Ezekiel 47
River of Life
A trickle becomes a healing stream
1The guide took me back to the Temple entrance on the east side. I noticed a stream now flowing from under the threshold at the gate. Looking back into the Temple courtyard, I saw the stream coming from along the south side of the altar. It crossed through the courtyard and flowed down the east side of the Temple hill.2Then the guide took me up to the north gate, outside the Temple area. We turned right and walked along the eastern wall. I saw the water trickling down the eastern hillside. It came from the southern part of the Temple complex.
3He walked me right into the trickling stream and turned eastward, downstream. He measured 500 meters. [1] By the time we got to the end of the first 500, we were walking in ankle-deep water. 4He measured another 500 meters, which took us through knee-high water. Another 500 meters and we were walking waist-high in the water. 5Yet another 500 meters and the water was over my head. I couldn’t wade through it anymore. A person would have to swim it.
6So, we walked out of the water and to the bank alongside the stream. The guide said, “Human, you’ve got a deer-in-the-torchlight look on your face.” 7As we walked along the bank, I was stunned to see how many trees had grown there, along both banks of the stream.
8He said:
This stream flows eastward toward the dry Arabah [2] badlands below. It pours into the Dead Sea [3] and heals the stagnant water. Every swarming school of fish thrives in that water. 9Fish from all over have come here to enjoy these healed waters. So have all kinds of land animals.
10You’ll find fisherman along the banks of the Dead Sea, fishing all the way from En-gedi [4] to En-glaim. [5] Those are good spots for drying fishnets. And these waters hold about as many kinds of fish as the Mediterranean Sea. 11The stream hasn’t healed the swamps and marshland, though. We’re keeping those so people can go there and gather salt.
12We have a lot of different fruit trees growing alongside the river, providing food for the people. The leaves never dry up and the fruit never stops growing. There’s new fruit every month of the year now. That’s because the trees are drinking from the water that flows out of the Temple sanctuary. [6] The fruit is food, but the leaves are medicine that heals. Israel’s new boundaries 13The LORD God says:
These are the new boundaries [7] for the 12 tribes of Israel. Joseph’s tribes get two shares. [8] 14I promised your ancestors that I would keep this land in your family and pass it on to you. So be fair about the way you divide it up. 15Here are the borders of Israel.
NORTH: From the Mediterranean Sea through Hethlon [9] and Lebo-hamath. [10] 16Then on to Zedad, [11] Beruthah, [12] and Sibraim [13] located between the regions of Damascus and Hamath. Then on to Hazer-hatticon, [14] along the border of Hauran. [15] 17So, the border runs from the Mediterranean Sea to Hazer-enon, [16] which lies on Damascus’s northern border with the territory of Hamath.
18EAST: The line runs south from a spot between Hauran and Damascus, between Gilead and Israel. Below that, the Jordan River forms the eastern border. From the southern tip of the Dead Sea, the border extends to Tamar. [17]
19SOUTH: The border goes from Tamar to the oasis of Kadesh-barnea, [18] and on to the usually dry riverbed called the Wadi of Egypt. From there, it stretches to the Mediterranean Sea. That’s the southern border.
20WEST. The Mediterranean Sea is the natural border on the west. The western line runs as far north as Lebo-hamath. That’s the western border.
Share the land fairly, with immigrants
21Divide this land fairly among Israel’s extended families, the 12 tribes.22This is your land. Keep it among yourselves and among immigrants who live with you and have had children born while living there. You should treat these immigrants as equals, as though they were born here in your land. Give them land like you would any other person in Israel. 23Give them land in whatever tribal area they settle. The Lord God says you need to do this.
Footnotes
One thousand cubits. There were short cubits (18 inches, 46 cm) and long cubits (21 inches, 52 cm). This was roughly 550 yards or 500 meters.
