Swedenborg says that in general, digging in the Bible means applying your own mind, your own faculties to find or create spiritual things. This is reflected in common language; we often speak of researchers or investigators “digging for the truth.”
In most cases, the idea of digging is connected with wells, and to dig a well means to investigate truth from the Lord and draw ideas from it. In a more negative sense, a pit – which is like a well but with no water – represents falsity, so to dig a pit represents using your intellect to fabricate falsities. Finally, there is the idea of digging through walls in order to steal from others, which represents doing evil in a cunning and concealed way, invading someone’s life and attacking their desires for good and concepts of truth.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3419
- ‘Isaac came back and dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father’ means that the Lord disclosed the truths that had existed with the Ancients. This is clear from the representation of ‘Isaac’ as the Lord’s Divine Rational, dealt with already; from the meaning of ‘coming back and digging again’ as disclosing once again; from the meaning of ‘the wells of water’ as truths that are the sources of cognitions – ‘wells’ being truths, see 2702, 3096, and ‘waters’ cognitions, 28, 2702, 3058; and from the meaning of ‘the days of Abraham his father’ as a former time and state as regards truths, which are meant by ‘which they had dug in those days’, and so which had existed with the Ancients – ‘days’ meaning a time and a state, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 893.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 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.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3445
- ‘And Isaac’s servants dug a well there’ means the doctrine that came from there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a well’ as the Word, dealt with in 2702, 3424. Now because the Word is doctrine itself and so the Word is the source of all doctrine taught by the Church, ‘digging a well’ therefore means doctrine drawn from there, that is to say, from the literal sense of the Word, since that sense is the subject here. But the doctrine itself drawn from the literal sense of the Word is invariably the same, that is to say, it is always concerned with charity and love – charity towards the neighbour and love to the Lord. For such doctrine and life lived according to it constitute the whole Word, as the Lord teaches in Matt. 22:37-40.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7343
- ‘And all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink’ means searching out truth which they could apply to falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘digging’ as searching out, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘water round about the river’ as truths (the reason why ‘water round about the river’ is truths is that this water was outside the river and had not become blood; for the meaning of ‘water’ as truths, see 739, 790, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668); and from the meaning of ‘drinking’ as applying to falsities. For the meaning of ‘drinking’ as applying, see 5709; for anyone who drinks something applies it to himself. But it should be recognized that the nature of the application when it takes place is determined by the character and state of the one who applies that thing to himself. …
[3] The reason why ‘digging’ means searching out is that ‘water’, ‘spring’, and ‘well’ which are dug out mean truths, which are not dug out but searched out. This is why in the original language this same word, when it is used in connection with truths, also means to search for. In prophetical statements however either ‘water’ or ‘spring’ is used instead of truth, and ‘digging’ instead of searching for; for this is what prophetic language is like, as is evident in Moses, where the spring at Beer is referred to, about which Israel sang this song,
Rise up, O spring! Answer over it! The well* which the princes dug, which the chiefs of the people dug out, as directed by the lawgiver, with their staves. Num. 21:16-18.
Here ‘spring’ means teachings presenting God’s truth, ‘digging’ means searching for it.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9084
- ‘And when a man opens a pit’ means if anyone receives falsity from another. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a pit’ as falsity, dealt with in 4728, 4744, 5038; and from the meaning of ‘opening’, when it refers to falsity, as receiving, at this point receiving from another since ‘or when a man digs a pit’ follows, which means receiving from oneself or fabricating oneself.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9125
- ‘If a thief is caught digging through’ means if it is not apparent that good or truth is being taken away. This is clear from the meaning of ‘digging through’ as perpetrating evil in concealment, and – when said of a thief – as taking away good or truth by means of falsity arising from evil so as not to be seen, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘a thief’ as one who takes away good and truth, dealt with in 5135, 8906, 9018, 9020, and in the abstract sense as truth or good that has been taken away. The term ‘abstract sense’ is used because angels, who see the internal sense of the Word, think in abstraction from persons, 5225, 5287, 5434, 8343, 8985, 9007. The Word too in its internal sense has spiritual realities instead of worldly objects, without any narrowing down to persons or places.
[2] As regards the meaning of ‘digging through’ as perpetrating evil in concealment, and – when said of a thief – as taking away good or truth by means of falsity arising from evil so as not to be seen, all this is evident from the consideration that a distinction is drawn here between a theft committed by digging through and a theft committed when the sun has risen, spoken of in the next verse. That ‘digging through’ has this meaning is also clear from places in the Word in which the expression occurs, as in Jeremiah,
Yes, in your skirts the blood of poor innocent souls is found. I have found those things not by digging through but on them all. Jer. 2:34.
This refers to foul kinds of love and the evils resulting from them. ‘I have found those things not by digging through’ stands for not discovering them by investigating secretly. Therefore it says those things are ‘on them all’, that is, they are visible everywhere. In Ezekiel,
He brought me to the door of the court, where I looked, and behold, a hole in the wall. He said to me, Dig, now, through the wall. I therefore dug through the wall, and behold, a door. Ezek. 8:7, 8.
This refers to the abominations of the house of Israel which they performed secretly. ‘Digging through the wall’ means going in secretly and seeing what they do. In Amos,
If they dig through into hell, from there My hand will take them. Or if they mount up into heaven, from there I will throw them down. Amos 9:2.
‘Digging through into hell’ means hiding oneself there, and so among falsities arising from evil. Hell consists in falsity arising from evil, since that falsity reigns there. The falsities there are called darkness, within which they hide away from the light of heaven; for they flee from the light of heaven, which is Divine Truth from the Lord. In Job,
The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight, saying, No eye will see me. And he will put on a covering for his face. He digs through* houses in the darkness. In the daytime they mark [them] for themselves; they do not acknowledge the light. For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death, since they acknowledge the terrors of the shadow of death. Job 24:15-17.
Here ‘digging through houses’ plainly stands for secretly plundering another’s goods. For it says that ‘he digs through houses in the darkness’; that he watches for twilight, so that no eye may see him; that he puts a covering on his face; they do not acknowledge the light; also that the morning is the shadow of death to them.
[3] The use of ‘digging through a house’ to mean secretly taking away another’s good has its origin in representatives in the next life. There when angels are talking about falsity secretly destroying good, this destruction appears as the digging through of a wall when it is represented on a lower level, where the things angels talk about are manifested in visual images. On the other hand, when angels are talking about truth approaching good and linking itself to it, that approach is represented as an open door through which people enter. This is why the Lord, who spoke in accordance with representatives in heaven and in accordance with correspondences, says in John,
Truly, truly, I say to you, He who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. John 10:1, 2.
And in Luke,
Know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming he would certainly have been awake and would not have permitted his house to be dug through.** Luke 12:39.
Here also ‘the thief’ is one who destroys forms of the good of faith by means of falsities. ‘Digging through a house’ means carrying out such destruction secretly, since it is done when the householder is not awake. So it is also that coming like a thief means coming without being recognized, because he does not come through the door but by some other way. In John,
If you are not awake I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Rev. 3:3.
And in the same book,
Behold, I am coming like a thief; blessed is he who is awake. Rev. 16:15.
‘Coming like a thief’ means coming without being recognized and unexpectedly.
The Lord is spoken of in such a way because the meaning is that the door in a person is closed by falsity arising from evil.