John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 17:3-4

"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: 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 17:3-4 (ASV)

Here the Prophet reasons from the greater to the less. For if Nebuchadnezzar was able to subdue the whole kingdom with ease when the Jews were still untouched, how much more readily would he overthrow them when they were wretched and almost ruined? Nothing remained that was not threatened with ruin; and this is the Prophet's meaning.

But he compares King Nebuchadnezzar to an eagle, whom he says was great, and then with large or extended wings. There is no doubt that by wings, feathers, and plumes, he means the regions and peoples over which Nebuchadnezzar presided, for we know that the Chaldeans possessed the monarchy of the East.

Since, therefore, so many regions and people obeyed Nebuchadnezzar’s sway, it is not surprising that the Prophet calls him a great eagle, with ample wings and numerous feathers or plumes. For where he now says, מלא הנוצה, mela henotzeh, full of feathers, he will shortly say, רב נוצה, reb notzeh, many feathers, when speaking of the king of Egypt.

He says, the wings were of various colors. This is the same noun the Prophet used in the last chapter when he said that the people were dressed in precious garments, for this is how the Hebrews speak of Phrygian fabric. Therefore, he compares the wings of the king of Babylon to a woven garment, shining with various colors. Although Nebuchadnezzar held his throne in only one place, he had seized and subdued many tributaries on all sides. This, therefore, is the reason for this variety—but I cannot continue further at this time.

Grant, Almighty God, since You have treated us so liberally by opening the immense and inestimable treasures of Your grace, that being mindful of our condition we may always bewail it, and remember what we were when You desired to adopt us as sons, and how often and how variously we have provoked You and rendered Your covenant vain: Grant, also, that we may glorify You in our shame, and perpetually magnify Your name by our humility, until we become partakers of that glory which Your only-begotten Son has procured for us through His own blood. — Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We began yesterday to explain the saying of the Prophet, that an eagle came to Mount Lebanon, and there cropped off the top of a cedar, that is, the highest bough. Some interpreters seem to me to labor in vain about the word Lebanon. They think it means Jerusalem, and cite the passage in Zechariah where it is said, Open your gates, O Lebanon (Zechariah 11:1).

But Zechariah does not speak of the city here, but of the temple, because it was built of a great quantity of cedar. Here Ezekiel means the land. He names Lebanon rather than other places, not only because that mountain was the remarkable ornament of the region on account of its lofty cedars, balsam, and aromatic trees, but also because this was necessary to complete his allegory.

If he had said that an eagle had come to a city, it would have been absurd. Therefore, we see that the word Lebanon is taken for that part of Judea in which the most beautiful trees grow and flourish. But he says, that it plucked off a bough, from the top of the cedars, because Nebuchadnezzar, who is intended by the eagle, took away King Jeconiah as we mentioned yesterday.

Therefore, King Jeconiah is compared to a very lofty bough of a cedar, because at that time all thought that the kingdom was superior to every danger. The Jews boasted that they were under God’s protection and that the city was impregnable; therefore, that event was incredible.

Now the Prophet adds that the eagle plucked off the head or summit of the boughs, as the Hebrews call the tender shoots. Here the word means the tender branches. It signifies, as we shall see later, the elders who were dragged away into exile.

It took away the head into the land of the merchant. We said that this was a mere designation here, chnaan, because it follows a little later in the plural number: בציר רכלימ שמו, begnir-reklim shemo, in the city of merchants he set it. He says, then, that the boughs were placed in a city of merchants.

This name was given to Babylon, not only because it was a famous center of trade, but also because it was a secure place of confinement due to the large number of inhabitants, so it was not easy to rescue captives from it. For anyone could easily be rescued from a solitary place without resistance, but in a large crowd, it is not so easy to plan or attempt anything.

I do not doubt, therefore, that the Prophet means that the higher classes of the kingdom, together with Jeconiah, were held in secure confinement so that they should not escape.