Ezekiel 47:16, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 47:16 belongs to the nine-chapter closing vision of Ezekiel 40-48 of a city, a sanctuary and the land to be allotted to the twelve tribes upon return from captivity, and it names Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim between Damascus and Hamath, and Hazar-hatticon by Hauran as places marking the boundaries of that restored land. The offered restoration with its boundaries was conditional on Israel being ashamed of iniquity and returning to God with all the heart in faith and obedience. Because Israel was not willing and did not fully repent, the sanctuary in its glorious form shown was never built and the full glory was never inherited, being realized only weakly and in small measure in the inferior temple under Zerubbabel and Ezra. The vision is not the New Jerusalem and does not describe a temple to be built after the Christian dispensation with a restored Levitical sacrificial system, since its sacrifices are superseded by Christ's offering and unchanging priesthood. What would have been fulfilled literally on the present earth if the conditions had been met was forfeited, but stands as a faint type to be more than fulfilled in spiritual aspect through Christ to true Israel in the new heavens and new earth with the New Jerusalem as capital. Those who held the other teach that the description sets forth the prospect for Israel in Palestine after restoration conditioned on faithfulness, and that the greater temple predicted was realized in Herod's rebuilt temple.

Boundaries and Vision Setting

Ezekiel 47:16 belongs to the nine-chapter closing vision of Ezekiel 40-48, shown during the Babylonian captivity. That vision describes a city and a sanctuary or temple, together with the land to be allotted to the twelve tribes upon return from captivity. It was shown in the twenty-fifth year of the captivity, when Ezekiel was carried to the land of Israel and set on a very high mountain with the frame of a city to the south.

The verse names Hamath, Berothah, and Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath, and Hazar-hatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran. These are places marking the boundaries and territory in the described division of the restored land. They belong to the detailed description of the land to be divided among the twelve tribes in the proposed restoration.

The prophecy came through Ezekiel, whose name means God strengthens, a man of the priesthood contemporary with Jeremiah. While Jeremiah was prophet in Jerusalem, Ezekiel was prophet among the captives carried away with King Jehoiachin in 597 B.C. to Babylonia and settled near the river Chebar. Beyond identifying the border locations, no separate explanation of the place names is given.

Conditional Prophecy Forfeited Transformed

The restoration, city, sanctuary, and land with its boundaries marked by Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim between Damascus and Hamath, and Hazar-hatticon by Hauran, were offered on condition that Israel be ashamed of iniquity, repent and put away sin, and return to God with all the heart in faith and obedience, under the universal law of turning stated in Jeremiah 18:8-10. The vision from Ezekiel 40 onward was to be shown to make Israel ashamed, and its pattern, ceremonies, rites, offerings, and further details were to be made known to them if they were ashamed. It was a provisional sanctuary for the past dispensation after Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, promised if they would come up from Babylon as they had come out of Egypt into the promised land.

Because they were not willing, did not fully repent and yield but continued in apostasy, and only a portion of about forty thousand returned after the decree of Cyrus, the offer was rejected and the sanctuary in the glorious form shown was never built. The envisioned city and the full glory of the restoration were never inherited, and what was realized was only weak, feeble, in small measure, a lesser counterpart in the inferior temple built under Zerubbabel and Ezra. The sanctuary prophecy of Ezekiel 37-48, including the restored land and its new division, thus stands as a conditional promise for literal Israel that was never fulfilled as described.

That vision is not the New Jerusalem and does not describe a temple to be built after the Christian dispensation with a restored Levitical sacrificial system. Its prescribed former service, sacrifices, ceremonies, rites, and offerings show it cannot and will never be built in its original form, for its Levitical priesthood was superseded by Christ's unchanging priesthood. To build such a temple again and offer sacrifices now would annul Christ's offering and nullify His sacrifice, so God would not ordain it again.

What God would have fulfilled literally and gradually in the present earth if Israel had met the conditions — a built sanctuary, days like heaven upon earth, healing waters bringing life to land, marshes, deserts and salt lands, mild wild beasts, safe infants, return of the people, conquest of enemies, and Jerusalem made a praise — was forfeited. It stands as a faint type to be more than fulfilled in spiritual aspect through Christ to true Israel, whose future promises will be fulfilled in the way described in later revelations. That fulfillment is in the new heavens and the new earth with the New Jerusalem as capital city, absolute peace, and the greater glory of Christ's second coming, though some former local details and boundaries will not all remain as stated.

On one reading, the nine-chapter description beginning with chapter 40 sets forth the prospect for Israel in Palestine after restoration from Babylon, a glorious state of prosperity and favor shown in the last seven verses of chapter 39 and conditioned on faithfulness in representing truth in the earth. It does not describe the river of life and does not require a future age of probation to fulfill it, those ideas coming from reading parts without the connection of the whole. On another reading, the closing chapters predict the building of a greater temple realized in Herod's rebuilt temple as a monument of repentance, whose process is not revealed and whose attendant circumstances are secondary to the fact of the building itself.