(2) The Holy Land and the Holy City (Ezekiel 47, 48).
Ch. 47. 1 And he brought me back to the opening of the house, and, behold, waters issued from below the threshold of the house eastward: for the front [the face] of the house is toward the east, and the waters came down 2 from under, from the right side of the house, south of the altar. And he brought me forth the way of the north gate, and made me go round the way without to the outer gate, the way of the eastward-looking [gate]; and, behold,3 waters came purling out from the right side. When the man went forth to the east, there was a measuring-line in his hand. And he measured a thousand cubits, and made me pass through in the water—waters to the ankles 4 And he measured a thousand, and made me pass through in the water—waters to the knees [they reached]. And he measured a thousand, and made me pass 5 through—waters to the loins. And he measured a thousand—a river [was it then] which I could not pass through, because the waters rose up, waters of swimming, a river that could not be waded. 6And he said unto me, Hast thou seen, son of man ? And he led me, and brought me back to the bank 7 of the river. When I returned, behold, on the bank of the river very many 8 trees, on this side and on that. And he said unto me, These waters, going out as they do to the east boundary, then flow down over the steppe, and come to the sea, brought forth [they come] to the sea, and the waters are healed. 9 And it cometh to pass that every living thing which shall creep, whithersoever the double stream shall come, shall live; and very many fish are there, for these waters come thither, and they shall be healed; and everything 10 liveth to which the river cometh. And it cometh to pass that fishers shall stand on it [shall place themselves over it], from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim there shall be a spreading-place for nets; as to their kind, their fishes shall be as 11 the fishes of the great sea, very many. Its mire [its swamps] and its pools [holes], 12 these shall not be healed; they are given to salt. And [yet] on the river there shall rise up, on its bank, on this side and on that, every kind of tree for food; its leaf [foliage] shall not fade, nor its fruit cease; according to its months it bears first-fruits, for its waters flow forth from the sanctuary; and its fruit is for food and its leaf [foliage] for healing. 13Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The territory itself, the land which ye shall take to you for an inheritance, 14 [shall be] for the twelve tribes of Israel; for Joseph [two] portions. And ye inherit it, every one as his brother, which I lifted up My hand to give to 15 your fathers; and [so] this land falleth to you for inheritance. And this is the border of the land on the north side, from the great sea on the way to Hethlon, to come to Zedad; 16Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazar the middle, which is on the border of Hauran. 17And the border from the sea is from Hazar-Enon, the border of Damascus, and [in the] north northward there is the border 18 of Hamath; and [this] as the north side. And as to the east side, from between Hauran, and Damascus, and Gilead, and the land of Israel, is the Jordan; from the border ye shall measure to the east sea; and [this] as 19 the east side. And as to the south side, to the right; from Tamar to the waters of Meriboth-Kadesh is the inheritance [to the river] to the great sea; and 20 [this] as the side to the right southward. And with respect to the west side, the great sea from the border to over against the way to Hamath; this is the 21 west side. And ye divide this land for you according to the tribes of Israel. 22 And it cometh to pass that ye shall allot [divide] it as an inheritance to you and to the strangers sojourning in your midst, who have begotten children in your midst; and they are to you as the native among the children of Israel; 23 with you shall they share in the inheritance among the tribes of Israel. And it cometh to pass, that in the tribe with which the stranger sojourns, there shall ye give him his inheritance. Sentence of the Lord Jehovah.
Eze_47:11. …
ἐí ôç äéåêâ ïëç áὐôïõ ê
.
ἐí ô
.
ἐðéáôñïöç áὐôïõ ê
.
ἐí ô
.
ὑðåñáñåé áὐôïõ
—Vulg.: In littoribus autem … in salinas dabuntur. (Another reading:
åááàéå
, et in redditibus suis. Sept., Syr.)
Eze_47:13. …
Ôáõôá ôá ὁñéá êêôáêëçñïíïìçóåôå ôçò
,
ôáéò äùäåêá
. . .
