Lamentationes 47:1

Clementine Latin Vulgate

Et convertit me ad portam domus, et ecce aquæ egrediebantur subter limen domus ad orientem : facies enim domus respiciebat ad orientem, aquæ autem descendebant in latus templi dextrum, ad meridiem altaris.

Parallel Translations

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Et convertit me ad portam domus, et ecce aqu� egrediebantur subter limen domus ad orientem: facies enim domus respiciebat ad orientem, aqu� autem descendebant in latus templi dextrum, ad meridiem altaris.

Nova Vulgata (1979)
Et convertit me ad portam domus, et ecce aquae egre diebantur subter limen domus ad orientem; facies enim domus respiciebat ad orientem, aquae autem descendebant a latere templi dextro a meridie altaris.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the door: Ezekiel 41:2, Ezekiel 41:23-26

waters issued: Solomon's temple and the second temple were doubtless well supplied with water, probably conveyed there by means of pipes; but these waters flowed from the temple, not as a common sewer, but as a fertilizing river. A fountain producing abundance of water was not in the temple, and could not be there on the top of such a hill; and consequently these waters, as well as those spoken of by Joel and Zechariah, must be understood figuratively and typically. These waters doubtless were an emblem of the "gospel preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;" and their gradual rise beautifully represents it progress, from small beginnings to an immensely large increase; and the latter part of the representation may relate to the times when it shall fill the earth, and produce the most extensive and important effects on the state of making in every nation. Psalms 46:4, Isaiah 30:25, Isaiah 55:1, Jeremiah 2:13, Joel 3:18, Zechariah 13:1, Zechariah 14:8, John 7:37-39, Revelation 22:1, Revelation 22:17

from under the threshold: Ezekiel 47:12, Isaiah 2:3

Reciprocal: Joshua 2:5 - of shutting 2 Kings 5:12 - better 2 Kings 5:14 - went he down Psalms 110:2 - out Isaiah 35:6 - for Isaiah 41:18 - General Isaiah 51:5 - my salvation Ezekiel 40:6 - threshold Micah 5:7 - as a dew Zechariah 14:4 - half of the Matthew 13:32 - the least Luke 13:19 - and it John 4:10 - living John 7:38 - out Revelation 22:2 - the midst

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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" x; 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 y 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 z 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 Revelation 22:1, and so the Talmudists a 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.

x וישבני "reduxit me", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Starckius. y Hist. 70. Interpret. p. 32, 33. Ed. Oxon. 1692, z T. Hieros. Yoma, fol. 41. Cippi Hebr. p. 10. a T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 77. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The vision of the waters; or, the blessings which flow from this source to animate and refresh all the inhabitants of the earth. Compare Isaiah 44:8...; Joel 3:18. Ezekiel’s description is adopted and modifled by Zechariah and in Rev. (compare the marginal references) Hebrew tradition speaks of a spring of water, named Etham, said to be identical with the well-waters of Nephtoah Joshua 18:15, on the west of the temple, whose waters were conducted by pipes into the temple-courts for the uses needed in the ministration of the priests. The waters of Shiloah Psalms 46:4; Isaiah 8:6 flowed from the rocks beneath the temple-hill. It is quite in the manner of Ezekiel’s vision to start from an existing feature and thence proceed to an ideal picture from where to draw a spiritual lesson. The deepening of the waters in their course shows the continual deepening of spiritual life and multiplication of spiritual blessings in the growth of the kingdom of God. So long as the stream is confined to the temple-courts, it is merely a small rill, for the most part unseen, but when it issues from the courts it begins at once to deepen and to widen. So on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the company of believers, little then but presently to develop into the infant Church in Jerusalem.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER XLVII

The vision of the holy waters issuing out of the temple, and

their virtue; an emblem of the power of God's grace under the

Gospel, capable of healing all but the incorrigibly impenitent,

represented by the marshy ground that cannot be healed, 1-12.

Also a description of the several divisions of the Holy Land

indiscriminately shared betwixt Jews and proselytes; to denote

that in after times the privileges now enjoyed by the Jews

should be also extended to the Gentiles, 13-23.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLVII

Verse Ezekiel 47:1. Behold, waters issued out from under the threshold — Ezekiel, after having made the whole compass of the court of the people, is brought back by the north gate into the courts of the priests; and, having reached the gate of the temple, he saw waters which had their spring under the threshold of that gate, that looked towards the east; and which passing to the south of the altar of burnt-offerings on the right of the temple, ran from the west to the east, that they might fall into the brook Kidron, and thence be carried into the Dead Sea. Literally, no such waters were ever in the temple; and because there were none, Solomon had what is called the brazen sea made, which held water for the use of the temple. It is true that the water which supplied this sea might have been brought by pipes to the place: but a fountain producing abundance of water was not there, and could not be there, on the top of such a hill; and consequently these waters, as well as those spoken of in Joel 3:18, and in Zechariah 14:8, are to be understood spiritually or typically; and indeed the whole complexion of the place here shows, that they are thus to be understood. Taken in this view, I shall proceed to apply the whole of this vision to the effusion of light and salvation by the outpouring of the Spirit of God under the Gospel dispensation, by which the knowledge of the true God was multiplied in the earth; and have only one previous remark to make, that the farther the waters flowed from the temple, the deeper they grew.

With respect to the phraseology of this chapter, it may be said that St. John had it particularly in view while he wrote his celebrated description of the paradise of God, Revelation 22:1 &c. The prophet may therefore be referring to the same thing which the apostle describes, viz., the grace of the Gospel, and its effects in the world.