Golden Eagle Feathers (Aquila chrysaetos). Détail. Spécimen captif. Sud de la France from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Accipitridae_feathers#/media/File:Aquila_chrysaetos_02_wing.jpg Shared under CC 3.0

Ezekiel 17

¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² O mortal, propound a riddle, and speak an allegory to the house of Israel. ³ Say: Thus says the Lord GOD: A great eagle, with great wings and long pinions, rich in plumage of many colors, came to the Lebanon. He took the top of the cedar, ⁴ broke off its topmost shoot; He carried it to a land of trade, set it in a city of merchants. ⁵ Then he took a seed from the land, placed it in fertile soil; a plant by abundant waters, he set it like a willow twig. ⁶ It sprouted and became a vine spreading out, but low; its branches turned toward him, its roots remained where it stood. So it became a vine; it brought forth branches, put forth foliage.

⁷ There was another great eagle, with great wings and much plumage. And see! This vine stretched out its roots toward him; it shot out its branches toward him, so that he might water it. From the bed where it was planted ⁸ it was transplanted to good soil by abundant waters, so that it might produce branches and bear fruit and become a noble vine. ⁹ Say: Thus says the Lord GOD: Will it prosper? Will he not pull up its roots, cause its fruit to rot and wither, its fresh sprouting leaves to fade? No strong arm or mighty army will be needed to pull it from its roots. ¹⁰ When it is transplanted, will it thrive? When the east wind strikes it, will it not utterly wither, wither on the bed where it grew?

¹¹ Then the word of the LORD came to me: ¹² Say now to the rebellious house: Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them: The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took its king and its officials, and brought them back with him to Babylon. ¹³ He took one of the royal offspring and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath (he had taken away the chief men of the land), ¹⁴ so that the kingdom might be humble and not lift itself up, and that by keeping his covenant it might stand. ¹⁵ But he rebelled against him by sending ambassadors to Egypt, in order that they might give him horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Can one escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant and yet escape? ¹⁶ As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely in the place where the king resides who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant with him he broke — in Babylon he shall die. ¹⁷ Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war, when ramps are cast up and siege walls built to cut off many lives. ¹⁸ Because he despised the oath and broke the covenant, because he gave his hand and yet did all these things, he shall not escape. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, I will surely return upon his head my oath that he despised, and my covenant that he broke. ²⁰ I will spread my net over him, and he shall be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for the treason he has committed against me. ²¹ All the pick of his troops shall fall by the sword, and the survivors shall be scattered to every wind; and you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken.

²² Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar; I will set it out. I will break off a tender one from the topmost of its young twigs; I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. ²³ On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar. Under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind. ²⁴ All the trees of the field shall know that I am the LORD. I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken; I will accomplish it.

This riddle and parable (NRSV riddle and allegory) incorporates several commonly used images in the Hebrew scriptures: eagles, vines, cedar trees, and even the east wind. The initial ten verses tell the riddle and parable that could be interpreted in several ways based on how the imagery had been used throughout scriptures. The riddle and parable is followed by the interpretation of the imagery for the hearers but then the chapter ends with a surprising image of hope and reversal. There is a parallelism in the form that begins with the announcement of what the prophet is to declare (riddle and parable) and then proceeds to a parable with two eagles, two plants, fable and interpretation, a message of doom and a coda of hope. (Block, 1997, p. 525)

The initial image is of a magnificent golden eagle, and the description of the wings and pinions enhance the image of this bird. The imagery of an eagle has been used as an image for the LORD’s protections of Israel as in Deuteronomy 32:11, “As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions,” Yet, the image of an eagle has also been used in the judgment of Israel by a foreign nation, for example Deuteronomy 28: 49, “The LORD will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,“ The interpretation of the image points to the second usage, where the magnificent eagle is the king of Babylon and this eagle taking the top of the cedar tree is the removal of king Jehoiachin (along with the elite of the people) and transplants them in Babylon (the city of merchants).

The land where the seed is planted is a good place for the vine to flourish. There is a transition from the great tree to a vine and this probably indicates the reduction of Israel by Babylon when Jeconiah and the elite are removed and the much weaker remnant under Zedekiah. Zedekiah owes his crown and allegiance to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon but is still in a place where his reign and the people can prosper. According to the image the seed can grow into a vine in this fertile soil. Initially this vine grows towards the magnificent eagle that harvested it from Lebanon and planted it in the fertile soil of Israel,[1] but the vine proves to be a fickle vine. When another great eagle (but lesser than the magnificent eagle) appears, the vine turns towards this new eagle in the hope that it will water it. The second bird is passive, but the vine has turned away from the first to the second. The image is fluid: vines emerging from the harvest of a cedar tree, vines orienting themselves towards eagles instead of the sun, but it does manage to integrate two horticultural images commonly used for Israel-the vine and the tree. The transformation of the tree to the vine also sets up the expectation for the wilting under the hot sirocco (east wind) which in combination with a worm killed Jonah’s gourd (Jonah 4:8).

The questions at the end of the image have expected answers for the hearers. Will the vine prosper? No, it will not. Will he not pull up its roots? The expectation is that the first eagle will do precisely that. When it is transplanted will it thrive, or will it wither in the bed? This fickle vine that reached towards the wrong eagle when the first eagle provided good soil and abundant water does not have a hopeful future in this initial image. Like the worthless vine of Ezekiel 15, the ungrateful vine in this image is good for nothing but burning.

The second eagle in the imagery refers to Egypt and the imagery points to the actions of King Zedekiah and others in the region to form an alliance with Egypt against Babylon. This may point to the events that Jeremiah wears a yoke to represent to the representatives of Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Tyre who are meeting with King Zedekiah as reference in Jeremiah 27. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel attempt to communicate to the leaders that they should bear the yoke of Babylon, but as the image here indicates, the vine reaches towards Egypt in this regional power struggle. Yet, Egypt fails to help in the war and Babylon responds to the rebellion in force. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel maintain the unpopular position that God was working through Babylon to judge Israel and that continued resistance to Babylon was resistance to God’s work. The soldiers[2]of the king Zedekiah will fall before the forces of King Nebuchadrezzar. The events which Ezekiel has pointed to throughout the initial sixteen chapters now see the critical event which will set the judgment executed through Babylon in motion.

Yet, the chapter ends with an image of hope where a transplanted sprig grows into a great tree. Isaiah used the image of a shoot coming out of the dead stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1) and here there is a similar image of hope where from a humble sprig a noble cedar emerges. Yet here the image is not about the reemergence of a Davidic ruler but about the reemergence of the nation of Israel. Ezekiel plugs into the widespread ancient image of ‘the cosmic tree’ which brings life to the world. Yet, the primary actor in this final section is not Babylon but the LORD who plants and lifts up the mighty tree from the humble origins. The LORD can bring down the great trees, dry up the trees filled with life, or bring new life into a dried-up tree and bring up the trees overshadowed by the great trees. The unfaithful vine being dried up by the east wind does not preclude the LORD from taking a shoot and remaking it into something both strong and lifegiving.

[1] My initial reading of this led me to link the vine to the exiles in Babylon, but the more I reflect on the imagery the more clear it is that Ezekiel’s image points to the remnant in Judah.

[2] The word could also mean fugitives.