4, 5. How is Joel’s prophecy regarding a river similar to that of Ezekiel, and why is this significant?

⁴ This beautiful prophecy may have reminded the Jewish exiles of another prophecy recorded more than two centuries earlier: “Out of the house of Jehovah there will go forth a spring, and it must irrigate the torrent valley of the Acacia Trees.”* (Joel 3:18) Joel’s prophecy, like Ezekiel’s, foretells that a river would flow from God’s house, the temple, and bring life to an arid region.

⁵ The Watchtower has long held that Joel’s prophecy is being fulfilled in our time.* Surely, then, the same holds true for Ezekiel’s similar vision. In the restored land of God’s people today, just as in ancient Israel, Jehovah’s blessings have indeed flowed forth.