A verse by verse commentary on Ezekiel 47 dealing with the river from the temple that flows through the land producing life everywhere.

1. EZEKIEL 47 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
The River From the Temple
1 The man brought me back to the entrance to the
temple, and I saw water coming out from under
the threshold of the temple toward the east (for
the temple faced east). The water was coming
down from under the south side of the temple,
south of the altar.
BARNES, "The vision of the waters; or, the blessings which flow from this source to
animate and refresh all the inhabitants of the earth. Compare Isa_44:8...; Joe_3:18.
Ezekiel’s description is adopted and modifled by Zechariah and in Rev. (compare the
marginal references) Hebrew tradition speaks of a spring of water, named Etham, said to
be identical with the well-waters of Nephtoah Jos_18:15, on the west of the temple,
whose waters were conducted by pipes into the temple-courts for the uses needed in the
ministration of the priests. The waters of Shiloah Psa_46:4; Isa_8:6 flowed from the
rocks beneath the temple-hill. It is quite in the manner of Ezekiel’s vision to start from
an existing feature and thence proceed to an ideal picture from where to draw a spiritual
lesson. The deepening of the waters in their course shows the continual deepening of
spiritual life and multiplication of spiritual blessings in the growth of the kingdom of
God. So long as the stream is confined to the temple-courts, it is merely a small rill, for
the most part unseen, but when it issues from the courts it begins at once to deepen and
to widen. So on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the company of
believers, little then but presently to develop into the infant Church in Jerusalem.
1

2. CLARKE, "Behold, waters issued out from under the threshold - Ezekiel,
after having made the whole compass of the court of the people, is brought back by the
north gate into the courts of the priests; and, having reached the gate of the temple, he
saw waters which had their spring under the threshold of that gate, that looked towards
the east; and which passing to the south of the altar of burnt-offerings on the right of the
temple, ran from the west to the east, that they might fall into the brook Kidron, and
thence be carried into the Dead Sea. Literally, no such waters were ever in the temple;
and because there were none, Solomon had what is called the brazen sea made, which
held water for the use of the temple. It is true that the water which supplied this sea
might have been brought by pipes to the place: but a fountain producing abundance of
water was not there, and could not be there, on the top of such a hill; and consequently
these waters, as well as those spoken of in Joe_3:18, and in Zec_14:8, are to be
understood spiritually or typically; and indeed the whole complexion of the place here
shows, that they are thus to be understood. Taken in this view, I shall proceed to apply
the whole of this vision to the effusion of light and salvation by the outpouring of the
Spirit of God under the Gospel dispensation, by which the knowledge of the true God
was multiplied in the earth; and have only one previous remark to make, that the farther
the waters flowed from the temple, the deeper they grew.
With respect to the phraseology of this chapter, it may be said that St. John had it
particularly in view while he wrote his celebrated description of the paradise of God,
Revelation 22. The prophet may therefore be referring to the same thing which the
apostle describes, viz., the grace of the Gospel, and its effects in the world.
GILL, "Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house,.... The
door of the temple, even of the holy of holies; hither the prophet is said to be brought
again, or "brought back" (x); for he was last in the corners of the outward court, viewing
the kitchens or boiling places of the ministers; but now he was brought back into the
inner court, and to the door that led into the holiest of all:
and, behold! for it was matter of admiration, as well as of observation and attention:
waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; this is a
new thing, to which there was nothing like it, either in the first or second temple.
Ariateas (y) indeed relates what he himself saw,
"a never failing conflux of water, as of a large fountain, naturally flowing underneath,
and wonderful receptacles under ground; to each of which were leaden pipes, through
which the waters came in on every side, for about half a mile about the temple, and
washed away the blood of the sacrifices;''
and so the Talmudists (z) say, there was an aqueduct from the fountain of Etam, and
pipes laid from thence to supply the temple with water, for the washing and boiling of
the sacrifices, and keeping the temple clean: but these waters are quite different; they are
2

3. such as came out of the temple, and not what were carried by pipes into it; nor were they
a common sewer to carry off the filth of it, but formed a delightful and useful river. The
fountain of them is not declared, only where they were first seen to issue out,
under the threshold of the house eastward; the threshold of the door of the most
holy place; so that they seem to take their rise from the holy of holies, the seat of the
divine Majesty, and throne of God, with which agrees Rev_22:1, and so the Talmudists
(a) say, that this fountain came first from the house of the holy of holies, under the
threshold of the door of it, which looked to the east:
for the fore front of the house stood toward the east; the holy of holies was at
the west end of the temple; but the front of it, and so the door into it, was to the east, and
from hence these waters flowed:
and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house; they
are said to "come down", because the temple was high built upon the top of a mountain;
and "from under", that is, the threshold of the door of it; or rather in subterraneous
passages, till they appeared from under that; and this was "on the right side of the
house"; that is, on the south side: for, suppose a man standing with his face to the east,
as the prophet did, when he turned himself to see which way the waters flowed, having
his face to the west when he first saw them come out; the south then must be on his right
hand, and so it follows:
at the south side of the altar; of the altar of burnt offerings, which stood before the
house.
HENRY 1-2, "This part of Ezekiel's vision must so necessarily have a mystical and
spiritual meaning that thence we conclude the other parts of his vision have a mystical
and spiritual meaning also; for it cannot be applied to the waters brought by pipes into
the temple for the washing of the sacrifices, the keeping of the temple clean, and the
carrying off of those waters, for that would be to turn this pleasant river into a sink or
common sewer. That prophecy, Zec_14:8, may explain it, of living waters that shall go
out from Jerusalem, half of them towards the former sea and half of them towards the
hinder sea. And there is plainly a reference to this in St. John's vision of a pure river of
water of life, Rev_22:1. That seems to represent the glory and joy which are grace
perfected. This seems to represent the grace and joy which are glory begun. Most
interpreters agree that these waters signify the gospel of Christ, which went forth from
Jerusalem, and spread itself into the countries about, and the gifts and powers of the
Holy Ghost which accompanied it, and by virtue of which it spread far and produced
strange and blessed effects. Ezekiel had walked round the house again and again, and yet
did not till now take notice of those waters; for God makes known his mind and will to
his people, not all at once, but by degrees. Now observe,
I. The rise of these waters. He is not put to trace the streams to the fountain, but has
the fountain-head first discovered to him (Eze_47:1): Waters issued out from the
threshold of the house eastward, and from under the right side of the house, that is, the
south side of the alter. And again (Eze_47:2), There ran out waters on the right side,
signifying that from Zion should go forth the law and the word of the Lord from
3

4. Jerusalem, Isa_2:3. There it was that the Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and
endued them with the gift of tongues, that they might carry these waters to all nations.
In the temple first they were to stand and preach the words of this life, Act_5:20. They
must preach the gospel to all nations, but must begin at Jerusalem, Luk_24:47. But that
is not all: Christ is the temple; he is the door; from him those living waters flow, out of
his pierced side. It is the water that he gives us that is the well of water which springs
up, Joh_4:14. And it is by believing in him that we receive from him rivers of living
water; and this spoke he of the Spirit, Joh_7:38, Joh_7:39. The original of these waters
was not above-ground, but they sprang up from under the threshold; for the fountain of
a believer's life is a mystery; it is hid with Christ in God, Col_3:3. Some observe that they
came forth on the right side of the house to intimate that gospel-blessings are right-hand
blessings. It is also an encouragement to those who attend at Wisdom's gates, at the
posts of her doors, who are willing to lie at the threshold of God's house, as David was,
that they lie at the fountainhead of comfort and grace; the very entrance into God's word
gives light and life, Psa_119:130. David speaks it to the praise of Zion, All my springs are
in thee, Psa_87:7. They came from the side of the altar, for it is in and by Jesus Christ,
the great altar (who sanctifies our gifts to God), that God has blessed us with spiritual
blessings in holy heavenly places. From God as the fountain, in him as the channel,
flows the river which makes glad the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of
the Most High, Psa_46:4. But observe how much the blessedness and joy of glorified
saints in heaven exceed those of the best and happiest saints on earth; here the streams
of our comfort arise from under the threshold; there they proceed from the throne the
throne of God and of the Lamb, Rev_22:1.
K&D 1-12, "The River of Water of Life
When Jehovah shall have judged all the heathen in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and
shall dwell as King of His people upon Zion His holy mountain, then will the mountains
trickle with new wine, and the hills run with milk, and all the brooks of Judah flow with
water; and a spring will proceed from the house of Jehovah, and water the Acacia valley.
With these figures Joel (Joel 4:18) has already described the river of salvation, which the
Lord would cause to flow to His congregation in the time when the kingdom of God shall
be perfected. This picture of the Messianic salvation shapes itself in the case of our
prophet into the magnificent vision contained in the section before us.
(Note: Compare W. Neumann, Die Wasser des Lebens. An exegetical study on
Eze_47:1-12. Berlin, 1848.)
Eze_47:1. And he led me back to the door of the house, and, behold, water flowed out
from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the front side of the house
was toward the east; and the water flowed down from below, from the right shoulder
of the house on the south of the altar. Eze_47:2. And he led me out by the way of the
north gate, and caused me to go round about on the outside, to the outer gate of the
way to the (gate), looking toward the east; and, behold, waters rippled for the right
shoulder of the gate. Eze_47:3. When the man went out toward the east, he had a
measuring line in his hand, and he measured a thousand cubits, and caused me to go
through the water-water to the ankles. Eze_47:4. And he measured a thousand, and
caused me to go through the water-water to the knees; and he measured a thousand,
and caused me to go through-water to the hips. Eze_47:5. And he measured a
thousand-a river through which I could not walk, for the water was high, water to
swim in, a river which could not be forded. Eze_47:6. And he said to me, Hast thou seen
4

