Ezekielchapter 47
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Key verse
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 under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 5.
The chapter
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
Where the chapter sits
Ezekiel 47 falls in The Temple vision (chapters 40–48). Detailed architectural and liturgical vision. Literal-millennial (dispensational), symbolic-of-the-Church (Reformed), typological (amill) readings all surfaced. The glory returns; the city's name is YHWH Shammah (48:35).
The river from the Temple. Ankle-deep, knee-deep, waist-deep, waters to swim in; trees on both sides for healing.
Before it: Gog and Magog, chapters 38–39.
The whole shape of Ezekiel→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 rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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
A. Water from under the threshold, rising until you swim
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.waters issued out from under the threshold: The guide brings the prophet back to the temple door, and water is running out from under the threshold itself, on the south side of the altar, the house's own front facing east where the glory returned in chapter 43. Fairbairn reads the source as the point: not a stream found nearby and dedicated, but a river that begins inside the sanctuary and flows from it. The vision that opened with the glory's departure now shows life pouring outward from the place the glory came back to.
Ezekiel 47:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 47:1
“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.”
Ezekiel 47:1
“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. iii. Some observe that they came forth on the right side of the house to intimate that gospel-blessings are right-hand blessings.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 47:2, 1 voice
Ezekiel 47:2
“There ran out waters - מים מפכים 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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 3-5)
a.the waters were to the ankles: The man with the measuring line walks the prophet eastward in four stages of a thousand cubits each, and the river deepens at every stage, ankles, then knees, then loins, then water too deep to cross, a river to swim in. Keil reads the rising measure as the vision's own picture of grace, small at its source and only ever increasing the further it is followed, never receding. The prophet cannot walk this river to its end; he can only be carried further into it.
Ezekiel 47:3, 1 voice
Ezekiel 47:3
“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.”
Ezekiel 47:4, 1 voice
Ezekiel 47:4
“The knees - The mission of Paul and Barnabas Act 13:1-4 is another marked epoch in the Church’s history; and the time of Paul’s martyrdom denotes an increase in the Gentile Church, which corresponds with the waters reaching the loins.”
Ezekiel 47:5, 2 voices
Ezekiel 47:5
“The rivers in Palestine were for the most part mere watercourses, dry in summer, in winter carrying the water along the wadys to the sea. The river of the vision is to have a continuous flow. Waters to swim in - When under Constantine the Roman empire had become Christian, the Church may be contemplated as the full river, to flow on through time until the final completion of Isaiah’s prophecy Isa 11:9.”
Ezekiel 47:5
“The waters of the sanctuary are running waters, as those of a river, not standing waters, as those of a pond. The gospel, when it was first preached, was still spreading further. Grace in the soul is still pressing forward; it is an active principle, plus ultra--onward still, till it comes to perfection.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
B. Trees on both banks and life wherever the river goes
1. (vv. 6-7)
a.hast thou seen this?: The guide's question, addressed to the prophet by his standing title, turns him back to the river's bank, where very many trees stand on either side. Gill reads the question as making the prophet an eyewitness on record before the interpretation is given, the same pattern the vision has used since the throne chapter. The trees are named before their purpose is explained, held for the unit that follows.
2. (vv. 8-9)
a.These waters issue out toward the east country: The river runs down through the desert into the sea, and the sea's own waters are healed by it, so that everything that lives wherever the river comes will live, with a very great multitude of fish. The east country and the sea point toward the Dead Sea, the one body of water east of Jerusalem too salt to sustain life, and the commentators across the tradition read the healing as this river's plain, stated effect on it. Henry notes the repetition, healed and live and live again, as the text's own emphasis rather than the exposition's addition.
Ezekiel 47:8, 2 voices
Ezekiel 47:8
“The sea” is a term commonly applied to the Dead Sea. Compare Deu 3:17, “the sea of the plain (Arabah), even the salt sea.” The more literal rendering of the verse in this sense would be, “and go into the sea; into the sea go the waters that issue forth, and the waters shall be healed.” Healed - Every living thing (of which there were none before) shall abound in the “healed” waters. The absence of living creatures in the Dead Sea has been remarked by ancient and modern writers.
