We can cast our eye backward upon the line of bygone ages, and trace the growth and the increasing firmness of the tree from the time that it was cast a seed into the ground, till it spread its branches over many climes and many nations. v. c. 6), - a statement confirmed by all modern travellers (cf. And lastly, the water of salvation also possesses the power to produce trees with leaves and fruits, by which the life called forth from death can be sustained and cured of all diseases. I shall not stay to mention all the particular distempers that rage in some, and that rule and reign in all, before the coming of the Gospel--as darkness, blindness, ignorance, worldly-mindedness, sensuality, hatred of God, envy and malice--which are fixed in the souls of men by presumption and self-righteousness. The talkative man, who lives in sin, flooded with knowledge, but destitute of love. I. The Gospel of the Son of God is calculated to effect the same result. 491, 492), as none of the other springs on the west coast, of which there are but few, answer so well as this. A special river of gracious opportunity has flowed down to them, but its streams have visited them in vain. We shall allude but to one method more by which the Lord executes His doom of “giving to salt” a Gospel-resisting people. So much, however, is beyond all doubt, that היּמּה is no other than the Dead Sea already mentioned. xxxi. The healing grace and influence of the Spirit may be withheld; without the help of which, the disease of the soul cannot be removed, nor its barrenness cured. God doth it for a testimony against them that receive it not, and to leave them inexcusable at the last day (Mark 6:11). דּרך חוּץ is more minutely defined by אל־שׁער החוּץ, and this, again, by דּרך הפּונה קדים, "by the way to the (gate) looking eastwards." Ezekiel 47:9. עין גּדי, i.e., Goat's spring, now Ain-Jidi, a spring in the middle of the west coast of the Dead Sea, with ruins of several ancient buildings (see the comm. The light in which the salt is regarded here is not that of its seasoning properties, but, in the words of Hengstenberg, "as the foe to all fruitfulness, all life and prosperity, as Pliny has said (Hist. 1 Then he brought me back to the door of the 1 temple; and there was a water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. One is by withdrawing from a heedless and obdurate people the Gospel--the ordinances of His grace--altogether. Not be healed. the steps by which such a judgment is brought on and how God usually proceeds to it. Given to salt; left to their barrenness, or used as salt to season, by being made examples to others. Compare Isaiah 57:20-21. And let it not for one moment be imagined that God will show Himself an unmoved spectator of all this insult offered to His mercy, of all this despite done to the Spirit of His grace. There are some men whom the Gospel does not bless. 2. Ezekiel 47:11. He doth it principally because in those places where the Word is rejected by the generality of the people, yet there may be some secret poor souls belonging to the election of grace, whom God will have gathered, and called home to Himself. Ezekiel 47:11 But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt. You cannot have the River of God of Ezekiel 47 without the destruction of the places, peoples, and cultures that are proactively and … Sensual souls are seldom wrought upon by the word. The Gospel of our Redeemer is represented by the river, which poured itself over the panoramic world, on which the prophet’s eye was fixed. 4. 1. Berlin, 1848.). Such a carelessness and indifferency is usually attended with blindness and insensibility, so as not to apprehend their disease, and mind a cure, and perceive their need of it. 1. Upon this, the resolution may be taken up to let them alone, that His Spirit shall not strive with them. 47:1-2). λεγ. Ezekiel 47:13. 3. Ezekiel 47:1. And he measured a thousand, and caused me to go through the water-water to the knees; and he measured a thousand, and caused me to go through-water to the hips. IV. The borders of the holy land are fixed, Ezekiel 47:13, the northern border, Ezekiel 47:15, the eastern border, Ezekiel 47:18, the southern, Ezekiel 47:19, and the western, Ezekiel 47:20, which is to be divided by lot to the tribes of Israel, and the strangers that sojourn among them, Ezekiel 47:21. In such an instance of judicial retribution, there will be a flintiness, a hardihood, an insensibility, a paralysis over the hearers’ hearts which will resist all approaches of the truth, and fling it back, as the breakwater rolls back the tide which would irrigate the soil. 2. 3. We agree with Hengstenberg in taking the words אל־היּמּה המּוּצאים as an emphatic summing up of the previous statement concerning the outflow of the water, to which the explanation concerning its effect upon the Dead Sea is attached, and supply בּאוּ from the clause immediately preceding: "the waters of the river that have been brought out (come) to the sea, and the waters of the Dead Sea are healed." And so also in Isaiah 44:3, "I will pour water upon the thirsty one, and streams upon the desert; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:" where the blessing answers to the water, the Spirit is named as the principal form in which the blessing is manifested, "the foundation of all other salvation for the people of God" (Hengstenberg). 