The Vision of the Future Temple

Chapter 40

¹In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, the fourteenth year after the city had fallen, at the beginning of the year, the tenth day of the month—on that very day—the hand of the Lord came upon me, and He brought me there. ²He brought me, in visions of God, to the Land of Israel, and He set me down on a very high mountain on which there seemed to be the outline of a city on the south. ³He brought me over to it, and there, standing at the gate, was a man who shone like copper. In his hand were a cord of linen and a measuring rod. ⁴The man spoke to me: “Mortal, look closely and listen attentively and note well everything I am going to show you—for you have been brought here in order to be shown—and report everything you see to the House of Israel.” [ . . . ]

Chapter 47

¹He led me back to the entrance of the Temple, and I found that water was issuing from below the platform of the Temple—eastward [ . . . ] ²[ . . . ] gushing from [under] the south wall. [ . . . ]

⁷As I came back, I saw trees in great profusion on both banks of the stream. ⁸“This water,” he told me, “runs out to the eastern region, and flows into the Arabah; and when it comes into the sea, into ^athe sea of foul waters,^athe water will become wholesome. ⁹Every living creature that swarms will be able to live wherever this stream goes; the fish will be very abundant once these waters have reached there. It will be wholesome, and everything will live wherever this stream goes. ¹⁰Fishermen shall stand beside it all the way from En-gedi to En-eglaim; it shall be a place for drying nets; and the fish will be of various kinds [and] most plentiful, like the fish of the Great Sea. ¹¹But its swamps and marshes shall not become wholesome; they will serve to [supply] salt. ¹²All kinds of trees for food will grow up on both banks of the stream. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail; they will yield new fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the Temple. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”