ðñïóèåóéò ó÷ïéíéóìáôïò
. Vulg.: Hic est terminus in quo possidebitis terram in … quia Joseph duplicem funiculum habet. (Another reading:
æä
,
âéà
.)
Eze_47:15. …
ôçò ìåãáëçò ô
.
êêôáâáéíïõóçò ê
.
ðåéó÷éæïõóçò
,
ôçò åἰóïäïõ Ἡìáèåëäáì
.
Eze_47:16.
Ìáùóèçñáò
,
Ἐöñáìçëåéáì
,
ἀíá ìåóïí ô
.
ὁñéùí Ἠìáè
. . .
Äáìáóêïõ
,
Åὐíáí ê
.
ôïõ åὐíáí
,
áἱ åἰóéí ἐðáíù
—Vulg.: … et confinium Emath, domus Tichon quæ est—
As the entrance of the glory of the God of Israel (Ezekiel 43, 44) forms the centre for the first section of this closing vision of the glory of Jehovah’s kingdom, namely, for the temple and its service, so the waters of life from the temple give the key-note for the second section,—the holy land and the holy city,—and at the same time furnish the interpretation of the second and there by of the first section.
Eze_47:1-12
. The Waters of Life.
ADDITIONAL NOTE
[“It is necessary to take the first part of this chapter apart from the second, which relates to a different subject, the new division of the land, and which ought to have formed part of Ezekiel 48. The vision contained in the first twelve verses of this chapter is a thing by itself, although it stands in close connection with what precedes, and springs naturally out of it. The prophet has been exhibiting, by means of a variety of detailed representations, the blessed results to the Lord’s people of His re-occupying His temple. The way now stands open to them for a free and elevating communion with the Lord; and the work proceeds, on their part, by the regular employment of all spiritual privileges and the faithful discharge of holy ministrations. God is duly glorified in His people, and His people are blessed in the enjoyment of His gracious presence and the benefit of His fatherly administration. But what is to be the nature of the kingdom in this new form, in respect to the world without? Is it to be of a restrictive or expansive character? Is the good it discloses and provides for a regenerated people to be confined, as of old, to a select spot, or is it to spread forth and communicate itself abroad for the salvation of the world at large? In an earlier prophecy (Ezekiel 17), when speaking of the future Head of the divine kingdom under the image of a little twig, plucked from the top of a cedar in Lebanon, and planted upon a lofty mountain in Israel, the prophet had represented this not only as growing and taking root there, but as winning the regard of all the trees of the field, and gathering under its ample foliage beasts of every kind and birds of every wing. The kingdom of God, as thus exhibited, seemed to carry a benign and diffusive aspect toward the entire world. And should it be otherwise now, when presented under the different but more detailed and variegated form of a spiritual house, with the living God Himself for the glorious Inhabitant, and a royal priesthood for its ministering servants? No; it is for humanity, mankind as a whole, that God was thus seen dwelling with men; and though everything presents itself, according to the relations then existing, as connected with a local habitation and circumscribed bounds, yet the good in store was to be confined within no such narrow limits; it was to flow forth with healthful and restorative energy, even upon the waste and dead places of the earth, and invest them with the freshness of life and beauty.
“This fine idea is presented by the prophet under a pleasing natural image. He is brought back by the angel from the outer court, where he was standing, to the door of the temple on the east; and there he sees a stream of water gushing from beneath the threshold, and running in the direction of south-east, so as to pass the altar on the south. He is then brought outside by the north gate, and carried round to where the waters appeared beyond the temple-grounds, that he might witness the measurements that were to be made of them, and the genial effects they produced.”—Fairbairn’s Ezekiel, pp. 489–491.—W. F.]
