Chapter XLVII
ize it. Cf. 1 Corinthians 5. 7, 8, as to our spiritual " pass-
o\-er," wherein, at the Lord's supper, we feed on Christ by
Ver. 1-23. Vision of the TEMPiiS Waters. Border3 and Divi.sion of the Land. The happy fruit to the earth at large of God's dwelling with Israel in holy fellowship is, that the blessing is no longer restricted to the one people and locality, but is to be diffused with comprehensive catholicity through the whole world. So the plant from the cedar of Lebanon is represented
faith, accompanied with "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Literal ordinances, though not slavishly bound to the letter of the law, will set forth the catholic and eternal verities of Messiah's kingdom.
CHAPTER XLVI.
as gathering umler its shelter "all fowl of every wing"
Ver. 1-21. Co.vtintjation OF the Ordinances for the Frinck and for the People in their Worship. 3. The prince is to go through the east gate without (open on the Babbalh only, to mark its peculiar sanctity) to the entrance of the gate of the inner court ; he is to go no further,
(ch. 17. 23). Even the desert places of the earth shall be made fruitful by the healing waters of the gospel (cf. Isaiah 35. I). 1. waters-so Revelation 22. 1, represent* " the water of life as proceeding out of the throne of God
The Virlue of the Holy Waters. EZEKIEL XLVIII. ITie Division. of the Land by Lai.
and of the Lamb." His throne was set up in tlie temple at Jerusalem (ch. 43. 7). Thence it is to flow over llie earth (Joel 3.18; Zechariah 13.1; 14.8). Messiah is the temple and the door; from His pierced side flow the living waters, ever increasing, both in the individual believer and in the heart. The fountains In the vicinity of Morlah suggested the image here. The waters flow eastward, i.e., towards the Kedron, and thence towards the Jordan, and so along the Ghor into tlie Dead Sea. The main point in thepicture is the rapid augmentation from a petty stream into a mighty river, not by the influx of side-streams, but by its own self-supply from the sacred miraculous source in tlie temple. [Henderson.] (Cf. Psalm 36. 8, 9 ; -16. 4 ; Isaiah 11. 9 ; Habakkuk 2. 14.) Searching into the things of God, we And some easy to understand, as the water up to the ankles ; others more diftlcult, which require a deeper search, as the waters up to the knees or loins; others beyond our reach, of whicli we can only adore the depth (Romans 11. 33). The healing ot the waters of the Dead Sea here answers to "there shall be no more curse" (Revelation 22.3"; cf. Zechariah 14. 11). 7. trets—not merely one tree of life as in Paradise (Genesis
exceeding In number, the tree of life In Eden (Revelation
2. 7; 22. 2, 14). leaf . . . not lade—expr'»^si ng not only the unfailing character of the heavenly medicine of the tree of life, l)ut also that the graces of the believer (as a tree of righteousness), which are the leaves, and his deeds, which are the fruits that flow from those graces, are immortal (Psalm 1.3; Jeremiah 17.8; Matthew 10. 42; 1 Coi-- inthi.ins 15.58). new fruit— lit., firstUnys, or first-fruit. They are still, each month afresh, as it were, yielding their first-fruit. [Fairbairn.] The first-born ot a, Unn^, in Hebrew idiom, means the chie/est. As Job 18. 1.!," the first-born of death," i. e., the most fatal death. 13. 'J'he redivision of the land : the boundaries. The latter are substantially the same as tliose given by Moses in Numbers 34.