Ezekiel 47:8
“The sea - The Dead-sea, or lake of Sodom. Shall be healed - The waters of the sea shall be healed, made wholesome. So where the grace of God from his temple and altar flows, it heals the corrupt nature of man, and renders barren terrible deserts, as a land of waters and gardens.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 47:9, 2 voices
Ezekiel 47:9
“The rivers - literally, as in the margin. Perhaps with reference to the circumstance that this “brook or river” is to come into the Dead Sea through the same plain as the Jordan. The one river (Jordan) always flowed, but now, when another river comes in, and “two rivers” flow into the sea, the waters shall be healed.”
Ezekiel 47:9
“Christ came, that we might have life and for that end he sends his gospel. Every thing shall live whither the river comes. The grace of God makes dead sinners alive and living saints lively; everything is made fruitful and flourishing by it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3. (vv. 10-11)
a.they shall be a place to spread forth nets: Fishers will work the healed shore from En-gedi to En-eglaim, their catch as varied as the fish of the great sea, but the vision does not erase every salt place: the miry ground and the marshes are left to salt, unhealed. Fairbairn reads the exception as keeping the vision honest, abundance given without pretending every square foot of ground is remade the same way. A source of salt still has its own use even beside a river of healing.
Ezekiel 47:10, 3 voices
Ezekiel 47:10
“He was baptized and came up who draws all things into his net. Out of the stream from which Simon caught fish came the fisher of men, and he took him. With the cross, which catches all robbers, he caught that robber up into life. …”
Ephrem the Syrian· written before 373· HYMNS ON THE NATIVITY 3patristic
Ezekiel 47:10
“The fishers shall stand upon it - On the above plan of interpretation these must mean - 1. The apostles of our Lord Jesus. 2. The preachers of the everlasting Gospel. See Mat 4:19. From En-gedi - At the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. Unto En-eglaim - At the northern extremity of the same. Their fish shall be according to their kinds - Every kind of fish, and the fish all excellent of their kinds.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 47:10
“En-eglaim--En-gedi (meaning "fountain of the kid"), anciently, Hazazon-Tamar, now Ain-Jidy; west of the Dead Sea; David's place of refuge from Saul. En-eglaim means "fountain of two calves," on the confines of Moab, over against En-gedi, and near where Jordan enters the Dead Sea (Isa 15:8).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 47:11, 2 voices
Ezekiel 47:11
“The exception, which reserves for sterility places to which the living water does not reach, probably indicates that the life and health are solely due to the stream which proceeds from beneath the throne of God. Compare Isa 57:20-21.”
Ezekiel 47:11
“He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. Never fruit grow on thee more for ever. They shall be given to salt, that is, to be monuments of divine justice, as Lot's wife that was turned into a pillar of salt, to season others.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
4. (v. 12)
a.shall grow all trees for meat: On both banks of the river stand trees whose leaf never fades and whose fruit never fails, bearing new fruit every month because their water flows out of the sanctuary itself, the fruit for meat and the leaf for medicine. Revelation 22:1-2 takes up this verse almost feature for feature, the river of water of life proceeding from the throne, the tree of life bearing twelve fruits monthly with leaves for the healing of the nations, stated as the connection the text itself carries forward. Fairbairn reads Ezekiel's river as the earlier picture Revelation completes rather than a separate vision, one river of life shown twice.
