Ezekiel 17:11-21 - The Parable Is Explained

¹¹ And the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying}, ¹² "Say now to the rebellious house of Israel, 'Do you not know what these [are]?' Say, 'Look! The king of Babylon will come [to] Jerusalem, and he will take its king and its officials, and he will bring them to himself, [to] Babylon. ¹³ And he took from the seed of the kingship, and he made with him a covenant, and {he brought him under oath}, and he took the rulers of the land, ¹⁴ so that [they would] be a humble kingdom and not lift itself up to keep his covenant {in order for it to stand}. ¹⁵ But he rebelled against him by sending his messengers [to] Egypt to give to him horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Will he escape doing these [things], and can he break [the] covenant and escape?

¹⁶ {As I live},' {declares} the Lord Yahweh, '{surely} in the place of the king {who made} him king, who despised his oath and who broke his covenant with him--in the midst of Babylon he will die. ¹⁷ And not with a great army and with a great crowd will Pharaoh work with him in the war, at the pouring out of a siege ramp and the building of siege works to destroy many lives. ¹⁸ And he despised [the] oath to break covenant. And, look, he gave his hand [in pledge], and [yet] he did all of these [things]. He will not escape.'

¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: '{As I live}, {surely} my oath that he despised and my covenant that he broke I will return upon his head. ²⁰ And I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my hunting net, and I will bring him [to] Babylon, and I will enter into judgment with him there [about] his infidelity that he displayed against me. ²¹ And all of his choice troops, among all of his troops, they will fall by the sword, and [those who] [are] remaining, they will be scattered to all [the directions of the] wind, and you will know that I, Yahweh, I have spoken.'