Ezekiel 47:5 - Exposition

After a fourth distance of a thousand cubits, the waters had risen , or, lifted themselves up (comp. Job 8:11 , in which the verb is used of a plant growing up), and become waters to swim in —literally, waters of swimming ( שָׂחוּ occurs only here; the noun צְפָה only in Ezekiel 32:6 )— a river that could not be passed over , on account of its depth. The word נָחַל was applied either to a river that constantly flowed from a fountain, as the Amen, or to a winter torrent that springs up from rain or snow upon the mountains, and disappears in summer like the Kedron, which had seldom any water in it (see Robinson's 'Bibl. Res.,' 1.402). That Ezekiel's river broadened and deepened so suddenly, and apparently without receiving into it any tributaries, clearly pointed to miraculous action.