5. it, son of man? and he led me back again by the bank of the river. Eze_47:7. When I
returned, behold, there stood on the bank of the river very many trees on this side and
on that. Eze_47:8. And he said to me, This water flows out into the eastern circle, and
runs down into the plain, and reaches the sea; into the sea is it carried out, that the
waters may become wholesome. Eze_47:9. And it will come to pass, every living thing
with which it swarms everywhere, whither the double river comes, will live, and there
will be very many fishes; for when this water comes thither they will become
wholesome, and everything will live whither the river comes. Eze_47:10. And
fishermen will stand by it, from Engedi to Eneglaim they will spread out nets; after
their kind will there be fishes therein, like the fishes of the great sea, very many. Eze_
47:11. Its marshes and its swamps, they will not become wholesome, they will be given
up to salt. Eze_47:12. And by the river will all kinds of trees of edible fruit grow on its
bank, on this side and on that; their leaves will not wither, and their fruits will not fail;
every moon they will bear ripe fruit, for its water flows out of its sanctuary. And their
fruits will serve as food, and their leaves as medicine.
From the outer court, where Ezekiel had been shown the sacrificial kitchens for the
people (Eze_46:21.), he is taken back to the front of the door of the temple house, to be
shown a spring of water, flowing out from under the threshold of the temple, which has
swollen in the short course of four thousand cubits from its source into a deep river in
which men can swim, and which flows down to the Jordan valley, to empty itself into the
Dead Sea. In Eze_47:1 and Eze_47:2, the origin and course of this water are described;
in Eze_47:3 and Eze_47:5, its marvellous increase; in Eze_47:6, the growth of trees on
its banks; in Eze_47:7-12, its emptying itself into the Arabah and into the Dead Sea, with
the life-giving power of its water. - Eze_47:1. The door of the house is the entrance into
the holy place of the temple, and ‫ן‬ ַ‫תּ‬ ְ‫פ‬ ִ‫מ‬ ‫ת‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫בּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ the threshold of this door. ‫ה‬ ָ‫ימ‬ ִ‫ד‬ ָ‫,ק‬ not “in
the east” (Hitzig), for the following sentence explaining the reason does not require this
meaning; but “toward the east” of the threshold, which lay toward the east, for the front
of the temple was in the east. ‫ת‬ ַ‫ח‬ ַ‫תּ‬ ִ‫מ‬ is not to be connected with ‫ף‬ ֶ‫ת‬ ֶ‫כּ‬ ִ‫,מ‬ but to be taken by
itself, only not in the sense of downwards (Hitzig), but from beneath, namely, down
from the right shoulder of the house. ‫ד‬ ַ‫ָר‬‫י‬, to flow down, because the temple stood on
higher ground than the inner court. The right shoulder is the part of the eastern wall of
the holy place between the door and the pillars, the breadth of which was five cubits
(Eze_41:1). The water therefore issued from the corner formed by the southern wall of
the porch and the eastern wall of the holy place (see the sketch on Plate I), and flowed
past the altar of burnt-offering on the south side, and crossed the court in an easterly
direction, passing under its surrounding wall. It then flowed across the outer court and
under the pavement and the eastern wall into the open country, where the prophet, on
the outside in front of the gate, saw it rippling forth from the right shoulder of that gate.
That he might do this, he was led out through the north gate, because the east gate was
shut (Eze_44:1), and round by the outside wall to the eastern outer gate. ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫דּ‬ ‫חוּץ‬ is
more minutely defined by ‫ר‬ַ‫ע‬ַ‫ל־שׁ‬ ֶ‫א‬ ‫חוּץ‬ ַ‫,ה‬ and this, again, by ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫דּ‬ ‫ֶה‬‫נ‬ ‫פּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫ד‬ ָ‫,ק‬ “by the
way to the (gate) looking eastwards.” The ἁπ. λεγ. ‫ּר‬ ‫ך‬‫ינבל‬ ;, Piel of ‫ה‬ָ‫כ‬ָ‫,פּ‬ related to
‫ה‬ָ‫כ‬ ָ‫,בּ‬ most probably signifies to ripple, not to trickle. ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫מ‬ has no article, because it is
evident from the context that the water was the same as that which Ezekiel had seen in
the inner court, issuing from the threshold of the temple. The right shoulder is that
portion of the eastern wall which joined the south side of the gate. - Eze_47:3-5. The
miraculous increase in the depth of the water. A thousand cubits from the wall, as one
5

6. walked through, it reached to the ankles; a thousand cubits further, to the knees; a
thousand cubits further, to the hips; and after going another thousand cubits it was
impossible to wade through, one could only swim therein. The words ‫י‬ ֵ‫מ‬ ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ס‬ ְ‫פ‬ ַ‫א‬ are a
brief expression for “there was water which reached to the ankles.” ‫ס‬ֶ‫פ‬ ֶ‫א‬ is equivalent to
‫ס‬ַ‫,פּ‬ an ankle, not the sole of the foot. In 1Ch_11:13, on the other hand, we have ‫ס‬ַ‫פּ‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫מּ‬ ַ‫דּ‬
for ‫ס‬ֶ‫פ‬ ֶ‫א‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫מּ‬ ַ‫דּ‬ . The striking expression ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫מ‬ ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ַ‫כ‬ ְ‫ר‬ ִ‫בּ‬ for ‫י‬ ֵ‫מ‬ ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ַ‫כ‬ ְ‫ר‬ ִ‫ב‬ may possibly have been
chosen because ‫י‬ ֵ‫מ‬ ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ַ‫כ‬ ְ‫ר‬ ִ‫ב‬ had the same meaning as ‫י‬ ֵ‫ימ‬ ֵ‫מ‬ ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ַ‫ל‬ְ‫ג‬ ַ‫ר‬ in Isa_36:12 (Keri). The
measuring man directed the prophet's attention (Eze_47:6) to this extraordinary
increase in the stream of water, because the miraculous nature of the stream was
exhibited therein. A natural river could not increase to such an extent within such short
distances, unless, indeed, other streams emptied themselves into it on all sides, which
was not he case here. He then directed him to go back again ‫ל‬ַ‫ע‬ ‫ת‬ ַ‫פ‬ ְ‫,שׂ‬ along the bank, not
“to the bank,” as he had never left it. The purpose for which he had been led along the
bank was accomplished after he had gone four thousand cubits. From the increase in the
water, as measured up to this point, he could infer what depth it would reach in its
further course. He is therefore now to return along the bank to see how it is covered with
trees. ‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ ֵ‫שׁוּב‬ ְ‫בּ‬ cannot be explained in any other way than as an incorrect form for ‫י‬ ִ‫שׁוּב‬ ְ‫,בּ‬
though there are no corresponding analogies to be found.
In Eze_47:8-12 he gives him a still further explanation of the course of the river and
the effect of its waters. The river flows out into ‫ה‬ָ‫יל‬ ִ‫ל‬ְ‫גּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ָה‬‫נ‬ ‫מ‬ ְ‫ד‬ ַ‫קּ‬ ַ‫,ה‬ the eastern circle,
which is identical with ‫ת‬ ‫יל‬ ִ‫ל‬ְ‫גּ‬ ‫ן‬ ֵ‫דּ‬ ְ‫ַר‬‫יּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ htiw lacitne, the circle of the Jordan (Jos_
22:10-11), the region above the Dead Sea, where the Jordan valley (Ghor) widens out
into a broad, deep basin. ‫ה‬ ָ‫ב‬ ָ‫ֲר‬‫ע‬ ָ‫ה‬ is the deep valley of the Jordan, now called the Ghor
(see the comm. on Deu_1:1), of which Robinson says that the greater part remains a
desolate wilderness. It was so described in ancient times (see Joseph. Bell. Jud. iii. 10. 7,
iv. 8. 2), and we find it so to-day (compare v. Raumer, Pal. p. 58). ‫ה‬ ָ‫ָמּ‬‫יּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ is the Dead Sea,
called ‫ָם‬‫יּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ ‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ ‫מ‬ ְ‫ד‬ ַ‫קּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ in Eze_47:18, and the sea of the Arabah in Deu_3:17; Deu_4:49. We
agree with Hengstenberg in taking the words ‫ה‬ ָ‫ָמּ‬‫יּ‬ ַ‫ל־ה‬ ֶ‫א‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫א‬ָ‫מּוּצ‬ ַ‫ה‬ as an emphatic
summing up of the previous statement concerning the outflow of the water, to which the
explanation concerning its effect upon the Dead Sea is attached, and supply ‫אוּ‬ ָ‫בּ‬ from the
clause immediately preceding: “the waters of the river that have been brought out
(come) to the sea, and the waters of the Dead Sea are healed.” There is no need,
therefore, for the emendation proposed by Hitzig, namely, ‫ל‬ ֶ‫א‬ ‫ָם‬‫יּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ם‬ ֵ‫ה‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫א‬ָ‫.מוּצ‬ So much,
however, is beyond all doubt, that ‫ה‬ ָ‫ָמּ‬‫יּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ is no other than the Dead Sea already
mentioned. The supposition that it is the Mediterranean Sea (Chald., Ros., Ewald, and
others) cannot be reconciled with the words, and has only been transferred to this
passage from Zec_14:8. ‫א‬ָ‫פּ‬ ְ‫ר‬ִ‫נ‬ signifies, as in 2Ki_2:22, the healing or rendering
wholesome of water that is injurious or destructive to life. The character of the Dead Sea,
with which the ancients were also well acquainted, and of which Tacitus writes as
follows: Lacus immenso ambitu, specie maris sapore corruptior, gravitate odoris
accolis pestifer, neque vento impellitur neque pisces aut suetas aquis volucres patitur
(Hist. v. c. 6), - a statement confirmed by all modern travellers (cf. v. Raumer, Pal. pp.
61ff., and Robinson, Physical Geography of the Holy Land), - is regarded as a disease of
the water, which is healed or turned into wholesome water in which fishes can live, by
6

