Bible Strands
Ezekiel 17:9
So you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Will it flourish? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it shrivels? All its foliage will wither! It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by its roots.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Ezekiel to the exiled community in Babylon, delivering a warning about a recently transplanted vine that symbolizes a political alliance. The prophet is commanded to tell them a direct declaration from the Lord GOD regarding the vine's impending destruction.
The words — The Hebrew תִצְלָ֑ח (titz.Lach) asks "will it prosper?" while הֲ/לוֹא֩ (ha./lO') frames the rhetorical question with "will it not?" These terms emphasize the certainty of the vine's failure despite its initial planting.
The thread — The motif of uprooted plants failing to flourish appears in the immediate context of Ezekiel 17:10 and echoes the divine warning in Numbers 14:41 that transgression "will not succeed." Jeremiah 32:5 parallels this by confirming that rebellion against God leads to inevitable captivity rather than survival.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human political schemes cannot sustain what God has destined to fall. It requires the reader to accept that reliance on human strength, rather than divine provision, guarantees collapse.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 17:10 Even if it is transplanted, will it flourish? Will it not completely wither when the east wind strikes? It will wither on the bed where it sprouted.’”
- Jeremiah 32:5 He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I attend to him, declares the LORD. If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.’”
- Numbers 14:41 But Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD? This will not succeed!
- 2 Kings 25:4 Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,
- 2 Chronicles 13:12 Now behold, God Himself is with us as our head, and His priests with their trumpets sound the battle call against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed.”
- 2 Chronicles 20:20 Early in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be upheld; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”
- Isaiah 8:9 Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!
- Isaiah 30:1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
- Isaiah 31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD.
- Jeremiah 21:4 this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will turn against you the weapons of war in your hands, with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the wall, and I will assemble their forces in the center of this city.