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Ezekiel 17

God judges a king’s broken oath and promises a planting that will display his rule over the high and low.

Ezekiel receives a riddle to tell the house of Israel: an eagle carries away a cedar’s top, and a planted vine turns toward another eagle. God then explains the images through Jerusalem’s dealings with Babylon and Egypt. A king has broken his sworn covenant, and Egypt’s army will fail to save him from judgment. The closing promise returns to the cedar: God will plant a tender twig on Israel’s mountain and make it flourish.

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2“Son of man, tell a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel;
3and say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “A great eagle with great wings and long feathers, full of feathers which had various colors, came to Lebanon and took the top of the cedar.
4He cropped off the topmost of its young twigs, and carried it to a land of traffic. He planted it in a city of merchants.
5“‘“He also took some of the seed of the land and planted it in fruitful soil. He placed it beside many waters. He set it as a willow tree.
6It 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, produced branches, and shot out sprigs.
7“‘“There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers. Behold, this vine bent its roots toward him, and shot out its branches toward him, from the ground where it was planted, that he might water it.
8It was planted in a good soil by many waters, that it might produce branches and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a good vine.”’
9“Say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Will it prosper? Won’t he pull up its roots and cut off its fruit, that it may wither, that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? It can’t be raised from its roots by a strong arm or many people.
10Yes, behold, being planted, will it prosper? Won’t it utterly wither when the east wind touches it? It will wither in the ground where it grew.”’”
12“Say now to the rebellious house, ‘Don’t you know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took its king, and its princes, and brought them to him to Babylon.
13He took one of the royal offspring, and made a covenant with him. He also brought him under an oath, and took away the mighty of the land,
14that the kingdom might be brought low, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand.
15But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Will he prosper? Will he who does such things escape? Will he break the covenant, and still escape?
16“‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘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 middle of Babylon he will die.
17Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company won’t help him in the war, when they cast up mounds and build forts to cut off many persons.
18For he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these things. He won’t escape.
19“Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘As I live, I will surely bring on his own head my oath that he has despised and my covenant that he has broken.
20I will spread my net on him, and he will be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.
21All his fugitives in all his bands will fall by the sword, and those who remain will be scattered toward every wind. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken it.’
22“The Lord GOD says: ‘I will also take some of the lofty top of the cedar, and will plant it. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
23I will plant it in the mountain of the height of Israel; and it will produce boughs, and bear fruit, and be a good cedar. Birds of every kind will dwell in the shade of its branches.
24All the trees of the field will know that I, the LORD, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree flourish. “‘I, the LORD, have spoken and have done it.’”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Ezekiel 17:24The final verse declares God’s power to bring down the exalted and make what seems beyond recovery flourish.
Ezekiel 17:22God takes up the planting himself, turning the cedar image toward a future established by his own action.
Ezekiel 17:15The king’s appeal to Egypt exposes the covenant breach at the heart of the parable’s warning.
Where this chapter reaches

Jeremiah and 2 Kings share the setting of Judah’s subjection to Babylon, Zedekiah’s rebellion, and the collapse of his rule. Matthew and Luke share the image of birds sheltering in a plant’s branches in their mustard seed parables about God’s kingdom.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What does God’s judgment of the broken oath make you consider about promises you have made?

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How does God’s promise to make the dry tree flourish shape your reading of the preceding judgment?

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Questions people ask about Ezekiel 17

What do the two eagles represent in Ezekiel 17?

The first eagle represents the king of Babylon, who removes Jerusalem’s king and princes and installs another royal descendant under oath. The second represents Egypt, whose help that ruler seeks through ambassadors. The vine depicts the dependent kingdom under its installed ruler, turning toward Egypt despite its covenant with Babylon.

Why does God punish the king for breaking his covenant with Babylon?

The king had given his word under oath, then sought Egyptian military help in rebellion against Babylon. God calls this violated oath and covenant his own, treating the breach as an offense against him. The chapter announces capture, death in Babylon, and the scattering of the king’s forces.

Is the tender twig in Ezekiel 17 a prophecy about Jesus?

The closing promise is often read as messianic: God takes a tender twig from the royal cedar and establishes a flourishing tree in Israel. Christians understand this hope as fulfilled in Jesus and his kingdom. The passage itself leaves the twig unnamed and stresses God’s action in establishing it.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).