The bringing back of the prophet in Eze_47:1 is explained from the circumstance that he had tarried (Eze_46:21) in the outer court; latterly, at the sacrificial kitchens for the people. The opening of the house is the temple gate, where the entrance into the holy place of the temple opens.—
îִúַּçַú
stands first by itself, both times parallel to each other, to describe the very first impression, namely, that the waters (Häv.: “in particular, living spring water is often in Scripture a symbol of the divine blessings, Isa_41:17 sq., Eze_44:3”) came forth from below, and so did not pour down from the heavens, but issued from the depth of the sacred foundation upon the mountain; and this is without doubt to be thought of in connection with the filling of the house with the glory of Johovah (Ezekiel 43, 46). What Tacitus observes (Hist. v. 12) about “a never-drying fountain, whole mountains hollowed out below the surface, and ponds and cisterns for keeping the rain water;” or when Robinson does not doubt that there is in the rock “an artificial well at a depth of some 80 feet below the Haram,”—all this serves for understanding the prophet only by way of contrast;—he means and intends to describe nothing of the kind. [W. Kraft (Topographie von Jerusalem) thinks that the prophetic contrast refers to the spring known only to the priests as hidden, and whose water served only for the outward cleansing of the people.]—The
îִùְּׂúַּï äַáַּéִú
that follows subjoins the more exact definition of the first
îִúַּçַú
, as: below the threshold of the door of the temple,
îִúַּçַú
without a
ì
, so that we have to seek the fountain-head not at this threshold, but farther in in the house.—The reason for saying eastward is the “eastern” position of the temple front; the waters which issued from below the house flowed toward the place where the glory of the Eternal had entered the house. Even Hitzig’s dictum, which makes
÷ָãִéîָä
to mean: “in the east,” does not destroy the very expressive causal nexus of the two sections of these concluding chapters of Ezekiel; but W. Neumann acutely observes: “The circumstance that the water flows east appears significant to the seer, and yet again, on the other hand, natural; for, says he, the front of the house is toward the east. According to Eze_47:12, the spring is the bearer of the mysteries of the sanctuary, and consequently the means of bearing along its ideal substance; and to this the
ôָּðִéí
[properly: ‘the constantly changing multiform aspects or manifestations of the soul through the exterior, the complex unity of which we call the countenance,’ Stier] corresponds; because the soul of the temple looks to the east, the gushing stream flows in the same direction.”—This already indicates the farther course of the water as to its direction immediately after its gushing forth under the threshold of the door of the temple. But before treating of this direction, mention is again made of this so characteristic gushing forth. While, however, after the first
îִúַּçַú
, to avoid repeating the
î
before
îִôְúַּï
, it is merely said:
îִúַּçַú îִôְúַּï äַáַּéִú
, there now follows after the second
îִúַּçַú
the more exact statement:
îִëֶּçֶó äַáַּéִú×
, from the “shoulder” of the house, i.e. the right one.
îִúַּçַú
means here neither: in the south = beneath (Jdg_7:8), which is sufficiently expressed by
îִðֶּâֶá
, nor: downwards (Hitzig), which is sufficiently expressed by
éֹøְãִéí
What is meant to be described is a stream of water flowing from the temple, not one conducted into the temple; hence the brook Etham cannot be supposed, from which Lightfoot brings the water by means of subterranean channels for washing the victims and cleansing the house. (Comp. also the combination of Judah Leo in Lundius, die alten jüd. Heiligth.) Dereser infers from
éֹøְãִéí
that the fountain “fell into the earth on the south side of the altar of burnt-offering in the court of the priests, and flowed on under it until it reappeared outside of the courts of the temple.”
