Ezequiel 17

The riddle of the two eagles

¹The word of the LORD came to me: ²Son of man, pose a riddle and tell a parable to the house of Israel, ³and say, The Lord GOD says this: A great eagle with great wings and long feathers, full of plumage of many colors, came to Lebanon and took hold of the top of the cedar. ⁴It plucked off the topmost of its young shoots and carried it to a land of merchants, and it set it down in a city of traders.^{a 5}Then it took a seed from the land and planted it in a fertile field. It set it like a willow shoot beside abundant water. ⁶It sprouted and became a low, spreading vine. Its branches turned toward the eagle, and its roots stayed under it. So it became a vine, producing shoots and sending out branches. ⁷But there was another great eagle with great wings and thick plumage. And look, this vine bent its roots toward it and stretched out its branches to it from the beds where it was planted, so that it might water it. ⁸Yet it had been planted in good soil beside abundant water, where it could produce branches, bear fruit and become a splendid vine.

Will the vine thrive?

⁹Say, The Lord GOD says this: Will it thrive? Will the first eagle not tear up its roots and strip off its fruit, so that it withers? All its fresh new leaves will wither. He will need no strong arm or great army to pull it up by its roots. ¹⁰Look, it is planted, but will it thrive? Will it not wither completely when the east wind strikes it? It will wither in the beds where it sprouted.

The riddle explained

¹¹The word of the LORD came to me: ¹²Ask the rebellious house, “Do you not know what these things mean?” Then tell them, The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took its king and its officials, and brought them back with him to Babylon. ¹³He took a member of the royal family, made a covenant with him and put him under oath. He also took away the leading men of the land, ¹⁴so that the kingdom would stay lowly and not rise up again, but would keep his covenant and so survive. ¹⁵But he rebelled against him by sending envoys to Egypt to get horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Will a man who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and still escape? ¹⁶As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, it is in Babylon that he will die, in the land of the king who put him on the throne, the king whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke. ¹⁷Pharaoh with his mighty army and great horde will not help him in battle, when ramps are heaped up and siege walls are built to destroy many lives. ¹⁸He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Though he had given his hand on it, he did all these things. He will not escape.

Punishment for the broken oath

¹⁹Therefore the Lord GOD says this: As surely as I live, I will make him bear the penalty of my oath, which he despised, and of my covenant, which he broke. ²⁰I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon and judge him there for the unfaithfulness he committed against me. ²¹All the fugitives from his troops will fall by the sword, and those who are left will be scattered in every direction. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken.^b

The tender shoot on the high mountain

²²The Lord GOD says this: I myself will take a sprig from the top of the tall cedar and plant it. I will pluck a tender shoot from its topmost twigs, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.^{c 23}On the high mountain of Israel I will plant it, and it will put out branches and bear fruit, and it will become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind will live under it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. ²⁴All the trees of the field will know that I, the LORD, bring down the tall tree and raise up the low tree, dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it.