The document discusses a chapter from the book of Ezekiel that condemns false prophets. It provides context that Ezekiel was confirming Jeremiah's condemnation of false prophets, some of whom were consciously deceiving people while others were deluded. The false prophets are accused of prophesying without being sent by God, following their own spirit instead of divine revelation, not working to prevent God's judgments on Israel, and falsely prophesying peace while people continued in sin. Commentators provide historical context and note parallels to Jeremiah's similar condemnations of false prophecy that was problematic in Jerusalem and also extending to the exiles in Babylon.

1. EZEKIEL 13 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
False Prophets Condemned
1 The word of the Lord came to me:
BARNES, "The identity of phrases and ideas of this chapter with Jer. 23
leads to the conclusion that Ezekiel took up a well-known prophecy to
enforce and apply it to his companions in exile. They probably had read
Jeremiah’s words as referring to others than themselves.
GILL, "And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. Giving orders to
prophesy against the false prophets and prophetesses, which were either in
the land of Israel, of whom the prophet had notice; or rather who were
among the captives in Babylon, where Ezekiel now was.
HENRY 1-2, "The false prophets, who are here prophesied against, were
some of them at Jerusalem (Jer_23:14): I have seen in the prophets at
Jerusalem a horrible thing; some of them among the captives in Babylon,
for to them Jeremiah writes (Jer_29:8), Let not your diviners, that be in
the midst of you, deceive you. And as God's prophets, though at a distance
from each other in place or time, yet preached the same truths, which was
an evidence that they were guided by one and the same good Spirit, so the
false prophets prophesied the same lies, being actuated by one and the same
spirit of error. There were little hopes of bringing them to repentance, they
were so hardened in their sin; yet Ezekiel must prophesy against them, in
hopes that the people might be cautioned not to hearken to them; and thus a
testimony will be left upon record against them, and they will thereby be left
inexcusable.
Ezekiel had express orders to prophesy against the prophets of Israel; so
they called themselves, as if none but they had been worthy of the name of
Israel's prophets, who were indeed Israel's deceivers. But it is observable
that Israel was never imposed upon by pretenders to prophecy till after they
had rejected and abused the true prophets; as, afterwards, they were never
deluded by counterfeit messiahs till after they had refused the true Messiah
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2. and rejected him. These false prophets must be required to hear the word of
the Lord. They took upon them to speak what concerned others as from
God; let them now hear what concerned themselves as from him. And two
things the prophet is directed to do: -
I. To discover their sin to them, and to convince them of that if possible, or
thereby to prevent their proceeding any further, by making manifest their
folly unto all men, 2Ti_3:9. They are here called foolish prophets (Eze_
13:3), men that did not at all understand the business they pretended to; to
make fools of the people they made fools of themselves, and put the greatest
cheat upon their own souls. Let us see what is here laid to their charge. 1.
They pretend to have a commission from God, whereas he never sent them.
They thrust themselves into the prophetic office, without warrant from him
who is the Lord God of the holy prophets, which was a foolish thing; for how
could they expect that God should own them in a work to which he never
called them? They are prophets out of their own hearts (so the margin
reads it, Eze_13:2), prophets of their own making, Eze_13:6. They say, The
Lord saith; they pretend to be his messengers, but the Lord has not sent
them, has not given them any orders. They counterfeit the broad seal of
heaven, than which they cannot do a greater indignity to mankind, for
hereby they put a reproach upon divine revelation, lessen its credit, and
weaken its credibility. When these pretenders are found to be deceivers
atheists and infidels will thence infer, They are all so. The Lord has not sent
them; for though crafty enough in other things like the foxes, and very wise
for the world, yet they are foolish prophets and have no experimental
acquaintance with the things of God. Note, Foolish prophets are not of God's
sending, for whom he sends he either finds fit or makes fit. Where he gives
warrant he gives wisdom. 2. They pretend to have instructions from God,
whereas he never made himself and his mind known to them: They followed
their own spirit (Eze_13:3); they delivered that as a message from God
which was the product either of their subtle invention, to serve a turn for
themselves, or of their own crazed and heated imagination, to give vent to a
fancy. For they have seen nothing, they have not really had any heavenly
vision; they pretend that what they say the Lord saith it, but God disowns it:
“I have not spoken it, I never said it, never meant any such thing.” What
they delivered was not what they had seen or heard, as that is which the
ministers of Christ deliver (1Jo_1:1), but either what they had dreamed or
what they thought would please those they coveted to make an interest in;
this is called their seeing vanity and lying divination (Eze_13:6); they
pretended to have seen that which they did not see, and produced that as a
divine truth which they knew to be false. To the same purport (Eze_13:7):
You have see a vain vision and spoken a lying divination, which had no
divine original and would have no effect, but would certainly be disproved
by the event; the words are changed (Eze_13:8): You have spoken vanity
and seen lies; what they saw and what they said was all alike, a mere sham;
they saw nothing, they said nothing, to the purpose, nothing that could be
relied on or that deserved regard. Again (Eze_13:9), They see vanity and
divine lies; they pretended to have had visions, as the true prophets had,
whereas really they had none, but either it was the creature of their own
fancy (they thought they had a vision, as men in a delirium do, that was
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3. seeing vanity) or it was a fiction of their own politics, and they knew they
had none, and then they saw lies, and divined lies. See Jer_23:16, etc. Note,
Since the devil is universally know to be the father of lies, those put the
highest affront imaginable upon God who tell lies, and then father them
upon him. But those that had put God's character upon Satan, in
worshipping devils, arrived at length at such a pitch of impiety as to put
Satan's character upon God. 3. They took no care to prevent the judgments
of God that were breaking in upon the kingdom. They are like the foxes in
the deserts, running to and fro, and seeming to be in a great hurry, but it
was to get away and shift for their own safety, not to do any good: The
hireling flees, and leaves the sheep. They are like foxes that are greedy of
prey for themselves, crafty and cruel to feed themselves. But (Eze_13:5),
“You have not gone up into the gaps, nor made up the hedge of the house of
Israel. A breach is made in their fences, at which judgments are ready to
pour in upon them, and then, if ever, is the time to do them service; but you
have done nothing to help them.” They should have made intercession for
them, to turn away the wrath of God; but they were not praying prophets,
had no interest in heaven nor intercourse with heaven (as prophets used to
have, Gen_20:7) and so could do them no service that way. They should
have made it their business by preaching and advice to bring people to
repentance and reformation, and so have made up the hedge, and put a stop
to the judgments of God; but this was none of their care: they contrived how
to pleased people, not how to profit them. They saw a deluge of profaneness
and impiety breaking in upon the land, waging war with virtue and holiness,
and threatening to crush them and bear them down, and then they should
have come in to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the
mighty, by witnessing against the wickedness of the time and place they
lived in; but they thought that would be as dangerous a piece of service as
standing in a breach to make it good against the besiegers, and therefore
they declined it, did nothing to stem the tide, stood not in the battle against
vice and immorality, but basely deserted the cause of religion and
reformation, in the day of the Lord, when it was proclaimed, Who is on the
Lord's side? Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? Psa_94:16.
Those were unworthy the name of prophets that could think so favourably
of sin, and had so little zeal for God and the public welfare. 4. They flattered
people into a vain hope that the judgments God had threatened would never
come, whereby they hardened those in sin whom they should have
endeavoured to turn from sin (Eze_13:6): They have made others to hope
that all should be well, and they should have peace, though they went on still
in their trespasses, and that the event would confirm the word. They were
still ready to say, “We will warrant you that these troubles will be at an end
quickly, and we shall be in prosperity again.” as if their warrants would
confirm false prophecies, in defiance of God himself.
JAMISON, "Eze_13:1-23. Denunciation of false prophets and
prophetesses; Their false teachings, and God’s consequent judgments.
As the twelfth chapter denounced the false expectations of the people, so
this denounces the false leaders who fed those expectations. As an
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4. independent witness, Ezekiel confirms at the Chebar the testimony of
Jeremiah (Jer_29:21, Jer_29:31) in his letter from Jerusalem to the captive
exiles, against the false prophets; of these some were conscious knaves,
others fanatical dupes of their own frauds; for example, Ahab, Zedekiah,
and Shemaiah. Hananiah must have believed his own lie, else he would not
have specified so circumstantial details (Jer_28:2-4). The conscious knaves
gave only general assurances of peace (Jer_5:31; Jer_6:14; Jer_14:13). The
language of Ezekiel has plain references to the similar language of Jeremiah
(for example, Jer_23:9-38); the bane of false prophecy, which had its
stronghold in Jerusalem, having in some degree extended to the Chebar;
this chapter, therefore, is primarily intended as a message to those still in
the Jewish metropolis; and, secondarily, for the good of the exiles at the
Chebar.
K&D 1-7, "Against the False Prophets
Their conduct. - Eze_13:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Eze_13:2. Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who
prophesy, and say to the prophets out of their heart, Hear ye the word of
Jehovah. Eze_13:3. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Woe upon the foolish
prophets, who go after their spirit, and that which they have not seen!
Eze_13:4. Like foxes in ruins have thy prophets become, O Israel. Eze_13:5.
Ye do not stand before the breaches, nor wall up the wall around the house
of Israel to stand firm in the battle on the day of Jehovah. Eze_13:6. They
see vanity and lying soothsaying, who say, “Oracle of Jehovah;” and
Jehovah hath not sent them; so that they might hope for the fulfilment of
the word. Eze_13:7. Do ye not see vain visions, and speak lying
soothsaying, and say, Oracle of Jehovah; and I have not spoken? - The
addition ‫ים‬ ִ‫א‬ ָ‫בּ‬ִ‫נּ‬ ַ‫,ה‬ “who prophesy,” is not superfluous. Ezekiel is not to direct
his words against the prophets as a body, but against those who follow the
vocation of prophet in Israel without being called to it by God on receiving a
divine revelation, but simply prophesying out of their own heart, or
according to their own subjective imagination. In the name of the Lord he is
to threaten them with woes, as fools who follow their own spirit; in
connection with which we must bear in mind that folly, according to the
Hebrew idea, was not merely a moral failing, but actual godlessness (cf.
Psa_14:1). The phrase “going after their spirit” is interpreted and rendered
more emphatic by ‫י‬ ִ‫תּ‬ ְ‫ל‬ ִ‫ב‬ ְ‫,ל‬ which is to be taken as a relative clause, “that
which they have not seen,” i.e., whose prophesying does not rest upon
intuition inspired by God. Consequently they cannot promote the welfare of
the nation, but (Eze_13:4) are like foxes in ruins or desolate places. The
point of comparison is to be found in the undermining of the ground by
foxes, qui per cuniculos subjectam terram excavant et suffodiunt
(Bochart). For the thought it not exhausted by the circumstance that they
withdraw to their holes instead of standing in front of the breach (Hitzig);
and there is no force in the objection that, with this explanation, ‫ת‬ ‫ב‬ ָ‫ר‬ֲ‫ח‬ ָ‫בּ‬ is
passed over and becomes in fact tautological (Hävernick). The expression
4

5. “in ruins” points to the fall of the theocracy, which the false prophets
cannot prevent, but, on the contrary, accelerate by undermining the moral
foundations of the state. For (Eze_13:5) they do not stand in the breaches,
and do not build up the wall around the house of Israel (‫ֹא‬‫ל‬ belongs to both
clauses). He who desires to keep off the enemy, and prevent his entering the
fortress, will stand in the breach. For the same purpose are gaps and
breaches in the fortifications carefully built up. The sins of the people had
made gaps and breaches in the walls of Jerusalem; in other words, had
caused the moral decay of the city. But they had not stood in the way of this
decay and its causes, as the calling and duty of prophets demanded, by
reproving the sins of the people, that they might rescue the people and
kingdom from destruction by restoring its moral and religious life. ‫ד‬ֹ‫מ‬ֲ‫ע‬ַ‫ל‬
‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ‫ח‬ ְ‫ל‬ ִ‫מּ‬ ַ‫,בּ‬ to stand, or keep ground, i.e., so that ye might have kept your
ground in the war. The subject is the false prophets, not Israel, as Hävernick
supposes. “In the day of Jehovah,” i.e., in the judgment which Jehovah has
decreed. Not to stand, does not mean merely to avert the threatening
judgment, but not to survive the judgment itself, to be overthrown by it. This
arises from the fact that their prophesying is a life; because Jehovah, whose
name they have in their mouths, has not sent them (Eze_13:6). ‫לוּ‬ֲ‫ח‬ִ‫י‬ ְ‫ו‬ is
dependent upon ‫ם‬ ָ‫ח‬ָ‫ל‬ ְ‫:שׁ‬ God has not sent them, so that they could hope for
the fulfilment of the word which they speak.The rendering adopted by
others, “and they cause to hope,” is untenable; for ‫ל‬ ַ‫ָח‬‫י‬ with ְ‫ל‬ does not mean
“to cause to hope,” or give hope, but simply to hope for anything. This was
really the case; and it is affirmed in the declaration, which is repeated in the
form of a direct appeal in Eze_13:7, to the effect that their visions were vain
and lying soothsaying. For this they are threatened with the judgment
described in the verses which follow.
CALVIN, “He speaks of the exiled prophets, as will be evident from the context: for
among the captives there were those who assumed the name of God, boasting
themselves endowed with the prophetic spirit: but meanwhile they intruded into the
office, and then vainly boasted in their deceptions. But the end which they proposed
to themselves was to promise the people a speedy return, and so to will the favor of
the multitude. For the captives were already almost broken-hearted by weariness:
and seventy years was a long period. When therefore they heard of returning after
three years, they easily suffered themselves to be deceived by such blandishments.
But although God is so vehemently enraged against those impostors, it does not
therefore follow that when he charges them with their crime, he absolves the people,
or even extenuates their fault. Nor could the people object that they were deceived
by those falsehoods, since they willingly and knowingly threw themselves into the
snare. They were not destitute of true prophets; and God had distinguished his
servants from false prophets by well-known marks, so that no one could mistake
5

6. except willfully. (Deuteronomy 13:3.) But in the midst of light they blinded
themselves, and so God suffered them to be deceived. But that was the just reward
of their pride, since they could not be subject to God and his servants. Then when
they thought enticements, as is evident from many passages, God also gave the reins
to Satan, that there should be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets. Micah
reproves them because they desired prophets to be given them who should promise
large grape-gatherings and a plentiful harvest, (Micah 2:11;) meanwhile, when God
chastised them severely, they roared and were tumultuous. We see, therefore, that
while God inveighs so sharply against false prophets, the people’s fault was not
diminished; but rather each thought thus to reason with himself — if God spares
not our prophets, what better have we to hope for?
When therefore the Prophet turns his discourse to the false prophets, there is no
doubt of his intention to reprove the whole people for attending to such fallacies
while they despised the true doctrine, and not only so, but even rejected it with fury.
Say therefore to the prophets of Israel while prophesying, say to those prophesying
out of their own hearts. Here he concedes the name of prophets of Israel to those
who thrust themselves forward, and rashly boasted that they were commanded to
utter their own imaginations, or what the devil had suggested. For then indeed no
others thought to have been lawfully reckoned prophets, unless divinely chosen. But
because the wicked seized upon this title, they are often called prophets, though
God’s Spirit is a complete stranger to them: but the gift of prophecy can only flow
from that one fountain. This great struggle then happened when the prophets, or
those who assumed the title, engaged with hostility among themselves: for we are
commanded to acquiesce in God’s truth alone: but when he is offered to us instead
of truth, what can we do but fluctuate and at length engage in conflict? There is no
doubt, then, that weak minds were thus vehemently shaken when they saw contests
and dissension’s of this kind between prophets. At this day God wishes to prove the
fidelity of his people by such an experiment, and to detect the hypocrisy of the
multitude. For, as Paul says, there must be heresies, that those who are approved
may be made manifest. (1 Corinthians 11:19.) God therefore does not rashly permit
so much license to Satan’s ministers, that they should petulantly rise up against
sound doctrine: nor yet without a cause does he permit the Church to be torn
asunder by diverse opinions, and fictions to grow so strong sometimes, that truth
itself is buried under them: he wishes indeed in this way to prove the constancy of
the pious, and at the same time to detect the lightness of hypocrites who are tossed
about by every wind. Meanwhile, if the contention which we now perceive between
those who boast themselves pastors of the Church disturbs us, let this example come
6

7. to mind, and thus novelty will not endanger our faithfulness. What we suffer the
ancients have experienced, namely, the disturbance of the Church by intestine
disputes, and a similar tearing asunder of the bond of unity.
Next, God briefly defines who the false prophets are; namely, those who prophesy
out of their own hearts: he will afterwards add, they have seen nothing, they only
boast in the name of God, and yet they are not sent by him. The same thing is
expressed in various ways, but I shall treat other forms of speech in their own
places. Here, as I have said, we may readily decide at once who are the true and who
the false prophets: the Spirit of God pronounces every one who prophesies from his
own heart to be an impostor. Hence nothing else remains but for the prophets
faithfully to utter whatever the Spirit has dictated to them. Whoever, therefore, has
no sure testimony to his vision, and cannot truly testify that he speaks from God’s
mouth and by the revelation of his Spirit, although he may boast in the title of
prophet, yet he is only an impostor. For God here rejects all who speak from their
own heart. And hence we also gather the extreme vanity of the human mind: for
God puts a perpetual distinction between the human mind and the revelation of his
Spirit. If this be so, it follows that what men utter of themselves is a perverse fiction,
because the Spirit of God claims to himself alone, as we have said, the office of
showing what is true and right. It follows —
COFFMAN, "Verse 1
AGAINST LYING PROPHETS AND FALSE PROPHETESSES
Keil divided this chapter into only two divisions, namely, (1) prophecies against false
prophets (Ezekiel 13:1-16), and (2) prophecies against the false prophetesses
(Ezekiel 13:17-23). Bruce further divided the first division as 1st and 2nd
denunciations of the false prophets in Ezekiel 13:1-9 and Ezekiel 13:10-16,
respectively.
THE FIRST DENUNCIATION AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS
7