they liere begin with the north, but in Numbers 34. tliey begin witli tlie south. It is only Canaan proper, exclusive of the possession of the two and a half tribes beyond Jordan, that is here divided. Joseph . . . two portionsaccording to the original promise of Jacob (Genesis 48. 5,
22). Joseph's sons were given the birth-right forfeited by Reuben the first-born (1 Chronicles 5. 1). Therefore the former is here put first. His tivo sons having distinct portions make up the whole number twelve portions, as he had just before specified " twelve tribes of Israel ;" for Levi had no separate inheritance, so that he is not reckoned in the. twelve. 15. Zedad—on the north boundary of Canaan. IG. Hamatli—as Israel was a separate people, so their land was a separate land. On no scene could the sacred history have been so well transacted as on it. On the east was the sandy desert. On the north and south, mountains. On the west, an inhospitable sea-shore. But
2), but many: to supply immortal food and medicine to the people of God, who themselves also become " trees of righteousness" (Isaiah 61.3) planted by the waters, and (Psalm 1. 3) bearing fruit unto holiness. 8. the desert—or
plain, HKbrew " Arabah" (Deuteronomy 3. 17; 4. 49; Joshua
3. 16\ which is the name still given to the valley of the Jordan and the plain south of the Dead Sea, and extending to the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea. tUe sea—the Dead
Sea. " The sea" noted as covering with its waters the guilty cities the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. In its bituminous waters no vegetable or animal life is said to be found. But now death is to give place to life in Judea, and throughout the world, as symbolized by the healing of these death-pervaded waters covering the doomed
it was not always to be a separate laud. Between the par-
allel ranges of Lebanon is the long valley of EI-Bekaa, leading to "tlie entering in of Hamatli" on the Orontes, in the Syrian frontier. Roman roads, and the harbour made at Cresarea, opened outdoors through which the gospel should go from it to all lauds. So in the l.ast days, when all shall flock to Jerusalem as the religious centre of the world. Berothah—a city in .Syria conquered by David (2 Samuel 8. 8) ; meaning ivells. Hazar-Iiatticon— meaning "the middle village." Hanran — a tract ia Syria, south of Damascus; Auranitis. 17. Hazar-ennn— a town in the nortli of Canaan, meaning "village of tbuntains." 18. east sea—the Dead Sea. The border is to go down straight to it by the valley of the Jordan. .So Numbers 34. 11, 12. 19. Tartiar—not Tadmor In the desert, but Tamar, the last town of Judea, by the Dead Sea. Meaning "palm-tree;" so called from palm-trees abounding near it. iJ^J. to the strangers—It is altogether unprecedented under the old covenant, that "strangers" should have " inheritance" among the tribes. Tiiere would not be locally room within Canaan for more than the tribes. The literal sense must therefore be modified, as expressing that Gentiles are not to be excluded from settling among the covenant people, and that spiritually their privileges are not to be less than those of Israel (Romans
cities. Cf. as to " the sea" in general, regarded as a symbol of the troubled powers of nature, disordered by the
fall, lienceforth to rage no more, Revelation 21. 1. 9. rivers—in Hebrew, "two rivers." Hence Hebrew exposi-
tors think that the waters from the temple were divided Into two branches, the one emptying itself into the eastorn or Dead Sea, the other into the western or Mediterranean. So Zechariah 14.8. However, though this probal)ly is covertly implied in the Hebrew dual, the flowing of the waters into the Dead Sea only is expressed. Cf.
V. 8, " waters . . . healed," which can apply only to it, not
to the Mediterranean: also u. 10, "fish as the fish of the great sea;" the Dead Sea, when healed, containing fish, as the Mediterranean does. 10. En-gedl . . . Kn-eglnlin — En-gedi (meaning "fountain of the kid"), anciently, Haza/.oii-Tamar, now Ain-Jldy; 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 (Isaiah 15. K). These two limits are fixed on, to comprise between them the whole Dead Sea. flsU . . . accord-
10. 12; Galatians 3. '28; Ephesians 3. 6; Colossians 3. 11; Revelations 7. 9, 10). Still, " sojourneth," lu v. 23, Implies that in Canaan, tlie covenant-people are regarded as at home, the strangers as settlers,
liig to their kinds Jerome quotes an ancient theory that "there are 153 kinds of fishes," all of which were taken by the apostles (John 21. 11), and not one remained uncaptured; signifying that both the noble and baseborn, the rich and the poor, and every class, are being 'drawn out of the sea of the world to salvation. Cf. Matthew It. 47, the gospel net; the apostles being fishermen, at first literally, afterwards spiritually (Matthew 4. 19). 11. marshes—marshy places. Tlie region is known to have