Ezekiel 47:1

1. Under the threshold… at the south side of the altar “There was a fountain connected with the temple hill the waters of which fell into the valley east of the city and made their way toward the sea; and long ere this time the gentle waters of this ‘brook that flowed fast by the oracle of God’ had furnished symbols to the prophets (Isaiah 8:6). Such waters in the East are the source of every blessing to men.” Davidson. The main religious teaching is that man’s blessings flow from the sanctuary of Jehovah. The waters of life start from the dwelling place of the Author of life. The symbols by which this thought was expressed would have been quite intelligible to the heathen among whom the captives lived. According to Babylonian tradition the threshold of the palace of Beltis-Allat, the lioness-queen of the lower world and goddess of fertility, stood upon a spring which had the property of restoring to life all who bathed in it or drank of its waters (Trumbull, Threshold Covenant, p. 115, etc.).