Chapter 17 of Yechezkel is a chapter of riddle and parable. The prophet is commanded to present an allegory of two eagles, a cedar, a vine, and a willow. Hidden within this parable are the historical events of that generation: Nevuchadnetzar king of Babylon marching against Jerusalem, the exile of Yehoyachin and the nobility, the coronation of Tzidkiyahu as a vassal king, and Tzidkiyahu's rebellion as he leaned on Pharaoh king of Egypt. We will study the chapter following the approach of the Malbim, along with the insights of Rashi and the Radak.
(א) וַיְהִי דְבַר־יְהֹוָה אֵלַי לֵאמֹר׃ (ב) בֶּן־אָדָם חוּד חִידָה וּמְשֹׁל מָשָׁל אֶל־בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - (1) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: (2) Son of man, pose a riddle and speak a parable to the House of Israel.
Rashi explains that the prophecy we are about to see is framed as an enigma. Through this riddle, the prophet likens Nevuchadnetzar to an eagle, and the kings of Yehudah to the treetop of the cedar. Yet there is an apparent redundancy here: "Pose a riddle" is one thing, and "speak a parable" is another. Why use both expressions?
The Malbim explains: A riddle (chidah) is something concealed, something that must be grasped through contemplation and deep analysis, and when a person delves into it, it sharpens his mind. This is akin to what is written, "as one man sharpens the face of his friend" (Mishlei 27:17) - yachad from the root of sharpening (chidud), like two Torah scholars who sharpen one another, or like two blades that sharpen each other. The Ben Ish Chai authored an entire work, Imrei Binah, comprised entirely of riddles: some regarding Torah studies and sacred matters, and others on general worldly topics, all designed to sharpen the intellect.
A parable (mashal), by contrast, is not obscure but clear: I wish to explain an unfamiliar concept to you, so I present a tangible analogy. Here, the Holy One, blessed be He, tells Yechezkel: Pose a riddle, the solution of which will serve as a parable for what is happening to the People of Israel. The riddle itself will transform into a parable - a riddle whose ultimate meaning and solution is the very message I want to convey to the people.
(ג) וְאָמַרְתָּ כֹּה־אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה הַנֶּשֶׁר הַגָּדוֹל גְּדוֹל הַכְּנָפַיִם אֶרֶךְ הָאֵבֶר מָלֵא הַנּוֹצָה אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ הָרִקְמָה בָּא אֶל־הַלְּבָנוֹן וַיִּקַּח אֶת־צַמֶּרֶת הָאָרֶז׃ - (3) And say, Thus said the Lord God: The great eagle, with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers of varied embroidery, came to Lebanon and took the treetop of the cedar.
The Malbim immediately reveals the riddle's solution: The great eagle is the king of Babylon. The eagle is mighty, soaring higher than all other birds, the king of the avian realm; likewise, the king of Babylon soared to the highest heights - the mountains of Lebanon, onto the crests of the cedars, the tallest of all trees.
Four descriptions are applied to it: 1. Great wings - To reach the tops of the towering cedars requires tremendous flying power; therefore, its wing-feathers are large, making its flight swift and effortless. 2. Long pinions (erech ha'eiver) - The eiver is the wing limb itself, stripped of feathers (like a plucked bird where only the limb remains). The wing itself is long, indicating raw strength and power. 3. Full of feathers - Its body and limbs are entirely covered with small, dense plumage. 4. Of varied embroidery (asher lo harikmah) - Beautiful feathers patterned in a variety of hues, unlike the ordinary eagle whose color is plain black.
The corresponding meaning regarding Nevuchadnetzar: The great wings symbolize his ability to traverse great distances with ease; the long pinions represent his raw strength and military might; being full of feathers signifies that his empire was densely populated, for a vast and well-populated land is a powerful one; and the embroidery reflects the splendor, majesty, and exquisite treasures he possessed. The Malbim highlights that later in the chapter a second eagle appears, representing Egypt, where the descriptions are noticeably diminished. There it does not say "long pinions," because Pharaoh lacked the immense power of the king of Babylon; it says "abundant plumage" rather than "full of feathers," for while Egypt had a large population, they did not fill the entire land; and "embroidery" is not mentioned there at all.
