Ezekiel Chapter 17
Showing all 24 verses for Ezekiel Chapter 17.
The People's Bible is written by people, for the people. Each verse below shows:
"And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, "
"The word of the LORD came to me again, saying,"
I keep speaking into your life in fresh ways, in different seasons of you needing to hear something. Stay open to receiving a truth again, even in a form you haven't heard it in before.
"Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel; "
"Son of man, tell a riddle and give a parable to the people of Israel."
Sometimes truth lands better wrapped in a story than delivered as a flat instruction - I often taught that way myself, because a story invites you to work it out for yourself rather than just being told what to think.
"And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar: "
"Say: a great eagle, with huge wings, long feathers, and multi-coloured plumage, came to Lebanon and took the top branch off a cedar tree."
Even the biggest powers in your life story - the ones that feel unstoppable - are still just one part of a bigger picture I'm working through, not the whole story in themselves.
"He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants. "
"He snapped off the topmost of its young shoots and carried it away to a land of trade, setting it down in a city of merchants."
Being uprooted from everything familiar can feel like an ending, but it's often actually the start of an unexpected next chapter, even when it doesn't feel that way at the time.
"He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree. "
"He also took some local seed and planted it in fertile ground beside plenty of water, growing it like a willow tree."
A situation that starts out constrained or imposed on you isn't necessarily a bad one - sometimes real growth is possible even within limits you didn't choose, if you work with what you've actually been given.
"And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs. "
"It grew into a low, spreading vine, with its branches turning towards the eagle and its roots staying under him; it became a vine, putting out branches and shoots."
Staying faithful to a commitment you've made, even an unglamorous one, tends to produce real, if modest, stability. It's often the discontented reaching for something flashier that undoes what was actually working.
"There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation. "
"But there was another great eagle with huge wings and thick feathers - and this vine bent its roots towards that eagle instead, stretching its branches towards him for water."
Chasing a shinier alternative to an existing commitment, especially one you've sworn to keep, rarely turns out as well as it looks in the moment - and it usually costs you the stability you already had.
"It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine. "
"It had been planted in good soil, near plenty of water, so it could grow branches, bear fruit, and become a fine, flourishing vine."
When things go wrong after you had a genuinely good situation to work with, it's worth being honest about how much of that was really about the circumstances versus your own choices within them.
"Say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof. "
"Ask: will it thrive? Won't the first eagle pull up its roots, cut off its fruit, and let it wither completely - and it won't even take a great army to uproot it."
When you've undermined your own foundation, it doesn't take much external pressure to bring the whole thing down - which is exactly why maintaining integrity in the small, steady commitments matters so much.
"Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew. "
"Even after being planted, will it really thrive? Won't it wither completely the moment the east wind hits it - withering right there in the very ground where it grew?"
A single hard event often just exposes weaknesses that were already present, rather than creating them out of nothing. It's worth doing the quiet, unglamorous work of staying strong before the pressure ever arrives.
"Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, "
"Then the word of the LORD came to me again, saying,"
I don't leave you guessing forever - sometimes the story comes first to catch your attention, and then the plain truth follows so you're not left confused about what actually matters.
"Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon; "
"Say to this rebellious people: don't you know what this means? The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, captured the king and the officials, and took them back to Babylon with him."
Sometimes people avoid a hard truth not because they can't understand it, but because understanding it would require them to actually change. I'd rather you face it plainly now than keep dodging what you already half-know.
"And hath taken of the king’s seed, and made a covenant with him, and hath taken an oath of him: he hath also taken the mighty of the land: "
"He took a member of the royal family, made a covenant with him, put him under oath, and also took away the powerful people of the land."
A promise sworn under pressure is still a promise - the fact that circumstances forced it doesn't cancel your responsibility to keep it once given. Integrity means honouring your word even when honouring it isn't easy or free.
"That the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it might stand. "
"This was so the kingdom would stay modest and not try to rise up, so that it could only survive by keeping the covenant."
A season of reduced circumstances isn't necessarily a punishment or a dead end - sometimes staying small and faithful for a while is exactly what allows you to keep standing at all.
"But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered? "
"But he rebelled, sending envoys to Egypt to ask for horses and troops. Will he succeed? Will he get away with it? Can he break the covenant and still escape the consequences?"
Breaking your word to chase a better-looking option rarely delivers what it promises, and it costs you the trust you'd already built. Loyalty to a commitment, even an inconvenient one, tends to serve you better in the end than the shortcut does.
"As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die. "
"As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, he will die in Babylon, in the very city of the king who made him king - the one whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke."
What you betray has a way of following you, often turning up again in unexpected form later in life. It's better to face a hard commitment honestly now than to try to outrun it, because it tends to catch up eventually.
"Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons: "
"Pharaoh, despite his mighty army and huge forces, won't be able to help him in the war, even with siege ramps and forts built to destroy many lives."
The people or resources you're tempted to lean on instead of honouring your actual commitments often turn out far less reliable than they promised to be, right when you need them most.
"Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape. "
"Because he despised the oath and broke the covenant, even after shaking hands on it and doing all these things, he will not escape."
A commitment entered into with full awareness carries real weight - pretending afterwards that you didn't fully understand what you were agreeing to doesn't actually undo the responsibility.
"Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised, and my covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head. "
"Therefore, says the Lord GOD, as surely as I live, I will bring back upon his own head the consequences of despising my oath and breaking my covenant."
Your word matters to me even in the everyday, practical parts of life - not just in obviously 'spiritual' moments. Integrity in ordinary commitments is itself a form of faithfulness that I take seriously.
"And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me. "
"I will spread my net over him, catch him in my trap, bring him to Babylon, and there hold him accountable for his betrayal against me."
Even when a consequence comes through very ordinary, human circumstances, there's a deeper accountability underneath it that matters more than just the visible cause and effect.
"And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds: and ye shall know that I the LORD have spoken it. "
"All his fleeing troops will fall by the sword, and the survivors will be scattered to the four winds; then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken it."
Even in seasons that feel chaotic or scattered, there's meaning and order underneath what's happening, even when it's genuinely hard to see at the time.
"Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent: "
"But this too says the Lord GOD: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of the tall cedar and plant it; I will snap off a tender young twig from its highest branches and plant it on a high, prominent mountain."
Even after real failure and broken promises, a genuinely new start is possible - not one you have to engineer yourself through more scheming, but one that can be given, if you're willing to receive it rather than control it.
"In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell. "
"I will plant it on the mountain heights of Israel; it will grow branches, bear fruit, and become a magnificent cedar. Birds of every kind will nest under it, living in the shade of its branches."
What I'm building isn't meant to serve only the people already inside it - it's meant to become shelter and shade for anyone who needs it, no exceptions. That's the measure of something truly flourishing: how generously it shares its shade.
"And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it. "
"Then all the trees of the field will know that I, the LORD, bring down the tall tree and lift up the low one, dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish; I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it."
However fixed or hopeless a situation looks - whether it's something thriving that's actually withering from the inside, or something that looks completely dead - I'm entirely capable of reversing it. Don't judge any outcome as final until the whole story's played out.