1. Hengstenberg takes the expression "double river" to mean a river with a strong current, and refers to Jeremiah 50:21 in support of this. (Note: Compare W. Neumann, Die Wasser des Lebens. Ezekiel 47:11, KJV: "But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt." These are “the miry places and the marishes” of the vision--spots which the river has touched, but which it has not changed--which lie in their original wasteness and sterility, although the stream of improvement has flowed over them. They bring grace with them to cure all the distempers of lusts (Isaiah 11:5-7; Titus 2:11-12). [Luke 14:18-20] Such persons choose to remain in the sordes filth of their sins, and so are miserable by their own election. They shall be given to salt —, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Obsolete or obscure words in the english av bible. Jude 3.10. And we shall perceive the propriety of this emblem, if we turn our thoughts to the mystery of its origin. Leurs fruits serviront de nourriture, et leurs feuilles de remède. When the man went out toward the east, he had a measuring line in his hand, and he measured a thousand cubits, and caused me to go through the water-water to the ankles. אפס is equivalent to פּס, an ankle, not the sole of the foot. You cannot have the blooming rose of Isaiah 35:7 without the marshes and salty wastelands of Ezekiel 47:11. “But its miry places and its marshes will not be healed. It is so with that wondrous development of our God’s compassion and wisdom, which we designate the Gospel of Christ. The region is known to have such pits and marshes. 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. 2. 8 He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, # 47:8 Or the Jordan Valley where it enters the Dead Sea. Such persons are in a terrible plight. 6. A lesson of arousing, lest we rest in ordinances. The right shoulder is the part of the eastern wall of the holy place between the door and the pillars, the breadth of which was five cubits (Ezekiel 41:1). It apparently flowed to the south of the stairs on the right side of the temple as one faces east. Ezekiel 47:1-12. 6. If, then, the question be asked, what we are to understand by this water, whether we are to take it in a literal sense as the temple spring, or in a spiritual and symbolical sense, the complete answer can only be given in connection with the interpretation of the whole of the temple vision (Ezekiel 40-48). Ezekiel 47:11 Parallel Verses [⇓ See commentary ⇓] Ezekiel 47:11, NIV: "But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt." 11. But this is that which I intend, as the rule of the dispensation mentioned: namely, when God by His providence doth cause the Word to be preached for some continuance, and to the revelation of His whole counsel--as (Acts 20:27). Ezekiel 47 Water Flowing from the Temple. The purpose for which he had been led along the bank was accomplished after he had gone four thousand cubits. 1. I. So much that Ezekiel would need to swim because he could not stand anymore (Eze 47:5) The trees this water would nourish produce fruit every month (Eze 47:12) They bring mercy with them to pardon sinners. And fishermen will stand by it, from Engedi to Eneglaim they will spread out nets; after their kind will there be fishes therein, like the fishes of the great sea, very many. מתּחת is not to be connected with מכּתף, but to be taken by itself, only not in the sense of downwards (Hitzig), but from beneath, namely, down from the right shoulder of the house. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. The danger of a fruitless possession of religious advantages. Ezekiel 47:3. The waters begin at the immediate dwelling place of Christ who is the source of all spiritual and physical life. The words מי אפסים are a brief expression for "there was water which reached to the ankles." 2. "In the rainy season, when the sea is full, its waters overspread many low tracts of marsh land, which remain after the receding of the water in the form of moist pools or basins; and as the water in these pools evaporates rapidly, the ground becomes covered with a thick crust of salt" (Robinson's Physical Geography, p. 215). In Isaiah 12:3, "and with joy ye draw water from the wells of salvation," the figure is expressly interpreted. In the effect of the water proceeding from the sanctuary upon the Dead Sea and the land on its shores, as described in Ezekiel 47:8-12, the significance of this stream of water in relation to the new kingdom of God is implied. Deuteronomy 29:22; Jeremiah 17:6; Zephaniah 2:9; Psalm 107:34). To discover the miserable condition of poor creatures, that having not in their season been healed by the waters of the sanctuary, are given up of the Lord to salt