"Came to Lebanon and took the treetop of the cedar" - The treetop is the highest point, symbolizing the king and leadership. Nevuchadnetzar exiled Yehoyachin, the head of the nation, along with the ministers and warriors, all of whom constituted the "treetop," the leadership of the kingdom.
(ד) אֵת רֹאשׁ יְנִיקוֹתָיו קָטָף וַיְבִיאֵהוּ אֶל־אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן בְּעִיר רֹכְלִים שָׂמוֹ׃ - "He cropped off the top of its young shoots and brought it into a land of trade; he set it in a city of merchants."
The yonkot (young shoots), the Malbim explains, are the boughs - the branches - that grow out of the sides of the tree and draw sustenance from it. The nimshal: the princes and prominent figures of Judah, the craftsmen and the smiths, all the dignitaries who were in the Land of Israel - those he exiled.
"And brought it into a land of Canaan" - seemingly it should have said "to Babylon," since Canaan is right here! Rather, the Malbim explains: the reference is to the land of the Chaldeans, where merchants gathered, for "Canaanite" means a merchant or trader. "He set it in a city of merchants" - there in Babylon, they were delivered, as it were, into the hands of peddlers. A peddler (rochel) goes from door to door, and likewise, the exiles of Israel were put to all sorts of mundane uses and shuttled from place to place. The Malbim adds a gradation: a rochel (peddler) goes door to door with his goods and is smaller in trade than a Cana'ani (merchant/trader), and the trader is smaller than a major merchant (socher). A socher is a wholesale merchant; a Cana'ani is smaller than him; a rochel is a petty peddler, going from house to house through the towns.
Here the Malbim offers a lengthy explanation that we will not study in detail, but it is worth mentioning to appreciate its profundity. He enumerates the biblical terms for branches of a tree: amir, bad, daliyah, zemora, zalzal, choter, yonek, netishah, netzer, sa'if, sar'af, sansan ("I will take hold of its boughs"), anaf, opah, porah, sokhah, shelichah, sarig. All of these are names for branches, and he explains the precise nuance distinguishing each one from the other. Whoever wishes to delve into it should study his commentary under be'ur hamilim there. This demonstrates the Malbim's brilliance, his complete mastery of Tanach, and his ability to show that every single term is distinct from another - even when they appear to express the same concept, they are not quite identical. This is the unique wonder of his commentary.
(ה) וַיִּקַּח מִזֶּרַע הָאָרֶץ וַיִּתְּנֵהוּ בִּשְׂדֵה־זָרַע קָח עַל־מַיִם רַבִּים צַפְצָפָה שָׂמוֹ׃ - "He took also of the seed of the land and planted it in a fertile field; he placed it by great waters, set it as a willow."
Here the Malbim introduces a novel distinction, unlike our usage in modern spoken Hebrew. When it comes to trees, there are three distinct terms: nata (planted) - planting by means of a seed or pit; zara (sowed) - grafting onto another tree, which is why this term generally appears in the context of forbidden crossbreeding (kil'ei ilanot); shatal (transplanted) - uprooting a tree from one location in order to replant it in another.
According to this: "He took also of the seed of the land" - he took that which was fit to be grafted onto another tree. "And planted it in a fertile field" - he grafted it onto another stock. "Placed it by great waters" - this shoot had originally grown by abundant waters; "set it as a willow" - but he grafted it onto a tzaftzafah, a mountain willow that grows in dry mountains without water, which signifies degradation. And should you ask, were there not superior species in Babylon? After all, it is written: "Upon the willows in its midst we hung our harps," and "they shall carry them to the brook of the willows" - there were willows there. Rather, this expresses diminished stature: instead of the abundant blessing it enjoyed here in the Land of Israel beside great waters, he now grafted it onto an inferior mountain willow.
And the nimshal: the king of Babylon, who is the great eagle, came to the cedar and took Zedekiah, who was of the royal seed, making him king under his subjugation. He became like a branch grafted onto another tree, whose entire vitality and nourishment derive from the trunk upon which it is grafted, becoming secondary to it. In other words: you will be a king appointed by Nebuchadnezzar; he is the trunk, and you are a branch grafted onto him and nourished by him. And instead of the exalted status you formerly held beside abundant waters, you are now grafted onto an inferior stock - onto a tzaftzafah - subject to the dominion of Nebuchadnezzar.
