Home

For Teaching

Ezekiel 17: What the Passage Says

117 claims across 24 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Ezekiel 17 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Ezekiel to give Israel a riddle: a great eagle takes the top shoot of a cedar to a city of traders, then plants a seed that grows into a low, spreading vine, which turns its roots and branches toward a second great eagle and is told it will wither. God then explains the riddle: the first eagle is the king of Babylon, who carried off Jerusalem's king and leaders and set up a man from the royal family under a sworn agreement; that man rebelled by asking Egypt for horses and troops, so he will die in Babylon and his troops will fall. The chapter ends with God saying he himself will take a tender shoot from the top of the cedar and plant it on a high mountain in Israel, where it will become a fine cedar that shelters birds of every kind.

Claim by Claim

  1. 17:1
    • The word of the LORD came to Ezekiel.
    • The word came with a command to speak.
  2. 17:2
    • The LORD addressed Ezekiel as son of man.
    • The LORD commanded him to pose a riddle.
    • The LORD commanded him to speak a parable.
    • The riddle and parable were to be directed to the house of Israel.
  3. 17:3
    • The LORD commanded Ezekiel to say what follows.
    • The message is introduced as the words of the Lord GOD.
    • A great eagle had great wings.
    • The eagle had long pinions.
    • The eagle was full of plumage.
    • The eagle's plumage was of many colors.
    • The eagle came to Lebanon.
    • The eagle took the topmost part of the cedar.
  4. 17:4
    • The eagle plucked off the top of the cedar's young shoots.
    • The eagle carried it to a land of merchants (the Hebrew word can also mean the land of Canaan).
    • The eagle set it in a city of traders.
  5. 17:5
    • The eagle took some of the seed of the land.
    • He planted the seed in a field of seed, that is, fertile ground.
    • He placed it beside abundant waters.
    • He set it out like a willow.
  6. 17:6
    • The seed sprouted.
    • It became a spreading vine of low height.
    • Its branches turned toward the eagle.
    • Its roots remained under it.
    • It became a vine.
    • It produced branches.
    • It sent out shoots.
  7. 17:7
    • There was another great eagle.
    • The second eagle had great wings.
    • The second eagle had much plumage.
    • This vine bent its roots toward the second eagle.
    • The vine sent out its branches toward the second eagle.
    • The purpose was that the second eagle might water it.
    • The vine did this from the beds where it was planted.
  8. 17:8
    • The vine had been planted in good soil.
    • It had been planted beside abundant waters.
    • It was planted so that it might produce branches.
    • It was planted so that it might bear fruit.
    • It was planted so that it might become a splendid vine.
  9. 17:9
    • The LORD commanded Ezekiel to speak.
    • The message is introduced as the words of the Lord GOD.
    • The Lord GOD asks whether the vine will prosper.
    • The Lord GOD asks whether the roots of the vine will not be pulled up.
    • The Lord GOD asks whether the fruit of the vine will not be cut off so that it withers.
    • All the fresh leaves of its growth will wither.
    • It will not require a great arm or many people to lift it from its roots.
  10. 17:10
    • Though the vine is planted, the question is asked whether it will prosper.
    • The question is asked whether it will not utterly wither when the east wind touches it.
    • It will wither on the beds where it grew.
  11. 17:11
    • The word of the LORD came to Ezekiel again.
  12. 17:12
    • The LORD commanded Ezekiel to speak to the rebellious house.
    • Ezekiel is to ask them whether they do not know what these things mean.
    • Ezekiel is commanded to tell them the following.
    • The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem.
    • The king of Babylon took Jerusalem's king.
    • The king of Babylon took Jerusalem's princes.
    • The king of Babylon brought them to himself in Babylon.
  13. 17:13
    • The king of Babylon took one of the royal seed.
    • He made a covenant with him.
    • He brought him under an oath.
    • He took away the mighty men of the land.
  14. 17:14
    • The purpose was that the kingdom would be lowly.
    • The purpose was that the kingdom could not lift itself up.
    • The kingdom would stand by keeping the king of Babylon's covenant.
  15. 17:15
    • The king rebelled against the king of Babylon.
    • He rebelled by sending his messengers to Egypt.
    • He sought from Egypt horses and many people.
    • The question is asked whether he will prosper.
    • The question is asked whether the one who does such things will escape.
    • The question is asked whether he can break the covenant and be delivered.
  16. 17:16
    • The Lord GOD swears by his own life.
    • This is declared by the Lord GOD.
    • The king who made him king had an oath that he despised.
    • The king who made him king had a covenant that he broke.
    • He will die in the place of the king who made him king.
    • He will die with that king in the midst of Babylon.
  17. 17:17
    • Pharaoh will not act for him in the war with a mighty army and a great company.
    • This is when siege mounds are cast up.
    • This is when siege walls are built.
    • The siege works are to cut off many lives.
  18. 17:18
    • He despised the oath by breaking the covenant.
    • He had given his hand in pledge.
    • He did all these things.
    • He will not escape.
  19. 17:19
    • Therefore the Lord GOD speaks.
    • The Lord GOD swears by his own life.
    • The oath he despised was the LORD's oath.
    • The covenant he broke was the LORD's covenant.
    • The LORD will bring it upon his head.
  20. 17:20
    • The LORD will spread his net over him.
    • He will be caught in the LORD's snare.
    • The LORD will bring him to Babylon.
    • The LORD will enter into judgment with him there.
    • The judgment is for the treachery he committed against the LORD.
  21. 17:21
    • All his fugitives among all his troops will fall by the sword.
    • The Hebrew here is ambiguous between his fugitives and his choice troops.
    • Those who remain will be scattered to every wind.
    • They will know that the LORD has spoken it.
  22. 17:22
    • The Lord GOD speaks.
    • The LORD himself will take from the lofty top of the cedar.
    • The LORD will set it out.
    • The LORD will crop a tender sprig from the top of its young shoots.
    • The LORD himself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
  23. 17:23
    • The LORD will plant it on the mountain height of Israel.
    • It will bear boughs.
    • It will produce fruit.
    • It will become a majestic cedar.
    • Every bird of every wing will dwell under it.
    • They will dwell in the shade of its branches.
  24. 17:24
    • All the trees of the field will know that the LORD has done this.
    • The LORD has brought down the high tree.
    • The LORD has exalted the low tree.
    • The LORD has dried up the green tree.
    • The LORD has made the dry tree flourish.
    • The LORD has spoken.
    • The LORD has done it.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