8. Ezekiel 13:1-9
"And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the
prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their
own heart, Hear ye the word of Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Woe unto
the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! O Israel,
thy prophets have been like foxes in the waste places. Ye have not gone up into the
gaps, ye have neither built up the wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle
in the day of Jehovah. They have seen falsehood and lying divination, that saith,
Jehovah saith; but Jehovah hath not sent them: and they have made men to hope
that the word would he confirmed. Have ye not seen a false vision, and have ye not
spoken a lying divination, in that ye say, Jehovah saith; albeit I have not spoken?
Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have spoken falsehood, and seen
lies, therefore behold, I am against you, saith the Lord Jehovah. And my hand shall
be against the prophets that see false visions: they shall not be in the council of my
people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither
shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord
Jehovah."
"Against the prophets ..." (Ezekiel 13:2). "Ezekiel had already prophesied against
Jerusalem, against the cities of Judah, against the priests and against the king; and
now he directs the prophecies against the false prophets."[1] Howie noted that there
were at least three reasons for these denunciations: (1) they were prophesying out of
their own subjective desires and imaginations and were not following God's Spirit at
all; (2) they were doing nothing whatever to help Israel, neither building up the
wall, nor helping to repair the breaches (gaps) in it; and (3) they were deliberate
liars who prophesied lies and then expected God to confirm their lying words.[2]
"The foolish prophets that follow their own spirit ..." (Ezekiel 13:3). The Biblical
conception of the "fool" is the man who says in his heart that, "there is no God."
Much more than a lack of intelligence is indicated: (1) The fool is ignorant; (2) he is
stupid, and (3) he is wicked (John 3:19).
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9. "Like foxes in the waste places ..." (Ezekiel 13:4). Plumptre gave the meaning of this
comparison as follows.
"The fox is cunning (Luke 13:32); it spoils the vine and its fruits (Song of Song of
Solomon 2:15); and it burrows among ruins (Nehemiah 4:3). So, (1) the false
prophets were crafty; (2) they laid waste the vineyard of the Lord; (3) they profited
from the ruin of Israel and made that ruin worse."[3]
"Neither built up the wall for the house of Israel ..." (Ezekiel 13:5). The wall here, is
not the literal wall of Jerusalem, but the wall of integrity, truth, honor, and love of
the true God, which alone could afford any protection to the house of Israel in the
disaster coming upon them. The false prophets were no help at all in this sector.
"Have ye not spoken a lying divination ..." (Ezekiel 13:6)? "Divination is a reference
to the superstitious method of procuring information or receiving an oracle by
reading omens, drawing lots, or by some other such device."[4] It would appear
from Ezekiel's use of the interrogative here that the false prophets did not even deny
his charge of falsehoods on their part.
"They have made men hope that the word would be confirmed ..." (Ezekiel 13:6).
"The word" here is the word of the false prophets. The Good News Bible renders
this place, "Yet they expect their words to come true." Plumptre noted this possible
meaning of the text, adding that, "In their deceiving of others, they came to deceive
themselves, and were really expecting a fulfillment."[5]
Bunn summarized the six charges against these false prophets as follows: "(1) their
alleged prophecies were produced by their own minds; (2) they followed their own
spirit, not God's; (3) they have seen nothing (Ezekiel 13:3); (4) they do nothing to
help the people (Ezekiel 13:5); (5) they are deliberate liars (Ezekiel 13:6); and (6)
they have misled God's people (Ezekiel 13:10)."[6]
The sins of the false prophets having been boldly proclaimed, the prophet
9

10. announced their punishment in Ezekiel 13:9.
"My hand shall be against the prophets that see false visions ..." (Ezekiel 13:9) The
following punishments are spelled out in this verse. (1) They shall not be in the
council of my people. (2) Neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of
Israel. This was thought by Plumptre to be a reference to the Book of Life.[7] (3)
Neither shall they enter into the land of Israel. This refers to the return of the
"righteous remnant" following the end of the captivity. The false prophets shall
have no part in the restored Israel.
ELLICOTT, "A prophecy very similar to this was uttered by Jeremiah (Jeremiah
23), only a few years before, against the false prophets in and around Jerusalem. It
is not unlikely that Ezekiel may have read it; as Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:1) certainly
sent some of his prophecies to those in the captivity, and it is altogether probable
that he knew its substance. He, however, addresses himself here to the false prophets
among the captives (see Ezekiel 13:9), and in the latter part of the chapter (Ezekiel
13:17-23) especially to the prophetesses. In both parts their conduct is first
described (Ezekiel 13:3-7; Ezekiel 13:17-19), and then their doom (Ezekiel 13:8-16;
Ezekiel 13:20-23). Such false prophets have always been a chief hindrance to the
truth (just as false teaching within the Church now is far more dangerous than any
attack from without), and they especially abounded in times of difficulty and
danger.
PARKER, " False Prophesying
Ezekiel 13
The whole chapter is a denunciation of lying; the worst kind of lying, because it is
religious lying. Things are all either better or worse for being in the Church and
connected with the Church: the way of the Lord is equal in this as in every other
respect. What is done faithfully and lovingly in the Church accumulates virtue,
excellence, value in the divine esteem; and what is done unfaithfully, selfishly in the
Church aggravates its own sinfulness and makes surer of its own hell. The Bible will
10

