Ezekiel 17:7
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But there was another great eagle with great wings and many feathers. And behold, this vine bent its roots toward him. It stretched out its branches to him from its planting bed, so that he might water it.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
God was, in the foregoing chapter, reckoning with the people of Judah, and bringing ruin upon them for their treachery in breaking covenant with him; in this chapter he is reckoning with the king of Judah for his treachery in breaking covenant with the king of Babylon; for when God came to contend with them he found many grounds of his controversy. The thing was now in doing: Zedekiah was practising with the king of Egypt underhand for assistance in a treacherous project he had formed to shake off the yoke of the king of Babylon, and violate the homage and fealty he had sworn to him. For this God by the prophet here, I. Threatens the ruin of him and his kingdom, by a parable of two eagles and a vine (Eze 17:1-10), and the explanation of that parable (Eze 17:11-21). But, in the close, II. He promises hereafter to raise the royal family of Judah again, the house of David, in the Messiah and his kingdom (Eze 17:22-24).
Open source ↗17:7-9 There was a second great eagle like the first, although not quite so glorious. • The fate of the vine was predictable. In seeking to gain more, it would lose what it already had. The second eagle would not do anything for it, and the anger of the first eagle would be justly aroused.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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The waters made it grow; the deep springs made it tall, directing their streams all around its base and sending their channels to all the trees of the field.
But this king rebelled against Babylon by sending his envoys to Egypt to ask for horses and a large army. Will he flourish? Will the one who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and yet escape?’
For because of the anger of the LORD, all this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He finally banished them from His presence. And Zedekiah also rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Under their authority was an army of 307,500 trained for war, a powerful force to support the king against his enemies.