éָøַã
is employed to accord both with Eze_47:8, and also in general with, the view current in Israel, according to which that which tends towards the abode of the Highest ascends, and hence that which comes out from it will descend. Keil: “because the temple lay higher than the inner court.”—
äַéְîָðִéú
. After the repeatedly marked eastern direction, there can be no doubt which right side is meant; a person looking to the east has the south on his right, as also
îִðֶּâֶá
plainly indicates. This
îִðֶּâֶá
has its signification in reference to the altar of burnt-offering, which stood before the porch of the temple (Eze_40:47):
ìַîִּæְáֵּç
, the right (south) side of the house, the south part of the east side. The fact that the water issued “from the south end of the threshold,” Hengst. explains from the circumstance that “the altar of burnt-offering lay immediately before the east door of the sanctuary; the water must therefore issue not from the middle of the threshold, if it was not to meet with an immediate hindrance; it must first come forth where the altar no longer stood in the way.” This is quite natural. Neumann speaks of “the prominence given to the right side as the side of good fortune and power.” He says: “If even in the feasts of the Bedouins the cupbearer must hand the cup to the drinker from the right, to prevent complaint of want of respect, how could that which was here commanded by a heavenly hand for healing (Eze_47:8) come from another quarter?” [Klief.: “But the temple had two thresholds, one before the flight of steps at the door of the fore-porch, and one at the west end of the porch, before the temple gate. If, then, Eze_47:1 speaks in the outset of the door of the temple, that shows us that we have to understand the latter threshold. If the temple is the body, and its fore-porch the head, then its right shoulder is in the angle which the south wall of the temple porch forms with the east wall of the temple. The threshold of the door of the temple abutted with its south end on this corner, and thence under the threshold the fountain gushed out and ran down into the inner court.”] “The water,” says Häv., “comes from the sanctuary;” that is to say, “it is the fulness of blessing which is poured out over the community from the new manifestation of God. Without this going before, the people cannot serve the Lord in the new manner; and the service of God, again, is itself a grace and a gift from Him. If the fountain proceeding from God is simply a testimony to His revelation of Himself, then it cannot be a mere material fountain.”
Eze_47:2. In the court, surrounded with buildings and walls, Ezekiel cannot descry the farther course of the waters. For this he is brought forth through the north gate, for the outer east gate is always shut, and to go out through the south gate the prophet would be obliged to cross over the waters. [Neumann infers, from comparing Eze_40:35; Eze_44:4, that the guide had a preference for the north gate (but see Eze_46:9), and seeks the reason in the significance of the north in the prophecies.] He proceeds on the outside along the wall of the outer court, the way to the east gate, as the outer gate is more exactly designated. [Neumann erroneously, because against the prophet’s uniform mode of expression, refers the epithet eastward-looking to the way.] The thrice repeated
ãֶּøֶêְ
thus emphasizes and depicts the circuit which Ezekiel had to take, because the aim of the prophet’s going—the regaining a view of the waters—is the main matter. Whether the waters flowed forth over or under the courts is not expressly stated; at all events they ran under the surrounding walls, and doubtless under the stone pavement of the outer court.—
åְäִðֵּäÎîַéִí
resumes verbally, when the waters were seen again, the
åְäִðֵּäÎîַéִí
of Eze_47:1, so that the
îַéִí
without the article occasions no difficulty whatever; no other waters can be imagined than those which the prophet had seen before.—
îְôַëִּéí
(Piel particip. of
ôָּëָä
) only in this passage, thus a unique and not less pictorial expression. Ges.: “to trickle;” and Umbreit adduces its affinity with
áָּëָä
, so that he gets “weeping” waters, which would portray such an “insignificant commencement of the issue” as does not harmonize with Eze_47:1. How can that be thought of as trickling here which has already flowed through the courts? The affinity of the expression with
áָּ÷ַ÷
, “to pour out,” likewise observed by Gesenius, would lead to a signification such as: to gush out. Hitzig goes back to
ôָּëַê
, a word which does not exist; and Meier to
áָּëַê
, “to burst forth” (?). Hengst thinks of
ôַּêְ
“a bottle,” and supposes a “gurgling,” like the “sound which the emptying bottle makes,” which, however, does not correspond to the “character of fulness and livingness” which, according to him, the waters in themselves must have; he translates, indeed: “gushed out.” Neumann assumes a radical signification: “to break up,” “to set free;” hence:
ôָּëָä
, “to break forth.” To translate it with Keil: “to purl,” very probably comes nearest the figure.—
îִïÎäַëָּúֵó äַéְîָðִéú
; Hitzig: “not the south side of the whole temple-circuit, but: the southern half of the east front;” Neum.: “on the beholder’s right hand, when he has come out here from the north;” Hengst.: “the right side is here also the south-east, the south side of the east gate, where the water comes forth only because it has taken its rise oh the south-east side of the temple;” Klief.: “the angle which the eastern outer gate formed with the wall of the outer court is meant.” At all events this is meant to be expressed, that the waters which Ezekiel here saw again were the waters which came from the sanctuary.
