The Pulpit Commentary on Zechariah 14:8

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Living waters; i.e. water fresh, pure, and perennial (Genesis 26:19; Jeremiah 2:13), a figure of the spiritual blessings and graces bestowed by God upon his Church. From Jerusalem, as the centre and representative of the kingdom of God, as in Zechariah 12:2. The city itself was, as we know, abundantly supplied with water by many conduits and subterranean channels; but standing, as it does, surrounded by hills higher than itself, it is physically impossible that the waters could literally flow as stated.

The description is symbolical, though the natural features of the country are supposed to be changed in order to preserve verisimilitude (comp. Ezekiel 47:1, etc.; Joel 3:18). The former (eastern) sea … the hinder (western) sea. The Dead Sea is tile eastern sea to one looking to sunrise from Jerusalem: the Mediterranean is the western sea, behind the observer's back. Into every quarter the salutary stream shall flow. In summer and in winter. Neither drought nor frost shall stop their perennial flow. "Alike in times of peace and of persecution those waters shall continue their course" (St. Jerome); Septuagint, "In summer and in spring"—a rendering which seems to indicate the home of the Alexandrian Version.

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