Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 47:12

"And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow every tree for food, whose leaf shall not whither, neither shall the fruit thereof fail: it shall bring forth new fruit every month, because the waters thereof issue out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for food, and the leaf thereof for healing." — Ezekiel 47:12 (ASV)

Be consumed—Better, fail. The fruit is to be eaten, but will not fail to grow as it is needed. These trees with their supernatural virtues are represented as produced by the waters because they issued out of the sanctuary, thus presenting a most effective image of the life-giving power of those spiritual influences which come from God upon people.

It has been objected to the spiritual interpretation of this vision that, under it, no sense can be made of the fishermen of Ezekiel 47:10, and that, therefore, the whole is to be considered as a glorification of nature in the future Palestine. But this is to forget that in every figure and parable there are, and must be, details necessary to the figure which have nothing corresponding to them in the thing signified, and that it is the habit of Ezekiel to carry out such details very far. In this case, the mention of the fishermen greatly heightens the imagery of the life-giving power of the waters; while, if the whole were to be literally understood, they would really have no place, because there would be no such fishermen in the supposed glorified condition of the land.

Ezekiel 47:13–23, which, as already said, properly belong to Ezekiel 48:0, give the boundaries of the land to be divided among the tribes, together with provision for the inheritance of strangers living among them. The tracing of the boundary itself is introduced by some general statements in Ezekiel 47:13-14, concerning the distribution.