3 So with joy will you get water out of the springs of salvation.
Ho! everyone in need, come to the waters, and he who has no strength, let him get food: come, get bread without money; wine and milk without price. Why do you give your money for what is not bread, and the fruit of your work for what will not give you pleasure? Give ear to me, so that your food may be good, and you may have the best in full measure. Give ear, and come to me, take note with care, so that your souls may have life: and I will make an eternal agreement with you, even the certain mercies of David.
In answer Jesus said, If you had knowledge of what God gives freely and who it is who says to you, Give me water, you would make your prayer to him, and he would give you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have no vessel and the fountain is deep; from where will you get the living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the fountain and took the water of it himself, with his children and his cattle? Jesus said to her, Everyone who takes this water will be in need of it again: But whoever takes the water I give him will never be in need of drink again; for the water I give him will become in him a fountain of eternal life.
On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus got up and said in a loud voice, If any man is in need of drink let him come to me and I will give it to him. He who has faith in me, out of his body, as the Writings have said, will come rivers of living water. This he said of the Spirit which would be given to those who had faith in him: the Spirit had not been given then, because the glory of Jesus was still to come.
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Commentary on Isaiah 12 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 12
Isa 12:1-6. Thanksgiving Hymn of the Restored and Converted Jews.
Just as Miriam, after the deliverance of the Red Sea (Isa 11:16), celebrated it with an ode of praise (Ex 15:1-19).
2. Lord Jehovah—Jah, Jehovah. The repetition of the name denotes emphasis, and the unchangeableness of God's character.
strength … song … salvation—derived from Ex 15:2; Ps 118:14. The idea of salvation was peculiarly associated with the feast of tabernacles (see Isa 12:3). Hence the cry "Hosanna," "Save, we beseech thee," that accompanied Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on that day (the fifteenth of the seventh month) (Mt 21:9; compare with Ps 118:25, 26); the earnest of the perfected "salvation" which He shall bring to His people at His glorious second appearance at Jerusalem (Heb 9:28). "He shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Compare Re 21:3, "The tabernacle of God is with men." Compare Lu 9:33, "three tabernacles: one for thee," &c. (the transfiguration being a pledge of the future kingdom), (Ps 118:15; Zec 14:16). As the Jew was reminded by the feast of tabernacles of his wanderings in tents in the wilderness, so the Jew-Gentile Church to come shall call to mind, with thanksgiving, the various past ways whereby God has at last brought them to the heavenly "city of habitation" (Ps 107:7).
3. draw water … salvation—an expressive image in a hot country. On the last day of the feast of tabernacles the Jews used to bring water in a golden pitcher from the fountain of Siloam, and pour it, mingled with wine, on the sacrifice on the altar, with great rejoicing. This is the allusion in Jesus' words on "the last day of the feast" (Joh 7:2, 37-39). The pouring out of water indicated repentance (1Sa 7:6; compare, as to the Jews' repentance hereafter, Zec 12:10). There shall be a latter outpouring of the Spirit like the former one on pentecost (Joe 2:23).
wells—not mere streams, which may run dry, but ever-flowing fountains (Joh 4:14; 7:38), "Out of his belly (that is, in and from himself)—living water" (Isa 42:18; Ps 84:6; Zec 13:1; Re 7:17).
4. make mention—Hebrew, "cause it to be remembered."
5. Sing, &c.—alluding to Ex 15:21.
6. inhabitant of Zion—Hebrew, "inhabitress"; so "daughter of Zion," that is, Zion and its people.
in the midst of thee—of Jerusalem literally (Jer 3:17; Eze 48:35; Zep 3:15, 17; Zec 2:10).