and barrenness. The ἁπ. The waste is a figure denoting the spiritual drought and desolation, and the Dead Sea a symbol of the death caused by sin. Ezekiel 47:11 "But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt." A soul not healed, or totally barren, is yet out of Christ: and to be doomed to perpetual barrenness, never to be healed, is forever to be excluded from Him. In Ezekiel 47:1 and Ezekiel 47:2, the origin and course of this water are described; in Ezekiel 47:3 and Ezekiel 47:5, its marvellous increase; in Ezekiel 47:6, the growth of trees on its banks; in Ezekiel 47:7-12, its emptying itself into the Arabah and into the Dead Sea, with the life-giving power of its water. not be healed — Those not reached by the healing waters of the Gospel, through their sloth and earthly-mindedness, are given over (Revelation 22:11) to their own bitterness and barrenness (as “saltness” is often employed to express, Deuteronomy 29:23; Psalm 107:34; Zephaniah 2:9); an awful example to others in the punishment they suffer (2 Peter 2:6). When once the wolf shall feed with the lamb, the leopard with the kid, the cow with the bear, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, under the sceptre of the sprout from the stem of Jesse, then will men also cease their fishing, and no longer slaughter and eat either oxen or goats. The river will flow, but it will not fructify. c. 7: Omnis locus, in quo reperitur sal, sterilis est nihilque gignit") (cf. The alteration of the mind and temper and dispositions will be there, and an energy in religion will be there, and a zeal for God will be there, and the fruits of the Spirit will be there; in other words, the man or the community touched by the Gospel’s magic power will be Christian. Salt here signifies sterility. This salvation, which Joel had already described as a spring issuing from the house of Jehovah and watering the dry acacia valley, Ezekiel saw in a visionary embodiment as water, which sprang from under the threshold of the temple into which the glory of the Lord entered, and had swollen at a short distance off into so mighty a river that it was no longer possible to wade through. The sin and judgment of spiritual barrenness. It becomes food for their sins, even as rank, sour grass is produced by the stagnant waters of “miry places.”. According to Kliefoth, the dual is intended to indicate a division which takes place in the waters of the river, that have hitherto flowed on together, as soon as they enter the sea. יחיה is a pregnant expression, to revive, to come to life. When Abimelech destroyed Sichem, he sowed the ground whereon it stood with salt, to denote that it should never be cultivated or inhabited again, 9:45. In Ezekiel 47:8-12 he gives him a still further explanation of the course of the river and the effect of its waters. In the season of the flood of the Jordan this is overflowed to a considerable distance, and as the river subsides, is again left bare and encrusted with salt from the evaporation of the water. 2. This part of Ezekiel’s vision must so necessarily have a mystical and spiritual meaning that thence we conclude the other parts of his vision have a mystical and spiritual meaning also; for it cannot be applied to the waters brought by pipes into the temple for the washing of the sacrifices, the keeping of the temple clean, and the carrying off of those waters, for that would be to turn this pleasant river into a sink or … Thus God threatens His barren vineyard with it (Isaiah 5:5-6). In the new earth will be everything a man can need. - Ezekiel 47:1. It becomes, therefore, a point of importance for us to ascertain distinctly what constitutes that miry and marshy state which is so fearfully indicative of total disconnection with the saving blessings of the Gospel. What is the lot and portion of such persons? v. Raumer, Pal. According to Ezekiel 47:12, its waters posses the life-giving and healing power ascribed to them because they issue from the sanctuary. The subject to וירפאוּ, viz., the waters of the Dead Sea, is to be supplied from the context. 3. The man must be made alive unto God. The fruits serve as food, i.e., for the maintenance of the life produced by the river of water; the leaves as medicine (תּרוּפה from רוּף equals רפא, healing), i.e., for the healing of the sick and corrupt (εἰς θεραπείαν, Revelation 22:2). It stagnates in them: they hear in vain; learn, but do not practise; feel, but do not decide; resolve, but do not perform. They shall be given to salt.] [ezekiel 47:11] but the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt. But life extends no further than the water of salvation flows. He continues to such a people the ministrations of His truth in all its purity and faithfulness, but He refuses to bless them to the salvation and improvement of the people’s souls. Man is still left free to hear or forbear, and the world must be expected always to contain its unhealed miry and marshy places. Nat. He then directed him to go back again על שׂפת, along the bank, not "to the bank," as he had never left it.