1Then he brought me back to the entrance of the house; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the front of the house faces east; and the water was flowing from under the right side of the house, south of the altar. 2He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around the outside to the outer gate that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side. 3And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to the ankles. 4Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to the knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to the waist. 5Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water was too deep; water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. 6And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? And he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. 7When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. 8Then he said to me: This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the wilderness, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. 9And it shall be that every living thing that swarms, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river shall come. 10It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many. 11But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt. 12And along the banks of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing. 13Thus says the Lord Jehovah: These are the borders by which you shall divide the land as an inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions. 14And you shall inherit it equally with one another; for I raised My hand and swore to give it to your fathers, and this land shall fall to you as your inheritance. 15And this shall be the border of the land on the north: from the Great Sea, by the road to Hethlon, as one goes to Zedad, 16Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim (which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath), to Hazar Hatticon (which is on the border of Hauran). 17Thus the boundary shall be from the Sea to Hazar Enan, the border of Damascus; and as for the north, northward, it is the border of Hamath. This is the north side. 18And on the east side you shall mark out the border from between Hauran and Damascus, and between Gilead and the land of Israel, along the Jordan, and to the Eastern Sea. This is the east side. 19And the south side, toward the south, shall be from Tamar to the waters of Meribah by Kadesh, along the brook to the Great Sea. This is the south side, toward the South. 20And the west side shall be the Great Sea, from the southern boundary until one comes to a point opposite Hamath. This is the west side. 21Thus you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22And it shall be that you will divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves, and for the strangers who sojourn among you and who bear children among you. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. 23And it shall be that in whatever tribe the stranger sojourns, there you shall give him his inheritance, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 VISION OF THE TEMPLE WATERS. BORDERS AND DIVISION OF THE LAND. (Eze. 47:1-23)
waters--So
Rev 22:1, represents "the water of life as proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." His throne was set up in the temple at Jerusalem (
Ezek 43:7). Thence it is to flow over the earth (
Joel 3:18;
Zech 13:1;
Zech 14:8). Messiah is the temple and the door; from His pierced side flow the living waters, ever increasing, both in the individual believer and in the heart. The fountains in the vicinity of Moriah suggested the image here. The waters flow eastward, that is, towards the Kedron, and thence towards the Jordan, and so along the Ghor into the Dead Sea. The main point in the picture is the rapid augmentation from a petty stream into a mighty river, not by the influx of side streams, but by its own self-supply from the sacred miraculous source in the temple [HENDERSON]. (Compare
Ps 36:8-
Ps 36:9;
Ps 46:4;
Isa 11:9;
Hab 2:14). Searching into the things of God, we find some easy to understand, as the water up to the ankles; others more difficult, which require a deeper search, as the waters up to the knees or loins; others beyond our reach, of which we can only adore the depth (
Rom 11:33). The healing of the waters of the Dead Sea here answers to "there shall be no more curse" (
Rev 22:3; compare
Zech 14:11).
7 trees--not merely one tree of life as in Paradise (
Gen 3:22), but many: to supply immortal food and medicine to the people of God, who themselves also become "trees of righteousness" (
Isa 61:3) planted by the waters and (
Ps 1:3) bearing fruit unto holiness.
8 the desert--or "plain," Hebrew, Arabah (
Deut 3:17;
Deut 4:49;
Josh 3:16), which is the name still given to the valley of the Jordan and the plain south of the Dead Sea, and extending to the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea.
the sea--the Dead Sea. "The sea" noted as covering with its waters the guilty cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. In its bituminous waters no vegetable or animal life is said to be found. But now death is to give place to life in Judea, and throughout the world, as symbolized by the healing of these death-pervaded waters covering the doomed cities. Compare as to "the sea" in general, regarded as a symbol of the troubled powers of nature, disordered by the fall, henceforth to rage no more,
Rev 21:1.
9 rivers--in Hebrew, "two rivers." Hence Hebrew expositors think that the waters from the temple were divided into two branches, the one emptying itself into the eastern or Dead Sea, the other into the western or Mediterranean. So
Zech 14:8. However, though this probably is covertly implied in the Hebrew dual, the flowing of the waters into the Dead Sea only is expressed. Compare
Ezek 47:8, "waters . . . healed," which can apply only to it, not to the Mediterranean: also
Ezek 47:10, "fish as the fish of the great sea"; the Dead Sea, when healed, containing fish, as the Mediterranean does.