(ו) וַיִּצְמַח וַיְהִי לְגֶפֶן סֹרַחַת שִׁפְלַת קוֹמָה לִפְנוֹת דָּלִיּוֹתָיו אֵלָיו וְשָׁרָשָׁיו תַּחְתָּיו יִהְיוּ וַתְּהִי לְגֶפֶן וַתַּעַשׂ בַּדִּים וַתְּשַׁלַּח פֹּרֹאות׃ - "And it sprouted and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose boughs turned toward him, and its roots were under him; so it became a vine, and produced branches, and sent forth boughs."
Let us begin with Radak. "And it grew and became a trailing vine" - until Tzidkiyahu rebelled, he enjoyed success, and he grew rapidly. The rebellion occurred in the fifth year of his reign, whereas in the fourth year he went to Babylon to greet the king of Babylon who had crowned him, as written in the Book of Yirmiyahu. Nevuchadnetzar gave him dominion over the surrounding kings - Edom, Moav, Ammon, Tzor, and Tzidon - and therefore those kings sent emissaries to Tzidkiyahu, king of Yehudah, since they were subservient to him.
"Sorachat" (trailing) - from the expression of surplus or overhang, as in "and the surplus shall hang over (vesarach ha'odef)" regarding the curtains of the Mishkan, and "tisrach," meaning it will lengthen and hang over the back of the Mishkan. Incidentally, this sheds light on what is stated regarding the era preceding the Messiah: "the wisdom of the scribes will tisrach." It is commonly explained in terms of a foul odor (sirchon) - that people will not want to hear the wisdom of the scribes, and it will be repulsive to them. But some explain it in terms of drawn-out length: a talmid chacham is handed the microphone, speaks for two hours, and things stretch on and on with no one to stop it - that is "the wisdom of the scribes will tisrach."
Radak notes: Do not think that the metaphor of a grapevine is one of praise. On the contrary, it is a metaphor of degradation. Previously, the kingdom was in the category of a cedar, tall with a magnificent treetop, but now it had diminished and become a low, humble grapevine. The decline had already begun in the days of Menasheh, who filled Jerusalem with blood from end to end and placed an idol in the Heichal. And if you might ask, does a grapevine not possess an advantage over a cedar? The prophet answers later: this is a vine that bears no fruit. If so, what advantage does it have? A cedar is mighty and tall, providing timber for building; but a small vine without fruit - what value does it have?
Radak adds: The king of Babylon bestowed greatness upon Tzidkiyahu with the intention that he remain humble beneath him and do his will. Yet look and see that he did not act this way. That lowly vine, which was expected to be submissive under the hand of the king of Babylon, did not behave accordingly. Later, he even disclosed the humiliation of Nevuchadnetzar regarding his eating of a live hare and publicized the matter, despite having sworn to him not to publicize it, and this led to his inability to endure under him.
"And its roots were under him" - the roots of the vine would not spread out far, which is another expression of his total subservience to Nevuchadnetzar. "The boughs" (daliyot), Radak says, are an allegory for the tribute he would give him: a king submissive to another king pays him tribute and serves him. This is what he "draws up" (doleh) and gives to Nevuchadnetzar in exchange for not killing him and not exiling him, like a bribe paid to keep the status quo. For this reason, he made him swear by God.
"And it produced boughs and sent out foliage" - Radak's text reads "pora'ot" (in our texts it is spelled peh-aleph-resh), and he explains it as meaning branches (pa'orot): the thick branches are badim, and the branches emerging from them are the pa'orot. So too with Tzidkiyahu: he was a large branch extending from the trunk - which is Nevuchadnetzar - and from him emerged smaller branches, namely Ammon, Moav, Tzor, and Tzidon, whom Nevuchadnetzar had placed under his authority. They were supposed to obey him, yet they did not. Furthermore, Radak notes: observe that no fruit is mentioned here for the vine, because in truth this vine had no fruit - the sons of Tzidkiyahu did not survive, but were slaughtered before his eyes when he rebelled against the king of Babylon and broke the oath. Thus, this vine remained childless.
