A great eagle with great wings. — In the original “the great eagle.” This is explained in Ezekiel 17:12 of “the king of Babylon.” Nebuchadnezzar is compared to an eagle also in Jeremiah 48:40; Jeremiah 49:22; and Cyrus to a bird of prey in Isaiah 46:11. He has great and long wings, because he has already flown victoriously over wide-spread lands; and he is “full of feathers which had divers colours,” because he had embraced in his empire a variety of nations differing in languages, manners, and customs.
Came unto Lebanon. — Jerusalem is called Lebanon, as in Jeremiah 22:23; because Lebanon is the home of the cedar, and the royal palace in Jerusalem was so rich in cedar as to be called “the house of the forest of Lebanon” (1 Kings 7:2).
The highest branch. — This is a word occurring only in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 17:22, and Ezekiel 31:3-4; Ezekiel 31:10). It is of uncertain etymology, but is explained in Ezekiel 17:4 as meaning “the top of his young twigs.” The English branch hardly conveys the exact idea, and it would be better to translate “topshoot.”