17:1
"The LORD" in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written YHWH. Where verse 3 has "the Lord GOD," the Hebrew has two words: a title meaning "master, sovereign" followed by that same personal name.
17:2
"Son of man" translates a Hebrew phrase that simply means "human being, mortal." It is how God addresses Ezekiel throughout the book, marking the distance between the speaker and the man spoken to. The two words paired here, "riddle" and "parable," mean a picture-story deliberately posed as a puzzle: the hearers are meant to work out what stands for what, and verses 12–21 give the answer.
17:3
Lebanon is the mountain range north of Israel, famous throughout the ancient Near East for its cedar forests. Cedar was the most prestigious building timber of the region, used for palaces and temples, so "the top of the cedar in Lebanon" is a natural image for a royal house at its height. Great birds of prey were a standard image for imperial powers swooping in from far off.
17:4
The "land of traders" and "city of merchants" are Babylonia and the city of Babylon, a byword for long-distance trade. Verse 12 makes the identification explicit.
17:5
"Seed of the land" means seed native to that soil, in the explanation, a member of the local royal family rather than a foreign ruler. The word translated "willow" occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible and its meaning is uncertain; some take it as a kind of willow planted by water, others as a description of how the shoot was set out.
17:6
A vine was a standard image for the kingdom of Judah in Israel's prophets. Vines were deliberately kept low and trained, so "low to the ground" is not a defect in itself; the point is that it is a vine and not a cedar. Roots and branches turning toward the eagle picture a dependent relationship, the plant looks to that power for its life.
17:7
Fields and vineyards in this region were often watered from cut channels and raised planting beds. A vine already set beside plenty of water (verse 8) has no need of another gardener; reaching its roots toward a second eagle for watering pictures a client turning to a rival patron.
17:9
In the King James, "the leaves of her spring" means the fresh leaves the plant has just put out, not leaves in the springtime.
17:10
The east wind is the scorching desert wind that blows into the region from the arid interior; it shrivels vegetation quickly and is a stock image for sudden ruin. Babylon also lay to the east.
17:12
The king of Babylon is Nebuchadnezzar. In 597 BC he took Jerusalem and deported its king, Jehoiachin, along with the court and the leading families, the event Ezekiel and his hearers had themselves lived through, since they were among the deportees.
17:13
The "agreement" is a vassal treaty: a great king installs a lesser king, who swears an oath of loyalty and pays tribute. The man taken from the royal family is Zedekiah, Jehoiachin's uncle, placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar. Carrying off the leading men both weakened the kingdom and gave Babylon hostages.
17:14
In 1611 English "base" meant low or lowly, not immoral. The verse describes a kingdom deliberately kept weak, not a kingdom that had turned wicked.
17:15
Egypt was Babylon's chief rival and the traditional source of horses and chariotry, which small hill kingdoms like Judah could not breed for themselves. Sending envoys to ask for horses and troops was, in treaty terms, an act of open rebellion.
17:16
"As surely as I live" is a formal oath: the speaker stakes his own life on the truth of what follows. It is the strongest form of assertion in Hebrew.
17:17
"Pharaoh" is the title of Egypt's king, not a personal name. Ancient armies took a walled city by heaping an earth ramp against the wall and building siege works from which to attack; the picture is of Babylon besieging Jerusalem while Egypt fails to relieve it.
17:18
Giving the hand was the physical gesture that sealed a pledge or treaty, much as a handshake does now. To have given the hand and then act otherwise was a public breach of faith.
17:19
A vassal treaty was sworn in the name of the gods of both parties, so Zedekiah's oath to Nebuchadnezzar was sworn by the LORD. That is why God can call it "my oath" and "my agreement": breaking it was not only treason against Babylon but perjury against the God invoked as witness. "Bring it down on his own head" means to make the consequences fall back on the man himself.
17:20
Nets and snares here are hunting gear, the spread net used to take birds and game. The verb rendered "bring charges" is a legal one: to prosecute a case against someone, not to beg.
17:21
The Hebrew here is uncertain: one reading gives "his fugitives" (those who run away), another, differing by a single letter, gives "his choice troops." Ancient copies support both. "Scattered to every wind" means driven off in all four directions.
17:22
This reverses the opening picture: where the eagle broke off the cedar's top and carried it to Babylon, God now takes a shoot himself and plants it back in the land. The "high and towering mountain" is Zion, the hill of Jerusalem, spoken of in Israel's poetry as the highest of mountains regardless of its actual size.
17:23
A great tree sheltering birds of every kind was a common ancient image for an empire under whose protection many peoples live.
17:24
Trees stand for kingdoms and their rulers throughout this chapter, as they often do in ancient Near Eastern writing; "all the trees of the field" therefore means all the surrounding nations.

Read Ezekiel 17