11. not have any lying. From beginning to end it is a protest against falsehood. False
balances, false measures, false tongues, false prophets go down in one common
unmitigated condemnation. Yet all life is a lie. To be is to be false. Not in the vulgar
or ordinary sense of the term. Who can pray without being false, if he pray more
than one sentence, and if that sentence be other than "God be merciful to me a
sinner"? There is a positive falseness, and there is a negative falseness, that is to say,
a falseness created by the simple absence of sincerity—that burning influence which
purifies the spirit over which it passes. To pray, and not to mean it, what greater
falsehood can there be? Thou hast lied, not unto men, but unto God.
In this chapter we have not only false prophets but false prophetesses; both the men
and the women have sunk in a common love of lying. We have been reminded that
we have in the Bible several excellent prophetesses, as Miriam, Deborah, Noadiah;
and in the New Testament we meet with one sweet prophetess whose name was
Anna and whose home was in sacred places. This, however, is but a superficial
annotation upon the facts. We do not find false prophetesses here for the first time
in the real sense, though in some literal or historical sense we may come upon these
profaners of holy mysteries at this particular juncture. Who dares go right back to
the very beginnings of things? The first woman was the first liar, as was the first
man. Do not let us suppose that lying came into the world late in the world"s
history; do not let us suppose that lying was ever a novelty that startled
contemporary piety. Jesus Christ found a murderer from the beginning, and called
him the devil; he found a liar from the beginning, and called him the devil; he never
saved a life; he never told the truth. Unless we really seize these verities we shall be
living a kind of accidental life, calling this man true, and that man false; this man
honourable, and that man dishonourable; this man respectable, and that man
disreputable. Nothing of the kind. These distinctions are vanity, except for
immediate purposes, and except for social conveniences. The whole head is sick, the
whole heart is faint; from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot we are
wounds and bruises and putrifying sores; and if we do not believe it, that is one
bruise and one sore the more.
What is the specific charge made against false prophets? That they speak out of
their own hearts, and that they follow their own spirit. How prone are all men to do
this! We have come now to give quite an honoured name to a certain power which
we suppose ourselves to possess; we call it the verifying faculty, and it pleases us to
smell this fragrant flower, it suits the nostril of our vanity. Whether we have a
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12. verifying faculty or not, we certainly have a falsifying one. We turn everything into
poison rapidly; the very events that are sent down from heaven to teach us as
spectacles and pictures are misread, or are perverted as to their moral force and
meaning. Every man now prophesies out of himself. Let us beware how we degrade
a right into a perversion of liberty and a mischievous use of independence. There is
a right of private judgment, there is an individuality of conscience: but no judgment
is complete that does not measure itself with other judgments, and no conscience is
complete that is not in touch with other consciences; for the last conscience is the
result and expression of spiritual chemistry, combination, intermixture, divinely
conducted. We have said that no man is complete in himself; he does not know all
that is in himself until he touches some other Prayer of Manasseh , and they two are
not aware how divine they might be until they are caught in the influence of
common prayer. It is not to be denied that prophesying out of one"s own heart is a
very delightful exercise. It saves a good deal of trouble; it sets up an image of
infallibility at home. When a man can do this he need not open his front door and
trouble to go out to seek any other judge in Israel or counsellor in the Church. But
the wiser piety says, Man is a brother; prophecy of the highest sort is a common
quantity, the result of marvellous combinations, and we must therefore hasten to
meet one another, and to speak out what is in our hearts, broadly and lovingly, with
all frankness, and there shall come back to us the truth shaped and ready for use.
Herein we have found our proof that a man cannot pray sufficiently when he prays
in solitude. Private prayer can never be neglected to the soul"s advantage; but we
get in public prayer what we never get in solitary communion, and we get in solitary
communion singular and blessed advantage and sustenance. We must not prophesy
out of our own hearts, pray out of cur own hearts, alone. There may come a time
when personal testimony must be delivered with burning emphasis, and when a man
is compelled to enclose himself within a solitary altar; all these concessions do not
interfere with the central and dominant truth that no prophecy is of private
interpretation, and that all secret prayer needs to be brought out into the open air of
the Church that there it may bloom in its completest beauty.
False prophets excite false hopes: what other could they do? "They have made
others to hope that they would confirm the word." A liar is very careful to maintain
some foothold upon the confidence of society. He who is all false himself can only
live upon the trustfulness of others. Song of Solomon , then, the false prophet is the
creator of false hopes; and if there be counterfeit coin-makers in our
neighbourhood, it would not be an unwise thing to put out our coin upon the table
and look at it very carefully; and as there are false prophets who have excited false
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13. hopes, it would not be unwise to take our hopes one by one and conduct upon each
of them an unsparing analysis, saying, What is it? what is its reason? what is its
purpose? what is its value? what is its origin? how is it supported by evidence? how
is it ennobled by sacrifice? Any hope that will not accept the test of sacrifice is a
false hope. And therein I do not forget that many men have had false conceptions of
religion, and have submitted to false sacrifices; and I do not send one of them to
hell: I hope to meet them all in heaven. They are not false—they are uninformed,
uninstructed, undeveloped; according to the light they have, they are amongst the
sincerest men in the world; and God never damned sincerity. Of course, if a man
shall say, I am walking according to the light I have, and I shall take care not to
have any more light,—then he destroys his own sincerity; he is not sincere, he is
selfish; he is not real, he is rotten: sincerity is only of value in so far as it says, This is
the only light I have, but as soon as I can get more light I will have more light.
Blessings on the little taper that will stop with us all night; the dear little light says, I
would do better for you if I could, but I will stay with you until the break of day,
and when the day comes you will not want me; I hope you will not thanklessly forget
me; I stayed with you when the sun was not there; the sun would not stay with you
all night, otherwise it would not be night; I did my little best: farewell. But what
shall we say of the man who says, I will not open my windows, or admit any fuller
light—I will have another taper? We should say of him that he makes life night, and
that he who walks in the night when he might walk in the midday is a man of
perverted mind, corrupt imagination, and most deceitful and self-destructive in
thought and heart.
False prophets had, however, some little ground to work upon: they mistook the
imaginary for the real:—"Have ye not seen a vain vision?" That is the difficulty. If
there was absolutely nothing we should have a clear course: but we have lying
definitions, we have occasional dreams, and peculiar impressions; and people who
resent the idea of accepting a theology made by the Church adopt an astrology or a
theology of their own, founded upon cobwebs, built upon mist, and pointing to
nothing. Let us pray God to cleanse our vision, lest, seeing men as trees walking, or
trees as men walking, we confound the reality of things; and above all let us say to
one another, Brother, help me, and I will help some weaker man. Let us have our
strength common. If we cannot have our gold and silver, let us have our ideas, our
sympathy, our spiritual strength common. If you will help me weaker than you, I
will help some other man weaker than I am; and thus massed together, serried,
settled into phalanx, who knows but that accumulated weakness may be the
beginning of strength? This is the idea of the Church. It is not the idea of one Prayer
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14. of Manasseh , but of all men; it is not the thought of a single individual, weak and
easily overcome, but the thought of a united, because a redeemed and sanctified,
humanity.
What course does the Lord pursue against such falsify? "Therefore thus saith the
Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am
against you, saith the Lord God." We know, then, exactly what strength we have to
encounter. It is only omnipotence. When the Lord says he is "against" a man it is in
vain for that man to continue the fight one day longer. That man is so constituted
that he thinks in the end he will succeed. No lie ever succeeded, except in bringing
the liar to exposure and judgment and heavy penalty. If a lie could finally succeed
the universe is not worth living in. All creation depends upon this one statement,
namely, that it is impossible for a lie ever to escape the criticism of God. We have
sometimes wondered how it is we do not succeed. There need not be any wonder
about it; for our failure arises from one of two causes: either, first, that God is
against us, in the sense of judging us to be false; or God is trying us to develop our
strength. Let us adopt the second conclusion where we can, for it will cheer us and
help us on many a weary day. Present to your mind the spectacle of God watching
you, trying you, causing the prize to drop out of your hand just when you were
going to seize it, sending a sudden mist over your eyes when you thought you saw
your friend at the gate. God may do so to us in love. We have to be variously treated.
That is admitted in the family circle, and that is admitted in the wider circle of the
state; the physician admits it, the pastor knows it, we are all aware of it. Who was it
that could not get the sheep to follow him until he took a lamb into his arms and
plunged with it into the river, and then all the flock followed the wise yet apparently
cruel shepherd? The lost child may be the salvation of some; a broken fortune may
take the last element of vanity out of others; the torn banner that was eternally to
float in the blue sunshine may lead some men to pray. It is wondrous how we are
thus taught. For the first few miles of life, how jocund we are, how cheery, how
independent, how blithe! Life is a holiday, the road is a carpet of flowers, the air has
been made to sing for us, God is so pleased to have such creatures round about him
as we are: but when the mountain-top is gained, and we look around as conquerors
might look, then we begin to feel not so energetic as we used to be; things do not fall
so easily to our hand; we turn over two pages at a time and cannot open them, and
when we do we forget what was written on the page before; and a little child helps
us, whom a giant would not once have ventured to offer to assist; and we take
another view of life, and we begin to wonder what is beyond. That is the hold which
God has upon us. He will not have life all on one line. Sometimes he will send a voice
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15. in the darkness to frighten us; sometimes he will send a sudden note of music to
gladden us; sometimes he will make our opportunity less than we thought it was;
and sometimes he will so trouble our accounts that we cannot add them up. Our
helplessness may be the beginning of our strength. Sanctified dejection may be the
beginning of sanctified and immortal hope. Take this view of life, and be glad.
What further course will the Lord take against these false prophets? He will destroy
them. They build a wall, he sends hail down upon it, and brings the wall all to
pieces. We need not go to the Prophet Ezekiel to know if this is true. We have built
walls ourselves which have fallen down. We have propped them, buttressed them,
and said it is only a momentary accident, we shall soon put it right again. But God
said, I am against you and against your wall: ye fools! Put it up a little further and
in the morning you will find it flat upon the ground. What walls we have built!
What strength we were going to have! We had already drawn out a hundred
programmes, every one of which ended in pounds, shillings, and pence; and a
hundred more, ending in honour, fame, influence; and another hundred, ending in
herds and flocks, and abundance of family connections, and great peace, and long
days: and whilst we were filling our mouth with the wind the Lord touched us, and
we fell down as dead men. If the Lord then is so set against falsehood, what will he
do for us? He will speak the truth, he will send angels of truth, messengers of mercy
and love. The very fact that there is falsehood means that there is truth. If there
were no truth, there would be no falsehood; if there were no genuine coin, there
would be no counterfeit; if there were no sincerity, there would be no hypocrisy.
This is our answer to those who charge upon us right heavily the accusation of
insincerity; and this is our reply to those who expect great things from us: we say,
Your expectation is a tribute to the excellence of the religion we profess: you do not
expect light from the fields you till, you expect light from the boundless sun. To
expect light is to pay a tribute; to expect a noble character is to compliment the
Cross. When we desire to know the truth, let us first desire to be true ourselves.
There is something greater than truth, and that is truthfulness. The greatest of all
blessings is a truth-loving spirit. A man may have a hundred false conclusions in his
intellect, his imagination may have gone wildly astray, and yet if he have a truth-
loving spirit, and if he shall say to himself in perplexity and bewilderment, "I will
have the truth—yes, I will have it," his ignorance shall not keep him out of heaven,
his infirm imagination shall not disappoint him of his crown. Beware lest we have
all our truth on paper, in propositions, innumerable and well-detailed dogmas: we
must first have it in our souls, hearts, lives; we must be prepared to live for it and to
die for it, and then it will grow, accumulate, multiply; and we shall begin to see, with
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16. the ever excellent because ever modest philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, that we have
only gathered a few shells on the shore, while the great ocean of truth lies all
undiscovered before us. Such modesty well becomes men who were born yesterday
and may be forgotten tomorrow.
PETT, " Chapter 13. Yahweh’s Denunciation of Prophets Who Prophesy Their
Own Ideas.
Ezekiel has depicted the failure of the leaders of the people, the princes, the priests
and the elders. Now he turns his attention on ‘the prophets’, probably the cult
prophets. They too have failed Israel. These men had been appointed by, and
attached to, the temple, or to other recognised sanctuaries, who paid their wages
(compare Zechariah 11:12), and they were supposed to have some gift of divine
inspiration. Many had gone into exile with the others. But Ezekiel is to point out
that they really speak their own ideas, and not Yahweh’s, for they say only what
men want to hear. They are not opening themselves to the inspiration of Yahweh in
accordance with His teachings and with His word. The denunciation is then also
applied to the prophetesses who use doubtful means to establish their ideas (Ezekiel
13:17-23).
This was the constant complaint of earlier true prophets (1 Kings 22:22; Isaiah
28:7-13, where strong drink was to blame; Micah 3:5-7), and especially of Jeremiah
who spoke in a similar way to Ezekiel (Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 5:31; Jeremiah
6:13-15; Jeremiah 8:10-12; Jeremiah 14:14-16; Jeremiah 18:18; Jeremiah 23:9-32;
Jeremiah 26:8-11; Jeremiah 27:9-18; Jeremiah 28:1-17). Note the reference to false
prophets in Babylonia (Jeremiah 29:21-32). They were there as well. The troubles
that had come on Judah in its final days caused men to lean heavily on the cult
prophets, but Ezekiel tells us that all that they heard was lies and self delusion.
Verses 1-3
The False Prophets (Ezekiel 13:1-16).
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17. ‘And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the
prophets of Israel, and say to those who prophesy out of their own hearts, ‘You,
hear the word of Yahweh, thus says the Lord Yahweh, Woe to the foolish prophets
who follow their own spirit and have not seen.’ ” ’
Note Ezekiel’s continuing emphasis on the word of Yahweh coming to him. We can
tend to forget that he was under the constraint of silence all this time and could only
speak when he had a word from Yahweh. But when Yahweh came to him he had to
speak. This was the difference between him and the false prophets he was speaking
about. He was constrained to speak because of Yahweh’s Spirit working within him.
In the words of Amos 3:8, ‘the Lord Yahweh has spoken who can but prophesy?’
This time the words were spoken against the popular prophets. They were popular
because they said what men wanted to hear. They claimed to be prophets of
Yahweh. But their words were not from God. They came from within them. They
were their own ideas. They did not have the Spirit of God inspiring their words, but
followed their own spirit. They did not ‘see’, for they were not true seers. They had
no true spiritual insight coming from above. All they had came from within
themselves. They promulgated their own ideas. They were blind leaders of the blind.
And Ezekiel was to ‘prophesy against them’, that is to denounce them and their
words.
‘The prophets of Israel.’ This included all the prophets both in Jerusalem and in the
scattered communities in exile. They really had no message to give because they did
not hear the voice of God.
‘Foolish.’ The word is a strong one (nabal). The foolish man brings disaster on
himself because of his folly, as did Nabal (1 Samuel 25). Although professing Him, in
his heart he ignores the reality of God (Psalms 14:1) and behaves and speaks in a
way that is contrary to Him.
There are many today who are ‘foolish prophets’. They seem wise and are popular,
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18. saying what people want to hear, but they do not hear the word of God or teach in
accordance with it. Rather they pick among the ruins of what is left of man’s
wisdom.
PULPIT, "Verse 22-23
“Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous whom I have not
made sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from
his wicked way and be saved alive. Therefore you will no more see vanity, nor divine
divinations, and I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you will know that I
am Yahweh.”
The prophetesses had done the very opposite of the purpose intended for them.
Instead of making the righteous glad and the wicked aware of their sins, they had by
their lies grieved the hearts of those Whom Yahweh wished to make happy, and had
strengthened the wicked in their sins, removing from them the fear of temporal
judgment. Thus the wicked continued happily on in their wicked ways, instead of
repenting and finding life, and the righteous grieved when they should not have
needed to.
This was why Yahweh would bring His judgment of death on the prophetesses, so
that they could no longer see what was vain and empty and divine what was false, to
the hurt in the end of both righteous and wicked. So were they, and we, discovering
why God’s judgment on Jerusalem was going to fulfil His purposes and was in line
with His justice and holiness. Then all would know that He really is Yahweh, the
holy and living God Who acts.
There is little difference between these prophetesses and those who in our day go to
the occult to receive advice, discover the future and contact the dead, and indeed
even in some cases to bring harm on others. These practises are equally condemned.
So God was building up a picture as to why Jerusalem had to be destroyed. He had
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19. outlined the detail of the different forms of idol worship going on in Jerusalem
(Ezekiel 8:5-18) and its surrounds (Ezekiel 6:1-7), which involved both priesthood
(Ezekiel 8:16) and laity, with its resulting descent into all kinds of wickedness, He
had described the evil ways of the civil leaders, with the resulting violence (Ezekiel
11:1-13), and now He had demonstrated the evil of the false prophets, and the
wicked practises of the prophetesses. The whole city was a mass of wickedness, ripe
for judgment.
BI 1-3, "Them that prophesy out of their own hearts.
The false prophet
To be a false prophet seems to us, indeed, an enormity. To have the great
gift and trust of prophecy, and then to misuse it; to be admitted, if we may
so speak, of God’s council, and then to sink that heavenly teaching in earthly
and sensual thoughts,—this seems so high a measure of guilt, that we
wonder not at the “woe” pronounced against it. Nay, as we read, we set our
“amen” to it, little thinking that in so doing we may be, in truth, sealing our
own condemnation. We see not that this very sin is that which doth most
constantly beset us also; that many a ministry which seems to man’s eye
without reproach is indeed stained with the self-same guilt as that
wherewith these prophets were defiled; that, in spite of its fair outline, the
“woe” of the Almighty is gone forth against it. If we examine the testimonies
against these false prophets which abound throughout the Books of
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we shall find that God does not charge them with
altering His message wilfully and of set purpose to deceive. The charges are
rather, that they are themselves deceived (Jer_5:13; Jer_10:9; Jer_14:14;
Jer_23:16; Lam_2:14; Eze_13:3; Eze_13:7; Eze_13:9). It was not,
apparently, that the false prophet knowingly altered the message he had
received, but that for some cause or other there was this peril incident to his
office, that he might be deceived and become a deceiver in some sense
unconsciously; and then, if we look closer, we shall see that various causes
are given for the fearful fall of the false prophet, and that they are all of one
complexion—that they are what we call moral causes. Uncleanness of life,
covetousness, softness of spirit, luxury, fondness for the pleasures of this
life, these and many such like moral faults are expressly mentioned as the
causes of this spirit of error and lies which filled these men and brought on
them God’s fearful “woe.” The prophets prophesied lies, because they
“followed their own spirit, and had seen nothing.” And now, if from the case
of false prophets we turn to that of those who were faithful, we shall be
brought to the same conclusion: we shall see, that is, that the distinction
between them and the prophets of lies consisted not in their exclusive
possession of those supernatural illapses of knowledge, to which we are apt
to look, as making all the difference between one and another, but in the use
which, from their spiritual and moral condition, they were able to make of
these gifts. Look at the prophet who never “prophesied good” of the wicked
king, but always “evil”; and see whether it was not in that noble gift of
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20. venturing all for the truth of God, wherein in very deed he differed from the
earthly-minded sycophants, who made horns of iron, and prophesied, that
as with them the Syrians should be pushed unto entire destruction. Or take,
as a sufficient proof, the case of the prophet Jeremiah. To him was opened,
by a special revelation, the speedy coming of God’s judgments upon Judah,
which nothing but the absolute submission of Jerusalem to the King of
Babylon could turn aside. So far he learned by revelation; but having
learned thus much, mark his after history; see the constantly recurring
moral temptation to tamper with this truth, to which he was subjected: the
violence of the princes—the rage of the people—the feebleness of the king—
their private interviews—the bribes offered to buy off his faithfulness—the
miry dungeon of Malchiah; each of these was a temptation to lower down
his message; to utter it less boldly, less frequently; less simply—to suppress
it, to alter it. But against them all he stood firm, and why? Because a deep
and abiding sense of God’s greatness and truth and awfulness lay beneath
all other things, as the very foundation of his mind; and this kept him ever
firm and constant. In an utterly unfaithful age and nation, remaining
faithful when well-nigh everyone around him failed, he preserved
untainted, amidst the crowd of lying seers, the truth of God’s anointed
prophet. So that here we are brought to the same point: the blindness of the
false prophet was the fruit of failing in his moral probation; the ghostly
insight of the true prophet was kept quick and piercing, by his faithful
cleaving to God amidst the ordinary temptations of life. And if this be so,
surely this is exactly our condition, as far as concerns the ministry of the
Word; and these woes against deceived prophets stand written on high, in
their characters of fire, to warn us upon our ordinary way. For we also have
our message: that which was given to the old prophets by special revelation
we have plainly written for us in the page of Holy Scripture. Nor can we
doubt that, if this message be delivered faithfully and wisely, it will produce
an evident result in awakening sinners and building up the saints. We may
see, moreover, that in our case the cause of failure is, in fact, the same as in
the prophets of old. First, our own perceptions become obscured. For it is
only by the teaching of the Holy Spirit that we can really enter into the deep
mysteries of redemption. Impurity cannot lay hold upon purity. There are
many doors of holy teaching, which open only to the key of love; and there is
in love a marvellous power of understanding, a wonderful forecasting of the
future; for love is a great reader of secrets. Even in earthly things, which are
but a shadow of the true, we may see this. What an interpreter of hidden
meanings is a loving spirit! how quick and piercing is it in reaching to the
inner wishes, feeling, and intentions of another! And so doubtless it is
where the love of God dwells in an earthly heart. The man is free, as it were,
of the counsels of God. He reaches on to great things at unawares. In doing
common duties, as they seem to him, he is sowing good seed for a distant
day; he is reaching out far beyond the present, anticipating God’s future
doings. Nor, secondly, can our own views of God’s truth become thus
obscured without their impairing in an equal degree our power of conveying
the message to others. First, this state of heart must destroy the reality of
our teaching. We shall prophesy a lie; for we shall prophesy of truth itself as
if it were a lie. There is nothing that our people feel more readily than this
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21. unreal declaration of God’s message. There is no close work with the heart
or the life; but all is exhausted in mere form, or else in general appeals to
the feelings, or in yet more fruitless addresses to the understanding, as the
case may be. What., then, is this but to prophesy a lie? And this is not all.
There can be little of a true loving earnestness in such ministry. There may
be an apparent zeal as to forms, or as to preaching, and its other more
external parts; but there can be little true sympathy with the wants and
sufferings of man’s heart, because there is little knowledge of them. There
can be little of that deep earnest casting forth of the inmost spirit to meet
another’s wants, which oftentimes makes silent sympathy in one man far
more expressive than a multitude of words in another; and which, as by
some heavenly influence, soothes and opens and wins the sufferer’s heart. I
may not detain you to trace out all the characters of that earnest seeking
after God’s truth to which we are bound; its faintest sketch may supply us
with much ground for profitable thought. First, then, if we would attain to
it, we must live in the habitual and devotional study of God’s Word. The
great importance of this habit is not so much that we may understand
obscure passages, still less that we may be discoverers of new truths, as that
our whole tone of thinking and feeling may be attuned to things Divine. But
then, to this we must add an humble use of every means that God has given
us for understanding His Word rightly. By the ordinances of the Church; the
testimony of succeeding generations; the judgment of humble and holy
men; the witness borne to various truths by all the saints, living and
departed, reformers, fathers, and antiquity; by each of these in their place,
we humbly hope that God may teach us better how to understand His Word.
Secondly, we must watch earnestly for the leading of the Spirit of the Lord.
We must believe that this gift is in the Church, and seek to use it lawfully;
we must remember how the Spirit of God does teach us, not by conveying to
our minds direct propositions, but by clearing off those moral clouds which
would dim all our perceptions of truth; by teaching our hearts, by giving us
reality, earnestness, love, and a bold humility,—those mighty masters of the
secret things of God. We shall therefore cooperate with Him by watching
diligently our own hearts; by guarding them against the beginnings of
worldliness; by seeking after a deeper humility of spirit; knowing that pride
above all things breaks and distorts the images of heavenly truth which are
cast forth upon our minds; that pride in the heart of the learner makes all
teaching vain; that humility can learn great lessons from any teacher. And
lastly, as the bond which is to hold together all these various elements, we
must, if we would be faithful prophets, seek after eminent holiness of life.
This will give us an insight into God’s truth in its reality; this will open to us
our own hearts, and so the hearts of our brethren; this will set us in the way
of those blessed breathings of the Holy Spirit which fall ever upon the still
waters of holiness, and waft on most noiselessly those who always haunt
them into the secrets of the Lord. This will enable us to live ever with Him
even in this world of shadows. (Bishop S. Wilberforce.)
False prophesying
1. What is the specific charge made against false prophets? That they
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22. speak out of their own hearts, and that they follow their own spirit. How
prone are all men to do this!
2. Every man now prophesies out of himself. Let us beware how we
degrade a right into a perversion of liberty and a mischievous use of
independence. There is a right of private judgment, there is an
individuality of conscience: but no judgment is complete that does not
measure itself with other judgments, and no conscience is complete that
is not in touch with other consciences; for the last conscience is the
result and expression of spiritual chemistry, combination, intermixture,
divinely conducted. There may come a time when personal testimony
must be delivered with burning emphasis, and when a man is compelled
to enclose himself within a solitary altar; all these concessions do not
interfere with the central and dominant truth that no prophecy is of
private interpretation, and that all secret prayer needs to be brought out
into the open air of the Church, that there it may bloom in its completest
beauty.
3. False prophets excite false hopes: what other could they do? “They
have made others to hope that they would confirm the Word.” A liar is
very careful to maintain some foothold upon the confidence of society.
He who is all false himself can only live upon the trustfulness of others.
So, then, the false prophet is the creator of false hopes; and if there be
counterfeit coin makers in our neighbourhood, it would not be an
unwise thing to put out our coin upon the table and look at it very
carefully; and as there are false prophets who have excited false hopes, it
would not be unwise to take our hopes one by one, and conduct upon
each of them an unsparing analysis, saying, What is it? what is its
reason? what is its purpose? what is its value? what is its origin? how is it
supported by evidence? how is it ennobled by sacrifice? Any hope that
will not accept the test of sacrifice is a false hope.
4. False prophets had, however, some little ground to work upon: they
mistook the imaginary for the real: “Have ye not seen a vain vision?”
That is the difficulty. If there was absolutely nothing, we should have a
clear course; but we have lying definitions, we have occasional dreams,
and peculiar impressions; and people who resent the idea of accepting a
theology made by the Church adopt an astrology or a theology of their
own, founded upon cobwebs, built upon mist, and pointing to nothing.
Let us pray God to cleanse our vision, lest, seeing men as trees walking,
or trees as men walking, we confound the reality of things; and above all,
let us say to one another, Brother, help me, and I will help some weaker
man, Let us have our strength common.
5. What course does the Lord pursue against such falsity? “I am against
you, saith the Lord God.” We know, then, exactly what strength we have
to encounter. It is only omnipotence. We have sometimes wondered how
it is we do not succeed. There need not be any wonder about it; for our
failure arises from one of two causes: either, first, that God is against us,
in the sense of judging us to be false; or God is trying us to develop our
strength. Let us adopt the second conclusion where we can, for it will
22

23. cheer us and help us on many a weary day.
6. What further course will the Lord take against these false prophets?
He will destroy them. They build a wall; He sends hail down upon it, and
brings the wall all to pieces. We need not go to the Prophet Ezekiel to
know if this is true. What walls we have built! What strength we were
going to have! We had already drawn out a hundred programmes, every
one of which ended in pounds, shillings, and pence; and a hundred
more, ending in honour, fame, influence; and another hundred, ending
in herds and flocks, and abundance of family connections and great
peace, and long days: and whilst we were filling our mouth with the wind
the Lord touched us, and we fell down as dead men. If the Lord, then, is
so set against falsehood, what will He do for us? He will speak the truth,
He will send angels of truth, messengers of mercy and love. Beware lest
we have all our truth on paper, in propositions, innumerable and well
detailed dogmas: we must first have it in our souls, hearts, lives; we must
be prepared to live for it and to die for it, and then it will grow,
accumulate, multiply; and we shall begin to see, with the ever excellent
because ever modest philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, that we have only
gathered a few shells on the shore, while the great ocean of truth lies all
undiscovered before us. Such modesty well becomes men who were born
yesterday and may be forgotten tomorrow. (J. Parker, D. D.)
2 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of
Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who
prophesy out of their own imagination: ‘Hear the
word of the Lord!
CLARKE, "That prophesy out of their own hearts - Who are neither inspired
nor sent by Me. They are prophets out of their own hearts. They have their mission from
their own assumption, and proceed in it from their own presumption. Such either go of
themselves, or are sent by man. Such prophets, ministers, preachers, and clergy have
been a curse to the Church and to the world for some thousands of years.
GILL, "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel,.... Who called
23

