9. rivers--in Hebrew, "two rivers." Hence Hebrew expositors think that the waters from the temple were divided into two branches, the one emptying itself into the eastern or Dead Sea, the other into the western or Mediterranean. So [Zec 14:8]. However, though this probably is covertly implied in the Hebrew dual, the flowing of the waters into the Dead Sea only is expressed. Compare [Eze 47:8], "waters ... healed," which can apply only to it, not to the Mediterranean: also [Eze 47:10], "fish as the fish of the great sea"; the Dead Sea, when healed, containing fish, as the Mediterranean does.
10. En-gedi ... 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 ([Is 15:8]). These two limits are fixed on, to comprise between them the whole Dead Sea.
fish ... according to their kinds--Jerome quotes an ancient theory that "there are a hundred fifty-three kinds of fishes," all of which were taken by the apostles ([Joh 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. Compare [Mt 13:47], the gospel net; the apostles being fishermen, at first literally, afterwards spiritually ([Mt 4:19]).
11. marshes--marshy places. The region is known to have such pits and marshes. The Arabs take the salt collected by evaporation in these pits for their own use, and that of their flocks.
not be healed--Those not reached by the healing waters of the Gospel, through their sloth and earthly-mindedness, are given over ([Re 22:11]) to their own bitterness and barrenness (as "saltness" is often employed to express, [De 29:23]; [Psa 107:34]; [Zep 2:9]); an awful example to others in the punishment they suffer ([2Pe 2:6]).
12. Instead of the "vine of Sodom and grapes of Gomorrah" ([De 32:32]), nauseous and unwholesome, trees of life-giving and life-restoring virtue shall bloom similar in properties to, and exceeding in number, the tree of life in Eden ([Re 2:7]; 22:2, 14).
leaf ... not fade--expressing not only the unfailing character of the heavenly medicine of the tree of life, but 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 ([Psa 1:3]; [Jr 17:8]; [Mt 10:42]; [1Co 15:58]).
new fruit--literally, "firstlings," or first fruit. They are still, each month afresh, as it were, yielding their first-fruit [Fairbairn]. The first-born of a thing, in Hebrew idiom, means the chiefest. As [Job 18:13], "the first-born of death," that is, the most fatal death.
13. The redivision of the land: the boundaries. 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], ). Joseph's sons were given the birthright forfeited by Reuben, the first-born ([1Ch 5:1]). Therefore the former is here put first. His two 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.
16. Hamath--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 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. So in the last days, when all shall flock to Jerusalem as the religious center of the world.
Berothah--a city in Syria conquered by David ([2Sa 8:8]); meaning "wells."
Hazar-hatticon--meaning "the middle village."
Hauran--a tract in Syria, south of Damascus; Auranitis.
17. Hazar-enan--a town in the north of Canaan, meaning "village of fountains."
18. east sea--the Dead Sea. The border is to go down straight to it by the valley of the Jordan. So [Nu 34:11], .
19. Tamar--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.
22. to the strangers--It is altogether unprecedented under the old covenant, that "strangers" should have "inheritance" among the tribes. There would not be room locally 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 ([Ro 10:12]; [Ga 3:28]; [Ep 3:6]; [Col 3:11]; [Re 7:9], ). Still, "sojourneth," in [Eze 47:23], implies that in Canaan, the covenant people are regarded as at home, the strangers as settlers.
Chapter 48
Eze 48:1-35. Allotment of the Land to the Several Tribes
1. Dan--The lands are divided into portions of ideal exactness, running alongside of each other, the whole breadth from west to east, standing in a common relation to the temple in the center: seven tribes' portions on the north, five in the smaller division in the south. The portions of the city, the temple, the prince, and the priesthood, are in the middle, not within the boundaries of any tribe, all alike having a common interest in them. Judah has the place of honor next the center on the north, Benjamin the corresponding place of honor next the center on the south; because of the adherence of these two to the temple ordinances and to the house of David for so long, when the others deserted them. Dan, on the contrary, so long locally and morally semi-heathen ([Jud 18:1-31]), is to have the least honorable place, at the extreme north. For the same reason, St. John ([Re 7:5-8]) omits Dan altogether.
3. Asher--a tribe of which no one of note is mentioned in the Old Testament. In the New Testament one is singled out of it, the prophetess Anna.
4. Manasseh--The intercourse and unity between the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan, and the nine and a half west of it, had been much kept up by the splitting of Manasseh, causing the visits of kinsmen one to the other from both sides of the Jordan. There shall be no need for this in the new order of things.
5. Ephraim--This tribe, within its two dependent tribes, Manasseh and Benjamin, for upwards of four hundred years under the judges held the pre-eminence.
6. Reuben--doomed formerly for incest and instability "not to excel" ([Ge 49:4]). So no distinguished prophet, priest, or king had come from it. Of it were the notorious Dathan and Abiram, the mutineers. A pastoral and Bedouin character marked it and Gad ([Jud 5:16]).
15-17. The five thousand rods, apportioned to the city out of the twenty-five thousand square, are to be laid off in a square of four thousand five hundred, with the two hundred fifty all around for suburbs.
profane--that is, not strictly sacred as the sacerdotal portions, but applied to secular uses.
24. Benjamin--Compare Jacob's prophecy ([Ge 49:27]; [De 33:12]). It alone with Judah had been throughout loyal to the house of David, so its prowess at the "night" of the national history was celebrated as well as in the "morning."
25. Simeon--omitted in the blessing of Moses in [De 33:1-29], perhaps because of the Simeonite "prince," who at Baal-peor led the Israelites in their idolatrous whoredoms with Midian ([Nu 25:14]).
26. Issachar--Its ancient portion had been on the plain of Esdraelon. Compared ([Ge 49:14]) to "a strong ass crouching between two burdens," that is, tribute and tillage; never meddling with wars except in self-defense.
31. gates--([Re 21:12], &c.). The twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes to imply that all are regarded as having an interest in it.
35. Lord is there--Jehovah-Shammah. Not that the city will be called so in mere name, but that the reality will be best expressed by this descriptive title ([Jr 3:17]; ; [Zec 2:10]; [Re 21:3]; ).