Eze_47:3. Hengstenberg translates: “When the man went forth to the east with the measuringline in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits,” etc. Ezekiel’s guide is, in distinction from Eze_47:2 (
åַéּåֹõִéàֵðִé
), now considered by himself(
áְּõֵàúÎäָàִéùׁ
). He had
÷ָå
(Eze_40:3 :
ôָּúִéì
)—from
÷ָåָä
, according to Gesenius: “to twist;” according to Meier: “to bring together”—in his hand, which is remarked because of what follows, where not merely the farther course of the waters, but still more their peculiarities during the course, are set forth. Following the waters in an eastern direction, the man measured a thousand cubits.—
îֵé àַôְñָéִí
give the experience of the prophet, whom the man makes to wade in the water from one bank to the other; hence it is not appositional to
áַּîַּéִí
, but an independent clause, the meaning of which many attempts have been made to distort, when yet it must contain a statement corresponding to the following increments. Kimchi, making use of Gen_47:15, interprets it: “water of vanishing” = little water. The dual form:
àַôְñָéִí
, certainly does not refer to an abstraction, but, as uniformly, denotes things paired naturally or artificially; in the connection here, without doubt, a corporeal duality, but not, as Genesius: “foot-soles” (“shallow water which only wets the soles”); against which Hitzig justly observes that the water reached to the foot-soles in the very beginning.
àֶôֶí
is not exactly the same as
ôַּí
, that is, “extension,” flat of the hand, and hence also flat of the foot, foot-sole, but
àַôְíָéִí
rather suggests
ëֻּúֹּðֶú ôַּñִּéí
, a garment extended so as to reach to the ankles. [Neumann thinks that “waters of the foot-soles” probably were waters of only the depth of the sandals, which the prophet had put off(!) in the court of the priests, and again put on; and that, in conformity with the phrase:
àַôְñֵé àֶøֶõ
, we cave to think of the two ends, the two lower extremities of the body, that is, the feet: waters of the extremities were waters which scarcely covered the feet.]—
áָּàַîָּä
, measured by the measure, which was a cubit-measure.
Eze_47:4. After the second measuring of a thousand cubits, i. e. of distance along the course of the waters, the result of the waters becoming always deeper is
îַéִí áִּøְëָּéִí
, an ungrammatical form, so much the more striking, as we have the stat. constr.
îֵé
before and after. See Hitzig’s explanation, which, however, is a mere conjecture, while the supposition of a separate clause (waters, to the knee they reach) is easier, and at the same time more emphatic. After a third measuring, we have waters to the loins. But after the fourth measuring of another thousand cubits, i. e. in all, at a distance of four thousand cubits, it is
Eze_47:5—a river!
ðַçַì
looks like an exclamation of Ezekiel’s surprise on seeing what reminds him of the impetuous rush of a mountain torrent. The going through, hitherto possible, is no longer so, for the waters
âָàåּ
, “swelled,” “grew in height” (Job_8:11; Job_10:16; comp. also Exo_15:1) to
îֵéÎùָׂçåּ
, in which swimming was possible, yea, necessary, if one were to cross from bank to bank—to a river which cannot be waded. The prophet describes the increasing volume of water by the two parallel clauses: “waters of swimming,” “a river that could not be waded.”
