Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.
These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert - or plain; Hebrew, "Arabah" (Deuteronomy 3:17 , "the sea of the plain;" Deuteronomy 4:49 ; Joshua 3:16 , "the salt sea"). Arabah, or 'the plain,' is the name still given to the valley of the Jordan and the plain south of the Dead Sea, and extending to the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea.
The sea - the Dead Sea. "The sea" noted as covering with its waters the guilty cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. In its bituminous waters no vegetable or animal life is said to be found. But now death is to give place to life in Judea, and throughout the world, as symbolized by the healing of these death-pervaded waters covering the doomed cities. Compare as to "the sea" in general, regarded as a symbol of the troubled powers of nature, disordered by the fall, henceforth to rage no more, "there was no more sea" (Revelation 21:1 ). The healing of the waters of the Dead Sea here answers to "there shall be no more curse" ( Revelation 22:3: cf. Zechariah 14:11).