He broke off the topmost of its young twigs and carried it to a land of trade and set it in a city of merchants.
WE began yesterday to explain the saying of the Prophet, that an eagle came to mount Lebanon, and there cropped off the top of a cedar, that is, the highest bough. Some interpreters seem to me to labor in vain about the word Lebanon. They think it means Jerusalem, and cite the passage in Zechariah where it is said, Open thy gates, O Lebanon.
God uses riddles and parables not to obscure His mind but to command attention and stay in memory; what He hides in a familiar dress insinuates itself deeper into careless minds. Ministers must study acceptable words and find varied methods, lest the pulpit and life speak two different languages.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 17:1-21
He took also of the seed of the land,.... Of the land of Judea, a native of it, not a stranger; not one of another country, a Babylonian; not one of his own nobles or princes, did Nebuchadnezzar, the eagle, take and set upon the throne of Judea, but one of their own, even one of the king's seed, of the blood royal, as it...