Ezekiel 17:3-4

17:3 Say to them: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: ¹ 

“‘A great eagle ²  with broad wings, long feathers, ³ 

with full plumage which was multi-hued, ⁴ 

came to Lebanon ⁵  and took the top of the cedar.

17:4 He plucked off its topmost shoot;

he brought it to a land of merchants

and planted it in a city of traders.

Ezekiel 17:22

17:22 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘I will take a sprig ⁶  from the lofty top of the cedar and plant it. ⁷ 

I will pluck from the top one of its tender twigs;

I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.

Isaiah 10:33-34

10:33 Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies,

is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power. ⁸ 

The tallest trees ⁹  will be cut down,

the loftiest ones will be brought low.

10:34 The thickets of the forest will be chopped down with an ax,

and mighty Lebanon will fall. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 37:24

37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ¹¹ 

‘With my many chariots I climbed up

the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions, ¹² 

its thickest woods.

Daniel 4:10

4:10 Here are the visions of my mind ¹³  while I was on my bed.

While I was watching,

there was a tree in the middle of the land. ¹⁴ 

It was enormously tall. ¹⁵ 

Daniel 4:20-23

4:20 The tree that you saw that grew large and strong, whose top reached to the sky, and which could be seen ¹⁶  in all the land, 4:21 whose foliage was attractive and its fruit plentiful, and from which there was food available for all, under whose branches wild animals ¹⁷  used to live, and in whose branches birds of the sky used to nest – 4:22 it is you, ¹⁸  O king! For you have become great and strong. Your greatness is such that it reaches to heaven, and your authority to the ends of the earth. 4:23 As for the king seeing a holy sentinel coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its taproot in the ground, with a band of iron and bronze around it, surrounded by the grass of the field. Let it become damp with the dew of the sky, and let it live with the wild animals, until seven periods of time go by for him’ –

Zechariah 11:2

11:2 Howl, fir tree,

because the cedar has fallen;

the majestic trees have been destroyed.

Howl, oaks of Bashan,

because the impenetrable forest has fallen.

[17:3]  ¹ tn The parable assumes the defection of Zedekiah to Egypt and his rejection of Babylonian lordship.

[17:3]  ² sn The great eagle symbolizes Nebuchadnezzar (17:12).

[17:3]  ³ tn Hebrew has two words for wings; it is unknown whether they are fully synonymous or whether one term distinguishes a particular part of the wing such as the wing coverts (nearest the shoulder), secondaries (mid-feathers of the wing) or primaries (last and longest section of the wing).

[17:3]  ⁴ tn This term was used in 16:10, 13, and 18 of embroidered cloth.

[17:3]  ⁵ sn In the parable Lebanon apparently refers to Jerusalem (17:12).

[17:22]  ⁶ sn The language is analogous to messianic imagery in Isa 11:1; Zech 3:8; 6:4 although the technical terminology is not the same.

[17:22]  ⁷ tc The LXX lacks “and plant it.”

[10:33]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads “with terrifying power,” or “with a crash.” מַעֲרָצָה (ma’aratsah, “terrifying power” or “crash”) occurs only here. Several have suggested an emendation to מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad, “ax”) parallel to “ax” in v. 34; see HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:448.

[10:33]  ⁹ tn Heb “the exalted of the height.” This could refer to the highest branches (cf. TEV) or the tallest trees (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[10:34]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text has, “and Lebanon, by/as [?] a mighty one, will fall.” The translation above takes the preposition בְּ (bet) prefixed to “mighty one” as indicating identity, “Lebanon, as a mighty one, will fall.” In this case “mighty one” describes Lebanon. (In Ezek 17:23 and Zech 11:2 the adjective is used of Lebanon’s cedars.) Another option is to take the preposition as indicating agency and interpret “mighty one” as a divine title (see Isa 33:21). One could then translate, “and Lebanon will fall by [the agency of] the Mighty One.”

[37:24]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[37:24]  ¹² tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”

[4:10]  ¹³ tc The LXX lacks the first two words (Aram “the visions of my head”) of the Aramaic text.

[4:10]  ¹⁴ tn Instead of “in the middle of the land,” some English versions render this phrase “a tree at the center of the earth” (NRSV); NAB, CEV “of the world”; NLT “in the middle of the earth.” The Hebrew phrase can have either meaning.

[4:10]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “its height was great.”

[4:20]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “its sight.”

[4:21]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “the beasts of the field” (also in vv. 23, 25, 32).

[4:22]  ¹⁸ sn Much of modern scholarship views this chapter as a distortion of traditions that were originally associated with Nabonidus rather than with Nebuchadnezzar. A Qumran text, the Prayer of Nabonidus, is often cited for parallels to these events.