The Malbim explains: "And it grew" - the seed grafted onto the willow grew and became a vine. Instead of a mighty cedar, it was a grapevine; and not even a tall vine, but a "trailing" one, whose height stays low to the ground, spreading in width rather than height. This is what is stated below: "to be a lowly kingdom, that it might not lift itself up." The lowly vine signifies that we had become a lowly kingdom, for Nevuchadnetzar took away the warriors, and they would no longer be a mighty cedar, but a vine that is not a strong tree, yielding nothing more than tribute.
"Its boughs turned toward him" - the boughs (daliyot), says the Malbim, derive from the idea of something elevated and drawn upward, branches rising to the heights. Yet here he humbles them: that part which was supposed to rise high in you, Tzidkiyahu, turns toward and bends before the willow, which is Nevuchadnetzar, who rules over him completely and to whom he submits. "And its roots were under him" - so that even the roots would be subservient beneath him, as it is stated below (verse 14): "that it might keep his covenant to stand," obligating him to keep the covenant, uphold it, and not violate it.
"And it became a vine" - here the rebellion begins. Did I not graft you upon a willow, taking it by great waters and setting it like a willow? Yet you went and became a vine in your own right! He abandoned the willow, severed himself from it, and became an independent vine. Nor was he content with this; rather, "and it produced boughs" - the badim are branches growing out of the tree close to the root, equal to the tree itself in thickness and strength. "And sent out foliage (porot)" - not like Radak's explanation from pa'orot (branches), but rather, as the Malbim explains, from peri (fruit): branches that bear fruit. For Tzidkiyahu grew strong in his reign, as though already bearing fruit, becoming an independent ruler who was no longer dependent upon the overlord king. The root of the word is like peri, parah, poreh - "a root bearing poison and wormwood" - all expressing something that spreads, grows, and bears fruit.
(ז) וַיְהִי נֶשֶׁר־אֶחָד גָּדוֹל גְּדוֹל כְּנָפַיִם וְרַב־נוֹצָה וְהִנֵּה הַגֶּפֶן הַזֹּאת כָּפְנָה שָׁרָשֶׁיהָ עָלָיו וְדָלִיּוֹתָיו שִׁלְחָה־לּוֹ לְהַשְׁקוֹת אוֹתָהּ מֵעֲרֻגוֹת מַטָּעָהּ׃ - (7) And there was another great eagle with great wings and many feathers; and behold, this vine bent its roots toward him and sent out its boughs to him, that he might water it from the furrows of its planting.
This is the second eagle, as already mentioned: Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He is less powerful than the first. Notice: of him it says merely "with great wings," and not "long-pinioned" as was said of Nevuchadnetzar, which expresses might; and of him it says "many feathers," rather than "full of plumage."
"It bent its roots toward him" - the vine's roots sought to draw nourishment and attach themselves to the second eagle, and therefore it sent out its branches to him so that he might water it from the garden beds of its plantation. We saw that the first eagle, Nevuchadnezzar, bent its branches low to spread along the ground, withholding water and the capacity for independent vitality - meaning, he denied Tzidkiyahu an independent existence, wanting him to remain subordinate to him alone. And what does Tzidkiyahu do now? He connects to another water source, to the second, smaller eagle, who is Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He longed for Pharaoh to loosen his branches and drink abundant water there, thinking that through Pharaoh he would attain plenty, abundance, and blessing, and would no longer have to remain subservient to Nevuchadnezzar.
(ח) אֶל־שָׂדֶה טּוֹב אֶל־מַיִם רַבִּים הִיא שְׁתוּלָה לַעֲשׂוֹת עָנָף וְלָשֵׂאת פֶּרִי לִהְיוֹת לְגֶפֶן אַדָּרֶת׃ - "It was planted in a good field by abundant waters, to produce branches and bear fruit, to become a majestic vine."
Now Scripture explains why he did this. After all, Tzidkiyahu was in a good position and enjoyed honor under Nevuchadnezzar, so why did he rebel against him and violate his oath? Had he not done so, he would have produced branches and borne fruit - and as we will see later, Tzidkiyahu lost his sons and had no fruit. Had he remained planted in a good field by abundant waters, he would have grown branches and borne fruit. Furthermore, the prophet had instructed him to remain submissive beneath him!
