Ezekiel 47:15

And this shall be the border of the land toward the north side,.... The description of the borders of the land begins on the north side; because the Gospel, and the interest of Christ, would be, as

And this shall be the border of the land toward the north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad; Toward the north side ... as men go to Zedad - on the north boundary of Canaan.

In bounding the land, the prophet is informed what is the north border first. The great sea; called so, not that it is the greatest, for it is the Mediterranean here spoken of, but with respect to the Jews; this to them was the greatest they knew or traded on: from this sea doth the measuring of the land begin, from the west point along to Hethlon. Hethlon is called Hethalon by Adrichmius, in the tribe of Asher, at the foot or near the Mount Herman or Senir, as calls that mount: this city was in the north-east of Asher’ s lot, and on the north-west of Naphtali’ s lot, in the old division of the land. Zedad is Sedada, a small town under the same hill, and near the head of the river Eleutherus, anciently Gebat.

Ezekiel 47:15 And this [shall be] the border of the land toward the north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad;Ver. 15. And this shall be the border of the land,] i.e., Of the Christian Church, the borders whereof are here set forth as far larger than those of the land of Canaan ever were. From the great sea.] The Mediterranean Sea. The way of Hethlon.] From one end of the kingdom of Damascus to another.

(15) This shall be the border of the land.—The boundaries are essentially the same as those given in Numbers 34:1-15, only that there the southern boundary is given first to the Israelites coming up from Egypt, while here the northern is first described for the people supposed to be returning from Babylon. There is also more detail given in Numbers, and as the points mentioned here are the same, it is fair to fill out this description from the earlier one. It is remarkable that in both cases the eastern boundary is the Jordan. The inheritance of the tribes on the east of that river having been a modification of the original allotment, and not being taken into consideration at all here, portions are assigned on the west of the river to the two and a half tribes who had lived all through Israel’s history on the east. The way of Hethlon.—The boundary begins at the Mediterranean, but at what precise point cannot be determined; for although it is evident that the lines between the tribes were straight and parallel, yet it does not appear whether they were perpendicular to the Jordan, which would be substantially parallel to the lines of latitude, or perpendicular to the Mediterranean, which would make a small angle with them. Hethlon is mentioned only here and in Ezekiel 48:1, and has not been identified. It was probably a place of little importance, as its situation is described “as men go to Zedad.” The latter place is mentioned in Numbers 34:8 as one of the points in the original northern border of the land. It is clear from the passage in Numbers that it lay eastward of the “entrance to Hamath,” and has been identified by some writers with the modern village of Sadad, but this is thirty miles from “the entrance of Hamath,” which seems quite too far. Ezekiel may have passed through it when carried captive to Babylon.

Verse 15. The way of Hethlon, us men go to Zedad.] Probably Hethlon is the same as Cuthlon, a city of Syria, between Antioch and Laodicea, according to Antoninus. Some of these places are not known; but see the same kind of division, Numbers 34:7-12.

15. The northern border. The two ends of the line of delimitation on the N. are the great sea on the west and Hazar Enon on the east. The line passes from west to east, bending, towards its termination at least, towards S.E. In its way it skirts the territory of Hamath and that of Damascus. as men go to Zedad] In Ezekiel 47:20 and Ezekiel 48:1 the reading is “as one goeth to Hamath,” a frequent phrase, sometimes rendered “the entering into Hamath” (Joshua 13:5), or “the entering in of Hamath” (Judges 3:3; 1 Kings 8:65), or “the entrance of Hamath” (Numbers 34:8). In 1 Kings 8:65 the phrase seems to mean the southern boundary of Hamath. Unfortunately the point on the western sea from which the line starts is not specified, as the situation of Hethlon is unknown. The entrance to Hamath must be either the mouth of the Bukâ’, the great plain between the Libanus on the W. and the Anti-libanus on the E., by which one goes N. to Hamath, or it must be the plain between the North end of the Libanus and the Nusairîyeh mountains, opening from the sea and running east. This would throw the boundary-line north of Tripoli, and south of Arvad. In Joshua 13:5, the land of the Giblites, i.e. Gebal (Byblus) to the N. of Beirut, is regarded as part of Israel’s possession. In Numbers 34:8, where the northern boundary is described, the reading is the “entrance of Hamath,” Zedad being mentioned afterwards. Except in 1 Chronicles 5:9 the phrase is only used of Hamath. Following Ezekiel 48:1, and Numbers 34:8, the place of Zedad and Hamath may be changed, as LXX. also seems to have read Hamath before Zedad.—15 “And this shall be the boundary of the land: on the N. side, from the great sea by the way of Hethlon, where the way goeth unto Hamath, by Zedad, 16 Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath, even unto Hazar-hattikon, which is by the border of Hauran.” If we could suppose the entry to Hamath not the southern one by the plain of Cœle Syria, but the western one from the sea to the N. of Tripoli, Hethlon might be the modern Heitela (Robinson’s Map, 1852). Zedad has been supposed to be Sadad, S. of Emesa (Homs) and not far from Riblah. With Berotha, cf. Berothai, 2 Samuel 8:8. In Numbers 34:9 Ziphran seems to occupy the place of Sibraim here. In Numb, the line appears to run E. as far as Zedad, and then to change its direction to the S. till it ends at Hazar Enan.

The borders of the land follow closely Num. 34, where they begin from the south, as the people came up from Egypt; in Ezekiel, they begin from the north, as they might return from Babylon.

15-17. “This is the border of the land on the north: from the Great Sea (the Mediterranean) by Hethlon to the frontier of Hamath as far as Zedad, thence on to Beroth-Sibraim, which is on the line