7. the water of the river proceeding from the sanctuary. The healing and life-giving effect of
this river upon the Dead Sea is described in Eze_47:9 and Eze_47:10. Whithersoever the
waters of the river come, all animated beings will come to life and flourish.
In Eze_47:9 the dual ‫ים‬ַ‫ֲל‬‫ח‬ַ‫נ‬ occasions some difficulty. It is not likely that the dual
should have been used merely for the sake of its resemblance to ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫,מ‬ as Maurer
imagines; and still less probable is it that there is any allusion to a junction of the river
proceeding from the temple at some point in its course with the Kedron, which also
flows into the Dead Sea (Hävernick), as the Kedron is not mentioned either before or
afterwards. According to Kliefoth, the dual is intended to indicate a division which takes
place in the waters of the river, that have hitherto flowed on together, as soon as they
enter the sea. But this would certainly have been expressed more clearly. Hengstenberg
takes the expression “double river” to mean a river with a strong current, and refers to
Jer_50:21 in support of this. This is probably the best explanation; for nothing is gained
by altering the text into ‫ם‬ ָ‫ל‬ ְ‫ַח‬‫נ‬ (Ewald) or ‫ים‬ ִ‫ל‬ ַ‫ח‬ְ‫נ‬ (Hitzig), as ‫ל‬ ַ‫ַח‬‫נ‬ does not require
definition by means of a suffix, nor doe the plural answer to the context. is to be taken in
connection with ‫ר‬ֶ‫ֲשׁ‬‫א‬ ‫רֹץ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ִ‫:י‬ “wherewith it swarms whithersoever the river comes;”
though ‫ל‬ ֶ‫א‬ does not stand for ‫ל‬ַ‫ע‬ after Gen_7:21, as Hitzig supposes, but is to be
explained from a species of attraction, as in Gen_20:13. ‫ֶה‬‫י‬ ְ‫ח‬ִ‫י‬ is a pregnant expression, to
revive, to come to life. The words are not to be understood, however, as meaning that
there were living creatures in the Dead Sea before the health-giving water flowed into it;
the thought is simply, that whithersoever the waters of the river come, there come into
existence living creatures in the Dead Sea, so that it swarms with them. In addition to
the ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ֶ‫,שׁ‬ the quantity of fish is specially mentioned; and in the second hemistich the
reason is assigned for the number of living creatures that come into existence by a
second allusion to the health-giving power of the water of the river. The subject to
‫אוּ‬ ְ‫פ‬ ָ‫ֵר‬‫י‬ ְ‫,ו‬ viz., the waters of the Dead Sea, is to be supplied from the context. The great
abundance of fish in the Dead Sea produced by the river is still further depicted in Eze_
47:10. Fishermen will spread their nets along its coast from Engedi to Eneglaim; and as
for their kind, there will be as many kinds of fish there as are to be found in the great or
Mediterranean Sea. ‫ין‬ֵ‫ע‬ ‫י‬ ִ‫ֶד‬‫גּ‬, i.e., Goat's spring, now Ain-Jidi, a spring in the middle of the
west coast of the Dead Sea, with ruins of several ancient buildings (see the comm. on
Jos_15:62, and v. Raumer, Pal. p. 188). ‫ין‬ֵ‫ע‬ ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ַ‫ל‬ְ‫ג‬ֶ‫ע‬ has not yet been discovered, though,
from the statement of Jerome, “Engallim is at the beginning of the Dead Sea, where the
Jordan enters it,” it has been conjectured that it is to be found in Ain el-Feshkhah, a
spring at the northern end of the west coast, where there are also ruins of a small square
tower and other buildings to be seen (vid., Robinson's Palestine, II pp. 491, 492), as
none of the other springs on the west coast, of which there are but few, answer so well as
this. ‫ָה‬‫נ‬‫י‬ ִ‫מ‬ ְ‫ל‬ is pointed without Mappik, probably because the Masoretes did not regard
the ‫ה‬ as a suffix, as the noun to which it alludes does not follow till afterwards. - Eze_
47:11 introduces an exception, namely, that notwithstanding this the Dead Sea will still
retain marshes or pools and swamps, which will not be made wholesome (‫ֹאת‬‫צּ‬ ִ‫בּ‬ for
‫ת‬ ‫צּ‬ ִ‫,בּ‬ pools). An allusion to the natural character of the Dead Sea underlies the words.
“In the rainy season, when the sea is full, its waters overspread many low tracts of marsh
land, which remain after the receding of the water in the form of moist pools or basins;
and as the water in these pools evaporates rapidly, the ground becomes covered with a
7

8. thick crust of salt” (Robinson's Physical Geography, p. 215). ‫ח‬ַ‫ל‬ ֶ‫מ‬ ְ‫ל‬ ‫נוּ‬ ָ‫תּ‬ִ‫,נ‬ they are given
up to salt, i.e., destined to remain salt, because the waters of the river do not reach them.
The light in which the salt is regarded here is not that of its seasoning properties, but, in
the words of Hengstenberg, “as the foe to all fruitfulness, all life and prosperity, as Pliny
has said (Hist. Nat. xxxi. c. 7: Omnis locus, in quo reperitur sal, sterilis est nihilque
gignit”) (cf. Deu_29:22; Jer_17:6; Zep_2:9; Psa_107:34). - In Eze_47:12 the effect of
the water of the river upon the vegetation of the ground, already mentioned in Eze_47:7,
is still further described. On its coast grow all kinds of trees with edible fruits (‫ץ‬ֵ‫ע‬ ‫ל‬ָ‫ֲכ‬‫א‬ ַ‫,מ‬
as in Lev_19:23), whose leaves do not wither, and whose fruits do not fail, but ripen
every month (‫ר‬ֵ‫כּ‬ ִ‫,בּ‬ or produce first-fruits, i.e., fresh fruits; and ‫ים‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫חֳד‬ָ‫ל‬ distributive, as
in Isa_47:13), because the waters which moisten the soil proceed from the sanctuary,
i.e., “directly and immediately from the dwelling-place of Him who is the author of all
vital power and fruitfulness” (Hitzig). The leaves and fruits of these trees therefore
possess supernatural powers. The fruits serve as food, i.e., for the maintenance of the life
produced by the river of water; the leaves as medicine (‫ה‬ָ‫רוּפ‬ ְ‫תּ‬ from ‫רוּף‬ = ‫א‬ָ‫פ‬ ָ‫,ר‬ healing),
i.e., for the healing of the sick and corrupt (εἰς θεραπείαν, Rev_22:2).
In the effect of the water proceeding from the sanctuary upon the Dead Sea and the
land on its shores, as described in Eze_47:8-12, the significance of this stream of water
in relation to the new kingdom of God is implied. If, then, the question be asked, what
we are to understand by this water, whether we are to take it in a literal sense as the
temple spring, or in a spiritual and symbolical sense, the complete answer can only be
given in connection with the interpretation of the whole of the temple vision (Ezekiel
40-48). Even if we assume for the moment, however, that the description of the new
temple, with the worship appointed for it, and the fresh division of Canaan, is to be
understood literally, and therefore that the building of an earthly temple upon a high
mountain in the most holy terumah of the land set apart for Jehovah, and a renewal of
the bleeding sacrifices in this temple by the twelve tribes of Israel, when restored to
Palestine from the heathen lands, are to be taken for granted, it would be difficult to
combine with this a literal interpretation of what is said concerning the effect of the
temple spring. It is true that in Volck's opinion “we are to think of a glorification of
nature;” but even this does not remove the difficulties which stand in the way of a literal
interpretation of the temple spring. According to Eze_47:12, its waters posses the life-
giving and healing power ascribed to them because they issue from the sanctuary. But
how does the possession by the water of the power to effect the glorification of nature
harmonize with its issuing from a temple in which bullocks, rams, calves, and goats are
slaughtered and sacrificed? - Volck is still further of opinion that, with the spiritual
interpretation of the temple spring, “nothing at all could be made of the fishermen;”
because, for example, he cannot conceive of the spiritual interpretation in any other way
than as an allegorical translation of all the separate features of the prophetic picture into
spiritual things. But he has failed to consider that the fishermen with their nets on the
shore of the sea, once dead, but now swarming with fish, are irreconcilably opposed to
the assumption of a glorification of nature in the holy land, just because the inhabitants
of the globe or holy land, in its paradisaically glorified state, will no more eat fish or
other flesh, according to the teaching of Scripture, than the first men in Paradise. When
once the wolf shall feed with the lamb, the leopard with the kid, the cow with the bear,
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, under the sceptre of the sprout from the stem of
Jesse, then will men also cease their fishing, and no longer slaughter and eat either oxen
or goats. To this the Israelites will form no exception in their glorified land of Canaan. -
8

9. And if even these features in the vision before us decidedly favour the figurative or
spiritual view of the temple spring, the necessity for this explanation is placed beyond
the reach of doubt by a comparison of our picture with the parallel passages. According
to Joel 4:18, at the time when a spring issues from the house of Jehovah and the vale of
Shittim is watered, the mountains trickle with new wine, and the hills run with milk. If,
then, in this case we understand what is affirmed of the temple spring literally, the
trickling of the mountains with new wine and the flowing of the hills with milk must be
taken literally as well. But we are unable to attain to the belief that in the glorified land of
Israel the mountains will be turned into springs of new wine, and the hills into fountains
of milk, and in the words of the whole verse we can discern nothing but a figurative
description of the abundant streams of blessing which will then pour over the entire
land. And just as in Joel the context points indisputably to a non-literal or figurative
explanation, so also does the free manner in which Zechariah uses this prophecy of his
predecessors, speaking only of living waters which issue from Jerusalem, and flow half
into the eastern (i.e., the Dead) sea, and half into the western (i.e., the Mediterranean)
sea (Zec_14:8), show that he was not thinking of an actual spring with earthly water.
And here we are still provisionally passing by the application made of this feature in the
prophetic descriptions of the glory of the new kingdom of God in the picture of the
heavenly Jerusalem (Rev_22:1 and Rev_22:2).
The figurative interpretation, or spiritual explanation, is moreover favoured by the
analogy of the Scriptures. “Water,” which renders the unfruitful land fertile, and supplies
refreshing drink to the thirsty, is used in Scripture as a figure denoting blessing and
salvation, which had been represented even in Paradise in the form of watering (cf. Gen_
13:10). In Isa_12:3, “and with joy ye draw water from the wells of salvation,” the figure is
expressly interpreted. And so also in Isa_44:3, “I will pour water upon the thirsty one,
and streams upon the desert; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon
thine offspring:” where the blessing answers to the water, the Spirit is named as the
principal form in which the blessing is manifested, “the foundation of all other salvation
for the people of God” (Hengstenberg). This salvation, which Joel had already described
as a spring issuing from the house of Jehovah and watering the dry acacia valley, Ezekiel
saw in a visionary embodiment as water, which sprang from under the threshold of the
temple into which the glory of the Lord entered, and had swollen at a short distance off
into so mighty a river that it was no longer possible to wade through. In this way the
thought is symbolized, that the salvation which the Lord causes to flow down to His
people from His throne will pour down from small beginnings in marvellously increasing
fulness. The river flows on into the barren, desolate waste of the Ghor, and finally into
the Dead Sea, and makes the waters thereof sound, so that it swarms with fishes. The
waste is a figure denoting the spiritual drought and desolation, and the Dead Sea a
symbol of the death caused by sin. The healing and quickening of the salt waters of that
sea, so fatal to all life, set forth the power of that divine salvation which conquers death,
and the calling to life of the world sunk in spiritual death. From this comes life in its
creative fulness and manifold variety, as shown both by the figure of the fishermen who
spread their nets along the shore, and by the reference to the kinds of fish, which are as
manifold in their variety as those in the great sea. But life extends no further than the
water of salvation flows. Wherever it cannot reach, the world continues to life in death.
The pools and swamps of the Dead Sea are still given up to salt. And lastly, the water of
salvation also possesses the power to produce trees with leaves and fruits, by which the
life called forth from death can be sustained and cured of all diseases. This is the
meaning, according to the express statement of the text, of the trees with their never
9