The Malbim explains, consistent with his approach, that with trees, "planting" (shetilah) always refers to uprooting from one place and replanting in another. Here Scripture describes what Tzidkiyahu did: he abandoned Nevuchadnezzar, who had crowned him king, and turned to receive support and aid from Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He went to transplant himself beside Egypt, where he would find abundant water, leaving Nevuchadnezzar's domain for Pharaoh's domain, "to produce branches and bear fruit, to become a majestic vine" - so that he would possess an independent kingdom and would no longer be subject and subservient to the kingdom of Nevuchadnezzar.
(ט) אֱמֹר כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה תִּצְלָח הֲלוֹא אֶת־שָׁרָשֶׁיהָ יְנַתֵּק וְאֶת־פִּרְיָהּ יְקוֹסֵס וְיָבֵשׁ כָּל־טַרְפֵּי צִמְחָהּ תִּיבָשׁ וְלֹא־בִזְרֹעַ גְּדוֹלָה וּבְעַם־רָב לְמַשְׂאוֹת אוֹתָהּ מִשָּׁרָשֶׁיהָ׃ - "Say: Thus said the Lord God: Will it prosper? Will he not tear up its roots and cut off its fruit, so that it withers? All the fresh leaves of its growth will wither, and without a mighty arm or many people to uproot it from its roots."
Rashi makes an observation here: "The entire alphabet is contained in this verse, and I wonder why it is not counted in the Masorah." This verse is unique in that all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are included in it, and it is surprising that the Masorah enumerates several verses that contain the entire alphabet, yet this verse is omitted.
As for the matter itself: "Will it prosper?" - could it possibly succeed? You are going to lean upon the second eagle, Pharaoh, in order to escape the grasp of the first eagle, Nevuchadnezzar. But the first eagle "will tear up its roots" and "cut off (yekoses) its fruit" - meaning sever it. Yekoses is similar to gnawing or cutting (liksos), but here spelled with the letter kuf; therefore, the Malbim connects it to yikutzatz (cut off), noting that it is unique, having no parallel in Scripture. Furthermore, "all the fresh leaves of its growth will wither" - even the foliage will dry up: Nevuchadnezzar will not sit idly by; he will see how you rebelled against him and allied with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he will uproot the kingdom and cut off its people, and even the leaves - the common folk - will wither away.
"And without a mighty arm or many people to uproot it from its roots" - do not think that Nevuchadnezzar will have to expend great effort in this. He will need neither a mighty arm, nor a strong hand, nor a numerous army to tear it up from its roots. Pharaoh will not come to your aid, and consequently Nevuchadnezzar will capture you with ease. You relied on Pharaoh, but Pharaoh is a broken reed upon which there is no reliance, and therefore Nevuchadnezzar will require no extraordinary effort; he will simply arrive and exile you with ease.
(י) וְהִנֵּה שְׁתוּלָה הֲתִצְלָח הֲלֹא כְגַעַת בָּהּ רוּחַ הַקָּדִים תִּיבַשׁ יָבֹשׁ עַל־עֲרֻגֹת צִמְחָהּ תִּיבָשׁ׃ - "And behold, though planted, will it prosper? When the east wind touches it, will it not completely wither? Upon the garden beds of its growth it will wither."
The prophet was commanded to pose a riddle whose solution is an allegory: The great eagle, endowed with four descriptions of power, is Nevuchadnetzar king of Babylon, who came to Lebanon and took the highest branch of the cedar - Yehoyachin, along with the officers and mighty men - and exiled them to a land of merchants and traders. From there, he took from the royal seed, Tzidkiyahu, and planted him like a willow: a dependent, subservient king whose entire vitality drew from the Babylonian trunk. Instead of a mighty cedar, we became a trailing vine of low stature, a lowly kingdom so that it would not exalt itself. Yet Tzidkiyahu was not content with this: he detached himself to become a vine in his own right, produced boughs and sent out branches, and bent his roots toward the second eagle - Pharaoh king of Egypt, all of whose attributes are weaker than the first. Concerning this, the prophet asks: "Shall it prosper?" - its roots will be uprooted, its fruit cut off, and its leaves withered; Nevuchadnetzar will not even need a mighty arm or a numerous army, for Egypt is merely a crushed reed of support. And the vine that was supposed to bear fruit was left childless, as indeed happened to Tzidkiyahu, whose sons were slaughtered before his eyes.