284. And they were full of eyes within. That this signifies the Divine providence and guardianship, is evident from the signification of eyes, when said of the Lord, as being His Divine providence (concerning which see above, n. 68 152). The reason why guardianship is also signified is that cherubim have also that signification (n. 277).

Chaldea was a land lying along the Euphrates river near its mouth, south of Babylon, part of what is now southern Iraq. It was a land of the Lord's second great church, the Ancient Church, which at its height had a wealth of knoweldge through its own sacred scriptures and the correspondences of nature. But as this church declined Chaldea came to represent people who use truths for evil purposes and thus profane and falsify them. Abram was born in Chaldea because of the greatness it had represented, but had to leave because of what it had become.