The question in Eze_47:6 indicates the halting-place in the vision, whereby what had been already seen, that is, the out-flow and on-flow of the waters in gradually increasing strength, is, in passing over to what follows, marked off as a thing apart by itself. Yet it is specially the continuous increase of the waters to which the prophet’s attention is called. Keil: “A natural brook cannot in so short distances have increased so mightily, unless brooks fell into it on all sides, which was not the case here.” Hengst.: “The Messianic salvation crescit eundo, while the streams of worldly enterprise dry up after a brief course—are streams whose waters lie (Isa_58:11; Job_6:15 sq.). Comp. the supplement through the person of the Mediator of salvation in Eze_17:22-23; and in the New Testament, the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven. The same progress which is exhibited in its efficacy among the nations shows itself also in the life of individuals, making them become great out of small, fathers in God out of children.” Neum. calls attention to the Messianic element in the designation: son of man, and observes that “the seer was thereby reminded that his vision was for mankind, that this swelling stream flowed on to the days of the completion of the human race.” The
åַéּåֹìִëֵðִé
taken by itself may be a mere recording here of what had taken place before,—“a wading in to the neck” (Isa_8:8), as Hengst. expresses it,—in order to get the knowledge indicated in Eze_47:5; or, according to others, it is to be taken in conjunction with
åַéְùִׁáֵðִé×
, as defining it more exactly: he brought me back to come up again out of the water.—
òַìÎùְׂôַú×
, to the bank (up to the bank), etc. Neumann, Kliefoth, and Keil understand it thus: And he made me go, namely, away from the last-mentioned place, and brought me back to the bank of the river (Ewald, too, in his last edition: “and made me go and return on the bank of the stream”). According to this, the prophet was led on the bank, in order to learn the depth of the waters,—but he was rather led through three times, and hence the fourth time probably just in and out again!—and brought back to the bank, to see that it was covered with trees. It seems, however, to agree better with the end intended, to understand
òַì×
as stating the purpose; for, as Hengst. says, the attention is now to be turned to the bank, to observe it, and not as hitherto the waters in their bed. [Hitzig makes the guide measure at a distance from the water, and the prophet, after his last vain attempt, come to the guide; whereupon the latter put his question to the prophet, and returned with him to the bank of the river, and during the time that Ezekiel’s back was turned to the river, its bank became adorned with trees. Häv.: “from the end, from the point where the river flows into the Dead Sea(!), the prophet returned once more to its bank.”]
Eze_47:7.
áְּùׁåּáֵðִé
, literally: “when I turned myself back.” Hitzig disputes the transitive signification of the verb, but indisputably the objective suffix
ðִé
is attached to the infinitive; whereas Hitzig takes the suffix as genitive of possession: “when he came back with me.” On the return of the prophet (
áְּùׁåּáֵðִé
seems to comprehend the
åַéּåֹìִëֵðִé åַéְùִׁáֵðִé
of Eze_47:6)—who would probably have followed the course of the water still farther had it depended on him, but is obliged to return to the edge of the bank, just because he has to notice the bank of the river, and that (as Eze_47:8 shows) as far back as the sanctuary—that is realized which was intended with a
åְäִðֵּä
, as in Eze_47:1-2; it is the third stage in the vision. How much the matter treated of refers to the brink of the river, the repeated mention of it shows. But the fact that “so long as the beholder followed the measurer, he saw nothing of the trees oh the bank,” arises from the nature of the process in the vision. The looking forward gave Ezekiel the knowledge of the progressive fulness and depth of the waters; not until he looks back does he come to know—with a view to what follows—the fertilizing, enlivening effect of these waters.
òֵõ
, as the words: very many, show, is collective (Gen_1:11 sq., Eze_2:9), and in accordance with Eze_47:12 is to be understood of fruit-bearing trees. (The phrase: on the brink of the river, indicates the cause. It has been said that Ezekiel interchanges
òַì
and
àֶì
; but when the bringing of the prophet out of the water and on to the bank was referred to,
òַì
was employed in Eze_47:6; here, where the reference is to the trees growing on and overshadowing the bank, we have simply
àֶì
.) But it confuses the meaning of the waters when Hengst. finds here “the need of salvation denoted by hungering as well as by thirsting.” Nothing has been said of this in connection with the waters. It is not the case that “life or salvation is here represented in the shape of the fruit-tree, as before by the water”(for which Hengst. compares Isa_55:1 sq.).—It cannot with strictness be said that “the trees have here no independent import, but come into account only for their fruit,” for there is not the slightest mention here of their fruit. It would be better, with Hitzig, to call to mind Eze_36:35, and to think of the restoration, cultivation, and fertilization of the land in general, as a blessed dwelling-place for Israel. The trees are not very “great,” but very “many,”—not one tree, as in Eze_17:22 sq.; Dan_4:7 [10] sq. “That this stream here depends on the four streams watering the garden of Eden (Genesis 2), and this forest on the tree of life, is a gratuitous assertion. Nothing is said of the immortality-giving power of the trees, and the waters no more bear fish of paradise on their waves than do the rivers in Psa_1:3” (Neum.).
