The Father's Riddle of Two Eagles
17 1 The word of our Father came to me: 2 "Son of man, pose a riddle and speak a parable to the house of Israel,
3 and say, This is what the Sovereign Father says: A great eagle with great wings and long, many-colored feathers came to Lebanon and took the top of the cedar. 4 He cropped off the topmost of its young twigs and carried it to a land of trade he set it in a city of merchants. 5 Then he took some of the seed of the land and planted it in fertile soil he set it beside abundant waters to grow like a willow. 6 And it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine, whose branches turned toward him and whose roots stayed under it. So it became a vine, put out branches and sent out shoots. 7 But there was another great eagle with great wings and much plumage and this vine bent its roots toward him and stretched out its branches toward him to draw more water from him than from the bed where it was planted. 8 It had been planted in good soil beside abundant waters, that it might grow branches and bear fruit and become a noble vine.
9 Say, This is what the Sovereign Father says: Will it thrive? Will he not pull up its roots and strip off its fruit, so that all its fresh sprouting leaves wither? It will take no strong arm or many people to tear it up by its roots. 10 Even though it is planted, will it thrive? Will it not utterly wither when the east wind strikes it—wither away on the bed where it grew?
The Riddle Explained
11 Then the word of our Father came to me:
12 Now say to the rebellious house: Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them: The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took its king and its officials and brought them back with him to Babylon. 13 And he took one of the royal offspring and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. He also carried off the leading men of the land, 14 so that the kingdom would be humbled and not rise up, but by keeping his covenant it might survive. 15 But he rebelled against him by sending his envoys to Egypt to get horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Can the one who does such things escape? Can he break the covenant and yet escape?
16 As I live, declares the Sovereign Father, surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king—whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke—there in Babylon he will die. 17 Pharaoh with his mighty army and vast forces will be no help to him in war, when siege ramps are thrown up and siege walls built to cut off many lives. 18 He despised the oath by breaking the covenant; though he had given his solemn word, he did all these things—he will not escape.
19 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Father says: As I live, I will surely bring down on his own head my oath that he despised and my covenant that he broke. 20 I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon and judge him there for the treachery he committed against me. 21 All the finest warriors among his troops will fall by the sword, and the survivors will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, your Father, have spoken.
22 This is what the Sovereign Father says: I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will plant it. From the topmost of its young twigs I will break off a tender shoot, and I myself will plant it on a high and towering mountain. 1 1 v22 Where the kingdoms of men fail, our Father promises to plant a tender shoot of his own—the coming King from David's line, fulfilled in Jesus, who grows into the kingdom that shelters all peoples. 23 On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it and it will put out branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. Under it every kind of bird will dwell, nesting in the shade of its branches. 24 And all the trees of the field will know that I am the Father, who brings down the tall tree and makes the low tree grow tall, who dries up the green tree and makes the dry tree flourish. I, the Father, have spoken and I will do it.