Ezechiel 47:1
And he brought me again to the gate of the house, and behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the house toward the east: for the forefront, of the house looked toward the east: but the waters came down to the right side of the temple to the south part of the altar.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- 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.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ εἰσήγαγέν με ἐπὶ τὰ πρόθυρα τοῦ οἴκου, καὶ ἰδοὺ ὕδωρ ἐξεπορεύετο ὑποκάτωθεν τοῦ αἰθρίου κατ᾽ ἀνατολάς, ὅτι τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ οἴκου ἔβλεπεν κατ᾽ ἀνατολάς· καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ κατέβαινεν ἀπὸ τοῦ κλίτους τοῦ δεξιοῦ ἀπὸ νότου ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְשִׁבֵנִי֮ אֶל פֶּ֣תַח הַבַּיִת֒ וְהִנֵּה מַ֣יִם יֹצְאִ֗ים מִתַּ֨חַת מִפְתַּ֤ן הַבַּ֨יִת֙ קָדִ֔ימָה כִּֽי פְנֵ֥י הַבַּ֖יִת קָדִ֑ים וְהַמַּ֣יִם יֹרְדִ֗ים מִתַּ֜חַת מִכֶּ֤תֶף הַבַּ֨יִת֙ הַיְמָנִ֔ית מִנֶּ֖גֶב לַמִּזְבֵּֽחַ
Haydock's commentary
Waters. These waters are not to be understood literally, (for there were none such that flowed from the temple) but mystically of the baptism of Christ, and of his doctrine and his grace; the trees that grow on the banks are Christian virtues; the fishes are Christians, that spiritually live in and by these holy waters; the fishermen are the apostles, and apostolic preachers; the fenny places, where there is no health, are such as by being out of the Church are separated from these waters of life. (Challoner)
It is not probable that real water or fishes were found, ver. 9. But this must be explained of the Church and of baptism, in a higher and more proper sense. (Worthington)
Joel, (iii. 18.) before the captivity, and Zacharias, (xiv. 8.) after that event, speak of fountains as still to appear, and of course not in either temple, though Pilate made aqueducts for the purpose, (Josephus, Jewish Wars ii. 13.) which Tacitus, (An. v.) Maundrel, (p. 148.) and others mention. But the prophets allude not to them, but to Christ, the fountain of water springing up unto life eternal, John iv. 14., and vii. 38. (Calmet)
Villalpand understands it of waters brought into the temple to wash the victims; but it seems to refer more to the grace and doctrine of Christ. (Menochius)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Oceanus
6. Let me now fulfil the promise I made a little while ago and with all the skill of a rhetorician sing the praises of water and of baptism. In the beginning the earth was without form and void, there was no dazzling sun or pale moon, there were no glittering stars. There was nothing but matter inorganic and invisible, and even this was lost in abysmal depths and shrouded in a distorting gloom. The Spirit of God above moved, as a charioteer, over the face of the waters, and produced from them the infant world, a type of the Christian child that is drawn from the laver of baptism. A firmament is constructed between heaven and earth, and to this is allotted the name heaven, in the Hebrew Shamayim or ‘what comes out of the waters,’, and the waters which are above the heavens are parted from the others to the praise of God. …