Ezekiel 17:1-24 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

Ezekiel 17. The Perfidious King. Jerusalem, as we have seen, is to be punished for her guilty past and her perfidious people (Ezekiel 17:16), but no less for her guilty present and her perfidious king. This truth is driven home in another allegory, here called a riddle and parable, set forth in Ezekiel 17:1-10 and expounded in Ezekiel 17:11-21; and thus for the second time (Ezekiel 12:1-16) Ezekiel shatters the illusion of the stability of the king and the monarchy. For a second time, too, the figure of Israel as a vine is presented (Ezekiel 17:15) but from a different point of view.

Here is the allegory and the interpretation thereof. A magnificent eagle (Nebuchadrezzar) swooped down upon a stately cedar (Judah), plucked off the top of it (the aristocracy of Judah), and the topmost twig of all (king Jehoiachin), and carried them to a land of traffic (Babylon: reference is to first deportation, with which Ezekiel went in 597 B.C.). But the eagle took seed of the land (king Zedekiah), and planted it in Judah, which he intended should develop as a vine, luxuriant and prosperous, but twining with lovely branches towards him (to signify the humble dependence of Judah upon Babylon). But there was another eagle (Egypt), great too, but less magnificent than the former: and to this eagle the vine turned for nurture, though it was already being richly nurtured in the soil in which Babylon had planted it the reference is to Zedekiah's revolt from Babylon, and appeal to Egypt. Of such perfidy the only end would be destruction: the eagle (Nebuchadrezzar) would tear up the vine by the roots, like the scorching east wind he would wither it, and the expected support of Egypt would prove to be a delusion. In plain words, the kingdom would be shattered, Zedekiah captured, many exiled, and many slain. The indignant passion that breathes through this oracle is roused by the fact that Zedekiah's perfidy towards Nebuchadrezzar was in reality perfidy towards Yahweh, whose name he had solemnly invoked when he took the oath of allegiance (Ezekiel 17:19). (The passage finely interprets Nebuchadrezzar's political intentions, which were at first not to crush Judah, but to have in her a flourishing, grateful, humble, dependent.)

Related Commentaries of Ezekiel 17:1

Ezekiel 17:1-24

1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;

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.

7 There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation.

8 It was planted in a good soilb by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.

9 Say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.

10 Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew.

11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

12 Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon;

13 And hath taken of the king's seed, and made a covenant with him, and hath taken an oath of him: he hath also taken the mighty of the land:

14 That the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it might stand.

15 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?

16 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.

17 Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons:

18 Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape.

19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised, and my covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head.

20 And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.

21 And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds: and ye shall know that I the LORD have spoken it.

22 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:

23 In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.

24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it.