The Significance of the Parable.
‘Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Say now to the rebellious house, Do you know what these things mean? Tell them, behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took its king and its princes and brought them to him in Babylon.”
Once more the voluntarily dumb prophet speaks, for he has a word from Yahweh. And once again the exiles are called ‘the rebellious house' (twelve times in all - compare Ezekiel 2:5-6; Ezekiel 2:8; Ezekiel 3:9; Ezekiel 3:26-27; Ezekiel 12:2-3; Ezekiel 12:9; Ezekiel 12:25; Ezekiel 24:3). This was how God saw His people, a people in rebellion against Him, with their idolatry and their disobedience to His covenant demands, as especially revealed in the ten commandments as expanded in the Law.
The parable is expounded for them. Jehoiachin, his princes and the cream of the people of Judah and Jerusalem were carried into exile in Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar invaded and took the city of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:10-16). Jehoiachin's presence in Babylon (as Ya'u-kinu) is testified to by Babylonian cuneiform tablets detailing his rations of oil and barley.