24. themselves so, and were accounted such by others; though they were not true, but false
prophets; and so the Targum calls them:
that prophesy; that is, smooth things to the people; promising a speedy return from
the captivity; or that Jerusalem should not be taken by the Chaldeans, and the
inhabitants of it, and of the land, be carried captive:
and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts; who were not
sent of God, nor spake from him; but of themselves, what came into their heads, and was
agreeable to their fancies, imaginations, and carnal hearts; such are false teachers, that
go forth without being sent, and teach not according to the word of God, but according
to their own carnal reasonings; so the Targum,
"according to the will of their hearts;''
what they pleased themselves:
hear ye the word of the Lord; which came from the Lord himself, and not from man,
meaning the following prophecy; so the written word of God should be attended to, both
by teachers and hearers, as the only rule of faith and practice; see Isa_8:20.
JAMISON, "that prophesy — namely, a speedy return to Jerusalem.
out of ... own hearts — alluding to the words of Jeremiah (Jer_23:16, Jer_23:26);
that is, what they prophesied was what they and the people wished; the wish was father
to the thought. The people wished to be deceived, and so were deceived. They were
inexcusable, for they had among them true prophets (who spoke not their own thoughts,
but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, 2Pe_1:21), whom they might have known to
be such, but they did not wish to know (Joh_3:19).
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:2 Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that
prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye
the word of the LORD
Ver. 2. Prophesy against the prophets.] Illis enim crania mala feruntur accepts. See
Jeremiah 23:32-33; Jeremiah 23:38.
That prophesy out of their own hearts.] Whose prophecies came by the will of man,
[2 Peter 1:21] and not cum privilegio. with by right.
24

25. POOLE, " Prophesy; declare aforehand what I will do.
Against the prophets; against prince and people first, next against prophets and
prophetesses; against the former in the foregoing chapters, against the latter in this
chapter.
Of Israel, because approved of Israel, encouraged by Israel, and followed; but not
prophets of the Lord, he sent them not. Whether these were in Babylon, or in
Jerusalem, some inquiry is made; probably these false prophets were in both places.
That prophesy; foretell what is pleasing to the Jews, a sudden return out of
captivity, with the vessels of the Lord’s house, and prosperity in their own land.
Out of their own hearts; but all their promising words are of themselves, out of their
own deceiving hearts, not from God, and so all will be lies.
Hear ye the word of the Lord; cease to deceive my people, and attend now to what
God speaks of you.
WHEDON, "See Ezekiel 12:24. Either these prophetesses with the prophets of the
same stamp shall perish in the day of calamity, and of the miseries that they
persnaded others to slight and contemn. Or else, if they live, they shall live to see all
their predictions of prosperity vanish, to see the righteous, whom they threatened,
escape, and the wicked, whom they spake good of, fall under miseries; this shall so
confound them, they shall cease for ever, and pretend no more visions. Your credit
shall be gone, and you found false dreamers, you shall never more be able to keep
up any power over or interest in my people. Not one just, righteous soul shall ever
grieve, or apprehend cause of fear, from what you threaten, and the unrighteous
shall no more joy in the expectation of these lying promises. All shall know that I am
the Lord, who fulfil promises to the just and execute threats on the bad.
25

26. PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:2, Ezekiel 13:3
Son of man, prophesy, etc. The sin of the men whom Ezekiel denounced was that
they prophesied out of their own hearts (Jeremiah 14:14; Jeremiah 23:16, Jeremiah
23:26), and followed their own spirit instead of the Spirit of Jehovah. All was
human and of the earth. Not a single fact in the future, not a single eternal law
governing both the future and the past, was brought to light by it. To one who was
conscious that he had a message which he had not devised himself, and which he
had not been taught by men (Galatians 1:12); that he had no selfish by-ends in what
he said and did; that he was risking peace, reputation, life itself, for the truth
revealed to him,—nothing could be more repulsive than this claim to have seen a
vision of Jehovah, by men who bad in reality seen nothing. For foolish prophets,
read, with the stronger Hebrew, the prophets, the fools, the words deriving their
force from a kind of paronomasia of alliteration. The nabiim are also the n'balim.
3 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to
the foolish[a] prophets who follow their own spirit
and have seen nothing!
BARNES, "That follow ... nothing - Better in the margin. A true prophet
(like Ezekiel) spoke “the word of the Lord,” and declared what he had seen
“in the visions of God.” These pretenders are stigmatized in scorn “prophets
out of their own hearts,” “seers of what they have not seen.”
GILL, "Thus saith the Lord God, woe unto the foolish prophets,.... The false
prophets, as the Targum; who are foolish, as all are who are not sent of God,
26

27. and furnished by him with wisdom and knowledge, and who prophesy out of
their own hearts; for what else but folly can proceed from thence? this must
be a great mortification to these prophets to be called foolish, when they
reckoned themselves wise men, being vainly puffed up in their fleshly
minds, and were accounted so by others; but what is wisdom with men is
foolishness with God:
that follow their own spirit; or "walk after it" (c); and not the Spirit of God,
who leads into all truth; they pretended to a spirit of prophecy, but it was
their own spirit and the dictates of it they followed, and not the Spirit of the
Lord; and therefore it is no wonder that they prophesied false things, and
led the people wrong; as all such teachers do, who give way to their own
fancies and imaginations, and forsake the word of God, and do not implore
the assistance and teachings of the blessed Spirit:
and have seen nothing; no vision, as the Syriac version renders it; they
pretended to have revelations of things future from the Lord, but they had
none; what they saw were vain visions and lying divinations, and were as
nothing, and worse than nothing; yea, they said what they never saw.
HENRY 3-9, " To discover their sin to them, and to convince them of that if
possible, or thereby to prevent their proceeding any further, by making
manifest their folly unto all men, 2Ti_3:9. They are here called foolish
prophets (Eze_13:3), men that did not at all understand the business they
pretended to; to make fools of the people they made fools of themselves, and
put the greatest cheat upon their own souls. Let us see what is here laid to
their charge. 1. They pretend to have a commission from God, whereas he
never sent them. They thrust themselves into the prophetic office, without
warrant from him who is the Lord God of the holy prophets, which was a
foolish thing; for how could they expect that God should own them in a work
to which he never called them? They are prophets out of their own hearts
(so the margin reads it, Eze_13:2), prophets of their own making, Eze_13:6.
They say, The Lord saith; they pretend to be his messengers, but the Lord
has not sent them, has not given them any orders. They counterfeit the
broad seal of heaven, than which they cannot do a greater indignity to
mankind, for hereby they put a reproach upon divine revelation, lessen its
credit, and weaken its credibility. When these pretenders are found to be
deceivers atheists and infidels will thence infer, They are all so. The Lord
has not sent them; for though crafty enough in other things like the foxes,
and very wise for the world, yet they are foolish prophets and have no
experimental acquaintance with the things of God. Note, Foolish prophets
are not of God's sending, for whom he sends he either finds fit or makes fit.
Where he gives warrant he gives wisdom. 2. They pretend to have
instructions from God, whereas he never made himself and his mind known
to them: They followed their own spirit (Eze_13:3); they delivered that as a
message from God which was the product either of their subtle invention, to
serve a turn for themselves, or of their own crazed and heated imagination,
27

28. to give vent to a fancy. For they have seen nothing, they have not really had
any heavenly vision; they pretend that what they say the Lord saith it, but
God disowns it: “I have not spoken it, I never said it, never meant any such
thing.” What they delivered was not what they had seen or heard, as that is
which the ministers of Christ deliver (1Jo_1:1), but either what they had
dreamed or what they thought would please those they coveted to make an
interest in; this is called their seeing vanity and lying divination (Eze_
13:6); they pretended to have seen that which they did not see, and
produced that as a divine truth which they knew to be false. To the same
purport (Eze_13:7): You have see a vain vision and spoken a lying
divination, which had no divine original and would have no effect, but
would certainly be disproved by the event; the words are changed (Eze_
13:8): You have spoken vanity and seen lies; what they saw and what they
said was all alike, a mere sham; they saw nothing, they said nothing, to the
purpose, nothing that could be relied on or that deserved regard. Again
(Eze_13:9), They see vanity and divine lies; they pretended to have had
visions, as the true prophets had, whereas really they had none, but either it
was the creature of their own fancy (they thought they had a vision, as men
in a delirium do, that was seeing vanity) or it was a fiction of their own
politics, and they knew they had none, and then they saw lies, and divined
lies. See Jer_23:16, etc. Note, Since the devil is universally know to be the
father of lies, those put the highest affront imaginable upon God who tell
lies, and then father them upon him. But those that had put God's character
upon Satan, in worshipping devils, arrived at length at such a pitch of
impiety as to put Satan's character upon God. 3. They took no care to
prevent the judgments of God that were breaking in upon the kingdom.
They are like the foxes in the deserts, running to and fro, and seeming to be
in a great hurry, but it was to get away and shift for their own safety, not to
do any good: The hireling flees, and leaves the sheep. They are like foxes
that are greedy of prey for themselves, crafty and cruel to feed themselves.
But (Eze_13:5), “You have not gone up into the gaps, nor made up the
hedge of the house of Israel. A breach is made in their fences, at which
judgments are ready to pour in upon them, and then, if ever, is the time to
do them service; but you have done nothing to help them.” They should have
made intercession for them, to turn away the wrath of God; but they were
not praying prophets, had no interest in heaven nor intercourse with
heaven (as prophets used to have, Gen_20:7) and so could do them no
service that way. They should have made it their business by preaching and
advice to bring people to repentance and reformation, and so have made up
the hedge, and put a stop to the judgments of God; but this was none of their
care: they contrived how to pleased people, not how to profit them. They
saw a deluge of profaneness and impiety breaking in upon the land, waging
war with virtue and holiness, and threatening to crush them and bear them
down, and then they should have come in to the help of the Lord, to the help
of the Lord against the mighty, by witnessing against the wickedness of the
time and place they lived in; but they thought that would be as dangerous a
piece of service as standing in a breach to make it good against the
besiegers, and therefore they declined it, did nothing to stem the tide, stood
not in the battle against vice and immorality, but basely deserted the cause
28

29. of religion and reformation, in the day of the Lord, when it was proclaimed,
Who is on the Lord's side? Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers?
Psa_94:16. Those were unworthy the name of prophets that could think so
favourably of sin, and had so little zeal for God and the public welfare. 4.
They flattered people into a vain hope that the judgments God had
threatened would never come, whereby they hardened those in sin whom
they should have endeavoured to turn from sin (Eze_13:6): They have made
others to hope that all should be well, and they should have peace, though
they went on still in their trespasses, and that the event would confirm the
word. They were still ready to say, “We will warrant you that these troubles
will be at an end quickly, and we shall be in prosperity again.” as if their
warrants would confirm false prophecies, in defiance of God himself.
II. He is directed to denounce the judgments of God against them for these
sins, from which their pretending to the character of prophets would not
exempt them. 1. In general, here is a woe against them (Eze_13:3), and what
that woe is we are told (Eze_13:8). Behold, I am against you, saith the Lord
God. Note, Those are in a woeful condition that have God against them.
Woe, and a thousand woes, to those that have made him their enemy. 2. In
particular, they are sentenced to be excluded from all the privileges of the
commonwealth of Israel, for they are adjudged to have forfeited them all
(Eze_13:9): God's hand shall be upon them, to seize them and bring them to
his bar, to shut them out from his presence, and they will find it a fearful
thing to fall into his hands. They pretend to be prophets, particular
favourites of heaven, and authorized to preside in the congregation of his
church on earth; but, by pretending to the honours they were not entitled
to, they lost those that otherwise they might have enjoyed, Mat_5:19. Their
doom is, (1.) To be expelled from the communion of saints, and not to be
looked upon as belonging to it: They shall not be in the secret of my people;
their folly shall be so clearly manifested that they shall never be consulted,
nor their advice asked; they shall not be present at any debates about public
affairs. Or, rather, they shall not be in the assembly of God's people for
religious worship, for they shall be ashamed to show their heads there,
when they are proved by the events to be false prophets, and, like Cain, shall
go out from the presence of the Lord. The people that are deceived by them
shall abandon them, and resolve to have no more to do with them. Those
that usurped Moses's chair shall not be allowed so much as a door-keeper's
place. In the great day they shall not stand in the congregation of the
righteous (Psa_1:5), when God gathers his saints together to him (Psa_
50:5, Psa_50:16), to be for ever with him. (2.) To be expunged out of the
book of the living. They shall die in their captivity, and shall die childless,
shall leave no posterity to take their denomination from them, and so their
names shall not be found among those who either themselves or their
posterity returned out of Babylon, of whom a particular account was kept in
a public register, which was called the writing of the house of Israel, such as
we have Ezra 2. They shall not be found among the living in Jerusalem, Isa_
4:3. Or they shall not be found written among those whom God has from
eternity chosen to be vessels of his mercy to eternity. We read of those who
prophesied in Christ's name, and yet he will tell them that he never knew
them (Mat_7:22, Mat_7:23), because they were not among those that were
29

30. given to him. The Chaldee paraphrase reads it, They shall not be written in
the writing of eternal life, which is written for the righteous of the house of
Israel. See Psa_69:28. (3.) To be for ever excluded from the land of Israel.
God has sworn in his wrath concerning them that they shall never enter
with the returning captives into the land of Canaan, which a second time
remains a rest for them. Note, Those who oppose the design of God's
threatenings, and will not be awed and influenced by them, forfeit the
benefit of his promises, and cannot expect to be comforted and encouraged
by them.
JAMISON, "foolish — though vaunting as though exclusively possessing
“wisdom” (1Co_1:19-21); the fear of God being the only beginning of wisdom
(Psa_111:10).
their own spirit — instead of the Spirit of God. A threefold distinction lay
between the false and the true prophets: (1) The source of their messages
respectively; of the false, “their own hearts”; of the true, an object
presented to the spiritual sense (named from the noblest of the senses, a
seeing) by the Spirit of God as from without, not produced by their own
natural powers of reflection. The word, the body of the thought, presented
itself not audibly to the natural sense, but directly to the spirit of the
prophet; and so the perception of it is properly called a seeing, he
perceiving that which thereafter forms itself in his soul as the cover of the
external word [Delitzsch]; hence the peculiar expression, “seeing the word
of God” (Isa_2:1; Isa_13:1; Amo_1:1; Mic_1:1). (2) The point aimed at; the
false “walking after their own spirit”; the true, after the Spirit of God. (3)
The result; the false saw nothing, but spake as if they had seen; the true had
a vision, not subjective, but objectively real [Fairbairn]. A refutation of
those who set the inward word above the objective, and represent the Bible
as flowing subjectively from the inner light of its writers, not from the
revelation of the Holy Ghost from without. “They are impatient to get
possession of the kernel without its fostering shell - they would have Christ
without the Bible” [Bengel].
CALVIN, “Woe to, the foolish or disgraceful prophets ‫,נבל‬ nebel, signifies “a vile
person,” “a castaway,” just as ‫,נבלה‬ nebeleh, means “foulness,” “crime,”
“wickedness,” although ‫,נבל‬ nebel, is oftener taken for folly, and I willingly embrace
this sense as it is generally received. He calls false prophets foolish, because they
doubtless fiercely insulted the true servants of God — just like upstarts puffed up
with wonderful self-conceit; for the devil, who reigns in them, is the father of pride:
hence they carry themselves haughtily, arrogate all things to themselves, and wish to
be thought angels come down from heaven. And when Paul speaks of human
fictions, he grants them the form of wisdom. (Colossians 2:23.) Hence there is no
doubt that these pretenders of whom Ezekiel speaks were held in great esteem, and
30

31. so, when swollen with bombast, they puffed forth surprising wisdom; but
meanwhile the Holy Spirit shortly pronounces them fools: for whatever pleases the
world under the mask of wisdom, we know to be mere folly before God.
Now he adds, who walk after their own spirit, without seeing any thing: that is,
when no vision has been given them. Ezekiel explains himself more clearly, or rather
the Spirit who spoke through him. As, therefore, he has lately condemned all who
prophesy out of their own mind or heart, — for the noun “heart” is here used for
“intellect,” as in other places, — as, therefore, the Spirit has lately condemned all
such, so he says that those who walk after their own spirit wickedly abuse the
prophetic office. He here alludes to the prophetic gift when he speaks of “spirit.”
For, because they might object that false prophets did not speak from their own
heart, but had secret revelations, he concedes to them the use of the word “spirit” by
a rhetorical figure, (2) and thus refutes their boasting, as if Ezekiel had said that
those fictitious revelations are mere fancies: they have indeed something in them
more than common, but still they are fanatics. This then is the sense of the word
“spirit.” Meanwhile there is no doubt that he repeats what he lately saw, and the
contrast removes all doubt. Without seeing any thing, says he: thus vision is opposed
to the human heart and spirit; but what is vision but a supernatural gift? When,
therefore, God raises his servants above the capacity of human ability, and makes
them discern what no mortal power can bestow, that is a vision; and if a vision is
removed, nothing will remain but the spirit or heart of man. Hence those who
cannot really show that their utterance is evidently inspired, shall be compelled to
confess that they speak of their own minds. It follows —
ELLICOTT, "(3) Foolish prophets.—They were certainly foolish who undertook to
forge the name of the Omniscient, as it were, to utterances of their own devising.
Folly according to the use of the word in the Old Testament, was not merely an
intellectual failing, but was always associated with moral obliquity. (See Psalms
14:1, and Proverbs throughout.) The last clause of the verse is better expressed in
the margin: these prophets were. “seers of that which they have not seen.”
TRAPP, "Verse 3
31

