NOTES for Eze 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 planted 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 soil 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 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. |
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Chapter 17 of the book of the prophet Ezekiel is devoted to well-known political events from the beginning of the exile, and the word of God devoted to them uses those events as a starting point in order to reveal very important things in the plan of God to the prophet and his hearers. But before that, the Lord subjects the events themselves to analysis. The language of the parable in which God speaks is unfamiliar to us, since it differs from our way of expressing ourselves, but the meaning of the word of God is nevertheless completely clear.
First of all, it is important that the Lord gives political events a moral and spiritual evaluation. We are used to avoiding this, because too much in our political life would have to be evaluated sharply negatively from a moral point of view. This example is therefore all the more important for us. The rulers of Jerusalem, appointed by Nebuchadnezzar in place of the king Zedekiah who had been led away into captivity, violated their oath to the king of Babylon and began seeking a military alliance with Egypt in order to get rid of Babylonian dependence. The Lord says that nothing will come of this, and He gives two reasons for it. First, nothing can be built on deception. Psalm 14 calls blameless the one who "swears even to his own hurt and does not change." The significance of a promise does not lie in how good the one to whom we promise something is, but in our own faithfulness. Second, the will of God was for Jerusalem to "surrender into the hands of the king of Babylon," as He had said through the prophet Jeremiah. Therefore the treacherous policy of the Judean leaders was not only false but also contrary to the clearly expressed will of the Almighty.
But, as in other cases, this is only an introduction to the main point. At the end of the chapter the Lord reveals to the prophet that He will appoint a different Head for His people. The cedar, the mightiest and longest-living plant of the Middle East, becomes a symbol and prototype of Christ, who will be king from the line of David. Nor should one neglect in interpretation the visual contrast between grapevines creeping along the ground and, on the other hand, the tall cedar stretching toward Heaven.
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