⁴¹ “And it must occur in that day that living waters will go forth from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. In summer and in winter it will occur.

“LIVING WATERS” FOR ALL MANKIND

42. With relation to earthly Jerusalem, what was the eastern sea and what was the western sea, and what do these two seas picture respectively?

⁴² With relation to earthly Jerusalem, on which the prophetic picture in Zechariah is based, the “eastern sea” would be the Salt Sea or Dead Sea, and the “western sea” would be the Great Sea or Mediterranean Sea. Both of these seas are here used symbolically, evidently symbolic of peoples, as is the case in Revelation 17:15. The Dead Sea is at the lowest spot on earth, 1,291 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, and is utterly devoid of fish or plant life. So it would well picture the countless human dead who are in Sheol, Hades, the common grave of mankind. On the other hand, the Mediterranean Sea teems with fish and plant life and at a higher level. So it would well picture the “great crowd” of Jehovah’s worshipers who are associated now with the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel and who survive the “great tribulation” with the remnant. (Revelation 7:9-15) Those of that “great crowd” have inherited from our first human parent Adam the sinfulness and imperfections and the condemnation of death. Of these disabilities they need to be relieved, in order to be able to live forever in God’s new system of things.​—Romans 5:12.

43. Those waters flowing east and west compare with the waters seen in what other visions, and so what do such waters picture?

⁴³ Both symbolic seas will need the “living waters” that will go forth, not from earthly Jerusalem in the Middle East, but from the “heavenly Jerusalem,” which is the seat of the Messianic kingdom of Jehovah’s dear Son, Jesus Christ. Those symbolic “living waters” are not just fresh, running waters, quenching thirst, but waters imparting life to those to whom they flow forth. Just as the waters flowing forth from the temple of Ezekiel’s vision imparted cure and life to the Dead Sea, causing it to abound with fish life, so the “living waters” flowing eastward and westward from the “heavenly Jerusalem” will impart life on earth. (Ezekiel 47:1-12) So those “living waters” compare, also, with the “river of water of life” seen by the Christian apostle John in the vision of the New Jerusalem. (Revelation 21:2 to 22:2) Accordingly they picture all of Jehovah’s provisions through his once sacrificed but now reigning Messiah, Jesus, for all mankind to gain eternal life, as made available during the thousand-year rule of Jesus Christ over the whole earth.​—Revelation 14:1; 20:4-6, 13, 14.

44. (a) What will the waters flowing to the symbolic Dead Sea convey to those thus pictured? (b) What will the waters convey to those pictured by the Mediterranean Sea, and how long will such waters have to be partaken of?

⁴⁴ The “living waters” that flow eastward, evidently through the “very great valley” between the two mountains, down to the Dead Sea convey a resurrection from the dead to an animated, conscious existence here on earth. “There is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous,” said the apostle Paul. (Acts 24:15; John 5:28, 29) The “living waters” that flow westward to the Mediterranean Sea convey, figuratively speaking, release from the condemnation of death and from the sinfulness and imperfections and weaknesses inherited from the sinner Adam. Were mankind to continue in such things, they would die, for only those absolutely perfect will be justified to eternal life on a Paradise earth. Hence the “great crowd” of Jehovah’s loyal worshipers who survive the “great tribulation” with which this system of things ends will need such “living waters.” Likewise, those humans, likened to the Dead Sea, who get a resurrection from the dead will, at the start, be like the “great crowd” of survivors. They will be still in the inherited sinfulness, imperfection, weakness and liability to death. They also will need to keep drinking the “living waters.”

45. The flowing of these waters both “in summer and in winter” will allow for what on the part of the eastern sea and western sea classes, and what will be the final result of this, as pictured in Revelation 20:14?

⁴⁵ “In summer and in winter it will occur.” (Zechariah 14:8) Since those “living waters” will not be affected by any dry, rainless season of the year, they will continue flowing all year round, without any drop in the water level. For the thousand years of Christ’s reign over mankind they will keep flowing, to benefit all the ransomed dead and all those alive on the Paradise earth. In this way all those on earth will be able to continue drinking until they have been cured and restored to flawless, disease-free human perfection, like that of Adam at his perfect creation in the Garden of Eden. When all those of the eastern sea and of the western sea have attained to this glorious estate by loyal obedience to the Messianic kingdom, then will be fulfilled the picture of Revelation 20:14: “And death and Hades were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire.” What a blessed provision through the “heavenly Jerusalem”!