Eze_47:8. Corresponding to the twofold direction of the prophet’s observation, the interpretation, which now begins, tells us regarding the course of the waters and the effects they shall produce. Had the prophet desired to follow the water farther, this desire would have been met by the saying: “these waters go out;” in other words, as they come out from the sanctuary, Eze_47:1-2 (
éֹöְàִéí
, Eze_47:1), i.e. take their departure thence, so their progress is directed out “toward,” “to” (
àֶì
), etc.—The statement:
äַâְּìִéìָä äַ÷ַּãְîåֹðָä
, is no such “general” determination of the region in which the waters are to prove themselves effectual as Hengstenberg supposes. At any rate, what is thereby designated is not—as the exegesis of the Fathers, following the Sept., delighted to maintain, in view of Jesus’ residence there—
äַðָּìִéì
of Jos_20:7;, the
âְּìִéì äַâּåֹéִí
of Isa. 8:23 [Isa_9:1]; the northern district in the tribe of Naphtali, called
äַâָּìִéìָä
in 2Ki_15:29—the later Galilee. On the contrary,
äַ÷ַּãְîåֹðָä
expressly distinguishes it from that Galilee. The very word
âְּìִéìָä
, the feminine formation from
âָּìִéì
, evidently denotes with the article a definite district; there were several
âְּìִéìåֹú×
, Jos_13:2 (Joel 4:4 [Joe_3:9]), Jos_22:10 sq. Derived as it is from
âָּìַì
, “to break off,” “to roll off,” a “section,” something “bounded off,” is to be understood; and because it is here in the east, the border-land there, lying opposite the centre of the land, would be meant, as distinguished from every other border district.—After the statement of the direction (
éָöָà àֶì
), there follows the account of the course of the waters, as also it is said in the outset in Eze_47:1 (
éֹøְãִéí
) that the waters, namely, came down (
åְéָøְãåּ
) “flowed down,”
òַì
, that is, over.—
äָòֲøָáָä
, defined by the article, is to be interpreted by the context. From the intransitive
òָøַá
, to be “contracted,” hence to be “arid,” “dry,” heath, wilderness, steppe is meant.—Geographically, the Arabah is the whole valley of the Jordan, extending even beyond the Dead Sea; comp. our Comment. on Deuteronomy 1.; but in accordance with the previous definition, we find ourselves in that part of the Ghor which lies above the Dead Sea.—After
éָöָà
and
éָøַã
, we have now
áּåֹà
, the coming to the goal. How much stress is laid upon this goal, as that which is to be defined in respect to the course of the waters, is shown by the repetition of
àֶìÎäַéָּîָּä
after
äַéָּîָּä
. As the Dead Sea is called in Deu_3:17; Deu_4:49,
éָí äָòֲøָáָä
, so in Eze_47:18 of our chapter it is designated the “east sea;” and thus we cannot with other expositors understand here the western, the Mediterranean Sea, which, moreover, is distinguished in Eze_47:10 as “the great sea.” If the Arabah, the
ìåãá ðåäéïí
of Josephus, which he names
ἐñçìéáí
, is an unhealthy plain “full of salt clay,” then this is only the fitting introduction to the Dead Sea, with its well-known peculiarity.—
äַîּåּöָàִéí
(particip. Hoph.)
