One of the primary questions posed by these sources is whether the water which emerges from Jerusalem is a metaphor, literal or both. What does water represent for each prophet individually and which understandings do they share?
(9) Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for battle! Arouse the warriors, Let all the fighters come and draw near! (10) Beat your plowshares into swords, And your pruning hooks into spears. Let even the weakling say, “I am strong.” (11) Rouse yourselves and come, All you nations; Come together From roundabout. There bring down Your warriors, O LORD! (12) Let the nations rouse themselves and march up To the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit in judgment Over all the nations roundabout. (13) Swing the sickle, For the crop is ripe; Come and tread, For the winepress is full, The vats are overflowing! For great is their wickedness. (14) Multitudes upon multitudes In the Valley of Decision! For the day of the LORD is at hand In the Valley of Decision. (15) Sun and moon are darkened, And stars withdraw their brightness. (16) And the LORD will roar from Zion, And shout aloud from Jerusalem, So that heaven and earth tremble. But the LORD will be a shelter to His people, A refuge to the children of Israel. (17) And you shall know that I the LORD your God Dwell in Zion, My holy mount. And Jerusalem shall be holy; Nevermore shall strangers pass through it. (18) And in that day, The mountains shall drip with wine, The hills shall flow with milk, And all the watercourses of Judah shall flow with water; A spring shall issue from the House of the LORD And shall water the Wadi of the Acacias. (19) Egypt shall be a desolation, And Edom a desolate waste, Because of the outrage to the people of Judah, In whose land they shed the blood of the innocent. (20) But Judah shall be inhabited forever, And Jerusalem throughout the ages. (21) Thus I will treat as innocent their blood Which I have not treated as innocent; And the LORD shall dwell in Zion.
(1) He led me back to the entrance of the Temple, and I found that water was issuing from below the platform of the Temple—eastward, since the Temple faced east—but the water was running out at the south of the altar, under the south wall of the Temple. (2) Then he led me out by way of the northern gate and led me around to the outside of the outer gate that faces in the direction of the east; and I found that water was gushing from [under] the south wall. (3) As the man went on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and led me across the water; the water was ankle deep. (4) Then he measured off another thousand and led me across the water; the water was knee deep. He measured off a further thousand and led me across the water; the water was up to the waist. (5) When he measured yet another thousand, it was a stream I could not cross; for the water had swollen into a stream that could not be crossed except by swimming. (6) “Do you see, O mortal?” he said to me; and he led me back to the bank of the stream. (7) As I came back, I saw trees in great profusion on both banks of the stream. (8) “This water,” he told me, “runs out to the eastern region, and flows into the Arabah; and when it comes into the sea, into the sea of foul waters, the water will become wholesome. (9) Every living creature that swarms will be able to live wherever this stream goes; the fish will be very abundant once these waters have reached there. It will be wholesome, and everything will live wherever this stream goes. (10) Fishermen shall stand beside it all the way from En-gedi to En-eglaim; it shall be a place for drying nets; and the fish will be of various kinds [and] most plentiful, like the fish of the Great Sea. (11) But its swamps and marshes shall not become wholesome; they will serve to [supply] salt. (12) All kinds of trees for food will grow up on both banks of the stream. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail; they will yield new fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the Temple. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”