The Arabah is a dry and desolate stretch of territory between the nations of Israel and Jordan. It runs south from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea. For the Temple’s River of Life to get there, ironically enough, it had to pass through the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is the saltiest large body of water on earth. Fish unlucky enough to land in the Dead Sea will—within moments—show why it’s called the Dead Sea. They’ll go belly up. At least four times saltier than the ocean—higher by some recent measurements—Dead Sea water is one-quarter mineral. That’s partly because it’s a giant evaporation tank at the lowest spot on the face of the earth. That makes it the drainage pit of the Middle East. It stretches roughly 50 miles long and 10 miles wide (80 x 16 km). Its beachfront lies about a quarter of a mile below sea level, roughly (1,400 feet; 427 meters). Evaporation and rain change those numbers. The water is so buoyant it keeps a person from sinking and it stings the eyes like a bee. Scientists have suggested adding several hundred million cubic meters of freshwater each year to maintain the declining water level. But they say that wouldn’t heal the sea for fish. They estimate that the mineral content of the water would remain too high.
En-gedi is a small oasis near the western banks of the Dead Sea. It’s nearly surrounded by cliffs and rocks about 25 miles (40 km) south of Jerusalem and beside the Dead Sea. David hid in the caves there when King Saul, jealous of the giant-killer’s popularity, was hunting him in hopes of killing him. En-gedi is a park today. A waterfall collects into a pool about 200 meters above the lowest dry spot on earth, the beach of the Dead Sea.
Location uncertain. Some scholars place the location on the opposite side of the Dead Sea, along the western shore. The implication would be that the River of Life healed all the Dead Sea, from east to West and north to South. Scholars who place En-eglaim east of the Dead Sea sometimes associate it with Eglath-shelishiya, a town Bible writers mention in connection with Zoar, and a town southeast of the Dead Sea (Isaiah 15:5; Jeremiah 48:34). That’s about 30 miles (47 km) southeast of En-gedi, as a dove flies.
God’s home on earth among the Jewish people becomes the source of prosperity, security, and physical healing throughout the land for all people living there—Jewish and others, who are treated like fellow Jews (see verses 22-23).
These are extended boundaries. Ezekiel’s description of what he saw in his vision suggests that Israel takes much of Lebanon with parts of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, including Syria’s capital city of Damascus. His dream come true would be a nightmare for the Arab world today.
These were the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, named after Joseph’s sons.
Location of Hethlon is uncertain—as are most mentioned on the northern border. Some guess it may have been linked to what is now the town of Heitela, near the coast.
The Hebrew language calls the location lebo Hamath. This could mean the city of Lebo-hamath, in Lebanon, near where the Orontes River begins at the foot of Mount Hermon and Mount Lebanon. Or it could mean “entrance into Hamath” since lebo means “entrance.” Hamath was the name of a gateway into a mountain pass near Mount Hermon and Mount Lebanon. With either location, the idea was that the scouts traveled through all of Canaan, north to south.
Zedad’s name seems preserved in the modern town of Sedad, east of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains.
Beruthah, some scholars say, may have been where Bereitan is today, some 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Damascus.
Location unknown.
Location unknown.
Hauran, according to ancient Egyptian records, was a mountainous territory between the Sea of Galilee and Bashan in the east. Ezekiel is the only Bible writer to mention it, and only in this chapter. These northland towns and territories may have been familiar to Ezekiel because he passed through them on his trip into exile in what is now Iraq.
Location unknown. Some scholars guess it’s a town about 70 miles (110 km) northeast of Damascus: Qaryatein.
Tamar was a desert town in the tribal territory of Judah (1 Kings 9:18).
Ezekiel used an alternate name for the oasis: Meribath-kadesh. This was the largest oasis in the southern region there. Scholars most often identify Kadesh-barnea, also called Kadesh, as the spring-fed oasis at Tel el-Qudeirat, on Egypt’s side of the border with Israel. Another contender is Ain Qadeis, also on Egypt’s side of the border. Bible writers put the location in different deserts: Zin Desert (Numbers 20:1) and Paran Desert (Numbers 13:26). Some theorize there were two Kadesh oases. West Kadesh and East Kadesh. But not many scholars seem to buy into that.
Discussion Questions
- Sorry, there are currently no questions for this chapter.
