerness belonging to that life; and from the meaning of 'a well' as the Word, dealt with in 2702, 3424. The Word is sometimes called 'a well', at other times 'a spring'. When it is called 'a well' the Word as to its literal sense is meant, but when it is called 'a spring' the Word as to its internal sense is meant, 3765. Here Moses is said to dwell 'next to a well' because the Word as to its literal sense is what is meant. For that sense is the first that those people have who are being regenerated and making progress towards God's truth - the people who are the subject here in the internal sense. Furthermore people who are guided by the truths that go with simple good, who are meant here by 'Midian', are not interested in any sense other than the literal.

3424. 'Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of living water' means the Word as regards the literal sense, which holds the internal sense within it. This is clear from the meaning of 'digging in the valley' as investigating lower down to discover where truths are, for 'digging' is investigating, and 'a valley' is that which is lower down, 1723, 3417; and from the meaning of 'a well of living water' as the Word in which Divine truths are present, thus the Word as regards the literal sense which holds the internal sense within it. It is well known that the Word is called 'a spring', in particular 'a spring of living waters'. The reason why the Word is also called 'a well' is that in relation to its other senses the sense of the letter is like a well, and that where spiritual people are concerned the Word is not a spring but a well, see 2702, 3096. Since a valley is that which is lower down, or what amounts to the same, that which is more external, and it was in the valley that the spring was found; and since the literal sense is the lower or more external sense of the Word, it is the literal sense that is therefore meant. But because that sense holds the internal sense, that is, the heavenly and Divine sense, its waters are for that reason called 'living', as also were the waters which went out under the threshold of the new house in Ezekiel,

And it will happen, that every wild creature that creeps, wherever the river comes to, is living; and there will be very many fish, for those waters go there, and become fresh; and everything is living where the river goes. Ezekiel 47:8-9.

Here 'the river' is the Word, 'the waters which cause everything to live' are the Divine Truths within it, 'fish' are facts, 40, 991.

[2] The Lord teaches that the Word of the Lord is such that it gives life to him who is thirsty, that is, to one who desires life, and that it is a spring whose waters are living, in John,

Jesus said to the woman from Samaria at Jacob's well, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would ask from Him, and He would give you living water. He who drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life. John 4:10, 14.

The reason why the Word is living and therefore confers life is that in its highest sense the subject is the Lord, while in the inmost sense it is His kingdom in which the Lord is everything. And this being so it is life itself which the Word contains and which flows into the minds of those who read the Word devoutly. This is why the Lord, in regard to the Word which comes from Himself, calls Himself 'a spring of water welling up into eternal life'; see also 2702.

[3] The fact that the Word of the Lord is called 'a well' in addition to 'a spring' is clear in Moses,

Israel sang the song: Spring up, O well! Answer to it! The well which the princes dug, which the chiefs of the people dug out, as directed by the Lawgiver, ¹ with their staves. Numbers 21:17-18.

These words were sung at the place Beer, that is, the place of the well. In this case 'a well' means the Word which existed with the Ancient Church, as is evident from what has been said previously about the Word in 2897. 'The princes' means the first and foremost truths of which [the Word] consists - 'princes' being first and foremost truths, see 1482, 2089 - 'nobles of the people' lower truths such as those present in the literal sense, 1259, 1260, 2928, 3295. 'The Lawgiver' is clearly the Lord, 'staves' the powers which those truths possessed.

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