The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Traffick” it comes from the Hebrew Word “kena’an” which means “merchants, Canaan.”
Ezekiel delivers a riddle about eagles and vines to illustrate Judah’s political treachery. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Ezekiel 17.
Ezekiel is instructed to put forth a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel, describing a great eagle with great wings, long winged, full of feathers, which had various colors, coming to Lebanon, and taking the highest branch of the cedar, cropping off the top of its young twigs, carrying it into a land of “traffick,” “kena’an” in Hebrew, setting it in a city of merchants. Ezekiel describes taking also of the seed of the land, planting it in a fruitful field, placing it by great waters, setting it as a willow tree, and it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and its roots were under him, so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs, describing another great eagle with great wings and many feathers, and behold, this vine bent its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of its plantation. Ezekiel explains this riddle, that the first eagle is the king of Babylon, who took the king and princes of Jerusalem, and brought them to Babylon, taking also of the king’s seed, and made a covenant with him, but he rebelled against him by sending ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people, asking whether he shall prosper, whether he shall escape who does such things, breaking the covenant, since as He lives, surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die, closing with a beautiful, contrasting promise, that He Himself will take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and set it, planting it upon a high mountain, that it may bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar, under which every bird shall dwell, this remarkable image pointing forward to a coming, righteous kingdom God Himself would establish.
Ezekiel’s riddle of two eagles and a transplanted vine offers a vivid, memorable way to communicate the genuinely complex political treachery of Zedekiah’s broken covenant with Babylon and his foolish alliance with Egypt instead. This chapter’s closing image, God Himself planting a tender branch on a high mountain where every bird finds shelter, offers a beautiful counter-vision of stable, God-established kingship replacing such faithless, self-destructive political maneuvering.
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