10. withering leaves, upon the banks of the river, and their fruits ripening every month.
JAMISON, "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).
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 (Eze_43:7).
Thence it is to flow over the earth (Joe_3:18; Zec_13:1; Zec_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 Psa_36:8, Psa_36:9; Psa_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 Zec_14:11).
COKE, "Ezekiel 47:1. Behold, waters issued out— There was a large quantity of
water for the uses of the temple, conveyed in pipes under ground from the fountain
of Etam. From these waters the prophet draws his similitude of the salubrious
waters, which increased as they flowed, till they reached the borders of Israel;
hereby not obscurely prefiguring that salvation which was to flow forth from
Jerusalem to all the children of Abraham by faith. So it is elsewhere foretold, a law
shall go forth from Sion; and ye that are athirst, come to the waters, &c. Waters
first flow towards the south of the temple, then to the east; which was the first
course of the gospel, before it was disseminated widely among the Gentiles.
Houbigant.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 47:1 Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house;
and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for
the forefront of the house [stood toward] the east, and the waters came down from
10

11. under from the right side of the house, at the south [side] of the altar.
Ver. 1. Afterward he brought.] Christus mystagogus me duxit. Yεω επου, Follow
God whithersoever he leadeth thee; this was an ancient rule among the heathens.
Christo ducente et docente.
And, behold, waters issued out,] i.e., The gospel of grace, and the gifts of the Holy
Ghost thereby conveyed into the hearts of believers, and poured out upon the world
by the death of Christ. The prophet seems to allude to those waters, which by
conduits were conveyed to the altar to wash away the blood of the sacrifices and
filth of the temple, which else would have been very offensive and noisome. See the
like in Zechariah 14:8, where the eastern and western Churches also are pointed
out. See Revelation 22:1.
From under the threshold.] Quod gloria Dei dudum triverat. (a) Christ is that door,
[John 10:7] and fountain of living water. [Jeremiah 2:13 Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 55:1]
And from the temple at Jerusalem flowed forth the waters of saving truth to all
nations; and first eastward, not Romeward, though the faith of the Romans was not
long after spoken of throughout the whole world. [Romans 1:8]
COFFMAN, "Here is the vision of the great river flowing from beneath the Temple
itself toward the east, a river expanding and broadening, ever deeper and deeper, all
the way through the desert even to the sea; and whithersoever the waters of that
mighty river shall come, "Everything that liveth, which moveth, shall live; and there
shall be a great multitude of fish." (Ezekiel 47:9). The location and boundaries of
the Holy Land into which the Twelve Tribes will be located are given.
PETT, "Verse 1
‘And he brought me back to the door of the house, and behold, waters issued out
from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the forefront of the house was
towards the east. And the waters came out from under, from the right side of the
11

12. house, on the south of the altar.’
The heavenly visitant now brought Ezekiel to the door of the house. This was
probably the door of the sanctuary itself. And from underneath its threshold issued
out water moving towards the east gate, which was natural as the door faced east
(thus not towards Jerusalem which was south). The water flowed from the right side
of the threshold and past the south side of the altar as it made its way to the
permanently closed east gate. It was at present but a streamlet, a day of small
things. This was the path that Yahweh had taken in the reverse direction when His
glory had returned to the house previously. It is clear that we are to see in this life
from God as He now reaches out to His people with spiritual water, for to Israel
waters spoke of life.
‘Waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward.’ Water is
regularly a picture of spiritual life and growth, whether in terms of river or rain.
‘The righteous man’ is ‘like a tree planted by the streams of water,’ (Psalms 1:3).
The man who trusts in Yahweh is like ‘a tree planted by the waters, which spreads
out its roots by the river,’ (Jeremiah 17:8). The coming transforming and reviving
work of the Spirit is likened to men being sprinkled with water and made clean
(Ezekiel 36:25-27), and to water being poured out on those who are thirsty, and
streams on the dry ground (Isaiah 44:3). A Man is coming who will be a hiding place
from the wind and a covert from the tempest, like rivers of water in a dry place
(Isaiah 32:2). A fountain is to be opened for sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1).
Those who take refuge in God will drink of the river of His pleasures, for with Him
is the fountain of life (Psalms 36:8-9). There is a river whose streams make glad the
city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High (Psalms 46:4). The
earth being filled with the knowledge of Yahweh is likened to the waters covering
the sea (Isaiah 11:9).
‘From the right side of the house, on the south of the altar.’ Every Israelite knew
that at the right side of the house had stood the seven branched golden lampstand
(Exodus 26:35; Exodus 40:24). This primarily represented the presence of Yahweh
as a light of divine perfection among His people, but it also represented the resulting
witness of Israel and was later seen as a symbol of the witness and work of
Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 4). But as God’s anointed ones
they were fed from the golden lampstand, as God worked through His Spirit in the
12

13. day of small things (Zechariah 4:10). Possibly this was seen by Zechariah as the first
initial fulfilment of the flowing water from the south side of the sanctuary, from He
Who is the light of the world.
Verses 1-12
Chapter Ezekiel 47:1-12 The Rivers of Living Water.
The first twelve verses of this chapter deal with the vision of rivers of living water
flowing from the temple, beginning as a small streamlet and multiplying as they
flowed outwards. If anything proves that this is a heavenly temple it is this.
Attempts have been made to literalise this but they can miss the point of the whole
message and ignore the significance read into the incident in the New Testament
(John 7:37-39; Revelation 22:1-5). This is no vision of an earthly cascade, but of
heavenly action active in blessing. Such a huge earthly cascade issuing continually
month by month (Ezekiel 47:12) from a real temple would soon sweep the temple
away. Nor could such a cascade come from ‘the top of a very high mountain’
(Ezekiel 40:2). But this is a heavenly river flowing from a heavenly sanctuary, which
is an entirely different matter (see Ezekiel 47:12 where it is stressed that the unique
quality of the water is because it comes from the sanctuary).
So firstly we must recognise the source of this flow. It is from the sanctuary via the
closed east gate of the heavenly temple (Ezekiel 47:1). It has nothing therefore to do
with Jerusalem, for this temple was specifically sited well away from Jerusalem
(Ezekiel 45:1-6). Its source is in God. Zechariah 14:8 tells us that ‘in that day living
waters will go out from Jerusalem -- and Yahweh will be king over all the earth’. If
we see this as spiritual waters flowing from God the two can be equated but no
literalist can compare the two. Literally speaking they are from different sites.
However as spiritual flows they are both from God. This confirms that Zechariah is
actually thinking of Jerusalem in the same way as Ezekiel is thinking of the
heavenly temple.
It should be recognised that Ezekiel was fond of the metaphorical picture of things
13

14. abounding through water, and did not feel it necessary to explain that he did not
mean it literally. He says of Pharaoh, ‘the waters nourished him, the deep made him
to grow’, and he likened Egypt to rivers and canals causing growth wherever they
went (Ezekiel 31:4), a similar picture to here. Pharaoh’s punishment was that he
would be taken out of the waters and the rivers and thrown into the wilderness
(Ezekiel 29:3-5) and the result would be that those who were like trees by the waters
would sink to the nether parts of the earth (Ezekiel 31:14). Both Babylon and Egypt
are seen as planting men by rivers of water so that they might be like the willow tree
or the goodly vine (Ezekiel 17:5; Ezekiel 17:8). Israel too is said to have been like a
vine, planted by the waters, fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters,
until she was replanted in the wilderness in a dry and thirsty land (Ezekiel 19:10;
Ezekiel 19:13). And especially in Ezekiel 36:25-26 Ezekiel pictures God as
sprinkling His people with water so that they may be made clean and undergo
spiritual transformation. Thus we have every reason to see these waters too as
metaphorical and spiritual.
And secondly we must recognise its intention. It was to bring life wherever it went
(Ezekiel 47:9). To the ancients the primary power of water was to give life. Those
who lived in Canaan knew what it was to watch all nature die in a waterless and
very hot summer. And then the rains came, and almost immediately, like magic, the
bushes came to life, greenery sprang from the ground, and the world came alive
again. That was the life-giving power of water. In Babylonia Israel had also
witnessed the power of the great rivers. Along their banks life always flourished,
and water was taken from them by irrigation to bring life to drier areas. The
wilderness blossomed like a rose. They knew that the coveted Garden of Eden had
been fruitful because of the great river flowing through it that became four rivers
and watered the world. So that was their dream for their everlasting homeland, a
great and everflowing river that would bring life everywhere, and especially in
men’s hearts.
This prophecy is the answer to their dreams and parallel to those great prophetic
pronouncements which spoke of the coming of the Spirit in terms of heavenly rain
producing life and fruitfulness (Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 44:3-5; Joel 2:23-32), and is
similar in thought to Psalms 46:4; Psalms 65:9; Isaiah 33:21.
PULPIT, "As the first part of Ezekiel's vision (Ezekiel 40-43.) dealt with the temple,
14