32. Ezekiel 13:3 Thus saith the Lord GOD Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow
their own spirit, and have seen nothing!
Ver. 3. Woe unto the foolish prophets.] Wise enough they were in their generation -
and so are the foxes, whereto they are compared [Ezekiel 13:4] - but in the things of
God, silly simples, blinder than moles.
That follow their own spirit.] Aud their own fancies, acted and abused by that great
lying spirit.
And have seen nothing.] Nothing from God, though they thought and pretended
they had seen something. All was but lies; [Jeremiah 27:10] dreams; [Jeremiah
23:32] things of naught. [Ezekiel 22:28] As Antipheron Orietes in Aristotle thought
that everywhere he saw his own shape and picture going before him; so here. Now a
woe is denounced against these; vae woe, is a little word, but very comprehensive, as
there is often much poison in little drops.
WHEDON, " 3. Foolish prophets — The “fool,” in Scripture language, is the
impious man. Many of these false prophets were grossly immoral (Jeremiah 23:14;
Jeremiah 29:23), and none of them had the appreciation of the heinousness of sin
and the certainty of God’s wrath falling upon an unrepentant people, which is so
characteristic of the writings of the true prophets. Lacking the fear of the Lord,
which is the beginning of wisdom, the policy which they advocated was almost
invariably wrong. They posed as patriots, and friends of Jerusalem and the temple,
advocating war and such political alliances as they believed to be for the temporal
interests of the nation; not having the foresight to perceive that the laxity of morals
and impurity of worship were being increased by such affiliations and that the real
danger to the nation lay not in its lack of military power, but in its lack of
spirituality and faith in God.
Follow their own spirit — The true prophet is the “man of the spirit” (Hosea 9:7),
who receives his message from God (Jeremiah 23:16); but the spirit which controls
the false prophet is from within, and not from above.
32

33. And have seen nothing — Literally, that which they have not seen. They saw no
vision of God, though they pretended to see and may even have imagined that they
saw.
4 Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals among
ruins.
BARNES, "In the deserts - Foxes find a home among ruins etc. Lam_5:18. So the
prophets find their profit in the ruin of their country.
CLARKE, "Thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts - The cunning of the
fox in obtaining his prey has been long proverbial. These false prophets are represented
as the foxes who, having got their prey by great subtlety, run to the desert to hide both
themselves and it. So the false prophets, when the event did not answer to their
prediction, got out of the way, that they might not be overwhelmed with the reproaches
and indignation of the people.
GILL, "O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes of the deserts. The false
prophets, as the Targum; these are called Israel's prophets, because received, embraced,
and encouraged by them; not the Lord's, for they were not sent by him, nor had any
messages from him; and such are comparable to foxes, for their craftiness and cunning,
and lying in wait to deceive, as these seduced the Lord's people, Eze_13:10; and such are
false teachers, who walk in craftiness, and handle the word of God deceitfully, and are
deceitful workers; and to foxes in the deserts, which are hungry and ravenous, and make
a prey of whatsoever comes within their reach, as these prophets did of the people, Eze_
13:19. Kimchi interprets "deserts" of breaches and ruinous places in the walls of a
vineyard, where the foxes lie, or through which they enter into the vineyard and spoil it;
as these false prophets entered in among the Israelites, like to a vineyard, and did them
33

34. much hurt and damage, by insinuating themselves among the weak, and those of little
faith, which the above writer compares to breaches in vineyards; see Son_2:15. It may be
the deserts may have respect to the land of Chaldea, where Israel was carried captive,
and where these foxes, the false prophets, could play their part to advantage; not being
under the notice and restraints of the sanhedrim at Jerusalem.
JAMISON, "foxes — which cunningly “spoil the vines” (Son_2:15), Israel being the
vineyard (Psa_80:8-15; Isa_5:1-7; Isa_27:2; Jer_2:21); their duty was to have guarded it
from being spoiled, whereas they themselves spoiled it by corruptions.
in ... deserts — where there is nothing to eat; whence the foxes become so ravenous
and crafty in their devices to get food. So the prophets wander in Israel, a moral desert,
unrestrained, greedy of gain which they get by craft.
CALVIN, “Hence Ezekiel exposes the snares of the false prophets. The ten tribes
had been dispersed, just as if a field or a vineyard had been removed from a
habitable neighborhood into desert regions, and foxes held their sway there instead.
For they have many hiding-places; they insinuate themselves through hedges and all
openings, and so break into the vineyard or field, and lay waste its fruits. Such, as I
have said, was the condition of the people from the time of its dispersion. While the
Israelites dwelt at home, they were in some way retained within their duty, as if
fortified by certain ramparts. At Jerusalem, too, the high Priest presided over
spiritual trials, that no impious doctrine should creep in: but now, since the people
were so dispersed, greater license was given to the false prophets to corrupt the
people, since the miserable exiles were exposed to these foxes; for they were liable to
injuries just as if desert regions surrounded them. Being thus destitute of protection,
it was easy for foxes to enter by clandestine arts, and to destroy whatever good fruits
existed. Meanwhile Ezekiel obliquely reproves the people’s carelessness. Although
they were dispersed, and were so open to the snares of the false prophets, yet they
thought to have been attentive and cautious, and God would doubtless have
afforded them aid, as he promises to his people the spirit of discretion and judgment
whenever they need it. (1 Corinthians 12:10.) But when the Israelites were
wandering exiles, and attention to the law no longer flourished among them, it came
to pass that foxes, meaning their false prophets, easily entered. Whence it follows
that the people were not free from faults, since they exposed themselves to the snares
of these false prophets. It follows —
"God condemned the sorceresses. He destroyed the badges of their art (the
34

35. pillows, cushions, or whatever they were); he freed the souls they hunted and
allowed them to escape like birds. Such women claimed powers over the living and
the dead; the effect of that was to discourage the righteous and to aid and abet the
wicked; and that is always the way it is when magic, witchcraft, and sorcery are
permitted to usurp the place in men's hearts that belongs to true religion."[17]
ELLICOTT, " (4) Like the foxes in the deserts.—The comparison is sufficiently
close if it is considered as extending only to these mischievous men living
unconcerned among the ruins of their state and country, as the foxes find their
home in desolated cities (Lamentations 5:18); but many extend the simile to the
undermining of the ground by the foxes, as these prophets accelerated the ruin of
their people.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:4 O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.
Ver. 4. O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes.] Cowardly, crafty, cruel, greedy:
venatores eludunt, et cum mortuae videntur, reviviscunt. Heretics are such, and
false prophets; Arius, for instance.
POOLE, "Verse 4
O Israel; a pathetical exclamation to awake Israel, both the dwellers at Jerusalem
and those at Babylon.
Thy prophets, not mine, as Ezekiel 13:2.
Like the foxes; hungry and ravening, crafty and guileful, and living by their wits,
but not one whit helpful to those they deceive. Such are false prophets. In the
deserts, where want of prey makes them more eager of their prey, and where other
devouring beasts endanger travellers, but no defence to them from foxes; these flee
into their holes betimes, and leave the endangered ones. Or thus, O Israel, thou art
35

36. like the desert, spoiled and robbed, and thy false prophets, like foxes hungry and
hunting for some prey, live upon what they can catch, but will be no more profitable
to thee than foxes are to the wilderness.
WHEDON, " 4. Like the foxes in the deserts — Foxes do not build walls, but
undermine them (Nehemiah 4:3; Lamentations 5:18). Having seized their prey with
great subtlety they run to the desert and hide themselves and it (Adam Clarke).
Those who pretend falsely to speak in the name of Jehovah are worse than open
enemies — they are sly and dangerous as the greatest pest of the Orient (Song of
Solomon 2:15; Isaiah 5:7).
PETT, "Verse 4-5
“O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes in the waste places (ruins). You have
not gone up into the gaps, nor made up the fence for the house of Israel to stand in
the battle in the day of Yahweh.”
The picture is a vivid one of foxes running around in the ruins of a city. They build
their dens in the ruins, and forage and scavenge, but they do nothing about the state
of the city. So it is with these prophets. They have ignored the gaps in the
understanding of the people, and have not built them up ready for what is coming,
for they have not seen it themselves. Nor have they caused them to physically
strengthen the walls of the city by their warnings. Instead of ‘rebuilding the walls
and filling in the gaps’, by preparing the people for the coming ‘day of Yahweh’
about to fall on them, they are like foxes who make comfortable holes for themselves
in the ruins and scurry around building nothing, scavenging for what they can find,
making false promises that will not be fulfilled. They are nothing but parasites.
Note the phrase ‘the day of Yahweh’. It refers to any period in history where God
manifests His judgments. God is longsuffering and gives man much leeway, but
there comes a time again and again when man’s sins come in on himself and
devastating consequences result. And each such ‘day of Yahweh’ leads on to the
next, until the final great ‘day of Yahweh’ when He brings in His final judgments.
36

37. (The alternation between ‘they’ and ‘you’ in these verses makes it uncertain when it
is the people who are being addressed, and when the prophets, but it makes no
difference to the sense. If ‘you’ is seen as applying to the people it simply
incorporates them into the sins of the prophets).
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:4
Like the foxes in the deserts, etc. The points of comparison are manifold. The fox is
cunning (Luke 13:32, where the term is applied to Herod Antipas). It spoils the vine
and its fruits (So 2:15); it burrows among ruins (Nehemiah 4:3; Lamentations 5:18).
So the false prophets were crafty, laid waste the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
(Isaiah 5:7), made their profit out of the ruin of Israel, and made that ruin worse.
The 'Reineke Fuchs,' in satirizing the monks and priests of the sixteenth century
under the same comparison, presents a curious, though probably unconscious,
analogue. In Matthew 7:15 and Acts 20:29 wolves appear as the types of the false
prophet.
BI, "Thy prophets are like the foxes in the desert.
False prophets like foxes
1. These creatures are lovers of grapes, as we know by a common
proverb; and consequently they did much damage in such countries as
Judea, which abounded with vineyards, as is noted in Son_2:15, not only
by devouring the grapes but also by making holes in the walls and fences,
whereby they laid open the vineyards to other ravenous beasts as well as
to themselves. Just so did the false prophets to the cities of Judah: they
did not only beguile people of their substance, by the character which
they assumed, and the figure which they made among them; but by their
false doctrines and subversions of the genuine will and Word of God they
broke down the walls and fences from about them; I mean that blessing
and protection of the Almighty which was annexed to the obedience of
His own laws.
2. In another respect did these prophets resemble the foxes in the
deserts, that they could make breaches, but had not the faculty of
stopping them up again. They did not call the people to repentance; or if
they did, it was but such a superficial fast as we read of (Jer_36:1-32), at
which they read his prophecy, and then cut it in pieces and threw it into
the fire. Their making up of their breaches this way was but like the
37

38. labour of unfaithful builders; one laid the stones in the wall, and others
daubed it with untempered mortar.
3. These false prophets resembled foxes in their fraudulent practices. By
crafty speeches and cunningly devised fables they misled the hearts of
the simple. They studied how to suit their discourses to the various
tempers of the people whom they conversed with; to prophesy smooth
things to the stout-hearted, and terrible things to the timorous, that they
might keep them all in the way which they would have them to walk in.
4. These false prophets had another property of foxes, which was a
prowling ravenous appetite. When they came out of their colleges into
the vineyard, they resolved that the making of their fortune, the arriving
at a plentiful condition, a goodly heritage, should be the first and
greatest of all their cares. So little were they concerned for the welfare of
the people over whom they pretended to be guardians and spiritual
watchmen, that they would sell their souls, as God complains here, for
handfuls of barley and morsels of bread.
5. As foxes are of the number of unclean beasts, so these prophets were
men of corrupt minds and loose morals. How prone they were to
prevaricate with God, and seduce the people, to counterfeit a Divine
mission, to run when they were not sent, to prophesy out of their own
heart without a revelation, to proclaim their visions of peace when there
was no peace, is abundantly set forth in this chapter. (W. Reading, M. A.)
False prophets like foxes
The prophets are like foxes: ruins are congenial to them; a condition of
decay is their proper sphere; there they can burrow as their instincts
prompt them. The main idea, however, is that their operations only
increase the devastation, and Undermine and bring down anything that may
yet be standing. In a declining and disastrous time the minds of men are
excited and feed on the wildest schemes; and, feeling themselves helpless,
they readily turn to those who pretend to speak to them in God’s name. And
it only adds to their ruin when those to whom they turn have no higher
wisdom than themselves. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
5 You have not gone up to the breaches in the wall
to repair it for the people of Israel so that it will
stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord.
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39. BARNES, "For - Or, before. In a time of siege when there are gaps or
breaches in the walls, it is the part of the leaders to go up to defend them,
and to throw up works to stop the in-road of the enemy. Yahweh is now
assailing His people as an enemy (compare Isa_63:10; Job_16:11-13), and
where are those who claim to be prophets, leaders of the people?
CLARKE, "Ye have not gone up into the gaps - Far from opposing sinners,
who are bringing down the wrath of God upon the place, you prevent their
repentance by your flattering promises and false predictions. Ye have
neither by prayers, example, nor advice, contributed any thing for the
preservation of the place, or the salvation of the people’s souls.
GILL, "Ye have not gone up into the gaps,.... Or "breaches" (d); so the
Targum. The allusion is to breaches made in the walls of a city when
besieged; at which time those within gather together in great numbers to
meet the enemy, and prevent his entrance by the breaches. These words are
either spoken to the princes of Israel, the civil magistrates; or to the
prophets, who seeing the sins of the people, like a mighty torrent, opening a
breach for the wrath and judgments of God to pour in upon them, should
have called them, and importunately pressed them to repentance and
reformation, and to have put up their prayers, and made intercession to
God for them; neither of which they did, and therefore are here blamed; see
Eze_22:30;
neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel; or a "fence", a
fortification. The Vulgate Latin renders it, "a wall"; a new wall, which is
generally made by the besieged within, when a breach is made upon them: it
signifies the same as before. Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of repentance
and good works; and so the Targum, which paraphrases the words thus,
"neither have ye done for yourselves good works, to deprecate for the house
of Israel, to stand to pray for them:''
to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord: when he came forth in battle
array against them, with great wrath and indignation, in the way of his
righteous judgments. The Targum is,
"when warriors come up against them in the day of the wrath of the Lord;''
39

40. when the Chaldeans came against them by the will of God, he being angry
with them.
JAMISON, "not gone up into ... gaps — metaphor from breaches made in a
wall, to which the defenders ought to betake themselves in order to repel
the entrance of the foe. The breach is that made in the theocracy through
the nation’s sin; and, unless it be made up, the vengeance of God will break
in through it. Those who would advise the people to repentance are the
restorers of the breach (Eze_22:30; Psa_106:23, Psa_106:30).
hedge — the law of God (Psa_80:12; Isa_5:2, Isa_5:5); by violating it, the
people stripped themselves of the fence of God’s protection and lay exposed
to the foe. The false prophets did not try to repair the evil by bringing back
the people to the law with good counsels, or by checking the bad with
reproofs. These two duties answer to the double office of defenders in case
of a breach made in a wall: (1) To repair the breach from within; (2) To
oppose the foe from without.
to stand — that is, that the city may “stand.”
in ... day of ... Lord — In the day of the battle which God wages against
Israel for their sins, ye do not try to stay God’s vengeance by prayers, and by
leading the nation to repentance.
CALVIN, “Hence he pursues the same sentiment, but presses the false prophets
harder. He has said generally that they were sacrilegious, making a false use of
God’s name when speaking entirely in their own. He now separates them by another
mark from the approved and faithful servants of God, namely, they had not gone up
into the breach, nor built up a hedge to protect the house of Israel, that they might
stand in the battle in the day of Jehovah. This verse is variously explained: some
refer what is here said to prayer; others twist it according to different imaginations,
but I restrict it to their teaching. (4) Ezekiel not only blames their inner and hidden
perfidy, he not only strikes their minds, so as to convince them that they had no
desire for piety, and no zeal for God’s glory, but he shows that their teaching must
be altogether rejected, because they did not propose to themselves the right object.
But what is the mark at which all God’s servants thought to aim? Surely to consult
the public safety; and when they see signs of God’s wrath, to meet them, and
prevent the urgent calamity. These impostors saw the people not only impious, but
rebellious, so that there was no hope of their repentance. On the other hand, they
saw God threatening; and although they were blind, yet they could behold the signs
of God’s reproaching vengeance. Hence it was their duty to go up to the breaches.
Hence, also, we understand what the Prophet means by “breaches,” namely, as an
approach is open to an enemy to storm a city when a breach is made in the wall, so
40

41. also, when the iniquity of the people overflows like a deluge, a rupture is already
made, by means of which God’s wrath is able to penetrate immediately, and to lay
everything waste till it is reduced to nothing.
As often, then, as we see God offended by the people’s wickedness, let us learn that a
breach has been made, as if we had been destined to destruction. Hence those who
desire to discharge the office of teaching faithfully ought to hasten to the breach, to
recall the people from their impiety, and to exhort them to repentance. Thus the
wall becomes restored, because God is appeased, and we are able to rest in quietness
and security. What follows has the same object — they have not restored the hedge.
For when a people breaks through all rights, and violates God’s law, it is just as if
they laid themselves bare in every part from the protection of God, as Moses
reproves them when speaking of the molten calf: Behold, says he, this day you are
naked; that is, because they had hurled themselves into destruction. (Exodus 32:25.)
So the Prophet says that these traitors did not run up to restore the hedge when the
house of Israel was exposed to robbers, thieves, and wild beasts, because it was no
longer protected by the hand of God. What follows has the same object, that they
should stand in the battle in the day of the Lord; that is, to oppose themselves to
God’s vengeance. This relates to prayers, when mention is made of Phinehas, in
Psalms 106:30, and also in the same psalm, Psalms 106:23, where it is said of Moses,
Unless Moses had stood in the breach to turn away God’s wrath. Here also, as I
have said, the Prophet looks rather to doctrine. For here he sharply rebukes the
folly of false prophets who had promised wonderful things. Now, when God
approached in earnest, all their prophecies vanished: he says, therefore, they stood
not in the battle in the day of Jehovah; for, if they had diligently exhorted the people
to repentance, those sinners had reconciled God to themselves: for we turn aside his
judgment beforehand when we turn to him in time, as Paul teaches. (1 Corinthians
11:31.) If, therefore, the people had been thus diligently advised, they had stood in
the battle; that is, their teaching would have been a bulwark against the breaking
out of God’s wrath to destroy them utterly. Now, therefore, we see the meaning of
Ezekiel, namely, to show how the fallacies of the false prophets could be perceived,
since by their blandishments and flatteries they destroyed the people,. Now it
follows —
ELLICOTT, "(5) Ye have not gone up into the gaps.—The change of person is
frequent enough in prophecy, and especially common in Ezekiel. It is changed back
in Ezekiel 13:6, and changed again in Ezekiel 13:7. The gaps refer to the breaches in
41

