A great eagle with great wings The eagle is the king of birds, swift, strong, and rapacious. And this great eagle, according to all interpreters, represents Nebuchadnezzar. Its “greatness, long wings, beautiful, abundant, and well-coloured plumage, denote the force and greatness of his empire, the rapidity of his conquests, and the number of his subjects. The Scripture has in other places described this prince under the figure of an eagle. See Jeremiah 48:40-45; Daniel 7:4. By his coming to Lebanon, and taking the highest branch of the cedar, is meant his invasion of Judea, his investing the city of Jerusalem, and taking King Jehoiachin and the princes captive.” Calmet. He cropped off the top of his young twigs Both the king of Judah, now eighteen years old, and the nobles and chief of the land. And carried it into a land of traffic “Babylon, and the country about it, being the seat of a universal monarchy, must needs have been a place of great trade. Strabo takes notice that the merchants who travelled by land to Babylon went through the country of the Abrabians, called Scenitæ, lib. 16. p. 747; and vessels of great burden came up the river Euphrates to the walls of it from the Persian gulf.” See Pliny's Nat. Hist., 50. 6. c. 26; and Lowth. He took also of the seed of the land Of the king's seed, as it is explained Ezekiel 17:13: that is, Zedekiah, whom the king of Babylon made king of Judah instead of Jehoiachin; first exacting an oath of him, that he would be true to him, and pay him tribute. And he planted it in a fruitful field Hebrew, בשׂדת זרע, in a field of seed, that is, proper for seed: he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow-tree Judea was a fruitful country and well watered, (see Deuteronomy 8:7,) where Zedekiah flourished as a willow-tree, that thrives best in moist ground, Isaiah 44:4. And it became a spreading vine of low stature, &c. Though Zedekiah flourished, yet he enjoyed but a tributary kingdom under the king of Babylon, and acknowledged him as his lord and sovereign: see Ezekiel 17:14.
Related Commentaries of Ezekiel 17:3
Ezekiel 17:3-6
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:
4 He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants.
5 He took also of the seed of the land, and planteda it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree.
6 And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.