15. or "house," and the second (Ezekiel 44-47.) with the ritual, or "worship," so the
third, which beans with the present chapter (Ezekiel 47:1-23; Ezekiel 48:1-35.),
treats of the land, or "inheritance" setting forth first its relation to the temple
(verses 1-12) and to outlying countries (verses 13-21), and secondly its division
among the tribes, inclusive of the priests, Levites, sanctuary, prince, and city
(Ezekiel 48:1-23), with a statement of the dimensions and gates of the last (verses
24-35). The opening section of the present chapter (verses 1-12) is by Kliefoth and
others connected with the second part as a conclusion, rather than with the third
part as an introduction; but, taken either way, the passage has the same significance
or nearly so. If read in continuation of the foregoing, it depicts the blessed
consequences, in the shape of life and healing, which should flow to the land of
Israel and its inhabitants from the erection in their midst of the sanctuary of
Jehovah, and the observance by them of the holy ordinances of Jehovah's religion.
Viewed as a preface to what follows, it exhibits the transformation which the
institution of such a culture would effect upon the land before proceeding to speak
of its partition among the tribes. The prophet's imagery in this paragraph may have
taken as its point of departure the well-known fact that the waters of Shiloah (Isaiah
8:6; Psalms 46:4) appeared to flow from under the temple hill, the Pool of Siloam
having been fed from a spring welling up with intermittent action from beneath
Ophel. To Isaiah "the waters of Shiloah that go softly," had already been an
emblem of the blessings to be enjoyed under Jehovah's rule (Isaiah 8:6); to Joel
(Joel 3:18) "a fountain," coming forth from the house of the Lord and watering the
valley of Shittim, or the Acacia valley, on the borders of Moab, on the other side of
Jordan, where the Israelites halted and sinned (Numbers 25:1; Numbers 33:49), had
symbolized the benefits that should be experienced by Israel in the Messianic era
when Jehovah should permanently dwell in his holy mount of Zion; to Ezekiel,
accordingly, the same figure naturally occurs as a means of exhibiting the life and
healing, peace and prosperity, that should result to Israel from the erection upon
her soil of Jehovah's sanctuary and the institution among her people of Jehovah's
worship. Zechariah (Zechariah 13:1; Zechariah 14:8) and John (Revelation 22:1,
Revelation 22:2) undoubtedly make use of the same image, which, it is even
probable, they derived from Ezekiel (comp. Ecclesiasticus 24:30, 31, in which
Wisdom is introduced as saying, "I also came out as a brook from a river, and as a
conduit into a garden. I said, I will water my best garden, and will water abundantly
my garden bed; and, lo, my brook became a river, and my river became a sea").
Ezekiel 47:1
15

16. Having completed his survey of the sacrificial kitchens in the outer court (Ezekiel
46:19-24), the prophet was once more conducted by his guide to the door of the
house, or of the temple in the strict sense, i.e. of the sanctuary. There he perceived
that waters issued (literally, and behold waters issuing) from under the threshold of
the house, i.e. of the temple porch (see Ezekiel 40:48, Ezekiel 40:49; and comp.
Ezekiel 9:3), eastward, the direction having been determined by the fact that the
forefront of the house stood or was toward the east. He also noticed that the waters
came down (or, descended)—the temple having been situated on higher ground than
the inner court—from under the threshold, from the right side of the house—
literally, from the shoulder (comp. Ezekiel 40:18, Ezekiel 40:40, Ezekiel 40:41;
Ezekiel 41:2, Ezekiel 41:26; Ezekiel 46:1-24 :29) of the house, the right. The two
clauses are not to be conjoined as by Hengstenberg, Ewald, and Smend, as if they
meant, from underneath the right side of the house; but kept distinct, to indicate the
different features which entered into the prophet's picture. The first was that the
waters issued forth from under the threshold of the house; the second, that they
proceeded from the right side or shoulder of the house, i.e. from the corner where
the south wall of the porch and the east wall of the temple joined (see Ezekiel 41:1);
the third, that the stream flowed on the south side of the altar, which stood exactly
in front of the temple perch (see Ezekiel 40:47), and would have obstructed the
course of the waters had they issued forth from the perch doorway instead of from
the comer above described.
MACLAREN, "THE RIVER OF LIFE
Ezekiel 47:1.
Unlike most great cities, Jerusalem was not situated on a great river. True, the
inconsiderable waters of Siloam-’which flow softly’ because they were so
inconsiderable-rose from a crevice in the Temple rock, and beneath that rock
stretched the valley of the Kedron, dry and bleached in the summer, and a rainy
torrent during the rainy seasons; but that was all. So, many of the prophets, who
looked forward to the better times to come, laid their finger upon that one defect,
and prophesied that it should be cured. Thus we read in a psalm: ‘There is a river,
the divisions whereof make glad the City of our God.’ Faith saw what sense saw not.
16

17. Again, Isaiah says: ‘There’-that is to say, in the new Jerusalem-’the glorious Lord
shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams.’ And so, this prophet casts his
anticipations of the abundant outpouring of blessing that shall come when God in
very deed dwells among men, into this figure of a river pouring out from beneath
the Temple-door, and spreading life and fertility wherever its waters come. I need
not remind you how our Lord Himself uses the same figure, and modifies it, by
saying that whosoever believeth on Him, ‘out of him shall flow rivers of living
waters’; or how, in the very last words of the Apocalyptic seer, we hear again the
music of the ripples of the great stream, ‘the river of the water of life proceeding out
of the Throne of God and of the Lamb.’ So then, all through Scripture, we may say
that we hear the murmur of the stream, and can catch the line of verdure upon its
banks. My object now is not only to deal with the words that I have read as a
starting-point, but rather to seek to draw out the wonderful significance of this
great prophetic parable.
I. I notice, first, the source from which the river conies.
I have already anticipated that in pointing out that it flows from the very Temple
itself. The Prophet sees it coming out of the house-that is to say, the Sanctuary. It
flows across the outer court of the house, passes the altar, comes out under the
threshold, and then pours itself down on to the plain beneath. This is the symbolical
dress of the thought that all spiritual blessings, and every conceivable form of
human good, take their rise in the fact of God’s dwelling with men. From beneath
the Temple threshold comes the water of life; and wherever it is true that in any
heart-or in any community-God dwells, there will be heard the tinkling of its
ripples, and freshness and fertility will come from the stream. The dwelling of God
with a man, like the dwelling of God in humanity in the Incarnation of His own dear
Son, is, as it were, the opening of the fountain that it may pour out into the world.
So, if we desire to have the blessings that are possible for us, we must comply with
the conditions, and let God dwell in our hearts, and make them His temples; and
then from beneath the threshold of that temple, too, will pour out, according to
Christ’s own promise, rivers of living water which will be first for ourselves to drink
of and be blessed by, and then will refresh and gladden others.
Another thought connected with this source of the river of life is that all the
blessings which, massed together, are included in that one word ‘salvation’-which is
17

18. a kind of nebula made up of many unresolved stars-take their rise from nothing else
than the deep heart of God Himself. This river rose in the House of the Lord, and
amidst the mysteries of the Divine Presence; it took its rise, one might say, from
beneath the Mercy-seat where the brooding Cherubim sat in silence and poured
itself into a world that had not asked for it, that did not expect it, that in many of its
members did not desire it and would not have it. The river that rose in the secret
place of God symbolises for us the great thought which is put into plainer words by
the last of the apostles when he says, ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ All
the blessings of salvation rise from the unmotived, self-impelled, self-fed divine love
and purpose. Nothing moves Him to communicate Himself but His own delight in
giving Himself to His poor creatures; and it is all of grace that it might be all
through faith.
Still further, another thought that may be suggested in connection with the source of
this river is, that that which is to bless the world must necessarily take its rise above
the world. Ezekiel has sketched, in the last portion of his prophecy, an entirely ideal
topography of the Holy Land. He has swept away mountains and valleys, and
levelled all out into a great plain, in the midst of which rises the mountain of the
Lord’s House, far higher than the Temple hill. In reality, opposite it rose the Mount
of Olives, and between the two there was the deep gorge of the Valley of the Kedron.
The Prophet smooths it all out into one great plain, and high above all towers the
Temple-mount, and from it there rushes down on to the low levels the fertilising,
life-giving flood.
That imaginary geography tells us this, that what is to bless the world must come
from above the world. There needs a waterfall to generate electricity; the power
which is to come into humanity and deal with its miseries must have its source high
above the objects of its energy and its compassion, and in proportion to the height
from which it falls will be the force of its impact and its power to generate the
quickening impulse. All merely human efforts at social reform, rivers that do not
rise in the Temple, are like the rivers in Mongolia, that run for a few miles and then
get sucked up by the hot sands and are lost and nobody sees them any more. Only
the perennial stream, that comes out from beneath the Temple threshold, can
sustain itself in the desert, to say nothing of transforming the desert into a Garden
of Eden. So moral and social and intellectual and political reformers may well go to
Ezekiel, and learn that the ‘river of the water of life,’ which is to heal the barren and
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19. refresh the thirsty land, must come from below the Temple threshold.
II. Note the rapid increase of the stream.
The Prophet describes how his companion, the interpreter, measured down the
stream a thousand cubits-about a quarter of a mile-and the waters were ankle-deep
another thousand, making half a mile from the start, and the water was knee-deep.
Another thousand-or three-quarters of a mile-and the water was waist-deep;
another thousand-about a mile in all-and the water was unfordable, ‘waters to swim
in, a river that could not be passed over.’ Where did the increase come from? There
were no tributaries. We do not hear of any side-stream flowing into the main body.
Where did the increase come from? It came from the abundant welling-up in the
sanctuary. The fountain was the mother of the river-that is to say, God’s ideal for
the world, for the Church, for the individual Christian, is rapid increase in their
experience of the depth and the force of the stream of blessings which together make
up salvation. So we come to a very sharp testing question. Will anybody tell me that
the rate at which Christianity has grown for these nineteen centuries corresponds
with Ezekiel’s vision-which is God’s ideal? Will any Christian man say, ‘My own
growth in grace, and increase in the depth and fulness of the flow of the river
through my spirit and my life correspond to that ideal’? A mile from the source the
river is unfordable. How many miles from the source of our first experience do we
stand? How many of us, instead of having ‘a river that could not be passed over,
waters to swim in,’ have but a poor and all but stagnant feeble trickle, as shallow as
or shallower than it was at first?
I was speaking a minute ago about Mongolian rivers. Australian rivers are more
like some men’s lives. A chain of ponds in the dry season-nay! not even a chain, but
a series, with no connecting channel of water between them. That is like a great
many Christian people; they have isolated times when they feel the voice of Christ’s
love, and yield themselves to the powers of the world to come, and then there are
long intervals, when they feel neither the one nor the other. But the picture that
ought to be realised by each of us is God’s ideal, which there is power in the gospel
to make real in the case of every one of us, the rapid and continuous increase in the
depth and in the scour of ‘the river of the water of life,’ that flows through our lives.
Luther used to say, ‘If you want to clean out a dunghill, turn the Elbe into it.’ If you
desire to have your hearts cleansed of all their foulness, turn the river into it. But it
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20. needs to be a progressively deepening river, or there will be no scour in the feeble
trickle, and we shall not be a bit the holier or the purer for our potential and
imperfect Christianity.
III. Lastly, note the effects of the stream.
These are threefold: fertility, healing, life. Fertility. In the East one condition of
fertility is water. Irrigate the desert, and you make it a garden. Break down the
aqueduct, and you make the granary of the world into a waste. The traveller as he
goes along can tell where there is a stream of water, by the verdure along its banks.
You travel along a plateau, and it is all baked and barren. You plunge into a w⤹,
and immediately the ground is clothed with under-growth and shrubs, and the birds
of the air sing among the branches. And so, says Ezekiel, wherever the river comes
there springs up, as if by magic, fair trees ‘on the banks thereof, whose leaf shall not
fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed.’
Fertility comes second, the reception of the fertilising agent comes first. It is wasted
time to tinker at our characters unless we have begun with getting into our hearts
the grace of God, and the new spirit that will be wrought out by diligent effort into
all beauty of life and character. Ezekiel seems to be copying the first psalm, or vice
versa, the Psalmist is copying Ezekiel. At any rate, there is a verbal similarity
between them, in that both dwell upon the unfading leaf of the tree that grows
planted by rivers of water. And our text goes further, and speaks about perennial
fruitfulness month by month, all the year round. In some tropical countries you will
find blossoms, buds in their earliest stage, and ripened fruit all hanging upon one
laden branch. Such ought to be the Christian life-continuously fruitful because
dependent upon continual drawing into itself, by means of its roots and suckers, of
the water of life by which we are fructified.
There is yet another effect of the waters-healing. As we said, Ezekiel takes great
liberties with the geography of the Holy Land, levelling it all, so his stream makes
nothing of the Mount of Olives, but flows due east until it comes to the smitten gorge
of the Jordan, and then turns south, down into the dull, leaden waters of the Dead
Sea, which it heals. We all know how these are charged with poison. Dip up a
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21. glassful anywhere, and you find it full of deleterious matter. They are the symbol of
humanity, with the sin that is in solution all through it. No chemist can eliminate it,
but there is One who can. ‘He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.’ The pure river of the water of
life will cast out from humanity the malignant components that are there, and will
sweeten it all. Ay, all, and yet not all, for very solemnly the Prophet’s optimism
pauses, and he says that the salt marshes by the side of the sea are not healed. They
are by the side of it. The healing is perfectly available for them, but they are not
healed. It is possible for men to reject the influences that make for the destruction of
sin and the establishment of righteousness. And although the waters are healed,
there still remain the obstinate marshes with the white crystals efflorescing on their
surface, and bringing salt and barrenness. You can put away the healing and
remain tainted with the poison.
And then the last thought is the life-giving influence of the river. Everything lived
whithersoever it went. Contrast Christendom with heathendom. Admit all the
hollowness and mere nominal Christianity of large tracts of life in so-called
Christian countries, and yet why is it that on the one side you find stagnation and
death, and on the other side mental and manifold activity and progressiveness? I
believe that the difference between ‘the people that sit in darkness’ and ‘the people
that walk in the light is that one has the light and the other has not, and activity
befits the light as torpor befits the darkness.
But there is a far deeper truth than that in the figure, a truth that I would fain lay
upon the hearts of all my hearers, that unless we our own selves have this water of
life which comes from the Sanctuary and is brought to us by Jesus Christ, ‘we are
dead in trespasses and sins.’ The only true life is in Christ. ‘If any man thirst, let
him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said,
out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’
EBC, "RENEWAL AND ALLOTMENT OF THE LAND
Ezekiel 47:1-23; Ezekiel 48:1-35
21

