Ezekiel 17

This section includes eight metaphors, each showing from a different angle the certainty of Jerusalem's upcoming judgment. The images are of:

1. a worthless vine (Ezekiel 15);

2. a faithless wife (Ezekiel 16);

3. a vine and two eagles (Ezekiel 17);

4. Sour grapes (Ezekiel 18);

5. a lion and her cubs (Ezekiel 19);

6. a sword (Ezekiel 21);

7. two corrupt sisters (Ezekiel 23); and

8. a cooking pot (Ezekiel 24).

This chapter includes a riddle. A riddle is a type of metaphorical speech (language that uses pictures and comparisons). It both hides and shows the meaning at the same time.

The chapter is also a fable. A fable is a story that teaches a moral lesson. It often tells the lesson through plants or animals instead of people.

This creative setting creates distance between the story and real life. That distance helps the listener receive the message. It lowers resistance to a message that may be hard or unpleasant to hear.

Babylon was the city filled with merchants (see Ezekiel 16:29).

• There was a second great eagle. It was like the first eagle, but it was not as impressive or powerful.

• The future of the vine was easy to foresee. In trying to gain more, it would lose what it already had. Its desire for more would bring loss instead of gain.

  The second eagle would not help the vine. At the same time, the first eagle would become angry. That anger would be justified because the vine had been unfaithful.

In Judah, the east wind blows from the desert and is therefore hot and dry.

• The first eagle represents Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The cedar sprig represents Jehoiachin, whom Nebuchadnezzar took away to Babylon. The plant that later grew into a low vine represents Zedekiah. The second eagle represents Egypt. Zedekiah asked Egypt for help because he wanted to break free from Babylon’s rule.

  The hot east wind represents judgment from Babylon. This wind pulled up and dried out Jerusalem. In other words, Babylon destroyed the city as an act of judgment.

• The picture of the eagle caring for the vine may describe God’s care for Israel more than Nebuchadnezzar’s concern for Zedekiah. This comparison shows an important lesson. Zedekiah rebelled against his overlord (the king who ruled over him), Nebuchadnezzar. In a similar way, Israel rebelled against the Lord.

  Zedekiah’s rebellion against Babylon was extremely foolish. It led to destruction and death. Israel’s rebellion against the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, was even more foolish.

• God would punish Israel’s king because he broke his covenant. By turning against Babylon, he also committed treason (betrayal against a ruler). In doing this, he sinned against the Lord, who had placed him in the promised land.

• will bring him to Babylon and execute judgment upon him: See 2 Kings 25:5–7.

• The last part of the chapter changes the story. Now the Lord takes a branch from the cedar tree and plants it on Israel’s highest mountain. In the Old Testament, a tree often represents a royal family line. A new shoot (a small new branch) represents a new beginning (compare Isaiah 11:1).

  The judgment on the vine would not end the monarchy (the rule of kings). God would plant a new branch. This branch would grow into a greater cedar than the first one. Although the line of kings seemed to end with Zedekiah, this was not the final outcome.

  In God’s time, a new beginning was certain (see Haggai 2:21–23; Matthew 1:11–16; 2:1–11).

• God cuts down the tall tree, makes the short tree grow tall, and revives the dead tree, allowing birds of every kind to find shelter and shade under its branches. In this picture, birds of every kind represent the nations.

  God had promised David an eternal throne (a kingdom that would not end). The failures of David’s descendants, the kings of Judah, could not cancel that promise. One day, the family line of David would rise again. This happened through Jesus, who brings blessing to all nations.