Ezekiel Chapter 47 Vs. 15-17

A NEW LAND

Ezekiel 47:15-17

The Boundaries of the Land

In verses 15-20, the borders of the millennial Promised Land are described (1) to the North v.15-17; (2) to the East v.18; (3) to the South, v.19 and (4) to the West, v.20.

The northern boundary of the land… will run east from the Great Sea, the Mediterranean, starting somewhere north of Tyre and Sidon (more precisely, “Mount Hor,” Num. 34:7). The boundary line will go by the Hethlon road past Lebo Hamath to Zedad, Berothah, and Sibraim… as far as Hazer Hatticon... on the border of Hauran. The location of Hethlon is unknown, but many associate it with the modern town of Heitela, northeast of Tripoli in modern Lebanon. Lebo Hamath has sometimes been identified with the city of Hamath on the Orontes River in modern Syria. The "great sea" is the Mediterranean. Hethlon is a place in Palestine. The word “Lebo” is then taken to mean “by the way of” rather than as a proper name. However, this identification is problematic because Hamath is about 100 miles farther north than the other cities mentioned by Ezekiel. It is better to take “Lebo” as a proper name and to identify Lebo Hamath with the modern town of Al-Labwah in the Biqa Valley.

Zedad should probably he identified with the town of Sadad about 25 miles north of Damascus. The locations of the towns of Berothah and Sibraim are not known, but are said to lie on the border between Damascus and Hamath. Hamath (not the same as Lebo Hamath) is north of Damascus. So these cities are north of Damascus on the border between the territories held by Damascus and Hamath, probably near the town of Zedad.

Hazer Hatticon (Eze. 47:16) is probably another name for Hazer Enan (Eze. 47:17). It is located on the border between Syrian Damascus and the province of Hauran. Hauran may possibly he identified with a district east of the Sea of Galilee north of the Yarmuk River. Some say Hazer Enan is modern-day Al-Qaryatayn, an important desert oasis northeast of Damascus. So the northern border will stretch east from the Mediterranean Sea north of the modern city of Tripoli and will include what was then the northern border of Syria.