22. IN the first part of the forty-seventh chapter the visionary form of the revelation,
which had been interrupted by the important series of communications on which we
have been so long engaged, is again resumed. The prophet, once more under the
direction of his angelic guide, sees a stream of water issuing from the Temple
buildings and flowing eastward into the Dead Sea. Afterwards he receives another
series of directions relating to the boundaries of the land and its division among the
twelve tribes. With this the vision and the book find their appropriate close.
I.
The Temple stream, to which Ezekiel’s attention is now for the first time directed, is
a symbol of the miraculous transformation which the land of Canaan is to undergo
in order to fit it for the habitation of Jehovah’s ransomed people. Anticipations of a
renewal of the face of nature are a common feature of Messianic prophecy. They
have their roots in the religious interpretation of the possession of the land as the
chief token of the Divine blessing on the nation. In the vicissitudes of agricultural or
pastoral life the Israelite read the reflection of Jehovah’s attitude towards Himself
and His people: fertile seasons and luxuriant harvests were the sign of His favour;
drought and famine were the proof that He was offended. Even at the best of times,
however, the condition of Palestine left much to be desired from the husbandman’s
point of view, especially in the kingdom of Judah. Nature was often stern and
unpropitious, the cultivation of the soil was always attended with hardship and
uncertainty, large tracts of the country were given over to irreclaimable barrenness.
There was always a vision of better things possible, and in the last days the prophets
cherished the expectation that that vision would be realised. When all causes of
offence are removed from Israel and Jehovah smiles on His people, the land will
blossom into supernatural fertility, the ploughman overtaking the reaper, and the
treader of grapes him that soweth seed, the mountains dropping new wine and the
hills melting. [Amos 9:13] Such idyllic pictures of universal plenty and comfort
abound in the writings of the prophets, and are not wanting in the pages of Ezekiel.
We have already had one in the description of the blessings of the Messianic
kingdom; and we shall see that in this closing vision a complete remodelling of the
land is presupposed, rendering it all alike suitable for the habitation of the tribes of
Israel.
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23. The river of life is the most striking presentation of this general conception of
Messianic felicity. It is one of those vivid images from Eastern life which, through
the Apocalypse, have passed into the symbolism of Christian eschatology. "And He
showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the
river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her
fruits every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
[Revelation 22:1-2] So writes the seer of Patmos, in words whose music charms the
ear even of those to whom running water means much less than it did to a native of
thirsty Palestine. But John had read of the mystic river in the pages of his favourite
prophet before he saw it in vision. The close resemblance between the two pictures
leaves no doubt that the origin of the conception is to be sought in Ezekiel’s vision.
The underlying religious truth is the same in both representations, that the presence
of God is the source from which the influences flow forth that renew and purify
human existence. The tree of life on each bank of the river, which yields its fruit
every month and whose leaves are for healing, is a detail transferred directly from
Ezekiel’s imagery to fill out the description of the glorious city of God into which the
nations of them that are saved are gathered.
But with all its idealism, Ezekiel’s conception presents many points of contact with
the actual physiography of Palestine; it is less universal and abstract in its
significance than that of the Apocalypse. The first thing that might have suggested
the idea to the prophet is that the Temple mount had at least one small stream,
whose "soft-flowing" waters were already regarded as a symbol of the silent and
unobtrusive influence of the Divine presence in Israel. [Isaiah 8:6] The waters of this
stream flowed eastward, but they were too scanty to have any appreciable effect on
the fertility of the region through which they passed. Further, to the southeast of
Jerusalem, between it and the Dead Sea, stretched the great wilderness of Judah, the
most desolate and inhospitable tract in the whole country. There the steep declivity
of the limestone range refuses to detain sufficient moisture to nourish the most
meagre vegetation, although the few spots where wells are found, as at Engedi, are
clothed with almost tropical luxuriance. To reclaim these barren slopes and render
them fit for human industry, the Temple waters are sent eastward, making the
desert to blossom as the rose. Lastly, there was the Dead Sea itself, in whose bitter
waters no living thing can exist, the natural emblem of resistance to the purposes of
Him who is the God of life. These different elements of the physical reality were
familiar to Ezekiel, and come back to mind as he follows the course of the new
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24. Temple river, and observes the wonderful transformation which it is destined to
effect. He first sees it breaking forth from the wall of the Temple at the right-hand
side of the entrance, and flowing eastward through the courts by the south side of
the altar. Then at the outer wall he meets it rushing from the south side of the
eastern gate, and still pursuing its easterly course. At a thousand cubits from the
sanctuary it is only ankle-deep, but at successive distances of a thousand cubits it
reaches to the knees, to the loins, and becomes finally an impassable river. The
stream is of course miraculous from source to mouth. Earthly rivers do not thus
broaden and deepen as they flow, except by the accession of tributaries, and
tributaries are out of the question here. Thus it flows on, with its swelling volume of
water, through "the eastern circuit," "down to the Arabah" (the trough of the
Jordan and the Dead Sea), and reaching the sea it sweetens its waters so that they
teem with fishes of all kinds like those of the Mediterranean. Its uninviting shores
become the scene of a busy and thriving industry; fishermen ply their craft from
Engedi to Eneglaim, and the food supply of the country is materially increased. The
prophet may not have been greatly concerned about this, but one characteristic
detail illustrates his careful forethought in matters of practical utility. It is from the
Dead Sea that Jerusalem has always obtained its supply of salt. The purification of
this lake might have its drawbacks if the production of this indispensable
commodity should be interfered with. Salt, besides its culinary uses, played an
important part in the Temple ritual, and Ezekiel was not likely to forget it. Hence
the strange but eminently practical provision that the shallows and marshes at the
south end of the lake shall be exempted from the influence of the healing waters.
"They are given for salt." (Ezekiel 47:11).
We may venture to draw one lesson for our own instruction from this beautiful
prophetic image of the blessings that flow from a pure religion. The river of God has
its source high up in the mount where Jehovah dwells in inaccessible holiness, and
where the white-robed priests minister ceaselessly before Him; but in its descent it
seeks out the most desolate and unpromising region in the country and turns it into
a garden of the Lord. While the whole land of Israel is to be renewed and made to
minister to the good of man in fellowship with God, the main stream of fertility is
expended in the apparently hopeless task of reclaiming the Judean desert and
purifying the Dead Sea. It is an emblem of the earthly ministry of Him who made
Himself the friend of publicans and sinners, and lavished the resources of His grace
and the wealth of His affection on those who were deemed beyond ordinary
possibility of salvation. It is to be feared, however, that the practice of most
Churches has been too much the reverse of this. They have been tempted to confine
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25. the water of life within fairly respectable channels, amongst the prosperous and
contented, the occupants of happy homes, where the advantages of religion are most
likely to be appreciated. That seems to have been found the line of least resistance,
and in times when spiritual life has run low it has been counted enough to keep the
old ruts filled and leave the waste places and stagnant waters of our civilisation ill
provided with the means of grace. Nowadays we are sometimes reminded that the
Dead Sea must be drained before the gospel can have a fair chance of influencing
human lives, and there may be much wisdom in the suggestion. A vast deal of social
drainage may have to be accomplished before the word of God has free course.
Unhealthy and impure conditions of life may be mitigated by wise legislation,
temptations to vice may be removed, and vested interests that thrive on the
degradation of human lives may be crushed by the strong arm of the community.
But the true spirit of Christianity can neither be confined to the watercourses of
religious habit, nor wait for the schemes of the social reformer. Nor will it display its
powers of social salvation until it carries the energies of the Church into the lowest
haunts of vice and misery with an earnest desire to seek and to save that which is
lost. Ezekiel had his vision, and he believed in it. He believed in the reality of God’s
presence in the sanctuary and in the stream of blessings that flowed from His
throne, and he believed in the possibility of reclaiming the waste places of his
country for the kingdom of God. When Christians are united in like faith in the
power of Christ and the abiding presence of His Spirit, we may expect to see times
of refreshing from the presence of God and the whole earth filled with the
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
II.
Ezekiel’s map of Palestine is marked by something of the same mathematical
regularity which was exhibited in his plan of the Temple. His boundaries are like
those we sometimes see on the map of a newly settled country like America or
Australia-that is to say, they largely follow the meridian lines and parallels of
latitude, but take advantage here and there of natural frontiers supplied by rivers
and mountain ranges. This is absolutely true of the internal divisions of the land
between the tribes. Here the northern and southern boundaries are straight lines
running east and west over hill and dale, and terminating at the Mediterranean Sea
and the Jordan Valley, which form of course the western and eastern limits. As to
the external delimitation of the country it is unfortunately not possible to speak with
certainty. The eastern frontier is fixed by the Jordan and the Dead Sea so far as they
25

