Ezekielchapter 47
23 verses · BSBEzekiel book hub →
Speaks with:Numbers 34×6Ezekiel 48×7Revelation 22×4Ezekiel 44×3Ezekiel 40×2Revelation 11×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Waters issue from under the threshold of the house eastward, on the south side of the altar, and the man with the line measures them a thousand cubits at a time, to the ankles, to the knees, to the loins, and then 'waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.' A river that deepens with no tributary. Trees line both banks; the stream runs down the Arabah into the sea and the waters are healed, so that fish abound and nets are spread from En-gedi to En-eglaim. The trees bear new fruit every month, 'and the leaf thereof for healing': Revelation 22 takes both river and leaves. Then the land's borders, with sojourners who beget children counted 'as the home-born.'
Context
Prophecy · Ezekiel — Ezekiel overview
- A. 1–5 Water from under the threshold, rising until you swim
- B. 6–12 Trees on both banks and life wherever the river goes
- C. 13–20 The borders of the land marked out
- D. 21–23 Strangers given an inheritance among the tribes
The outline
A.Water from under the threshold, rising until you swimvv. 1 to 5
Read vv. 1 to 5 →B.Trees on both banks and life wherever the river goesvv. 6 to 12
Read vv. 6 to 12 →C.The borders of the land marked outvv. 13 to 20
Read vv. 13 to 20 →D.Strangers given an inheritance among the tribesvv. 21 to 23
Read vv. 21 to 23 →
The world behind this chapter
Ezekiel 47The history
The river is measured in stages, and the measuring is what makes it strange. A thousand cubits out, the water is ankle deep; another thousand, knee deep; another thousand, up to the waist; another thousand, and it cannot be crossed — a river to swim in. Real rivers grow from tributaries. This one grows from nothing, with no stream feeding it, on the way down from a hilltop.
The destination is the point of the miracle. The Dead Sea sits at the lowest place on the earth's surface with no outlet, so everything the Jordan carries in stays there and evaporates. Its water is around ten times as salty as the ocean, which is why nothing lives in it. Ezekiel says the water becomes fresh and swarms with fish of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea.
The two place names given are exact. Fishermen will stand from En-gedi to En-eglaim spreading their nets — En-gedi is the freshwater spring oasis halfway down the western shore, a green patch in bare desert that anyone travelling that coast would know.
One detail refuses to be tidy: the swamps and marshes will not become fresh, but are left for salt. Salt was harvested from pans along that shore, and it was essential — for preserving food and, under the Law, for every grain offering. The healing of the sea does not abolish the thing people needed from it.
The chapter then turns to the borders, and they are drawn with real landmarks: the Great Sea on the west, the northern line running by Hamath and Zedad and Hazar-enan, the Jordan on the east, and the southern boundary running from Tamar to the waters of Meribah-kadesh and along the Brook of Egypt. The last provision is genuinely new. Resident foreigners who have settled and had children are to receive an inheritance among the tribe where they live, treated as native-born.
What it meant to them
Everything in this vision so far has flowed inward, toward the sanctuary. Here something flows out of it, and the further it gets from the threshold the deeper it becomes.
For exiles who had watched their land go barren and their sea stay dead, this is the picture that says the restoration is not a repair job. Trees on both banks, fruit every month, leaves for healing, and fishermen standing where nothing had ever lived.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezekiel 47. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 1 · An echo of this verse
River from the temple, trees, monthly fruit, healing leaves <-> river from the throne, tree of life, leaves for the healing of the nations - the clearest OT->NT water-river reuse. Mediates Row 5.
Revelation 22:1→Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
Ezek 47:1-12; Rev 22:1-2
v. 12 · The same word
H6086 tree of life guarded <-> riverside trees of monthly fruit and healing leaves by the temple river; the Eden-temple mid-canon hinge (extends to Rev 22 by concept/LXX, not same-word).
Genesis 3:24→So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.
verse_words live corpus (both carry H6086, verified)
v. 12 · A picture of Christ · An echo of this verse
Riverside trees whose fruit is monthly and whose 'leaf shall be for healing' are the direct OT source of Rev 22:2's xylon zoes bearing twelve fruits and leaves 'for the healing of the nations'. The mid-canon hinge the tree spine currently lacks.
Revelation 22:2→down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree…
Read the whole verse
down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
PD-LXX; H6086/G3586; Beale-Carson
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.