But the swamps and marshes
The Hebrew words for "swamps" (בִּצּוֹת, "bitzot") and "marshes" (גֵּבֵי, "gevei") refer to areas of stagnant water, often associated with unproductiveness and desolation. In the context of Ezekiel's vision, these areas contrast with the life-giving waters flowing from the temple. Historically, swamps and marshes were seen as places of decay and danger, often avoided by travelers. Spiritually, they symbolize areas of life resistant to the transformative power of God's presence. This imagery serves as a reminder of the necessity of allowing God's living water to flow freely in our lives, avoiding spiritual stagnation.

will not become fresh
The phrase "will not become fresh" indicates a deliberate exclusion from the miraculous transformation described in the surrounding verses. The Hebrew root for "fresh" (חָפָר, "chafar") implies renewal and purification. In the broader biblical narrative, water often symbolizes cleansing and new life, as seen in baptism and the living water offered by Christ. The refusal of these areas to become fresh suggests a resistance to divine renewal, highlighting the consequences of rejecting God's grace and the importance of remaining open to His transformative work.

they will be left for salt
Salt, in biblical times, had multiple uses: as a preservative, a purifying agent, and a symbol of covenant (e.g., the "salt of the covenant" in Leviticus 2:13). However, in this context, being "left for salt" suggests desolation and barrenness. The Dead Sea, known for its high salinity, serves as a geographical and symbolic reference point. Spiritually, this phrase warns of the dangers of spiritual barrenness and the consequences of resisting God's life-giving presence. Yet, it also serves as a call to repentance and renewal, reminding believers of the hope and restoration available through Christ, who calls us to be the "salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13), preserving and purifying the world through His love and truth.

(11) The marishes thereof shall not be healed.--The picture of the life-giving waters would be imperfect without this exception to their effects. The Dead Sea at the southern end is very shallow, and beyond there is an extensive tract of very low land. In the season of the flood of the Jordan this is overflowed to a considerable distance, and as the river subsides, is again left bare and encrusted with salt from the evaporation of the water. This allusion, therefore, shows plainly that the prophet did not have in mind a flowing on of the river through the Arabah, or valley leading from the Dead to the Red Sea, and that the effect of the life-giving waters should cease where the waters themselves ceased to flow; at the same time, in the thing symbolised, it shows that we are not to expect, as the effect of the Gospel, a perfect and universal obedience to its teachings. Man is still left free to hear or forbear, and the world must be expected always to contain its unhealed miry and marshy places.

Verse 11. - The miry places thereof (בִּצּלֺאתָו an incorrect reading for בִּצּותַיו, the plural with suffix of בִּצָּה, "a marsh, or swamp," as in Job 8:11; Job 40:21) and the marshes thereof גְבָיָאו, "its pools and sloughs" (comp. Isaiah 30:14, where the term-signifies a reservoir for water, or cistern), were the low tracts of land upon the borders of the Dead Sea, which in the rainy season, when its waters overflowed, became covered with pools (see Robinson, 'Bibl. Res.,' 2:225). These, according to the prophet, should not be healed (better than, "and that which shall not be healed," as in the margin of the Authorized Text), obviously because the waters of the temple-river should not reach them, but should be given to salt. When the waters of the above-mentioned pools have been dried up or evaporated, they leave behind them a deposit of salt (see Robinson, 'Bibl. Res.,' 2:226), and Canon Driver ('Literature of the Old Testament,' p. 276), following Smend, conceives that the above-named miry places and marshes in the vicinity of the Dead Sea were to be allowed to remain as they were on account of the excellent salt which they furnished. (On the supposed (!) excellence of the salt derived from the Dead Sea, Thomson's 'Land and the Book,' p. 616, may be consulted.) If this, however, were the correct import of the prophet's words, then the clause would describe an additional blessing to be enjoyed by the land, viz. that the temple-river would not be permitted to spoil its "salt-pans;" but the manifest intention of the prophet was to indicate a limitation to the life-giving influence of the river, and to signify that places and persons unvisited by its healing stream would be abandoned to incurable destruction. "To give to salt" is in Scripture never expressive of blessing, but always of judgment (see Deuteronomy 29:23; Judges 9:47; Psalm 107:34; Jeremiah 17:6; Zephaniah 2:9).

Parallel Commentaries ...


But the swamps
בִּצֹּאתָ֧יו (biṣ·ṣō·ṯāw)
Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 1207: A swamp

and marshes
וּגְבָאָ֛יו (ū·ḡə·ḇā·’āw)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 1360: A reservoir, a marsh

will not
וְלֹ֥א (wə·lō)
Conjunctive waw | Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

become fresh;
יֵרָפְא֖וּ (yê·rā·p̄ə·’ū)
Verb - Nifal - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 7495: To mend, to cure

they will be left
נִתָּֽנוּ׃ (nit·tā·nū)
Verb - Nifal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

for salt.
לְמֶ֥לַח (lə·me·laḥ)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4417: Powder, salt


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OT Prophets: Ezekiel 47:11 But the miry places of it (Ezek. Eze Ezk)