26. go, and the western is the sea. But on the north and south the lines of demarcation
cannot be traced, the places mentioned being nearly all unknown. The north
frontier extends from the sea to a place called Hazar-enon, said to lie on the border
of Hauran. It passes the "entrance to Hamath," and has to the north not only
Hamath, but also the territory of Damascus. But none of the towns through which it
passes-Hethlon, Berotha, Sibraim-can be identified, and even its general direction is
altogether uncertain.
From Hazar-enon the eastern border stretches southward till it reaches the Jordan,
and is prolonged south of the Dead Sea to a place called Tamar, also unknown.
From this we proceed westwards by Kadesh till we strike the river of Egypt, the
Wady el-Arish, which carries the boundary to the sea. It will be seen that Ezekiel,
for reasons on which it is idle to speculate, excludes the transjordanic territory from
the Holy Land. Speaking broadly, we may say that he treats Palestine as a
rectangular strip of country, which he divides into transverse sections of
indeterminate breadth, and then proceeds to parcel out these amongst the twelve
tribes.
A similar obscurity rests on the motives which determined the disposition of the
different tribes within the sacred territory. We can understand, indeed, why seven
tribes are placed to the north and only five to the south of the capital and the
sanctuary. Jerusalem lay much nearer the south of the land, and in the original
distribution all the tribes had their settlements to the north of it except Judah and
Simeon. Ezekiel’s arrangement seems thus to combine a desire for symmetry with a
recognition of the claims of historical and geographic reality. We can also see that to
a certain extent the relative positions of the tribes correspond with those they held
before the Exile, although of course the system requires that they shall lie in a
regular series from north to south. Dan, Asher, and Naphtali are left in the extreme
north, Manasseh and Ephraim to the south of them, while Simeon lies as of old in
the south with one tribe between it and the capital. But we cannot tell why Benjamin
should be placed to the south and Judah to the north of Jerusalem, why Issachar
and Zebulun are transferred from the far north to the south, or why Reuben and
Gad are taken from the east of the Jordan to be settled one to the north and the
other to the south of the city. Some principle of arrangement there must have been
in the mind of the prophet, and several have been suggested; but it is perhaps better
to confess that we have lost the key to his meaning.
26

27. The prophet’s interest is centred on the strip of land reserved for the sanctuary and
public purposes, which is subdivided and measured out with the utmost precision. It
is twenty-five thousand cubits (about eight and one-third miles) broad, and extends
right across the country. The two extremities east and west are the crown lands
assigned to the prince for the purposes we have already seen.
In the middle a square of twenty-five thousand cubits is marked off; this is the
"oblation" or sacred offering of land, in the middle of which the Temple stands.
This again is subdivided into three parallel sections, as shown in the accompanying
diagram. The most northerly, ten thousand cubits in breadth, is assigned to the
Levites; the central portion, including the sanctuary, to the priests; and the
remaining five thousand cubits is a "profane place" for the city and its common
lands. The city itself is a square of four thousand five hundred cubits, situated in the
middle of this southmost section of the oblation. With its free space of two hundred
and fifty cubits in width belting the wall it fills the entire breadth of the section: the
communal possessions flanking it on either hand, just as the prince’s domain does
the "oblation" as a whole. The produce of these lands is "for food to them that
‘serve’ (i.e., inhabit) the city." (Ezekiel 48:18) Residence in the capital, it appears, is
to be regarded as a public service. The maintenance of the civic life of Jerusalem
was an object in which the whole nation was interested, a truth symbolised by
naming its twelve gates after the twelve sons of Jacob. Hence, also, its population is
to be representative of all the tribes of Israel, and whoever comes to dwell there is to
have a share in the land belonging to the city. (Ezekiel 48:19) But evidently the
legislation on this point is incomplete. How were the inhabitants of the capital to be
chosen out of all the tribes? Would its citizenship be regarded as a privilege or as a
onerous responsibility? Would it be necessary to make a selection out of a host of
applications, or would special inducements have to be offered to procure a sufficient
population? To these questions the vision furnishes no answer, and there is nothing
to show whether Ezekiel contemplated the possibility that residence in the new city
might present few attractions and many disadvantages to an agricultural
community such as he had in view. It is a curious incident of the return from the
Exile that the problem of peopling Jerusalem emerged in a more serious form than
Ezekiel from his ideal point of view could have foreseen. We read that "the rulers of
the people dwelt at Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of
ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine parts in [other] cities. And the
people blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem."
[Nehemiah 11:1-2] There may have been causes for this general reluctance which
27

28. are unknown to us, but the principal reason was doubtless the one which has been
hinted at, that the new colony lived mainly by agriculture, and the district in the
immediate vicinity of the capital was not sufficiently fertile to support a large
agricultural population. The new Jerusalem was at first a somewhat artificial
foundation, and a city too largely developed for the resources of the community of
which it was the centre. Its existence was necessary more for the protection and
support of the Temple than for the ordinary ends of civilisation; and hence to dwell
in it was for the majority an act of self-sacrifice by which a man was felt to deserve
well of his country. And the only important difference between the actual reality
and Ezekiel’s ideal is that in the latter the supernatural fertility of the land and the
reign of universal peace obviate the difficulties which the founders of the post-exilic
theocracy had to encounter.
This seeming indifference of the prophet to the secular interests represented by the
metropolis strikes us as a singular feature in his programme. It is strange that the
man who was so thoughtful about the salt-pans of the Dead Sea should pass so
lightly over the details of the reconstruction of a city. But we have had several
intimations that this is not the department of things in which Ezekiel’s hold on
reality is most conspicuous. We have already remarked on the boldness of the
conception which changes the site of the capital in order to guard the sanctity of the
Temple. And now, when its situation and form are accurately defined, we have no
sketch of municipal institutions, no hint of the purposes for which the city exists,
and no glimpse of the busy and varied activities which we naturally connect with the
name. If Ezekiel thought of it at all, except as existing on paper, he was probably
interested in it as furnishing the representative congregation on minor occasions of
public worship, such as the Sabbaths and new moons, When the whole people could
not be expected to assemble. The truth is that the idea of the city in the vision is
simply an abstract religious symbol, a sort of epitome and concentration of
theocratic life. Like the figure of the prince in earlier chapters, it is taken from the
national institutions which perished at the Exile; the outline is retained, the typical
significance is enhanced, but the form is shadowy and indistinct, the colour and
variety of concrete reality are absent. It was perhaps a stage through which political
conceptions had to pass before their religious meaning could be apprehended. And
yet the fact that the symbol of the Holy City is preserved is deeply suggestive and
indeed scarcely less important in its own way than the retention of the type of the
king. Ezekiel can no more think of the land without a capital than of the state
without a prince. The word "city"-synonym of the fullest and most intense form of
life, of life regulated by law and elevated by devotion to a common ideal, in which
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29. every worthy faculty of human nature is quickened by the close and varied
intercourse of men with each other-has definitely taken its place in the vocabulary
of religion. It is there, not to be superseded, but to be refined and spiritualised, until
the city of God, glorified in the praises of Israel, becomes the inspiration of the
loftiest thought and the most ardent longing of Christendom. And even for the
perplexing problems that the Church has to face at this day there is hardly a more
profitable exercise of the Christian imagination than to dream with practical intent
of the consecration of civic life through the subjection of all its influences to the ends
of the Redeemer’s kingdom.
On the other hand we must surely recognise that this vision of a Temple and a city
separated from each other-where religious and secular interests are as it were
concentrated at different points, so that the one may be more effectually
subordinated to the other-is not the final and perfect vision of the kingdom of God.
That ideal has played a leading and influential part in the history of Christianity. It
is essentially the ideal formulated in Augustine’s great work on the city of God,
which ruled the ecclesiastical polity of the mediaeval Church. The State is an unholy
institution; it is an embodiment of the power of this present evil world: the true city
of God is the visible Catholic Church, and only by subjection to the Church can the
State be redeemed from itself and be made a means of blessing. That theory served a
providential purpose in preserving the traditions of Christianity through dark and
troubled ages, and training the rude nations of Europe in purity and righteousness
and reverence for that by which God makes Himself known. But the Reformation
was, amongst other things, a protest against this conception of the relation of
Church to State, of the sacred to the secular. By asserting the right of each believer
to deal with Christ directly, without the mediation of Church or priest it broke
down the middle wall of partition between religion and everyday duty; it sanctified
common life by showing how a man may serve God as a citizen in the family or the
workshop better than in the cloister or at the altar. It made the kingdom of God to
be a present power wherever there are lives transformed by love to Christ and
serving their fellow men for His sake. And if Catholicism may find some plausible
support for its theory in Ezekiel and the Old Testament theocracy in general,
Protestants may perhaps with better right appeal to the grander ideal represented
by the new Jerusalem of the Apocalypse-the city that needs no Temple, because the
Lord Himself is in her midst.
"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
29

30. heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with
them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be
their God And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to
shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."
[Revelation 21:2-3; Revelation 21:22-23]
It may be difficult for us amid the entanglements of the present to read that vision
aright-difficult to say whether it is on earth or in heaven that we are to look for the
city in which there is no Temple. Worship is an essential function of the Church of
Christ; and so long as we are in our earthly abode worship will require external
symbols and a visible organisation. But this at least we know, that the will of God
must be done on earth as it is in heaven. The true kingdom of God is within us; and
His presence with men is realised, not in special religious services which stand apart
from our common life, but in the constant influence of His Spirit, forming our
characters after the image of Christ, and permeating all the channels of social
intercourse and public action, until everything done on earth is to the glory of our
Father which is in heaven. That is the ideal set forth by the coming of the holy city
of God, and only in this way. can we look for the fulfilment of the promise embodied
in the new name of Ezekiel’s city, Jehovah-shammah, -
THE LORD IS THERE.
2 He then brought me out through the north gate
and led me around the outside to the outer gate
facing east, and the water was trickling from the
30

31. south side.
BARNES, "Out of the way of the gate northward - Rather, by the way of the
northward gate.
CLARKE, "There ran out waters - ‫מפכים‬ ‫מים‬ mayim mephaccim, the waters seem
to have been at first in small quantity; for the words imply that they oozed or dropped
out. They were at first so small that they came guttatim, drop by drop; but they increased
so, that they became a river in which one could swim.
GILL, "Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward,.... Out of the
inward court where he was, by the way of the north gate, the eastern gate being shut:
and led me about the way without unto the utter gate, by the way that
looketh eastward; and from thence he had him round to the outward eastern gate,
where he was at first, Eze_40:6, to meet the flow of waters that came through the inward
and outward courts eastward:
and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side; that is, on the south side of
the gate, in a small quantity, and in a very still and easy way, like water out of the mouth
of a vial, as the word (b) signifies. So Bartenora (c), who understands this gate of the
water gate, interprets the right side of the south; and observes, that the prophet first saw
the waters come out very small, like the horns of a locust; but when they came to this
gate, they became like water as it flows out of the mouth of a small pitcher: and from this
whole account of the waters, it is plain they cannot be understood literally, but
figuratively; and which confirm this to be the sense of the whole vision. They may be
applied unto, and serve to illustrate, the love of God; the secret spring of which is in the
heart and will of God; ran under ground from all eternity; channelled in Christ; broke up
and issued forth in the mission of him into the world, under the threshold of him, the
door of the church; and in and by him, the altar, sacrifice, and propitiation; wherein the
love of God in an especial manner is manifested; and which has its heights and depths,
immeasurable and unfathomable, Eph_3:18, these waters also may be applied to the
grace of the Spirit of God in regeneration and conversion; which is compared to water,
for its cleansing, fructifying, and refreshing nature; to "waters", for the abundance of it;
and this flows from the God of all grace through Christ, and out of his fulness is
gradually increased, and becomes a well, yea, rivers of living water, Joh_7:37, but it
seems best to understand them of the Gospel, and the doctrines of it; which, like water,
cools those who are inflamed with the heat of the fiery law; extinguishes the thirst of
sensible sinners, and refreshes them; cleanses and purifies their souls, which is
instrumentally done with the washing of water by the word; and makes them fruitful and
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32. flourishing: this is not of men, but God; comes from heaven, the holy of holies; and out
of the house and church of God; from Zion and Jerusalem, by Christ the door, and
points to him the way; and is chiefly concerning him, the altar, his sacrifice and
satisfaction, peace, atonement, and propitiation by him; see Isa_2:3.
COKE, "Ezekiel 47:2. Then brought he me out of the way, &c.— Out by the way,
&c. Houbigant. There ran out waters on the right side; that is to say, from the south
of the temple to the east; therefore the measure of the thousand cubits, which is
made afterwards, is made from west to east, and the farther the river recedes from
the temple the deeper it becomes. See Houbigant.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 47:2 Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward,
and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh
eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.
Ver. 2. And, behold, there ran out waters.] As out of a vial.
On the right side.] The right side is a place of honour and defence. The doctrine of
the gospel hath the pre-eminence, and is maintained by the right hand of God
against all opposites.
PETT, "Verse 2
‘Then he brought me out by the way of the north gate, and led me round by the
outside route to the outer gate, that is, by the route of the gate that looks towards the
east. And behold, there ran out waters on the south side.’
Ezekiel was now taken by way of the north gate to the outside of the east gate which
was permanently closed because of its holiness, and the waters which were coming
from the sanctuary were making their way under the gate on the south side. The
flow was still not very large, but its source and passage was holy.
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33. In a larger context we have here a combination of the lifegiving Spirit, proceeding
from the place of the throne of God, and then through the holy place of the Prince,
before flowing from the temple to the world.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 47:2
As the prophet could not follow the stream's course by passing through the east
inner gate, which was shut on the six working days (Ezekiel 46:1), or through the
east outer gate, which was always shut (Ezekiel 44:1), his conductor led him outside
of the inner and outer courts by the north gates (literally, to the north (outer) gate),
and brought him round by the way without unto the outer gate by the way that
looketh eastward. This can only import that, on reaching the north outer gate, the
prophet and his guide turned eastward and moved round to the east outer gate. The
Revised Version reads, by the way of the gate that looketh toward the east; but as
the east outer gate was the terminus ad quem of the prophet's walk, it is better to
translate, to the gate looking eastward. When the prophet had arrived thither, he
once more beheld that there ran out—literally, trickled forth ( ‫ים‬ ִ‫כּ‬ַ‫פ‬ ְ‫מ‬ occurring here
only in Scripture, and being derived from ‫כַה‬ָ‫,פ‬ "to drop down," or "weep")—
waters . Obviously these were the same as Ezekiel had already observed. On
(literally, from) the right side; or, shoulder. This, again, signified the corner where
the east wall of the temple and the south wall of the gate joined.
3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line
in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits[a]
and then led me through water that was ankle-
deep.
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34. BARNES, "The ancles - This may coincide with the step gained in the baptism of
Cornelius Acts 10, and the opening of the Church to the Gentiles. The dispersion which
had followed the martyrdom of Stephen Act_11:19, had carried believers into various
countries, and so paved the way for the foundation of Gentile Churches.
CLARKE 3-5, "He measured a thousand cubits - the waters were to the Ankles;
a thousand more, - the waters were to the Knees; a thousand more, - they became a
River that could not be forded. The waters were risen, and they were waters to Swim in.
I. This may be applied to the gradual discoveries of the plan of salvation, -
1. In the patriarchal ages.
2. In the giving of the law.
3. In the ministry of John the Baptist. And,
4. In the full manifestation of Christ by the communication of the Holy Ghost.
II. This vision may be applied also to the growth of a believer in the grace and
knowledge of God. There is -
1. The seed of the kingdom.
2. The blade from that seed.
3. The ear out of that blade. And,
4. The full corn in that ear.
III. It may be applied to the discoveries a penitent believer receives of the mercy of
God in his salvation. He is -
1. A little child, born of God, born from above, and begins to taste the bread of life,
and live on the heavenly food.
2. He grows up and increases in stature and strength, and becomes a young man.
3. He becomes matured in the Divine life, and has his spiritual senses exercised so
as to become a father in Christ. In other words, the grace of God appears to
come drop by drop; it is given as it can be used; it is a seed of light, and
multiplies itself. The penitent at first can scarcely believe the infinite goodness of
his Maker; he however ventures to follow on with the conducting angel, the
minister of the Gospel, in his descriptions of the plenitude of that salvation,
provided in that living Temple in which alone the well-spring of life is to be
found.
4. In thus following on to know the Lord he finds a continual increase of light and
life, till at last he is carried by the streams of grace to the ocean of eternal mercy;
then
“Plunged in the Godhead’s deepest sea, And lost in his immensity.”
IV. These waters may be considered as a type of the progress which Christianity shall
make in the world.
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35. 1. There were only a few poor fishermen.
2. Afterwards many Jews.
3. Then the Gentiles of Asia Minor and Greece.
4.The continent and isles of Europe. And,
5. Now spreading through Africa, Asia, and America, at present these waters are no
longer a river, but an immense sea; and the Gospel fishers are daily bringing
multitudes of souls to Christ.
GILL, "And when the man that had the line in his hand,.... The same as in Eze_
40:3 and is no other than Christ, who appeared in a human form to the prophet; and
who hitherto had only made use of the measuring reed in taking the dimensions of the
house, and what appertained to it; but now he uses the line of flax he had in his hand, in
measuring the waters as they ran; by which line is meant the Scriptures, the word of
God, by which all doctrines are to be measured: this is the rule that both preachers and
hearers are to go by; and, as by the direction of this person the waters flowed where he
would have them, so the doctrines of the Gospel are preached by the order of Christ
where he pleases; see Luk_24:47, and these move in a direct line, as those waters did;
error is crooked, and has its windings and turnings; but truth is straight and even; all the
words of Wisdom are right, and there is nothing froward, perverse, or crooked in them,
Pro_8:8,
went forth eastward; which was the course the waters took by his direction; the
Gospel was first spread in the eastern part of the world, in Asia, where many churches
were planted by it; it has been since in the south, in Africa, particularly in the times of
Austin, when these waters, the doctrines of grace, flowed largely; and they have been
since in the north and west, in Europe, in our northern climes; all which perhaps may be
signified by the right side, or south side, by which these waters flowed, and by the
prophet's going to the north gate, and about, to see them; but in the latter day they will
move eastward again, when the kings of the east and their kingdoms shall become
Christ's; see Rev_16:12,
he measured a thousand cubits; or, "a thousand by the cubit (d)"; the Targum is,
"a thousand cubits by the cubit;''
with his line from the eastern gate of the house, at the right side of which the waters ran
out; this was about half a mile:
and he brought me through the waters: not the thousand cubits he had measured;
but when he came to the end of them, he made the prophet to cross the waters, to go
through them across, that he might observe the depth of them:
and the waters were to the ankles; were ankle deep, a few inches: or, "to the soles";
for, as R. Jonah thinks, ‫א‬ may be additional; and ‫,פס‬ in the Syriac language, signifies a
part of the hand, Dan_5:5, and, applied to the feet, designs the soles of them; and then
the sense is, the waters were so shallow, that they only covered the soles of the feet: this
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