Yehezkiel 17:1-6
Konteks17:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 17:2 “Son of man, offer a riddle, 1 and tell a parable to the house of Israel. 17:3 Say to them: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: 2
“‘A great eagle 3 with broad wings, long feathers, 4
with full plumage which was multi-hued, 5
came to Lebanon 6 and took the top of the cedar.
17:4 He plucked off its topmost shoot;
he brought it to a land of merchants
and planted it in a city of traders.
17:5 He took one of the seedlings 7 of the land,
placed it in a cultivated plot; 8
a shoot by abundant water,
like a willow he planted it.
17:6 It sprouted and became a vine,
spreading low to the ground; 9
its branches turning toward him, 10 its roots were under itself. 11
So it became a vine; it produced shoots and sent out branches.
[17:2] 1 sn The verb occurs elsewhere in the OT only in Judg 14:12-19, where Samson supplies a riddle.
[17:3] 2 tn The parable assumes the defection of Zedekiah to Egypt and his rejection of Babylonian lordship.
[17:3] 3 sn The great eagle symbolizes Nebuchadnezzar (17:12).
[17:3] 4 tn Hebrew has two words for wings; it is unknown whether they are fully synonymous or whether one term distinguishes a particular part of the wing such as the wing coverts (nearest the shoulder), secondaries (mid-feathers of the wing) or primaries (last and longest section of the wing).
[17:3] 5 tn This term was used in 16:10, 13, and 18 of embroidered cloth.
[17:3] 6 sn In the parable Lebanon apparently refers to Jerusalem (17:12).
[17:5] 7 tn Heb “took of the seed of the land.” For the vine imagery, “seedling” is a better translation, though in its subsequent interpretation the “seed” refers to Zedekiah through its common application to offspring.
[17:5] 8 tn Heb “a field for seed.”
[17:6] 9 tn Heb “short of stature.”
