Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

46:19-47:12 The River Flowing from the Temple. The style of the "temple tour" of chs. 40-42 returns briefly, as cooking sites (since offerings were, among other things, sacred communal meals) are identified (46:19-24), before the prophet catches sight of a river with its source at the heart of the temple itself (47:1-12).

46:19-24 The Temple Kitchens. First, an area in the inner courts is designated for the priests (vv. 19-20), thus protecting its sacred status. Then Ezekiel tours the four corners of the outer court, each equipped with a kitchen for the cooking of the wider community's sacrifices by the Levitical priests (vv. 21-24).

47:1-12 The Temple's River. The tour continues by bringing Ezekiel back into the inner court (the door of the temple, v. 1, is that of the sanctuary itself). There begins one of the most striking scenarios in the entire vision. A trickle of water miraculously issues from the south side of the threshold of the sanctuary and makes its way south of the altar (v. 1), out the east gate to the outer court, and then out of the main east gate (v. 2). The trickle becomes a powerful river as Ezekiel and his guide wade into the stream, the guide measuring as they go (vv. 3-5). Sitting at the river bank, the guide explains the life-giving properties of the river (vv. 6-12). This aspect of the vision coheres with 34:25-31 in affirming that renewal is not just moral and does not just come to people but affects the entire natural world. Here, however, the water brings life not just to the "world" but to that part of it least capable of sustaining life. The influence of this river is found in Zech. 14:8, but it extends into the NT as well, most pointedly in Rev. 22:1-2 near the climax of John's vision of the new heaven, earth, and city.