Ezekiel 47:1-9 “Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; ..This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live..”

Even though in Hebrew the word “dead” is not there, only sea, it is understood that Ezekiel 47 refers to the Dead Sea because the vision explicitly states that the river flows from the temple “east, through the desert, into the valley, to the sea” and that “the waters of the Sea will become fresh” where the river enters it. Today the common Hebrew name for the Dead Sea is Yam Ha-Melakh, which translates to the “Sea of Salt” due to its high salinity. While less common, it is also occasionally referred to as Yam Ha-Mavet, meaning the “Sea of Death“. Other Hebrew biblical names include the “Eastern Sea” and the “Sea of the Arabah”, where Arabah H6160 – ʿărāḇâ means desert or plains. The term “Dead Sea” itself is not used in the Bible, having been given by Greek writers later on.

The Dead Sea Scrolls themselves are named for the location of their discovery, on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in the Judean wilderness, discovered by a shepherd in a cave at this site in 1947, with later finds occurring in other nearby caves and also at the site of Masada. It is thought that the sea became hyper-saline and “dead” after the biblical destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, an event that likely transformed the region’s once well-watered valley into the salt lake known today. The Dead Sea currently receives most of its freshwater inflow from the Jordan River, which flows from north to south, eventually draining into the lake. Because the dead sea is located in the desert, and there is no outlet or river flowing out of the dead sea, the water evaporates at a fast rate, leaving behind a high concentration of minerals and salts.

In recent years, especially around 2024 it has been reported that over six thousand sinkholes have formed on the eastern side (which is the side where Jerusalem is situated). These sinkholes having been filling with freshwater and supporting a resurgence of life, including fish and vegetation. It has been noted that the shrinking of the Dead Sea is a major factor, leading to the formation of these sinkholes.