NOTES for Eze 47:1-48:35

Once again we see how specific details of the reality mentioned in the prophecy become details of a parable. The stream of living water flowing from beneath the threshold of the temple is the living water of which Christ will speak several centuries later, and which will make wholesome those earthly waters that are now unfit to drink. The waters of the Dead Sea remind us of the grave sin that disfigured the face of the earth, for they stretch over Sodom and Gomorrah, which had become centers of sinfulness and had tasted its consequences. But just as the stream of living water will change the composition of the Dead Sea, so too will the consequences of the evil committed and still being committed by people be healed and overcome by the Lord.

Then we see an instruction to allot land to foreigners on equal terms with the Israelites, which may leave us perplexed. After all, we have just read other instructions concerning foreigners, in connection with which we recalled the separation of the foreign-born that Ezra would organize after a period brief by historical standards. But we will understand that there is no contradiction if we see this separation as a temporary measure occasioned by particular circumstances, rather than as a final and absolute law intended for all time.