Ezekiel 47:12, 3 voices
Ezekiel 47:12
“Shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade - A description that suits the righteous, who are still producing - 1. The fruits of faith. 2. The fruits of the Spirit. 3. The fruits of love to God, obedience to his holy will, and love to all men. Benevolence, mercy, charity, kindness, etc. The leaf thereof for medicine - See Rev 22:1-5. Even the leaves, the holy profession of the righteous, is a spiritual medicine. Righteousness is thus encouraged in the world.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 47:12
“And there is plainly a reference to this in St. John's vision of a pure river of water of life, Rev. xxii. That seems to represent the glory and joy which are grace perfected. This seems to represent the grace and joy which are glory begun.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 47:12
“The fruits of their righteousness are one way or other beneficial. The very leaves of these trees are for medicine, for bruises and sores, margin. Good Christians with their good discourses, which are as their leaves, as well as with their charitable actions, which are as their fruits, do good to those about them; they strengthen the weak, and bind up the broken-hearted.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
C. The borders of the land marked out
1. (vv. 13-14)
a.Joseph shall have two portions: The oracle turns from the river to the land itself, promising the whole of it divided among the twelve tribes with one adjustment named outright, Joseph receiving two portions in place of Levi's tribal share, the double portion Jacob gave him at Genesis 48 carried into the final division. Gill notes the promise reaches back to the oath sworn to the fathers, the land Israel's own by inheritance rather than by conquest alone. The chapter that measured a river now measures a country.
Ezekiel 47:13, 3 voices
Ezekiel 47:13
The ideal reallotment of the land to the twelve tribes of Israel is found in Ezek. 47:13–48:14. The special mention of Joseph’s portions was in order to express that the twelve portions were to be exclusive of Levi’s land, which was to be provided out of the “oblation.”
Ezekiel 47:13
“The latter are substantially the same as those given by Moses in Nu 34:1-29; they here begin with the north, but in Numbers they begin with the south (Nu 34:3). It is only Canaan proper, exclusive of the possession of the two and a half tribes beyond Jordan, that is here divided. Joseph . . . two portions--according to the original promise of Jacob (Ge 48:5, 22).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 47:13
“The border - The utmost bounds of the whole land. Shall inherit - That is, shall divide for inheritance to the tribes of Israel. Joseph - That is, the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 47:14, 3 voices
Ezekiel 47:14
“As well as - Or, as. Ezekiel is speaking of “tribes,” not “individuals.” Each tribe is to have an equal “breadth” of land assigned to it.”
Ezekiel 47:14
“And to those sealed ones these allotments did belong. It intimates likewise that all the subjects of Christ's kingdom have obtained like precious faith. Male and female, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, are all alike welcome to Christ and made partakers of him.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 47:14
“Though God's providences may for a time seem to contradict his promises, yet the promise will certainly take place at last, for God will be ever mindful of his covenant. I lifted up my hand to give it, and therefore it shall without fail fall to you for an inheritance. Thus the heavenly Canaan is sure to all the seed, because it is what God, who cannot lie, has promised.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 15-20)
a.the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad: The border is traced in a single circuit, north through Hethlon, Zedad, Hamath and Damascus, east along Hauran and Gilead to the Jordan and the east sea, south from Tamar to the waters of strife at Kadesh, and west along the great sea itself. Keil reads the boundary as drawn wider than the land Israel ever actually possessed under David or Solomon, a promise stated at its fullest extent rather than a record of past borders. The positions on how literally the boundary is meant to be read stand with the same two readings already named for the temple's own measurements.
Ezekiel 47:15, 1 voice
Ezekiel 47:15
“The borders of the land follow closely Num. 34, where they begin from the south, as the people came up from Egypt; in Ezekiel, they begin from the north, as they might return from Babylon. The occupation is ideal, but is grounded, as usual, on an actual state of things. The border of the land toward the north - Names of places in the actual northern border are given (marginal references) not to mark exact geographical position, but to show that the original promise will be fulfilled.”
Ezekiel 47:16, 3 voices
Ezekiel 47:16
“Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim,.... The line of the northern border should be drawn on by Hamath, the same with Antiochia in Syria, since called Epiphania, as Jerom observes, from Antiochus Epiphanies; and go on by Berothah, a city of Hadadezer king of Zobah, 2Sa 8:8, the same with the Barothena of Ptolemy (q), placed by him in Syria; and from thence the line would be carried on to Sibraim, a city in Arabia Deserta: which is between the border of Damascus; the chief city in Syria: and the border of Hamath; before mentioned.”