42. the wall made by the enemy, which became the rallying point of every brave leader
(see Ezekiel 22:30), and the following words express essentially the same thought.
The word “hedge” should rather be translated wall—“neither have ye built up the
wall.” The false prophets, like the hireling shepherds of John 10:12, were only
selfish, and had no care for the flock. The whole language is figurative, the breaches
in the material walls representing the moral decay of the people.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:5 Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge
for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.
Ver. 5. Ye have not gone up into the gaps.] Reclaimed the people from their
impieties, those inlets of plagues, nor interceded for them by your prayers to God to
turn away wrath, but hastened it. Ye have built indeed a wall, and daubed it with
mortar, but such as is untempered, [Ezekiel 13:10] arena sine calce, like ill
architects.
Neither made up the hedge.] To keep foxes out of God’s vineyard; it is even
opentide.
To stand in the battle.] As David’s three worthies did in the barley field and
delivered it. [1 Chronicles 11:14] Or as Marulla the maid of Lemnos, who, like a
fierce amazon, desperately fought with the Turks in defence of her country,
Coccinum, a city in that island, and kept them out till more company came to her
relief, moved with the alarm. (a)
POOLE, " Ye, vulpine prophets. As in a besieged city whose wall is broken down
and the enemy ready to enter, a valiant, faithful, and vigilant soldier would run up
into the breach to repel the enemy; so true prophets do partly by prayer, and partly
by doctrine, and partly by personal reformation, labour to preserve God’s people.
But, fox-like, they have shifted out of harm’s way.
Neither made up the hedge: the house of Israel is the Lord’s vineyard, through the
42

43. hedge whereof many breaches are made, through which wild and wasting beasts
come in and devour the grapes, and spoil the vines; but you have not stopped those
breaches, but, fox-like, come in and pulled off the tender grapes, and done the most
mischief; you have increased sin and danger thereby. And when the Lord’s wrath
shall give up the city, you will not stand to oppose the enemy breaking in; so useless
will these be at last.
To stand; not with arms, but with fasting, prayers, repentance, laying hold on the
arm of the Lord, and interceding for his people.
In the battle, which God will by the Chaldeans fight against the house of Israel. In
that day of the Lord the weapons of war will not prevail against the Chaldeans,
unless prayers, tears, and amendment prevail with the Lord to withdraw the battle,
and be at peace with Israel.
WHEDON, " 5. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for —
These false prophets, whom Ezekiel now addresses, do not protect or construct; they
only succeed in tearing down. They cannot repair the gap (breach) nor build such a
hedge for (before) the house of Israel as will save them in the day of battle (Isaiah
5:5; Isaiah 58:12). They never have done this, notwithstanding their patriotic
pretensions; they never can do it. (See Ezekiel 22:30.)
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:5
The verse contains two distinct images. There were breaches in the walls of
Jerusalem, literally and spiritually, and the false prophets had not been as
"repairers of the breach" (Isaiah 58:12; Psalms 106:23). The hedge of the vineyard
of Israel had been broken through (Isaiah 5:5), and they had done nothing to restore
it (Ezekiel 22:30). The day of battle, the day of the Lord, had come, and they were
betraying the people instead of helping.
43

44. 6 Their visions are false and their divinations a lie.
Even though the Lord has not sent them, they say,
“The Lord declares,” and expect him to fulfill
their words.
BARNES, "And they have made others ... - Rather, “and they hope for the
confirmation of their word.” They come to believe their own lies.
GILL, "They have seen vanity, and lying divination,.... The visions the false
prophets pretended to see were nothing but the fruit of their own fancies and
imaginations, and had nothing real in them; and what they divined or foretold should be
were all lies, and never came to pass, and never would:
saying the Lord saith: and the Lord hath not sent them; they came to the people
with a lie in their mouths, giving out that the Lord spoke by them; when they had no
mission from him; nor any commission to say what they did; or any warrant from him
for their prophecies:
and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word; or,
"that the word would be confirmed" (e); that what was said by them would have its
accomplishment; and that their prophecies would be fulfilled. By their solemn way of
speaking; by the use they made of the name of the Lord; by the strong assurances they
gave, and by their frequent repetition of their predictions, the people were brought to
hope and believe that the event would answer to what they said; wherefore, instead of
bringing them to a sense of their sins, and repentance for them, whereby the judgments
of God would have been prevented, they hardened them in them, and hastened their
ruin.
JAMISON, "made others to hope, etc. — rather, “they hoped” to confirm (that is,
‘make good’) their word, by the event corresponding to their prophecy. The Hebrew
requires this [Havernick]. Also the parallel clause, “they have seen vanity,” implies that
they believed their own lie (2Th_2:11). Subjective revelation is false unless it rests on the
objective.
CALVIN, “Here again he pronounces generally that those false prophets were vain,
44

45. and this assertion depends upon the principle that they had spoken from their own
heart or spirit, for nothing false or vain can proceed from God. It follows, therefore,
that they are here condemned of vanity and lying, because they dared falsely to use
the name of God when they uttered nothing but their own dreams. He now confirms
what we saw in the last verse, when he says, they hoped to establish their word.
Hence they puffed up the people with vain hope, when they said that God would not
be so severe as to exact continual punishment of the holy and elect nation. True
prophets also often recall sinners to the mercy of God, and magnify it so, that those
who wrestle with despair may not doubt God’s long-suffering, since he is said to be
slow to anger, and inclined to reconciliation; and his pity endures for a life, while his
anger passes away in a moment. (Numbers 14:18; Psalms 103:8, and Psalms 30:5.)
True prophets indeed act thus; but they join two members which must not be
separated, otherwise God himself would be, as it were, dissipated. (6) Hence, when
true prophets exhort sinners to hope and predict God’s freeness to pardon, they
likewise discourse about penitence; they do not indulge sinners, but rouse them, nay,
wound them sharply with a sense of God’s anger, so as in some way to stir them up,
since God’s mercy is set before us for that end, that by it we may seek life. Hence we
must be dead in ourselves; but false prophets sever between the two, and divide
God, as it were, in half, since they speak only of his freeness to forgive, and declare
his clemency to be set before all, while they are profoundly silent about repentance.
Now, therefore, we see why the Prophet here reproves these traitors (7) who abused
the name of God, since they made the people to hope. Without hope, indeed, the
sinner could not be animated to seek God: but they promised peace, as he will say
directly, when there was no peace. Therefore let us proceed with the exposition.
ELLICOTT, "
Verses 6-17
(6) They have made others to hope.—Omit the word “others,” which is not in the
original, and translate, “The Lord hath not sent them that they should hope”—i.e.,
they have no ground to expect that their prophecies will prove true, because they
have no warrant for uttering them.
EXCURSUS D: ON CHAPTER , 7, AND 17.
45

46. In these verses a broad and crucial distinction is made between the self-imagined
vision and that which is sent from the Lord. It may be that in this case the prophets
and prophetesses were untrue to their own convictions, and wilfully declared what
they knew to be false; or it may be that they simply uttered as God’s message that
which they had persuaded themselves would be the issue. This point is not entirely
clear from the passage, and is of secondary importance. What deserves to be
carefully noted is the difference here made between subjective views of truth—that
which conies “out of their own heart”—and those objective communications which
God gave to His true prophets. This distinction has a most important bearing upon
the whole subject of revelation, and establishes clearly the fact that the Scriptures
look upon it as something expressly communicated to their writers, and not as a
thing which could be the result of their own thought and reflection. He, therefore,
who puts “Thus saith the Lord” before that which God has not in some objective
way made known to him, must fall under the condemnation pronounced here and
elsewhere upon “the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name,
which I have not commanded him to speak” (Deuteronomy 18:20).
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:6 They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The
LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made [others] to
hope that they would confirm the word.
Ver. 6. They have seen vanity.] This is soon seen. [Ezekiel 13:3]
Saying, The Lord saith.] By a lying pretence, familiar with falsaries, to father their
fancies upon God.
POOLE, "Verse 6
They have seen; they pretend to have seen, but still they see nothing, as Ezekiel 13:2.
The prophet speaks as if indeed they had seen, but the very censure of the things
they said they saw clears it, that all was but pretence.
46

47. Vanity and lying divination; things that have no ground or foundation, and which
will never be, and are therefore called vanity and lying divinations.
The Lord saith; foretelleth and promiseth.
Hath not sent them; never revealed any such thing to them, or bade them tell the
Jews any such thing.
They have made others; by their pretences and arguments they have wheedled some
into a belief of their word, and into a hope of that they promise; and so the
credulous Jew is undone by his prophet, who tells him all is well, and needs no
alteration, and all will be well, and they need fear no desolation.
WHEDON, "6. Have made others to hope — Rather, they hoped for the word to be
confirmed. They have seen vanity (literally, nothingness, falsehood), and yet they
have deceived themselves with the hope that the lies which they have prophesied will
come true. There is no suggestion here that these false prophets really believed
themselves to have received a message from God (vs. Davidson), though in other
places it is made plain that a prophet who willfully persists in prophesying lies may
at last be unable to discriminate between the true and the false.
PETT, "Verse 6
“They have seen vanity and lying divination who say, ‘the oracle of Yahweh’, and
Yahweh has not sent them. And they have made men hope that the word would be
confirmed.”
The false prophets have given people false hope with false visions and lying
divination. The word for ‘divination’ is regularly used in a bad sense of using false
47

48. means to obtain ‘divine’ guidance (Ezekiel 21:21-22; 2 Kings 17:7; Jeremiah 14:14;
Numbers 22:7; Numbers 23:23; Deuteronomy 18:10; 1 Samuel 15:23), usually
through special techniques such as familiar spirits, worked up trances, examining
entrails of a sacrifice and throwing sand on the ground. But the fact that here it is
called ‘lying divination’ seems to contrast it with the true reception of prophetic
truth by men like Ezekiel (never directly called divination), obtained directly
through Yahweh.
The result of the false visions and lying divination is that the people are deceived
and expectant of something that will never materialise, will never ‘be confirmed’ by
fulfilment.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:6
The Lord saith. The verb is that specially used for the utterance of prophets, and the
deceivers used it without the authority of a true mission. For they have made others
(or, men) to hope, etc; as in the Authorized Version and Revised Version, read, with
the margin of Revised Version, they hope to confirm their word, taking the verb as
in Psalms 119:43, Psalms 119:49; Job 6:11, et al.). So the Vulgate, persereraverunt
confirmare. Through deceiving others, they came to deceive themselves, and were
really expecting a fulfilment.
7 Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying
divinations when you say, “The Lord declares,”
though I have not spoken?
48

49. GILL, "Have ye not seen a vain vision,.... A vision only in pretence, and not in
reality; the effect of their own fancy, and not anything shown them by the Lord:
and have ye not spoken a lying divination; delivered out a known lie, saying they
had it from the Lord, when they had it not; or a prophecy that will deceive, and be
without effect, and in the issue prove a falsehood:
whereas ye say, the Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken? this is a proof that
what they gave out for a vision and prophecy was a vain and false one; seeing they
pretended they had it from the Lord, when he never spoke a word to them, or by them.
CALVIN, “Here God shows why he had formerly pronounced that they brought
forward nothing but vanity and falsehood, namely, because they used his name
falsely, and out of light created darkness; for by the feint of speaking in God’s
name, they darkened men’s minds. That sacred name is, as it were, a fount of
splendor, so as far to surpass the light of the sun; nay, whatever light exists, is made
apparent and refulgent by it. But, as I have said, the servants of Satan turn light,
into darkness, because they audaciously boast that God has said so. This passage
and similar ones show us how diligently we ought to guard against Satan’s fallacies.
This is their astounding boldness to bring forward God’s name while they so
wantonly trifle with his judgments. For to boast that God has spoken is as if we
wished, by impious profanation, purposely to draw him into a dispute. For how can
God bear us to turn his truth into lie? But there have been impostors in all ages who
have thus thoughtlessly flown in the face of God. We are not surprised at the
heathen doing so; but in the chosen people, it was certainly an incredible prodigy
and an intolerable disgrace, when they had access to all heavenly doctrine for the
guidance of their conduct, and when God was daily calling forth prophets, as he had
promised by Moses, to see these impious dogs who barked so, and you pretended so
proudly to speak in God’s name. (Deuteronomy 18:15.) Admonished, then, by this
caution, let us be on our guard when we see Satan’s servants endued with such
arrogance. It follows —
TRAPP, "Verse 7
Ezekiel 13:7 Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying
49

50. divination, whereas ye say, The LORD saith [it]; albeit I have not spoken?
Ver. 7. Have ye not seen a vain vision?] i.e., I appeal to your own consciences, have
ye not falsely feigned all? Seducers are extremely impudent, with perverse minds,
and cauterised consciences.
POOLE, "Verse 7
Consider with your own consciences; do they not tell you that all is vain pretence
which you make? Can you think Jerusalem can escape, or the first captives be
returned, and all this so soon? Is not this vain to be imagined, and they vainer that
imagine and believe it? If it should come to pass, which it never shall, yet herein you
are convicted liars; you say the Lord saith, whereas he hath said no such thing, nay,
the contrary hath God spoken to what you speak, and the event shall be as contrary
to your expectation, which is of good; but behold evil cometh out of the north, and
great destruction.
PETT, "Verse 7
“Have you not seen a vain vision, and have you not spoken a lying divination? In
that you say, ‘the oracle of Yahweh’, in spite of the fact that I have not spoken?”
Whatever methods they used, even if it was just hopeful aspiration, they stand
condemned. For although they claimed ‘the oracle of Yahweh’ they did not in fact
produce a word from Yahweh. Whoever spoke through them it was not Yahweh, for
they spoke lies.
50

51. 8 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord
says: Because of your false words and lying
visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign
Lord.
GILL, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... This is what he says, and it may be
depended on will come to pass; though the other he said not, they said he did, but was a
lying divination:
because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies; which will in the issue prove so,
lying and deceitful; what never came from God, but from themselves and the father of
lies, and would never be accomplished:
therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God; or, "I unto you"; which
may be supplied thus, "I come", or "will come, unto you" (f); in a way of providence, and
chastise and punish you; see Rev_2:16; or I will be your adversary; and a sad thing it is
for any to have God to be against them; there is no contending with him; none ever
hardened themselves against him, and prospered; men are but with him as stubble, or as
thorns and briers to a consuming fire.
JAMISON, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... This is what he says, and it
may be depended on will come to pass; though the other he said not, they said he did,
but was a lying divination:
because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies; which will in the issue prove so,
lying and deceitful; what never came from God, but from themselves and the father of
lies, and would never be accomplished:
therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God; or, "I unto you"; which
may be supplied thus, "I come", or "will come, unto you" (f); in a way of providence, and
chastise and punish you; see Rev_2:16; or I will be your adversary; and a sad thing it is
for any to have God to be against them; there is no contending with him; none ever
hardened themselves against him, and prospered; men are but with him as stubble, or as
thorns and briers to a consuming fire.
51

52. K&D 8-16, "Punishment of the False Prophets
Eze_13:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because ye speak vanity and
prophesy lying, therefore, behold, I will deal with you, is the saying of the Lord
Jehovah. Eze_13:9. And my hand shall be against the prophets who see vanity and
divine lies: in the council of my people they shall not be, and in the register of the house
of Israel they shall not be registered, and into the land of Israel shall they not come;
and ye shall learn that I am the Lord Jehovah. Eze_13:10. Because, yea because they
lead my people astray, and say, “Peace,” though there is no peace; and when it (my
people) build a wall, behold, they plaster it with cement: Eze_13:11. Say to the
plasterers, that it will fall: there cometh a pouring rain; and ye hailstones fall, and
thou stormy wind break loose! Eze_13:12. And, behold, the wall falleth; will men not
say to you, Where is the plaster with which ye have plastered it? Eze_13:13. Therefore
thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I cause a stormy wind to break forth in my wrath, and a
pouring rain will come in my anger, and hailstones in wrath, for destruction. Eze_
13:14. And I demolish the wall which ye have plastered, and cast it to the ground, that
its foundation may be exposed, and it shall fall, and ye shall perish in the midst of it;
and shall learn that I am Jehovah. Eze_13:15. And I will exhaust my wrath upon the
wall, and upon those who plaster it; and will say to you, It is all over with the wall, and
all over with those who plastered it; Eze_13:16. With the prophets of Israel who
prophesied to Jerusalem, and saw visions of peace for her, though there is no peace, is
the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - In Eze_13:8 the punishment which is to fall upon the
false prophets is threatened in general terms; and in Eze_13:9 it is more specifically
described in the form of a climax, rising higher and higher in the severity of its
announcements. (1) They are no longer to form part of the council of the people of God;
that is to say, they will lose their influential position among the people. (‫ד‬ ‫ס‬ is the
sphere of counsellors, not the social sphere.) (2) Their names shall not be registered in
the book of the house of Israel. The book of the house of Israel is the register in which
the citizens of the kingdom of God are entered. Any one whose name was not admitted
into this book, or was struck out of it, was separated thereby from the citizenship of
Israel, and lost all the privileges which citizenship conferred. The figure of the book of
life is a similar one (cf. Exo_32:32). For Israel is not referred to here with regard to its
outward nationality, but as the people of God; so that exclusion from Israel was also
exclusion from fellowship with God. The circumstance that it is not the erasure of their
names from the book that is mentioned here, but their not being entered in the book at
all, may be accounted for from the reference contained in the words to the founding of
the new kingdom of God. The old theocracy was abolished, although Jerusalem was not
yet destroyed. The covenant nation had fallen under the judgment; but out of that
portion of Israel which was dispersed among the heathen, a remnant would be gathered
together again, and having been brought back to its own land, would be made anew into
a holy people of God (cf. Eze_11:17.). But the false prophets are not to be received into
the citizenship of the new kingdom. (3) They are not even to come into the land of Israel;
i.e., they are not merely to remain in exile, but to lose all share in the privileges and
blessings of the kingdom of God. This judgment will come upon them because they lead
astray the people of God, by proclaiming peace where there is no peace; i.e., by raising
and cherishing false hopes of prosperity and peace, by which they encourage the people
in their sinful lives, and lead them to imagine that all is well, and there is no judgment to
be feared (cf. Jer_23:17 and Mic_3:5). The exposure of this offence is introduced by the
solemn ‫ן‬ַ‫ַע‬‫י‬ ‫ן‬ַ‫ַע‬‫י‬ ְ‫,וּב‬ because and because (cf. Lev_26:43); and the offence itself is exhibited
by means of a figure.
52

