Ezekiel 47

Eze 47:1-23.

VISION OF THE

TEMPLE

WATERS.

BORDERS AND

DIVISION OF

THE LAND.

The happy fruit to the earth at large of God's dwelling with Israel in

holy fellowship is that the blessing is no longer restricted to the one

people and locality, but is to be diffused with comprehensive

catholicity through the whole world. So the plant from the cedar of

Lebanon is represented as gathering under its shelter "all fowl of every

wing"

(Eze 17:23).

Even the desert places of the earth shall be made fruitful by the

healing waters of the Gospel (compare

Isa 35:1).

1. waters--So

Re 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

(Eze 43:7).

Thence it is to flow over the earth

(Joe 3:18;

Zec 13:1; 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, 9; 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

(Ro 11:33).

The healing of the waters of the Dead Sea here answers to "there

shall be no more curse"

(Re 22:3;

compare

Zec 14:11).

7. trees--not merely one tree of life as in Paradise

(Ge 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

(De 3:17; 4:49;

Jos 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

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,

Re 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

Zec 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

Eze 47:8,

"waters . . . healed," which can apply only to it, not to the

Mediterranean: also

Eze 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

(Joh 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

Mt 13:47,

the gospel net; the apostles being fishermen, at first literally,

afterwards spiritually

(Mt 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

(Re 22:11)

to their own bitterness and barrenness (as "saltness" is often employed

to express,

De 29:23;

Ps 107:34;

Zep 2:9);

an awful example to others in the punishment they suffer

(2Pe 2:6).

12. Instead of the "vine of Sodom and grapes of Gomorrah"

(De 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

(Re 2:7; 22:2, 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;

Mt 10:42;

1Co 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

Nu 34:1-29;

they here begin with the north, but in Numbers they begin with the

south

(Nu 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

(Ge 48:5, 22).

Joseph's sons were given the birthright forfeited by Reuben, the

first-born

(1Ch 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 Cæsarea, 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

(2Sa 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

Nu 34:11, 12.

19. Tamar--not Tadmor in the desert, but Tamar, the last town of Judea,

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

(Ro 10:12;

Ga 3:28;

Eph 3:6;

Col 3:11;

Re 7:9, 10).

Still, "sojourneth," in

Eze 47:23,

implies that in Canaan, the covenant people are regarded as at

home, the strangers as settlers.