10 En-gedi . . . En-eglaim--En-gedi (meaning "fountain of the kid"), anciently, Hazazon-Tamar, now Ain-Jidy; west of the Dead Sea; David's place of refuge from Saul. En-eglaim means "fountain of two calves," on the confines of Moab, over against En-gedi, and near where Jordan enters the Dead Sea (
Isa 15:8). These two limits are fixed on, to comprise between them the whole Dead Sea.
fish . . . according to their kinds--JEROME quotes an ancient theory that "there are a hundred fifty-three kinds of fishes," all of which were taken by the apostles (
John 21:11), and not one remained uncaptured; signifying that both the noble and baseborn, the rich and the poor, and every class, are being drawn out of the sea of the world to salvation. Compare
Matt 13:47, the gospel net; the apostles being fishermen, at first literally, afterwards spiritually (
Matt 4:19).
11 marshes--marshy places. The region is known to have such pits and marshes. The Arabs take the salt collected by evaporation in these pits for their own use, and that of their flocks.
not be healed--Those not reached by the healing waters of the Gospel, through their sloth and earthly-mindedness, are given over (
Rev 22:11) to their own bitterness and barrenness (as "saltness" is often employed to express,
Deut 29:23;
Ps 107:34;
Zeph 2:9); and awful example to others in the punishment they suffer (
2Pet 2:6).
12 Instead of the "vine of Sodom and grapes of Gomorrah" (
Deut 32:32), nauseous and unwholesome, trees of life-giving and life-restoring virtue shall bloom similar in properties to, and exceeding in number, the tree of life in Eden (
Rev 2:7;
Rev 22:2,
Rev 22:14).
leaf . . . not fade--expressing not only the unfailing character of the heavenly medicine of the tree of life, but also that the graces of the believer (as a tree of righteousness), which are the leaves, and his deeds, which are the fruits that flow from those graces, are immortal (
Ps 1:3;
Jer 17:8;
Matt 10:42;
1Cor 15:58).
new fruit--literally, "firstlings," or first fruit. They are still, each month afresh, as it were, yielding their first-fruit [FAIRBAIRN]. The first-born of a thing, in Hebrew idiom, means the chiefest. As
Job 18:13, "the first-born of death," that is, the most fatal death.
13 The redivision of the land: the boundaries. The latter are substantially the same as those given by Moses in Num. 34:1-29; they here begin with the north, but in Numbers they begin with the south (
Num 34:3). It is only Canaan proper, exclusive of the possession of the two and a half tribes beyond Jordan, that is here divided.
Joseph . . . two portions--according to the original promise of Jacob (
Gen 48:5,
Gen 48:22). Joseph's sons were given the birthright forfeited by Reuben, the first-born (
1Chr 5:1). Therefore the former is here put first. His two sons having distinct portions make up the whole number twelve portions, as he had just before specified "twelve tribes of Israel"; for Levi had no separate inheritance, so that he is not reckoned in the twelve.
15 Zedad--on the north boundary of Canaan.
16 Hamath--As Israel was a separate people, so their land was a separate land. On no scene could the sacred history have been so well transacted as on it. On the east was the sandy desert. On the north and south, mountains. On the west, an inhospitable sea-shore. But it was not always to be a separate land. Between the parallel ranges of Lebanon is the long valley of El-Bekaa, leading to "the entering in of Hamath" on the Orontes, in the Syrian frontier. Roman roads, and the harbor made at Cćsarea, opened out doors through which the Gospel should go from it to all lands. So in the last days, when all shall flock to Jerusalem as the religious center of the world.
Berothah--a city in Syria conquered by David (
2Sam 8:8); meaning "wells."
Hazar-hatticon--meaning "the middle village."
Hauran--a tract in Syria, south of Damascus; Auranitis.
17 Hazar-enan--a town in the north of Canaan, meaning "village of fountains."
18 east sea--the Dead Sea. The border is to go down straight to it by the valley of the Jordan. So
Num 34:11-
Num 34:12.
19 Tamar--not Tadmor in the desert, but Tamar, the last town of Judea, by the Dead Sea. Meaning "palm tree"; so called from palm trees abounding near it.
22 to the strangers--It is altogether unprecedented under the old covenant, that "strangers" should have "inheritance" among the tribes. There would not be room locally within Canaan for more than the tribes. The literal sense must therefore be modified, as expressing that Gentiles are not to be excluded from settling among the covenant-people, and that spiritually their privileges are not to be less than those of Israel (
Rom 10:12;
Gal 3:28;
Eph 3:6;
Col 3:11;
Rev 7:9-
Rev 7:10). Still, "sojourneth," in
Ezek 47:23, implies that in Canaan, the covenant people are regarded as at home, the strangers as settlers.