Ezekiel 17:3 - Exposition

The eagle with great wings and long pinions (Revised Version) probably the golden eagle, the largest species of the genus—stands for Nebuchadnezzar, as it does in Jeremiah 48:40 ; Jeremiah 49:22 . In Isaiah 46:11 the "ravenous bird" represents Cyrus. Possibly the eagle head of the Assyrian god Nisroch ( 2 Kings 19:37 ; Isaiah 37:38 ) may have impressed the symbolism on Ezekiel's mind. A doubtful etymology gives "the great eagle" as the meaning of Nisroch . The divers colours indicate the variety of the nations under the king's sway ( Daniel 3:4 : Daniel 4:1 ). If the cedar was chosen to t,e the symbol of the monarchy of Judah, then it followed that Lebanon, as the special home of the cedar, should take its place in the parable. Possibly the fact that one of the stateliest palaces of Solomon was known as the "house of the forest of Lebanon" ( 1 Kings 7:2 ; 1 Kings 10:17 , 1 Kings 10:21 ) may have made the symbolism specially suggestive. The word for highest branch is peculiar to Ezekiel (here and in verse 22). The branch so carried off was carried into "a land of traffick" (Hebrew, LXX ; and Vulgate, "a land of Canaan," the word being generalized in its meaning, as in Ezekiel 16:29 ), i . e . to Babylon, as pre-eminently the merchant city of the time. This, of course, refers to Nebuchadnezzar's deportation of Jeconiah and the more eminent citizens of Jerusalem ( 2 Kings 24:8-15 ).