Bible Strands
Ezekiel 47:11
But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The vision describes a future landscape where a river flows from the sanctuary, transforming the surrounding territory. The speaker addresses the exiled community with a prophetic declaration about the boundaries and conditions of this renewed region.
The words — The text highlights יֵרָפְא֖וּ (ye.ra.fe.'U), meaning "they will be healed," and לְ/מֶ֥לַח (le./Me.lach), meaning "to salt." The swamps and marshes will not undergo this healing process but will instead be designated for salt production.
The thread — This contrast between healing water and unhealed salt marshes echoes the curse language of Deuteronomy 29:23, where soil becomes a waste of sulfur and salt. It also stands in tension with the universal healing promised in Revelation 22:11, which leaves the unrighteous to their state.
Why it lands — The verse establishes a clear boundary where divine life-giving power stops, leaving certain areas permanently unproductive. It asks the reader to recognize that restoration is selective and that some conditions remain unchanged despite the surrounding renewal.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 29:23 All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
- Revelation 22:11 Let the unrighteous continue to be unrighteous, and the vile continue to be vile; let the righteous continue to practice righteousness, and the holy continue to be holy.”
- Judges 9:45 And all that day Abimelech fought against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he demolished the city and sowed it with salt.
- Psalms 107:34 and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.
- Jeremiah 17:6 He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
- Mark 9:48 where ‘their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.’
- Hebrews 6:4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,
- Hebrews 10:26 If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains,
- 2 Peter 2:19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
- Revelation 21:8 But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”