Midrash su Ezechiele 47:8

At Thy rebuke they fled (ibid.). When a man sees that his winepress is filled with grapes, and that his vineyard is ready for cutting, others may ask him: “What will you do with these grapes, since the vat is too small to contain them?” What does he do? He treads down the grapes in the vat and then puts in the new grapes. Then it is able to contain all his grapes. Similarly, though the entire world was submerged under water, the Holy One, blessed be He, declared: Let the dry earth appear (Gen. 1:9). The water thereupon cried out: “Though we fill the entire world, it is cramped for us. Whither shall we go?” What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He trampled upon the ocean⁴Normally the Mediterranean, but in this instance, as indicated a few lines below, the Dead Sea. and slew its prince,⁵See Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews 5:26, Bava Batra 74b Leviathan was a legendary sea animal destined to be eaten by the righteous in the future. as it is said: He stirreth up the sea with His power, and by His understanding he smiteth through Rahab (Job 26:12). Smiteth is an expression that indicates slaying, as it is said: And with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote through his head, yea, she pierced and struck through his temple (Judg. 5:26). The seas mourn (bohin) to this very day because He slew the prince of the sea, as is said: Hast thou entered into the springs (nibhe) of the sea? (Job 38:16). Why did He slay him? Because a house that can accommodate a hundred living people can contain a thousand dead. That is why the ocean is called the Dead Sea. Ultimately, however, the Holy One, blessed be He, will heal it, as it is said: When they shall enter into the sea of the putrid waters, the waters shall be healed (Ezek. 47:8). When the other waters observed that the Holy One, blessed be He, had trampled upon the ocean, they fled from the loud cries of their fellow-waters, as it is said: At Thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of Thy thunder they hastened away (Ps. 104:7).

Rabbi Phineas said: In the future the waters of the well will ascend from under the threshold of the Temple, and they will overflow and bubble over and issue forth and become twelve streams corresponding to the twelve tribes, as it is said, "And he brought me back unto the door of the house; and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the forefront of the house was toward the east: and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar" (Ezek. 47:1). Three (streams) towards the south to pass through them up to the ankles, and three (streams) towards the west to pass through them up to the knees, as it is said, "When the man went forth eastward with the line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles. Again he measured a thousand, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees" (Ezek. 47:3, 4). And three (streams) towards the east to pass through them up to the neck, for the neck is the extremity of the body, as it is said, "And he measured a thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters that were to the extremity" (Ezek. 47:3). And (the waters) descended to the brook of Kidron, and they rose higher than in "the stream, that I could not pass through" (Ezek. 47:5), as it is said, "For the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a stream that could not be passed through" (ibid.). And the waters are drawn (thence), and they flow down to the fords of the Jordan, as it is said, "And they shall go down into || the Arabah" (Ezek. 47:8).

Every field and vineyard which did not yield fruit, people water them with those waters and they yield fruit, as it is said, "And it shall come to pass, that every living creature which swarmeth, in every place whither the rivers come, shall live… for these waters are come thither, that all things may be healed and live" (Ezek. 47:9). Then (the waters) enter the Salt Sea and they heal it. And the waters "shall go towards the sea,… and the waters shall be healed" (Ezek. 47:8). And there they generate all kinds (of fish). The Scripture text (here) gives a general rule concerning the fish, that they will be as sweet as Manna. They ascend in the stream as far as Jerusalem, and there they are caught in its nets, as it is said, "And it shall come to pass that fishers shall stand by it" (Ezek. 47:10). It is written, "They shall stand by it."