BOOK 26 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ezekiel 17

Ezekiel book home•Chapter 17 of 48•24 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Ezekiel 17 Overview

A riddle of two great eagles and a vine portrays Babylon’s removal of Judah’s king, Zedekiah’s covenant with Babylon, and his later appeal to Egypt. Because Zedekiah breaks his sworn covenant, judgment follows; yet the LORD promises to plant a tender twig from the high cedar and make it a great tree.

EzekielBook

17Chapter

24Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Ezekiel 17

Coming from

Jerusalem is portrayed as an abandoned infant whom the LORD rescues, raises, adorns, and enters into covenant with, only for her to become an adulterous wife who uses God’s gifts in idolatry. After exposing her worse-than-Sodom and Samaria unfaithfulness, the LORD promises to remember His covenant and establish an everlasting covenant.

In this chapter

Leads into

The LORD rejects the proverb that children suffer because fathers ate sour grapes. Each person is accountable for his own conduct: a righteous son is not condemned for a wicked father, nor is a wicked son rescued by a righteous father. The chapter calls Israel to turn from transgressions and live because God has no pleasure in death.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter interprets its own political symbolism. Nebuchadnezzar is the first eagle, Egypt is the second, the royal seed is the vine, and Zedekiah’s rebellion against Babylon violates an oath made in the LORD’s name.

The final cedar promise shifts from failed Davidic rulers to God’s own planting. It naturally contributes to messianic hope in the Davidic line, though the chapter itself does not name the future ruler as “Messiah.”

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Political rebellion can also become spiritual guilt when it violates an oath before God

Zedekiah’s treachery is condemned not merely as bad strategy but as despising the LORD’s covenant.

Human schemes cannot overturn God’s announced judgment

Appealing to Egypt will not rescue Zedekiah from Babylon.

God preserves the future of the Davidic line beyond present royal failure

The LORD Himself will plant the tender twig and exalt what is low.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

2 Kings 24:17-20

Zedekiah’s installation under Babylon and later rebellion provide the historical setting of the riddle.

Jeremiah 37:5-10

Judah’s hope in Egyptian military intervention is directly challenged by Jeremiah.

Isaiah 11:1-10

Isaiah’s branch from Jesse similarly links future Davidic hope with a ruler established by God.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not force every bird, twig, and branch into independent prophetic symbolism beyond the interpretation given in the chapter.

Ezekiel explains most of the riddle explicitly; the safest reading begins with those explanations.

Do not make submission to Babylon a timeless command to obey every conquering power.

It was required in this case because God had specifically announced Babylon as His instrument of judgment and Zedekiah had sworn covenant loyalty.

Read Ezekiel 17 watching for…

the two eagles

the cedar and transplanted seed

the vine bending first toward Babylon then Egypt

the broken oath

the LORD’s promised tender twig and great tree

Chapter outline3 sections

1-10A riddle of two eagles and a vine pictures a kingdom seeking help from another power 11-21The riddle is explained as Zedekiah’s broken oath and the certainty of judgment 22-24The LORD promises to plant a tender cedar branch that will grow high and shelter birds

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

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

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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;

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:

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

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?

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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Ezekiel 17:7

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