Ezekiel 47:2 - Exposition

As the prophet could not follow the stream's course by passing through the east inner gate, which was shut on the six working days ( Ezekiel 46:1 ), or through the east outer gate, which was always shut ( Ezekiel 44:1 ), his conductor led him outside of the inner and outer courts by the north gates (literally, to the north (outer) gate ), and brought him round by the way without unto the outer gate by the way that looketh eastward . This can only import that, on reaching the north outer gate, the prophet and his guide turned eastward and moved round to the east outer gate. The Revised Version reads, by the way of the gate that looketh toward the east ; but as the east outer gate was the terminus ad quem of the prophet's walk, it is better to translate, to the gate looking eastward . When the prophet had arrived thither, he once more beheld that there ran out —literally, trickled forth ( מְפַכִּים occurring here only in Scripture, and being derived from פָכַה , "to drop down ," or "weep")— waters . Obviously these were the same as Ezekiel had already observed. On (literally, from ) the right side ; or, shoulder . This, again, signified the corner where the east wall of the temple and the south wall of the gate joined.