Ezekiel, after describing by a figure the circumstances and conditions of the Jews and Zedekiah, the vassal of the Assyrian monarch, warns them of the delusive character of their hopes of help from Egypt, protests against the perfidy which must accompany such alliance, and points out that the restor... [ Continue Reading ]
A GREAT EAGLE ... - Probably the golden eagle, whose plumage has the variety of color here depicted. The eagle (the king of birds) is a natural representative of monarchs (compare, Jeremiah 48:40), and was an Assyrian emblem. WITH GREAT WINGS, IONGWINGED - literally, “great of wing, long of pinion,... [ Continue Reading ]
A LAND OF TRAFFICK - The land of Babylon.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE TOOK ALSO OF THE SEED OF THE LAND - Zedekiah the king’s uncle, not a Babylonian satrap, was made king.... [ Continue Reading ]
SPREADING - On the ground, not trained to a pole, that it might have no other prop but Nebuchadnezzar. As a vine it was less majestic than a cedar Ezekiel 17:3; but compare Psalms 80:10. WHOSE BRANCHES ... - Rather, in order that her branches should turn unto him, and that her roots should be under... [ Continue Reading ]
ANOTHER GREAT EAGLE - This is the king of Egypt, mighty indeed but not like the first. BY THE FURROWS OF HER PLANTATION - From the beds, where it was planted to bring forth fruit for another, it shot forth its roots to him that he might water it. Zedekiah was courting the favor of Egypt while he ow... [ Continue Reading ]
HER SPRING - Rather, her growth. EVEN WITHOUT ... - Translate; and not with great power or with much people is it to be raised up from its roots again.... [ Continue Reading ]
TO CAST UP MOUNTS AND BUILD FORTS - was the business not of the relieving but of the besieging army. Translate it: when men cast up mounts and build forts to destroy many persons.... [ Continue Reading ]
A contrast between the dealings of Nebuchadnezzar and of Yahweh. Nebuchadnezzar “cut off,” Yahweh will “set up” the topshoot; Nebuchadnezzar “carried it into a land of traffic,” Yahweh will “plant it in the mountain of the height of Israel.” Nebuchadnezzar set his favorite as a “vine, lowly” though... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE MOUNTAIN OF THE HEIGHT OF ISRAEL - The parallel passage Ezekiel 20:40 points to the mountain on which the temple stood. But it is not here the actual Mount Moriah so much as the kingdom of which that mountain was the representative, the seat of the throne of the anointed Son of God (Psalms 2:... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TREES FO THE FIELD - The kingdoms of the world as contrasted with the kingdom of God. The truth here enunciated is a general one. God gives the promise, God fulfils it.... [ Continue Reading ]