Arthur E. Cundall, at the time of writing, tutor in Old Testament Studies at the London Bible College, offered the following interpretation of the allegory in Ezek 17 (I have encountered it used by advocates of British Israelism as “proof” Ireland and the UK are prophesied in the Bible[!!!]):
Ezekiel 17
Allegories of Transplanting
Among other things this chapter contains a criticism of King Zedekiah. He had made a pact, binding him by oath to Babylon, and Ezekiel accused him of disloyalty, and urged submission to Babylon again (Jer 37.6-10; 38.17-23).
The general theme of the allegories is clear in the light of the comments in vs. 11-23.
(i) The Babylonian eagle takes King Jehoiachin from Judah to Babylon in 597 B.C. (3,4; 2 Kings 24.8-16; 25.27-30).
(ii) The Babylonian eagle makes Zedekiah king in Judah. Note the meaning of ‘low spreading’ given in 13,14 (5,6; 2 Kings 24.17).
(iii) The Egyptian eagle attracts Zedekiah and his people (7). The exact meaning of the final words of v. 7 and the following verse is far from clear in the RSV. The Egyptian eagle did not transplant anyone to Egypt at this time, although he had taken Jehoahaz in 609 B.C. (2 Kings 23.31-35). Since the margin shows that the Hebrew text has ‘it was transplanted’, it is preferable to retain this, as the AV and RV do, whether or not we run the two verses together. Then the reference is back to v. 5. Zedekiah had been taken up from the royal family and replanted as king by Babylon, without his needing to turn to Egypt.
(iv) Zedekiah and his people will be uprooted. There is a further problem of ‘he’ in v. 9, but it could be the king of Babylon. While the switch from Egypt to Babylon would be too violent with ‘he’ in v. 8, it would be less abrupt here. But v. 20 perhaps indicates that ‘he’ here could be God Himself.
(v) Ultimately God will bring His Messiah, presumably from the ling of the king already in Babylon (22-24). The word ‘sprig’ links on to the Messianic title of ‘branch’ in Isa. 11.1; Jer 23.5; 33.15; Zech. 3.8; 6.12. Three Hebrew words are used. Ezekiel’s word is the feathery top of a tree; the other words describe the shoot coming from the stump of the line of David The nations find shelter under the Messiah (23, cf. Matt. 13.31,32). The ‘mountain height of Israel’ is a term that looks beyond the literal Jerusalem (cf. Isa 2.2,3; Heb. 12.22-24). What a fine ending to a gloomy chapter! (Arthur E. Cundall in The Daily Commentary, vol. 2: Psalms-Malachi [London: Scripture Union, 1973], 350-51, emphasis in original)
