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, by the progress and increase of them, Eze 47:3, by the healing and quickening nature of them, and the places where they were so, and were not, Eze 47:8, and by the trees which grew upon the banks of them, Eze 47:6.
The borders of the holy land are fixed, Eze 47:13, the northern border, Eze 47:15, 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.
Ver. 1. Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house,.... The door of the temple, even of the holy of holies; hither the prophet is said to be brought again, or "brought back" ; for he was last in the corners of the outward court, viewing the kitchens or boiling places of the ministers; but now he was brought back into the inner court, and to the door that led into the holiest of all:and, behold!
for it was matter of admiration, as well as of observation and attention:waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; this is a new thing, to which there was nothing like it, either in the first or second temple.
Ariateas indeed relates what he himself saw,"a never failing conflux of water, as of a large fountain, naturally flowing underneath, and wonderful receptacles under ground; to each of which were leaden pipes, through which the waters came in on every side, for about half a mile about the temple, and washed away the blood of the sacrifices;''and so the Talmudists say, there was an aqueduct from the fountain of Etam, and pipes laid from thence to supply the temple with water, for the washing and boiling of the sacrifices, and keeping the temple clean: but these waters are quite different; they are such as came out of the temple, and not what were carried by pipes into it; nor were they a common sewer to carry off the filth of it, but formed a delightful and useful river.
The fountain of them is not declared, only where they were first seen to issue out,under the threshold of the house eastward; the threshold of the door of the most holy place; so that they seem to take their rise from the holy of holies, the seat of the divine Majesty, and throne of God, with which agrees Re 22:1, and so the Talmudists say, that this fountain came first from the house of the holy of holies, under the threshold of the door of it, which looked to the east:for the fore front of the house stood toward the east; the holy of holies was at the west end of the temple; but the front of it, and so the door into it, was to the east, and from hence these waters flowed:and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house; they are said to "come down", because the temple was high built upon the top of a mountain; and "from under", that is, the threshold of the door of it; or rather in subterraneous passages, till they appeared from under that; and this was "on the right side of the house"; that is, on the south side: for, suppose a man standing with his face to the east, as the prophet did, when he turned himself to see which way the waters flowed, having his face to the west when he first saw them come out; the south then must be on his right hand, and so it follows:at the south side of the altar; of the altar of burnt offerings, which stood before the house.
ynbvyw "reduxit me", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Starckius. Hist. 70. Interpret. p. 32, 33. Ed. Oxon. 1692, T. Hieros. Yoma, fol. 41. Cippi Hebr. p. 10. T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 77.