Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 17
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Ezekiel 17
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Ezekiel 17
"Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;" — Ezekiel 17:2 (ASV)
A riddle ... a parable. —What the prophet has to say is called a riddle as well as a parable, because there is something in it profound and obscure—something which, until it is explained, should excite the minds of the people to guess its meaning.
"and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers, which had divers colors, came unto Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar:" — Ezekiel 17:3 (ASV)
A great eagle with great wings. —In the original, the great eagle. This is explained in Ezekiel 17:12 as the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is also compared to an eagle 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 widespread 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 to 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, 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 it as “topshoot.”
"he cropped off the topmost of the young twigs thereof, and carried it unto a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants." — Ezekiel 17:4 (ASV)
Into a land of traffick. —Literally, a land of Canaan, the word being sometimes used for merchant or merchandise, as in Hosea 12:8 (verse 7 in English versions); Isaiah 23:8; Zephaniah 1:11. The parallelism of the next clause shows that this is its meaning here. Babylon has already been called Canaan in Ezekiel 16:29, probably from its commercial character.
"He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful soil; he placed it beside many waters; he set it as a willow-tree." — Ezekiel 17:5 (ASV)
Of the seed of the land. —In place of the captive Jehoiachin, Nebuchadnezzar did not set over the land an eastern satrap, but appointed a native prince, Zedekiah, the uncle of Jehoiachin. He was planted, not like the tall cedar on the mountain, but still like a willow tree by great waters where it might flourish in its own measure .
"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." — Ezekiel 17:6 (ASV)
A spreading vine of low stature.—Had Zedekiah been faithful to his oath and allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar, and to his higher allegiance to God, Israel might have been fruitful and prosperous as a dependent kingdom.
Whose branches turned towards him.—Better, That its branches might turn towards him, and its roots might be under him. This was Nebuchadnezzar’s object—to make of Israel a flourishing kingdom, which should still be entirely dependent upon himself and helpful to him in his great struggle with the power of Egypt; and hence his especial rage when his strategic arrangements were frustrated by Zedekiah’s treachery and folly.
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