What Does Ezekiel 47:7 Mean?
And when I had come back, look, along the lip of the river were very many trees, on this side and on that.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.THE KEY
The river’s edge is not where life runs out; it is where abundance becomes visible.
THE MEANING
Your return brings the river’s edge into view, crowded with trees on both sides. Life gathers where water meets land; the boundary becomes a place of growth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The riverbank is not barren ground at the edge of life; here, it is where life multiplies.
THE ROOT
שְׂפַת
sefat
GROWS FROM
שָׂפָה
safah
Lip; edge or border.
“along the lip” in this verse is sefat. The word translated “bank” is literally the river’s “lip,” the edge where water meets land. The same Hebrew word also means “language,” so English “bank” gives only the geography of a word that carries a wider range of meaning.
ALSO GROWS
safah: Lip; the edge of something.
שָׂפָה
The river’s bank is its lip: the point where its water meets the land and the trees take root.
safah: Language or speech.
שָׂפָה
The same word names language as well as a physical edge, a range that English “bank” leaves hidden.
שׁוּב
shuv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
To turn back or return.
“come back” in this verse is shuv. The verse begins with the movement of returning, then opens onto a riverbank thick with trees. Return here brings the river’s abundance back into view.
ALSO GROWS
shav: Turns back; returns.
שָׁב
This is the movement expressed in “when I had returned”: coming back precedes the sight of life on both banks.
heshiv: To bring or turn back; to restore.
הֵשִׁיב
This related form extends return to what is brought back, echoing how the returning gaze finds abundant life along the river.
THE PATTERN
Life flourishes along the banks of life-giving water, with nourishment reaching outward from the river.
And he becomes like a tree planted by the channels of the waters, that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; whatever he does, he breaks through.And upon the river, upon its lip, on this side and on that, every tree for food shall rise up. Its leaf shall not wilt, and its fruit shall not be used up. It shall bear early fruit month by month, because the waters go out from the set-apart place. Its fruit shall be for food, and its leaf for healing.In the middle of its broad way, and on either bank of the river, is the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, giving back its fruit with each moon. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.THE THREAD
And upon the river, upon its lip, on this side and on that, every tree for food shall rise up. Its leaf shall not wilt, and its fruit shall not be used up. It shall bear early fruit month by month, because the waters go out from the set-apart place. Its fruit shall be for food, and its leaf for healing.The word translated “bank” is again שְׂפַת (sefat, “lip” or “edge”), and the same banks now carry fruit for food and leaves for healing. This opens the trees in the present verse into a fuller picture of nourishment reaching outward from the river.
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