53. When the people build a wall, the false prophets plaster the wall with lime. ‫הוּא‬ ְ‫ו‬ (Eze_
13:10) refers to ‫י‬ ִ‫מּ‬ַ‫,ע‬ and the clause is a circumstantial one. ‫ל‬ֵ‫פ‬ ָ‫תּ‬ signifies the plaster
coating or cement of a wall, probably from the primary meaning of ‫ל‬ַ‫פ‬ ָ‫,תּ‬ to stick or
plaster over (= ‫ל‬ַ‫פ‬ ָ‫,ט‬ conglutinare, to glue, or fasten together), from which the secondary
meaning of weak, insipid, has sprung. The proper word for plaster or cement is ‫ַח‬‫י‬ ִ‫ט‬
(Eze_13:12), and ‫ל‬ֵ‫פ‬ ָ‫תּ‬ is probably chosen with an allusion to the tropical signification of
that which is silly or absurd (Jer_23:13; Lam_2:14). The meaning of the figure is
intelligible enough. The people build up foolish hopes, and the prophets not only paint
these hopes for them in splendid colours, but even predict their fulfilment, instead of
denouncing their folly, pointing out to the people the perversity of their ways, and
showing them that such sinful conduct must inevitably be followed by punishment and
ruin. The plastering is therefore a figurative description of deceitful flattery or hypocrisy,
i.e., the covering up of inward corruption by means of outward appearance (as in Mat_
23:27 and Act_23:3). This figure leads the prophet to describe the judgment which they
are bringing upon the nation and themselves, as a tempest accompanied with hail and
pouring rain, which throws down the wall that has been erected and plastered over; and
in connection with this figure he opens out this double thought: (1) the conduct of the
people, which is encouraged by the false prophets, cannot last (Eze_13:11 and Eze_
13:12); and (2) when this work of theirs is overthrown, the false prophets themselves will
also meet with the fate they deserve (Eze_13:13-16). The threat of judgment commences
with the short, energetic ‫ֹל‬‫פּ‬ִ‫י‬ ְ‫,ו‬ let it (the wall) fall, or it shall fall, with Vav to indicate the
train of thought (Ewald, §347a). The subject is ‫ל‬ֵ‫פ‬ ָ‫,תּ‬ to which ‫ֹל‬‫פּ‬ִ‫י‬ suggests a
resemblance in sound. In Eze_13:12 this is predicted as the fate awaiting the plastered
wall. In the description of the bursting storm the account passes with ‫ָה‬‫נ‬ ֵ‫תּ‬ ַ‫א‬ ְ‫ו‬ (and ye)
into a direct address; in other words, the description assumes the form of an appeal to
the destructive forces of nature to burst forth with all their violence against the work
plastered over by the prophets, and to destroy it. . ‫ף‬ ֵ‫ט‬ ‫שׁ‬ ‫ם‬ֶ‫ֶשׁ‬‫גּ‬, pouring rain; cf. Eze_
38:22. ‫ֵי‬‫נ‬ ְ‫ב‬ ַ‫א‬ ‫ישׁ‬ ְ‫ָב‬‫גּ‬ ִ‫ל‬ ֶ‫א‬ here and Eze_38:22 are hailstones. The word ‫ישׁ‬ ְ‫ָב‬‫גּ‬ ִ‫ל‬ ֶ‫,א‬ which is
peculiar to Ezekiel, is probably ‫ישׁ‬ ִ‫ָב‬‫גּ‬ (Job_28:18), with the Arabic article ‫;אל‬ ice, then
crystal. ַ‫רוּח‬ , wind of storms, a hurricane or tempest. ַ‫ע‬ ֵ‫קּ‬ ַ‫ב‬ ְ‫תּ‬ (Eze_13:11) is used
intransitively, to break loose; but in Eze_13:13 it is transitive, to cause to break loose.
The active rendering adopted by Kliefoth, “the storm will rend,” sc. the plaster of the
wall, is inappropriate in Eze_13:11; for a tempest does not rend either the plaster or the
wall, but throws the wall down. The translation which Kliefoth gives in Eze_13:13, “I will
rend by tempest,” is at variance with both the language and the sense. Jehovah will cause
this tempest to burst forth in His wrath and destroy the wall, and lay it level with the
ground. The suffix in ‫הּ‬ָ‫כ‬ ‫ת‬ ְ‫בּ‬ refers (ad sensum) to Jerusalem not to ‫יר‬ ִ‫ק‬ (the wall),
which is masculine, and has no ֶ‫ו‬ ָ‫תּ‬ (midst). The words pass from the figure to the
reality here; for the plastered wall is a symbol of Jerusalem, as the centre of the
theocracy, which is to be destroyed, and to bury the lying prophets in its ruins. ‫י‬ ִ‫ית‬ֵ‫לּ‬ ִ‫כ‬ ְ‫ו‬
(Eze_13:15) contains a play upon the word ‫ה‬ָ‫ל‬ָ‫כ‬ ְ‫ל‬ in Eze_13:13. By a new turn given to
klh ‫,כלה‬ Ezekiel repeats the thought that the wrath of God is to destroy the wall and its
plasterers; and through this repetition he rounds off the threat with the express
declaration, that the false prophets who are ever preaching peace are the plasterers to
53

54. whom he refers.
CALVIN, “Here at length he begins to pronounce judgment against the false
prophets. Hitherto, under the form of a complaint, he shows how wickedly they had
corrupted and profaned his sacred name: then how impiously they had rendered
prophecies contemptible by their lies, and how cruel they were to the people whose
safety ought to be their first care, and how they drew on the miserable to
destruction. For after God has so narrated their sins, he now denounces
punishment; and, first, generally he says that he was their adversary. This clause is
by no means superfluous, since such carelessness would not have besotted the
impious, unless they thought themselves free from all dealings with God; hence they
utterly reject all fear and sin with freedom. But this could not happen, unless they
determined that God either sleeps, or does not behold human affairs or trifles as
they do. Since, therefore, false prophets very licentiously corrupt God’s word, when
they pretend it to be a pleasant sport; God, on the other hand, pronounces Himself
their adversary; as if he said, your contest shall not be with men, but I will be the
avenger of so wicked a profanation of my name.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD Because ye have spoken
vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I [am] against you, saith the Lord GOD.
Ver. 8. Behold, I am against you.] Heb., Be hold I against you, by an angry
aposiopesis. (a) The Chaldee hath it, I will send my wrath against; you, and that is
an evil messenger; for who knoweth the power of thy wrath? saith Moses. [Psalms
90:11]
POOLE, " The whole verse speaks the dreadful anger of God against those false
prophets. It is unspeakable wrath, and we are left to guess at it by the manner of
speech here used, which is minatory, Ezekiel 21:3 26:3, concealing the greater part
intended; an aposiopesis.
I am against you: this is more particularly exemplified in the next verse.
54

55. PETT, "Verse 8-9
‘Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Because you have spoken what is vain, and
seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you,” says the Lord Yahweh, “and my
hand will be against the prophets who see what is vain, and who divine lies. They
will not be in the council of my people, nor will they be written in the writing (or
‘register’) of the house of Israel, nor will they enter into the land of Israel. And you
will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.” ’
The denunciation of the prophets for speaking empty words and ‘seeing’ what is
vain, and ‘seeing’ what is false and ‘divining lies’ (compare Ezekiel 13:7), putting
forth fabrications as an oracle from Yahweh, has brought on them the enmity of
Yahweh. They have brought on themselves exclusion from the leadership of Israel,
which they no doubt coveted, exclusion from the roll of those who are full members
of the house of Israel, a blow to their self respect and hopes, and exclusion from the
land of Israel, that is, final exclusion from the recognised benefits of the covenant.
For being blotted out of ‘the roll of Israel’ compare Exodus 32:32-33. This also will
demonstrate that God is truly the Lord Yahweh, with all that that means.
9 My hand will be against the prophets who see
false visions and utter lying divinations. They will
not belong to the council of my people or be listed
in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the
land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the
Sovereign Lord.
55

56. BARNES, "Assembly - Here “the congregation of the people.” These false prophets
were to be struck off from “the writing” or, the rolls, in which the names of all Israelites
were registered (compare Psa_87:6; Exo_32:32); and therefore when the restoration
Eze_11:17 shall take place these men shall not have part in it.
CLARKE, "They shall not be in the assembly of my people - They shall not be
reputed members of my Church. They shall not be reckoned in the genealogy of true
Israelites that return from captivity; and they shall never have a possession in the land;
they shall be exhereditated and expatriated. They shall all perish in the siege, by the
sword, the famine, and the pestilence.
GILL, "And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that
divine lies,.... Meaning, by his hand, not the true spirit of prophecy, attended with a
divine power and energy, as in Eze_1:3; but the wrath and power of God seizing on them
and punishing them. So the Targum,
"and the stroke of my power shall be upon the false prophets, &c.''
The sense is, that they should feel the weight of his hand, and the lighting down of his
arm with the indignation of his wrath, by inflicting punishment upon them:
they shall not be in the assembly of my people; shall have no place in the church
of God, nor fellowship with the saints; they shall not join with them in religious worship
here; but either shall be left by the righteous judgment of God to separate themselves
from them, or shall be excluded their communion; and much less shall they stand in the
congregation of the righteous hereafter: or, "they shall not be in the secret", or "council
of my people" (g); shall not be consulted by them on any account, civil or religious; or
not be let into the secret counsels of the Lord, as the Lord's people be, who are his
favourites and his friends; see Psa_25:14. The Targum is,
"in the good secret which is hidden for my people they shall not be:''
neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel; their names
shall not be in the roll or register of those that return from captivity, as in Ezra it but
shall die in their exile; they shall not be in the list and catalogue of the citizens of any city
in the land of Israel, particularly of Jerusalem, the chief city; see Isa_4:3; and it should
appear that their names were never written in the Lamb's book of life; or that they ever
were among the number of God's elect, the true and spiritual Israel of God. So the
Targum,
"and in the writing of eternal life, which is written for the righteous of the house of
56

57. Israel, they shall not be written;''
see Psa_69:28;
neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; should not return to the land of
Israel, when the captives should at the end of the captivity; nor enter into the land of
Canaan, the heavenly rest, which remains for the people of God; for into the New
Jerusalem state shall nothing enter that makes an abomination, or a lie, as these
prophets had done; see Rev_21:27;
and ye shall know that I am the Lord God; omniscient, omnipotent, true and
faithful, holy, just, and good.
JAMISON, "mine hand — My power in vengeance.
not ... in ... assembly — rather, the “council”; “They shall not occupy the honorable
office of councilors in the senate of elders after the return from Babylon” (Ezr_2:1, Ezr_
2:2).
neither ... written in ... Israel — They shall not even have a place in the register
kept of all citizens’ names; they shall be erased from it, just as the names of those who
died in the year, or had been deprived of citizenship for their crimes, were at the annual
revisal erased. Compare Jer_17:13; Luk_10:20; Rev_3:5, as to those spiritually
Israelites; Joh_1:47, and those not so. Literally fulfilled (Ezr_2:59, Ezr_2:62; compare
Neh_7:5; Psa_69:28).
neither ... enter ... land — They shall not so much as be allowed to come back at all
to their country.
CALVIN, “Besides, he afterwards points out the punishment; my hand, says he,
shall be against the prophets. For although God threatens to become an adversary
to the reprobate, yet this is not sufficient to terrify them, they are so stupid. But it is
necessary to use another stimulus, namely, that God should display his power. This
is the reason why he now adds, his hand should be against the false prophets. The
hand is sometimes taken for a blow: but because God sees the impious torpid amidst
their sins, he says that he would not only be their enemy and an avenger of his glory,
but he brings forward his own hand into the midst. It follows, they shall not be in
the counsel of my people. Some explain the noun ‫,סוד‬ sod, more subtlety than they
need for that experience of God which is offered to the elect for their salvation. But
this explanation is forced, for they are deceived in thinking that the Prophet’s
meaning is different in the second clause, where he adds, they shall not be written in
the list of the house of Israel: he repeats the same thing in different words: in the
first place he had said, they should not be in the secret of the people: for ‫,סוד‬ sod,
signifies a secret, but it is taken for counsel: they shall not be therefore in the
assembly of the people: afterwards he adds, they shall not be in the catalogue of the
57

58. house of Israel. He mentions a catalogue, because judges and others elected to any
office were written in a list. We see, therefore, what the Prophet intends — for I am
compelled to break off here — namely, that those impostors who wished to enjoy the
prophetic title, were altogether without the Church, since God had cast them off.
COKE, "Ezekiel 13:9. They shall not be in the assembly, &c.— They shall not be in
the secret of my people; which is explained by the following words, Neither shall
they enter into the land of Israel. The secret of God was, his purpose to bring back
the exiles of Israel into their own land.
ELLICOTT, "Verse 9
(9) The assembly of my people.—The original word bears also the meanings placed
in the margin, but the sense here is correctly given in the text. The several clauses
are intended to emphasise the utter exclusion of the false prophets from the people
of God: they shall not be in the congregation; their names shall not be written in the
genealogical registers of Israel; they shall not even enter the land when the purified
and repentant people should once more return.
TRAPP, "Verse 9
Ezekiel 13:9 And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that
divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be
written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of
Israel; and ye shall know that I [am] the Lord GOD.
Ver. 9. And my hand shall be upon the prophets] God’s hand is a mighty hand; [1
Peter 5:6] the heaven is spanned by it, the earth held in the hollow of it.
They shall not be in the assembly of my people,] (a) Or, In the secret, or councils;
they shall have no communion with them. A heavy threat; for the communion of
58

59. saints, next unto communion with God, is the greatest comfort here attainable.
Neither shall they be written,] As members of that commonwealth, - much less of the
Jerusalem that is above, [Isaiah 4:4] - but rooted out of the world, written in the
earth (Jeremiah 17:13; see Psalms 69:28).
Neither shall they enter.] They shall never come back out of Babylon, nor enter into
heaven.
POOLE, " Mine hand; my power striking them; so that it shall be evident they fall
under Divine revenge, as Pelatiah, Ezekiel 11:13, and Hananiah, Jeremiah 28:15,16.
Or if they escape this stroke,
they shall not be in the assembly of my people; have no seat among the rulers, nor
voice among the counsellors, nor credit among the judges of my people; but, as false
fellows, teachers of lies, be branded with infamy after the return from captivity. Or,
they shall not be among those that return, dead before, or rejected as dangerous
seducers and blasphemous abusers of the name of God. It may also refer to the
excluding them out of. the assembly of glorified ones in heaven.
Neither shall they be written; registered among those that return, of which registry
Ezra 2:1,2, but blotted out for their impiety; this literally: mystically, it may be an
obliterating or blotting them out of the book of life; they shall not be written with
such as shall escape spiritually, they shall not be found among the elect that shall
live for ever.
Neither shall they ever more come into the land of Israel, not survive the captivity.
Or, with disgrace cast off, shall die in strange lands. In brief, the approaching
prosperity which they promise the people none shall see, Jeremiah 29:21,32; but the
prosperity after seventy years’ captivity, which I promise, my people shall see, but
these false prophets never shall see, my hand shall be so against them. They shall not
be written in the book of eternal life, which is written for the just ones of the house
59

