18. mountains . . . drop . . . wine--figurative for
abundance of vines, which were cultivated in terraces of earth between
the rocks on the sides of the hills of Palestine
(Am 9:13).
hills . . . flow with milk--that is, they shall abound in flocks and
herds yielding milk plentifully, through the richness of the pastures.
waters--the great desideratum for fertility in the parched East
(Isa 30:25).
fountain . . . of . . . house of . . . Lord . . . water . . . valley of
Shittim--The blessings, temporal and spiritual, issuing from Jehovah's
house at Jerusalem, shall extend even to Shittim, on the border between
Moab and Israel, beyond Jordan
(Nu 25:1; 33:49;
Jos 2:1;
Mic 6:5).
"Shittim" means "acacias," which grow only in arid regions: implying
that even the arid desert shall be fertilized by the blessing
from Jerusalem. So
Eze 47:1-12
describes the waters issuing from the threshold of the house as flowing
into the Dead Sea, and purifying it. Also in
Zec 14:8
the waters flow on one side into the Mediterranean, on the other side
into the Dead Sea, near which latter Shittim was situated (compare
Ps 46:4;
Re 22:1).
JFB.
Picture Study Bible