Ezekiel 47:8 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Then said he: see Ezekiel 47:6. The east country; some read it as a proper name, and so render it, they did run toward Galilee in the east, and the Hebrew bears it indeed, as to the sound of the word; but it cannot be the meaning of the place, for neither the Upper nor Lower Galilee were east, but north-west from Jerusalem toward Tyre: our translation doth therefore better render it the east country, or border, as the Hebrew properly. Into the desert; to Arabia, say the Seventy in their Greek version: if this were the course of the waters, they-did run a course quite contrary to that of Galilee, which lay north and by west from Jerusalem, whereas Arabia lay south and by east from Jerusalem. It is then the champaign, plain country, or the desert, as we read it, and may literally be understood of the desert of Maon, or Kadesh, or Ziph, which lay on the Dead Sea; and this suits well enough with En-gedi, and En-eglaim, mentioned as bordering on these waters, Ezekiel 47:10. Into the sea; the sea of Tiberias, say some; others, the sea called the Dead Sea, or lake of Sodom, which needed healing. Being brought forth: when they run into this sea, or fall it, to it, (which is our usual phrase,) the waters of the sea shall be healed, made wholesome. Where the grace of God from his temple and altar flows, as this water, it heals the corrupt, vicious nature of man, and renders barren, horrid, and terrible deserts as a land of waters and gardens; so represented here, and so promised by the Lord, Isaiah 35:1,2 Isaiah 41:19 43:19,20 51:3. Once more, to this verse let me add, that as the Hebrew doctors do, so we may take it here, that these flowing waters do divide themselves, and that some flow toward one sea, i.e. the sea of Tiberias, toward Galilee, other parts flow toward Arabia the Desert, and so in their way take their course by En-gedi, the desert of Ziph, and into the Dead Sea.