Ezekiel 47:16
“Hamath - Emesa or Amesa, in Syria. - Calmet. Berothah - Berytus, now Baruth or Beeroth, which David took from Hadarezer, king of Syria, 2Sa 8:8; but these things are very uncertain. Sibraim - Sabarim or Sepharvaim, according to the Syriac, between Hamath and Damascus. Hazar-hatticon - The middle Hazar; or middle village, as the margin. Hauran - The city Aurana, and the district Auranitis, are in the north-east limit of the Holy Land.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 47:16
“But it was not always to be a separate land. Between the parallel ranges of Lebanon is the long valley of El-Bekaa, leading to "the entering in of Hamath" on the Orontes, in the Syrian frontier. Roman roads, and the harbor made at Cæsarea, opened out doors through which the Gospel should go from it to all lands.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 47:17, 2 voices
Ezekiel 47:17
“And the border from the sea shall be Hazarenan, the border of Damascus,.... Which was the furthermost part and end of the northern border, as fixed by Moses, Num 34:9, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath; if this is carrying on the border further, it seems to be another Hamath, distinct from the former, Eze 47:16, and this is the north side: of the land, and the description of the northern border of it, from the Mediterranean sea to Hazarenan.”
Ezekiel 47:17
“The border from the sea - The north border eastward is ascertained Eze 47:15, Eze 47:16; here it is shown how far it extends itself northward. Hazar-enan - The village of Enan, Num 34:9, placed to the north of Caesarea Philippi. Ziphron, see Num 34:9, called Zaphion by the Syriac.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 47:18, 1 voice
Ezekiel 47:18
“The eastern boundary is to commence by separating off the territory of Damascus and Hauran, and then to follow the line of the Jordan to the Dead Sea. Further, the land occupied by the trans-Jordanic tribes was also to be separated off from the land of Israel. The trans-Jordanic tribes in fact occupied their ground (in Joshua’s allotment) by sufferance. This did not belong to Canaan proper, the land of promise.”
Ezekiel 47:19, 1 voice
Ezekiel 47:19
“The south border (compare Num 34:4) commences with “Tamar,” probably a village near the southern end of the Dead Sea. The word means “palm-tree;” and is given to more than one city in the holy land. The river to the great sea - literally, “riverward to the great sea.” By the “river” is meant the torrent-stream entering the Mediterranean near “Rhinocolura” (El Arish).”
Ezekiel 47:20, 2 voices
Ezekiel 47:20
“The west side also shall be the great sea from the border,.... From the border of Egypt, and the river of it, to the Mediterranean sea, is the west side of the land, and the western border of it; hence the western point is often expressed in Scripture by the sea: till a man come over against Hamath; Antioch in Syria; see Eze 47:16. this is the west side; of the land, and of the western border of it.”
Ezekiel 47:20
“Note, It is God that appoints the bounds of our habitation; and his Israel shall always have cause to say that the lines have fallen to them in pleasant places. The lake of Sodom is here called the east sea, for it, being healed by the waters of the sanctuary, it is no more to be called a salt sea, as it was in Numbers.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
D. Strangers given an inheritance among the tribes
1. (vv. 21-23)
a.So shall ye divide this land unto you: The land is to be divided by lot among the tribes, and the chapter closes on a deliberate widening: the stranger who sojourns among them and begets children there is to be counted as one born in the country, given inheritance in whatever tribe he settles among rather than left landless. Henry reads the ruling as the same welcome Israel's own law already required for the sojourner, stated here as a fixed term of the final division rather than a mere suggestion. The chapter that began with water flowing out from the sanctuary ends with the land itself opened to the outsider who comes to dwell in it.
Ezekiel 47:22, 1 voice
Ezekiel 47:22
“And to the strangers that sojourn - In former divisions of the land, no place was given to strangers; but in this division, (which seems to have no other reference than to the Gospel, for literally such a division never took place), the strangers are to have an inheritance; intimating the calling of the Gentiles into the Church of Christ, to an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Glory be to God for his unspeakable gift! Amen. Amen.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 47:23, 1 voice
Ezekiel 47:23
“His inheritance - This certainly looks at gospel times, when the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile was taken down, and both put on a level before God, both made one in Christ Jesus.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
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 →
This page draws on 9 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826); Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Ephrem the Syrian, HYMNS ON THE NATIVITY 3; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Matthew Henry and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.
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