Ezekiel 17


Ezekiel 17 is the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter tells, and then interprets, the riddle of the great eagle. The original text of this chapter is written in the Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 24 verses.

The Riddle to the House of Israel (17:1–10)

The ḥidah or the riddle to the house of Israel, is the oracle revealed to Ezekiel the prophet. It is a mashal, which is a proverb and a parable. It is also considered an enigma. The riddle is 8 verses long from verse 3 to verse 10.

Hebrew Text

The following table shows the Hebrew text of Ezekiel 17:1-10 with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the Jewish [Publication Society of America Version|JPS 1917] translation.
VerseHebrew textEnglish translation
1And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying:
2’Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel,
3and say: Thus saith the Lord GOD: A great eagle with great wings And long pinions, Full of feathers, which had divers colours, Came unto Lebanon, And took the top of the cedar;
4He cropped off the topmost of the young twigs thereof, And carried it into a land of traffic; He set it in a city of merchants.
5He took also of the seed of the land, And planted it in a fruitful soil; He placed it beside many waters, He set it as a slip.
6And it grew, and became a spreading vine Of low stature, Whose tendrils might turn toward him, And the roots thereof be under him; So it became a vine, and brought forth branches, And shot forth sprigs.
7There was also another great eagle with great wings And many feathers; And, behold, this vine did bend Its roots toward him, And shot forth its branches toward him, from the beds of its plantation, That he might water it.
8It was planted in a good soil By many waters, That it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, That it might be a stately vine.
9Say thou: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Shall it prosper? Shall he not pull up the roots thereof, And cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither, Yea, wither in all its sprouting leaves? Neither shall great power or much people be at hand When it is plucked up by the roots thereof.
10Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? In the beds where it grew it shall wither.’

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BC. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.

Parable of two eagles and a vine (17:1–21)

Verse 2

  • "Son of man" : this phrase is used 93 times to address Ezekiel.
  • "Riddle" : the Hebrew word has a meaning of "dark, obscure utterance", requiring interpretation; the passage is also called a "parable", as containing a similitude or comparison.

Verse 3

Verse 9

Verse 15

  • "Against him": here, "against the King of Babylon"
  • "Into Egypt": that is, asking help from the king of Egypt at that time, Pharaoh Hophra (Apries).
  • "Break the covenant": Zedekiah broke the covenant not only of the king of Babylon but also of YHWH ; Ezekiel follows the prophecy of Jeremiah, perhaps he heard Jeremiah spoke in the beginning of Zedekiah's reign or even probably he had heard Jeremiah's words spoken in the fourth year of Jehoiakim or Jeremiah's advice to the exiles.

Verse 16

  • The prophecy was fulfilled when Zedekiah died in the prison in Babylon.

Israel exalted at last (17:22–24)

Verse 23

This "messianic allegory" is presented with the reference to the "branch" in Isaiah 11:1; ; Zechariah 3:8, which grows to be "a majestic cedar."
As shown in the Daily Mass Readings provided in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, one of the main references in the Gospels is the Parable of the Mustard Seed.

Jewish

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Christian

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