Ezekiel 47:1-12

1 Now he brought me back to the entrance to the Temple. I saw water pouring out from under the Temple porch to the east (the Temple faced east). The water poured from the south side of the Temple, south of the altar.

2 He then took me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the gate complex on the east. The water was gushing from under the south front of the Temple.

3 He walked to the east with a measuring tape and measured off fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was ankle-deep.

4 He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water waist-deep.

5 He measured off another fifteen hundred feet. By now it was a river over my head, water to swim in, water no one could possibly walk through.

6 He said, "Son of man, have you had a good look?"

7 While sitting on the bank, I noticed a lot of trees on both sides of the river.

8 He told me, "This water flows east, descends to the Arabah and then into the sea, the sea of stagnant waters. When it empties into those waters, the sea will become fresh.

9 Wherever the river flows, life will flourish - great schools of fish - because the river is turning the salt sea into fresh water. Where the river flows, life abounds.

10 Fishermen will stand shoulder to shoulder along the shore from En-gedi all the way north to En-eglaim, casting their nets. The sea will teem with fish of all kinds, like the fish of the Great Mediterranean.

11 "The swamps and marshes won't become fresh. They'll stay salty.

12 "But the river itself, on both banks, will grow fruit trees of all kinds. Their leaves won't wither, the fruit won't fail. Every month they'll bear fresh fruit because the river from the Sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing." Divide Up This Land

Ezekiel 47:1-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 47

This chapter gives an account of the vision of the holy waters, and of the borders of the holy land, and the division of it to Israelites and strangers. The waters are described by the original and spring of them, Eze 47:1,2, by the progress and increase of them, Eze 47:3-5, by the healing and quickening nature of them, and the places where they were so, and were not, Eze 47:8-11, and by the trees which grew upon the banks of them, Eze 47:6,7,12. The borders of the holy land are fixed, Eze 47:13,14, the northern border, Eze 47:15-17, the eastern border, Eze 47:18, the southern, Eze 47:19, and the western, Eze 47:20, which is to be divided by lot to the tribes of Israel, and the strangers that sojourn among them, Eze 47:21-23.