212. The fact that the opening of one's eyes means an inner voice is indicated by similar instances in the Word. Take Balaam's words describing himself: because he had visions, he calls himself a man whose eyes were open (Numbers 24:3-4). And when Jonathan tasted some honeycomb and his inner voice told him he had done wrong, it says that his eyes saw, so that they were enlightened to see what he had not known (1 Samuel 14:27, 29). In many other passages from the Word, eyes are taken to mean the intellect and so an inner dictate issuing from it. In David, for example:

Give light to my eyes to prevent me from sleeping the sleep of death. (Psalms 13:3)

This stands for a request that light shine on the intellect. In Ezekiel:

... who have eyes to see and do not see. (Ezekiel 12:2)

This means those who refuse to understand. In Isaiah:

Their eyes you must smear over, to prevent them from seeing with their eyes. (Isaiah 6:10)

This stands for their being so blind that they could not understand. Moses told the people:

Jehovah has not given you a heart for knowing or eyes for seeing or ears for hearing. (Deuteronomy 29:4)

A heart stands for the will and eyes for the intellect. Isaiah says that the Lord will "open blind eyes" (Isaiah 42:7). In the same author:

Out of the darkness and out of the shadows, the eyes of the blind will see. (Isaiah 29:18)