3424. And the servants of Isaac digged in the valley, and found there a well of living waters. That this signifies the Word as to the literal sense in which is the internal sense, is evident from the signification of “digging in the valley,” as being to make search lower down in respect to where truths are; for to “dig” is to search, and a “valley” denotes what is below (n. 1723, 3417); and from the signification of a “well of living waters,” as being the Word in which are truths Divine, thus the Word as to the literal sense in which is the internal sense. That the Word is called a “fountain,” and indeed a “fountain of living waters,” is well known; but the reason why the Word is also called a “well,” is that the sense of the letter is relatively such; and also because relatively to those who are spiritual the Word is not a “fountain,” but a “well” (n. 2702, 3096). As a “valley” denotes that which is below, or what is the same, that which is exterior, and the fountain was found in a valley, and the literal sense is the lower or exterior sense of the Word, therefore it is the literal sense which is meant; but because the internal sense, that is, the heavenly and Divine sense, is within this, therefore the waters thereof are called “living;” as were also the waters that went forth under the threshold of the new house, in Ezekiel:

And it shall come to pass that every living creature that creepeth, to which the river there comes, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters are come thither and are healed, and everything liveth whithersoever the river cometh (Ezekiel 47:9); where the “river” is the Word; the “waters which cause everything to live” are the Divine truths contained in it; the “fish” are memory-knowledges (n. 40, 991).

[2] That the Word of the Lord is such that it gives life to him that thirsteth, that is, to him that desireth life, and that it is a “fountain whose waters are living,” the Lord also teaches in John when speaking to the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well:

If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life (John 4:10, 14).

That the Word is living and therefore gives life, is because in its supreme sense the Lord is treated of, and in the inmost sense His kingdom, in which the Lord is all; and this being the case, there is in the Word life itself, which flows into the minds of those who read the Word with reverence; hence it is that in respect to the Word that is from Himself the Lord declares Himself to be a “fountain of water springing up unto eternal life” (see also n. 2702).

[3] That just as the Lord’s Word is called a “fountain,” so is it also called a “well,” is evident in Moses:

Israel sang this song: Spring up, O well, answer ye unto it: the princes digged the well; the chiefs of the people digged it for the lawgiver with their staves (Numbers 21:17-18).

These words were spoken at the “place Beer,” that is, at the “place of the well.” That by “well” here is signified the Word of the Ancient Church, spoken of above (n. 2897), is evident from what is there said; “princes” are primary truths that are the source; (that “princes” signify primary truths may be seen above, n. 1482, 2089); the “chiefs of the people” are lower truths, such as are those contained in the literal sense (n. 1259, 1260, 2928, 3295); that the “lawgiver” is the Lord, is evident; “staves” denote the powers which they possessed.

991. And to all the fishes of the sea. That this signifies memory-knowledges [scientifica], is evident from the signification of a fish. “Fishes” in the Word signify memory-knowledges, which spring from things of sense. For memory-knowledges [scientifica] are of three kinds: intellectual, rational, and sensuous. All these are planted in the memory, or rather memories, and in the regenerate man are called forth thence by the Lord, through the internal man. These memory-knowledges which are from things of sense come to man’s sensation or perception when he lives in the body, for he thinks from them. The rest, which are interior, do not come so much to perception until man puts off the body and enters the other life. That “fishes” or the creeping things which the waters produce, signify memory-knowledges, may be seen above n. 40); and that a “whale” or “sea monster” signifies the generals of these knowledges n. 42). Moreover the same is evident from the following passages in the Word.

In Zephaniah:

I will make man and beast to fail; I will make the fowls of the heavens and the fishes of the sea to fail (Zephaniah 1:3),

where the “fowls of the heavens” denote things of reason, and the “fishes of the sea” lower rational things, that is, man’s thought from sensuous memory-knowledges.

[2] In Habakkuk:

Thou makest man as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping thing that has no ruler over them (Habakkuk 1:14), where “making man as the fishes of the sea” means that he is altogether sensuous.

In Hosea:

Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the wild animal of the field and the fowl of the heavens; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be gathered (Hosea 4:3), where the “fishes of the sea” denote memory-knowledges from things of sense.

In David:

Thou hast put all things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas (Psalms 8:6-8),

speaking of the dominion of the Lord in man, the “fish of the sea” denote memory-knowledges. That “seas” signify the gathering together of knowledges [scientificorum seu cognitionum], may be seen above n. 28).

In Isaiah:

The fishers shall lament, and all they that cast a hook into the river shall mourn, and they that spread a net upon the faces of the waters shall languish (Isaiah 19:8); “fishers” denoting those who trust only in things of sense, and out of these hatch falsities; the subject being Egypt, or the realm of memory-knowledge.