àֶìÎäַéָּîָּä
has, following the Sept., been translated: “into the sea of the mouths,” inasmuch as the Jordan falls into it, and, according to Gadow (in the Journal of the German Oriented Society, 1848, 1 p. 61), forms “a slimy delta.” [Ewald: “into the sea, into the sea of the muddy waters;”
îåּöָà
, “muddy,” “foul” !] The comparison of Zec_14:8 and the dual form in Eze_47:9 have led others to suppose a dividing of the waters, so that
éָîָּä
refers one time to the east, but afterwards also to the west. “The prophet,” says Umbreit, “sets out first and specially from the Dead Sea; he does not, however, confine himself to it, but makes the waters flow also into the great west and world sea. For the sea of the wilderness appears, indeed, as the most fitting symbol of the death of sin (‘the Lord hath no pleasure in the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live’); but until now there is no water altogether healthy, and for this very reason there is a flowing forth of the fountain of life still farther into the world of sin and of death.” [According to the Midrashim, the river divides itself into twelve waters, which flow to the twelve tribes; it is even said to flow on so far as to Calabria and into Barbary.] It only remains that, in accordance with the stress laid upon the issuing forth of the waters in question in Eze_47:1-2, and again in Eze_47:12, we understand the expression: brought forth, used of the waters on their way to the sea, as an emphasizing again of the fact that they proceeded from the temple, and that this is done just here in order to pass on to the purpose effected by them when they have reached their goal. (Hengst.: reference “to the higher hand, which executes, according to deliberate counsel, the plan of salvation.” Neum.: “waters that well forth from the threshold of the temple, that come to the Dead Sea. Not only that, but, moreover, having arrived at the Dead Sea, they are brought forth; thus the sanctuary of the blessing expressly connects itself with the doomed domain of the curse.”)—The waters of which it is said that they are healed are self-evidently (2Ki_2:22) the waters of the Dead Sea, as is shown also by what follows. The spiritual signification of the waters is now told to the prophet: healing of the dead, which accordingly means only sick unto death, is the aim of their being brought forth from the sanctuary to the Dead Sea, to the east boundary; that is, we might say, from Israel into the world, which is thereby auspiciously symbolized as in the east, consequently with a reference to the rising of the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 3:20 [Eze_4:2]). [Grotius explains
åְðִøְôּàåּ
in this way, that the waters flowing in continue wholesome, notwithstanding their flowing through.] The character of the water of the Dead Sea has already been correspondingly described by Diodorus:
ἐ÷åé äéáðéêñïí êáé êáè
’
ὑðùñâïëç äõóùäåò
. Comp. Tacitus, Hist. v. 6. Jerome calls it mare amarissimum, quod Græce ëéìíç ἀóöáëôïõ, id est, stagnum bituminis vocatur. Comp. von Schubert (Reise in d. Morgenl. 3 p. 85), who remarks on the deceptive appearance for thirsty persons of the “clear and pure” water. Comp. moreover, von Raumer’s Palästina, p. 61 sq.; Robinson’s Physical Geography of the Holy Land, p. 209 sq. [Hengst.: “The wilderness is in Scripture a figure of ungodliness (?), and so a fitting emblem of the world estranged from God and excluded from His kingdom, Psa_107:5. In Joel, the valley of the acacias, the tree of the wilderness, corresponds to the Arabah here. Comp. also Isa_35:6. As a symbol of the corrupt world lying in wickedness (1Jn_5:19), the Dead Sea is the more appropriate, as it owes its origin to a judgment on the corrupt world, and the spiritual eye discerns under its waves the figure of Sodom and Gomorrah (Ezekiel 16).”]
The transition is now made to the effects of the waters flowing to the Dead Sea. Very impressively Eze_47:9 begins first of all with the prophetic
åְäָéָä
(Neum.: “it has then come to pass, then the fact lies open to observation”): what manifests itself in consequence of the healing of the water, in reference to the water itself, as an effect of the healing waters of the sanctuary.—But what of
ëָּìÎðֶôֶùׁ çָéָּä
? Is there, then, any living thing in the Dead Sea? There is not, although Prince Pückler asserts that he ate there fishes taken living from the Dead Sea. T