60. of Israel, saith the Chaldee paraphrast. See Ezekiel 12:15.
WHEDON, " 9. Mine hand shall be upon the prophets — Ezekiel knew what it was
to feel the weight of Jehovah’s hand (Ezekiel 3:14). The controlling hand which
forces the obedient prophet to do hard tasks will fall still heavier upon the
disobedient. He who will not wear the gentle yoke of constraint must drag “as with a
cart rope” his load of responsibility and sorrow. These false prophets, now praised
for their patriotic citizenship, upon the return from the captivity shall not sit in the
“council” as they do now, nor shall their names appear in the national register (Ezra
2:62). They boast of their special patriotism, but events shall prove that they are not
even true Israelites. They will go into captivity, but they will never return again into
the land of Israel. (See Ezekiel 27:21.)
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:9
Mine hand shall be, etc. After Ezekiel's manner, the thought of verse 6 is repeated in
an altered form in verses 7, 8. What had been a statement appears as a question to
which there could be but one answer. The prophet, as it were, cross examines his
rivals. Could they deny the charge? Was not every word of it true? Then, after the
statement of the sin of the false prophets, comes the proclamation of the
punishment. The hand of Jehovah would be upon them for evil and not for good. In
the assembly of my people. The Hebrew word indicates not a large popular
gathering, but a secret council of those who deliberate together to carry out their
plans (Psalms 89:7; Psalms 111:1; Jeremiah 6:11). The prophets who had acted
together, and been looked up to by the people as forming such a council, should lose
that position of authority. The words that follow point to a yet lower degradation.
They should be in the strictest sense of the word excommunicated. The city of
Jerusalem, perhaps every city of Judah, had its register of citizens. In such a register
were inscribed also the names of proselytes of other races (Psalms 87:6), and so men
came to think of a like register as kept by the King of kings, containing the names of
those who were heirs of the "life" of the true Israel (Exodus 32:32; Isaiah 4:3;
Daniel 12:1). In neither of those registers, the earthly and the heavenly (but stress is
probably laid upon the former), shall the false prophets find a place. Ezra 2:62 gives
an example of the use made of such registers on the return from the Captivity. One
notes the contrast between the "my people" which recognizes Israel as still the
heritage of Jehovah, and the "thy people" used in Ezekiel 3:11 of the rebellious
60

61. house of the Captivity. For the false prophets there should be no return to the land
of Israel such as that which the prophet anticipated for the faithful and the penitent
(Ezekiel 37:21; comp. Isaiah 57:13). Here there is no specific mention of the name
being struck out. The prophet contemplates a new register, in which their names
will never even have appeared.
10 “‘Because they lead my people astray, saying,
“Peace,” when there is no peace, and because,
when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with
whitewash,
BARNES, "Wall - A partition wall; in Eze_13:12, the word used is the usual word for
the outer wall of a house or city. The fall of the partition wall would perhaps involve the
fall of the whole house.
Untempered morter - Or, whited plaster, employed to patch up a wall, so as to give
it an appearance (without the reality) of strength and beauty. Compare Mat_23:27. In
the original there is a play upon a word rendered “folly” in Jer_23:13.
CLARKE, "One built up a wall - A true prophet is as a wall of defense to the
people. These false prophets pretend to be a wall of defense; but their wall is bad, and
their mortar is worse. One gives a lying vision, another pledges himself that it is true;
and the people believe what they say, and trust not in God, nor turn from their sins. The
city is about to be besieged; it needs stronger fortifications than what it possesses. The
prophet should be as a brazen wall for its defense; and such my prophets would have
been had the people received the word from my mouth. But ye have prevented this by
your lying vanities; and when you have perverted the people, you pretend to raise up a
rampart of specious prophecy, full of fine promises, for their defense. What one false
prophet says, another confirms; and this is like daubing over a bad wall with bad mortar,
which prevents its blemishes and weaknesses being discovered, though it has no
tendency to strengthen the building.
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62. GILL, "Because, even because they have seduced my people,.... Who were so by
profession; otherwise such who are truly the people of God, though they may be
deceived in civil things, yet not in religious matters, at least not totally and finally; in this
sense it is impossible to deceive the elect of God; but as false teachers are deceivers, they
lie in wait, and use all means to deceive them, and do deceive nominal professors, which
is resented by the Lord; and this is given as a reason of their punishment; and which is
doubled, as in Lev_26:43; to show the heinousness of their sin, and the certainty of their
punishment:
saying, peace, and there was no peace; giving out that peace would be made with
the king of Babylon; that the captives would return to their own land, where, with those
that were in it, they would enjoy great prosperity; when no such thing came to pass, nor
would; but the contrary was certain, by the predictions of the true prophets sent by the
Lord:
and one built up a wall; one of the false prophets, and of the chief of them, gave out
that Jerusalem would continue a walled city, and abide firm and impregnable against the
Chaldean army, and would never be taken:
and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar; others of the false prophets,
observing that what the first had delivered out was pleasing to the people, not only
assented to it, but strongly affirmed it; and, with colourings and specious arguments,
made it look more plausible and probable; when, alas! the whole was no other than like
putting a parcel of loose stones or bricks together, and throwing some slushy stuff upon
them, as, moistened sand without lime, or clay without straw, as the Targum and
Vulgate Latin versions render it; which would never cement the bricks or stones
together. R. Joseph Kimchi interprets it of bricks not burnt: so false teachers imitate the
true ministers of the word, in preaching peace; but then they do not direct aright where
it is to be had, which is only in Christ; or the proper persons, sinners pressed with the
guilt of sin, and seeking for ease and peace in a right way; but publish it to those to
whom it does not belong, for there is no peace to the wicked; and put them upon making
peace themselves by their own works of righteousness, and their legal repentance, and
outward humiliation; or promise it to them, though they have no faith in Christ, and are
not sensible of their sin and danger: these men are builders, but not wise master
builders; they do not build upon the foundation Christ, but build up a wall without him;
leaving him out of the building who is the chief corner stone; deliver out some loose and
unconnected doctrines, that are not according to the Scriptures, nor consistent with each
other; and encourage the people to perform some loose duties and cold services, without
the cement of faith and love; and which is no other than building upon the sand, or with
it; though they fancy it to be a wall, a shelter, and protection to them, from the wrath
and justice of God, and by which they shall climb up to heaven; which will prove a
bowing wall, and a tottering fence; and in these mistakes they are buoyed up by false
teachers, and are flattered as being in a fair way for eternal happiness.
HENRY, "We have here more plain dealing with the false prophets, and some further
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63. articles of their doom. We have seen the people made ashamed of the false prophets
(though sometimes they had been fond of them) and casting them away, as they shall do
their false gods, with indignation; now here we find them as much ashamed of their false
prophecies, which they had sometimes depended upon with much assurance. Observe,
I. How the people are deceived by the false prophets. Those flatterers seduce them,
saying, Peace, and there was no peace, Eze_13:10. They pretended to have seen visions
of peace, Eze_13:16. But that could not be, for there was no peace, saith the Lord God.
There was no prosperity designed for them, and therefore there could be no ground for
their security; yet they told them that God was at peace with them, and had mercy in
reserve for them, and that the war they were engaged in with the Chaldeans should soon
end in an honourable peace, and their land should enjoy a happy repose and tranquillity.
They told the idolaters and other sinners that there was neither harm nor danger in the
way they were in. Thus they seduced God's people; they put a cheat upon them, led them
into mistakes, and drew them aside out of that way of repentance and reformation which
the other prophets were endeavouring to bring them into. Note, Those are the most
dangerous seducers who suggest to sinners that which tends to lessen their dread of sin
and their fear of God. Now this is compared to the building of a slight rotten wall, or,
according to our Saviour's similitude, which is to the same purport with this (Mat_7:26),
the building of a house upon the sand, which seems to be a shelter and protection for a
while, but will fall when a storm comes. One false prophet built the wall, set up the
notion that God was not at all displeased with Jerusalem, but that the city should be
confirmed in its flourishing state, and be victorious over the powers that now threatened
it. This notion was very pleasing, and he that started it made himself very acceptable by
it and was caressed by every body, which invited others to say the same. They made the
matter look yet more plausible and promising; they daubed the wall, which the first had
built, but it was with untempered mortar, sorry stuff, that will not bind nor hold the
bricks together; they had no ground for what they said, nor had it any consistency with
itself, but was like ropes of sand. They did not strengthen the wall, were in no care to
make it firm, to see that they went upon sure grounds; they only daubed it to hide the
cracks and make it look well to the eye. And the wall thus built, when it comes to any
stress, much more to any distress, will bulge and totter, and come down by degrees.
Note, Doctrines that are groundless, though ever so grateful, that are not built upon a
scripture foundation nor fastened with a scripture cement, though ever so plausible, ever
so pleasing, are not of any worth, nor will stand men in any stead; and those hopes of
peace and happiness which are not warranted by the word of God will but cheat men,
like a wall that is well daubed indeed, but ill-built.
JAMISON, "Because, even because — The repetition heightens the emphasis.
Peace — safety to the nation. Ezekiel confirms Jer_6:14; Jer_8:11.
one — literally, “this one”; said contemptuously, as in 2Ch_28:22.
a wall — rather, “a loose wall.” Ezekiel had said that the false prophets did not “go up
into the gaps, or make up the breaches” (Eze_13:5), as good architects do; now he adds
that they make a bustling show of anxiety about repairing the wall; but it is without right
mortar, and therefore of no use.
one ... others — besides individual effort, they jointly co-operated to delude the
people.
daubed ... with untempered mortar — as sand without lime, mud without straw
63

64. [Grotius]. Fairbairn translates, “plaster it with whitewash.” But besides the hypocrisy of
merely outwardly “daubing” to make the wall look fair (Mat_23:27, Mat_23:29; Act_
23:3), there is implied the unsoundness of the wall from the absence of true uniting
cement; the “untempered cement” answering to the lie of the prophets, who say, in
support of their prophecies, “Thus saith the Lord, when the Lord hath not spoken”
(Eze_22:28).
CALVIN, “Here Ezekiel pursues the same metaphor which he had used with a very
slight difference, for there is such an agreement that the connection is apparent
between the former and the present sentence. He had said that the false prophets
did not go up to the breaches, and did not restore the hedges of the house of Israel:
we have explained these words thus — teachers who discharge their duties honestly
and sincerely are like builders, who, if they see a breach in a wall, instantly and
carefully repair it: they are like gardeners who do not allow either a field or a
vineyard to be exposed to wild beasts. As, then, he had formerly said that these false
prophets did not go up to the breach through their not being affected by the
dispersion of the people, but knowingly and willingly betrayed the people’s safety
through open and gross perfidy; so also he now says, that they built a wall indeed,
but without mortar. The word ‫,תפל‬ thephel, “untempered,” is variously explained,
but I doubt not the Prophet meant sand without lime. Jerome thinks it to be mortar
without chaff; but my view is better, namely, that they built only in appearance; and
in this the image which the Prophet now uses differs from the preceding one. He had
said before, they did not go up to the breach; he now grants them more — that they
really built; but it is easy to reconcile the two assertions: since they did not go up to
the breach to provide safety for the people; and yet they feigned themselves anxious,
and seemed as if they wished to restore the ruins. But while the Prophet merely
grants their intention, he adds that they were bad builders, just as if any one should
heap together a quantity of sand, and moisten it with water, yet it would profit him
nothing; for the sand disperses by itself, and grows solid by lime alone, and thus
becomes cement. Therefore the Prophet means that those impostors accomplish
nothing seriously; and when they show great anxiety and care, that is in vain,
because they only heap up sand and dust when they ought to temper the mortar
with sand and lime. We understand then how these two places mutually agree:
because, even because they have deceived my people: this is without a figure. Now
he adds figuratively, they have built up a wall, but they have daubed it only with
untempered mortar, that is, sand.
The kind of fallacies are now mentioned: because they said, Peace, when there was
no peace. We yesterday reminded you that impostors have something in common
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65. with God’s true servants, just as Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. (2
Corinthians 11:14.) We know that all the prophets were always messengers of
peace: now this agrees chiefly with the good news, How beautiful are the feet of
those who preach the gospel of peace. (Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:15.) Whenever God
commends his own word, he adds its character of peace. For when he is justly at
enmity with us, there is one way of reconciliation and remission of sin. This springs
from the preaching of the gospel. The prophets formerly discharged this duty; and
when these impostors strove to deceive the people, they stripped off their masks and
deceived the simple through the difficulty of discerning between themselves and the
true servants of God. And yet, as we said yesterday, no one could be deceived except
through their own fault. For God, indeed, offers us peace, and invites us to
reconciliation by his own prophets; but on this condition, that we make war with
our own lusts. This, then, is one way of being at peace with God by becoming
enemies to ourselves, and fighting earnestly against the depraved and vicious desires
of the flesh. But how do false prophets preach peace? Why! so that miserable and
abandoned men may sleep in the midst of their sins. We must diligently attend, then,
to this difference, that we may safely embrace the peace which is offered us by true
prophets, and be on our guard against the snares of those who fallaciously flatter us
with peace, because under promise of reconciliation they foment hostilities between
God and ourselves.
COFFMAN, "Verse 10
"Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying Peace, and there is no
peace; and when one buildeth up a wall, behold, they daub it with untempered
mortar. Say unto them that daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall; there
shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy
wind shall rend it. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is
the daubing wherewith ye daubed it? Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will
even rend it with a stormy wind in my wrath; and there shall be an overflowing
shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it. So will I break
down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to
the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be uncovered; and it shall fall, and
ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.
Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it
with untempered mortar; and I will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they
that daubed it; to wit, the prophets of Israel that prophesy concerning Jerusalem,
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66. and that see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord Jehovah."
THE SECOND DENUNCIATION OF FALSE PROPHETS
The utter lack of integrity among the false prophets is here illustrated by the work
of a foolish, incompetent builder who uses worthless mortar in the construction of a
wall. We do not know exactly what the "untempered mortar" actually was, but it
makes no difference. Whatever it was, it was worthless, and the first shower totally
ruined it; but God promised them that it would be no ordinary shower at all, but an
"overflowing one" in God's anger, with great hailstones and a tornadic wind. Their
wall would fall ... fall ... fall ... come down to the ground... be consumed ... its
foundation uncovered ... and even. the builders of it consumed with it!
This is not a reference to any literal wall, but to the rotten, worthless, and
unbelieving "prophecies" these sinful men were preaching in place of the true Word
of God; and we must add that there is today, in our society, a lot of daubing going
on with the same kind of untempered mortar! Keil identified the daubing with
untempered mortar as, "A figurative description of deceitful flattery and hypocrisy,
the covering up of inward corruption with outward appearances, as in Matthew
23:27, and Acts 23:3."[8]
COKE, "Verse 10
Ezekiel 13:10. And one built up a wall— "The false prophets have deceived my
people, by telling them that none of those judgments should overtake them which
Jeremiah and the other prophets had foretold; and instead of providing such a
defence and bulwark as might secure the people against the judgment threatened
them, they raised only a slight fence, without any cement to strengthen it; that is to
say, they applied slight and palliating remedies to public calamities, which will
never give true peace to the consciences of men, nor be of any service to them." The
apostrophe to the hail-stones, in the next verse, is noble and sublime.
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67. ELLICOTT, "(10) One built up a wall.—The original word is used for a partition
wall—of course a comparatively slight wall—as noted in the margin; in Ezekiel
13:12, however, the ordinary word for an outer, or a city wall, is used. One of the
false prophets would build a wall, set up of his own device—some vision as a defence
against the warnings of calamity; and his fellows would join in his deceit by
covering this wall “with untempered mortar.” The word is not the usual one for
plaster, and indeed is used in this sense only in these verses and in Ezekiel 22:28.
Elsewhere, the word is used in Job 6:6 = unsavoury, Lamentations 2:14= foolish
things, and a closely-related form in Jeremiah 23:13=folly (marg., an absurd thing).
Here (and also in Ezekiel 13:11; Ezekiel 13:14-15) it must mean plaster, but the use
of the word elsewhere shows plainly enough what sort of plaster is intended. Calvin
understands it of mortar mixed with sand and water only, the lime being left out. It
is still a common practice in the East, as it has always been, to cover over their walls
with stucco. In this case the other false prophets are represented as joining with the
one who built the wall by covering over its weaknesses and defects with a fair-
seeming plaster. (Comp. Matthew 23:27; Acts 23:3.) They helped on the delusion by
giving it the weight of their influence, and persuading the people to believe a lie.
TRAPP, "Verse 10
Ezekiel 13:10 Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace;
and [there was] no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with
untempered [morter]:
Ver. 10. Because, even because.] Heb., For that, and for that; an angry epizeuxis. (a)
See Ezekiel 13:8.
Saying, Peace, peace.] Making all fair weather before them, whenas the storm of
God’s wrath (never to be blown over) was bursting out upon them.
And one built up a wall.] Ipse oedificabat parietem; one of the devil’s chief dirt-
daubers, such as was Shemaiah, Hananiah, &c., [Jeremiah 29:31] who, together
with their women upholsterers that sewed pillows to all arm holes, [Ezekiel 13:18]
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68. made foul work, and did much mischief among God’s people; like as do the Jesuits
and Jesuitists (into whom all the old seducers have fled and hid themselves) at this
day.
And, lo, others daubed it.] By cunning collusion they plastered and parjetted over
the mud walls that was so set up. Ita extruunt illi vel potius destruunt ecclesiam Dei;
{ b} such proper builders were these. Like unto whom are the Popish priests, who
bring the poor people into a fool’s paradise, and such idle ministers among us as
shoot off at best, a few popguns against gross sins; or when they have done their
worst at it, lick them whole again with, I hope better things of you, or, I hope there
are none such here, &c. Many silly people also judge themselves honest because the
daubing minister will give them the beggarly passport, and so die like lambs, being
woefully cheated, and willing to be so. [Jeremiah 5:31 Matthew 24:11]
With untempered mortar.] Which will make but a bulging wall, not like to stand
long.
POOLE, " The verse is a transition to a new subject, or rather to a new manner of
discovering and condemning the sin of the false prophets.
They have seduced my people; made my people to err, both in their apprehension of
their sin and danger, and of my displeasure and threats, as if all were less than it
was, and there needed no repentance, or submission to the Babylonish king.
Peace; all will be well; no war, or else victory; no more going into captivity, but a
speedy return of those that are in captivity: when nothing of all this, but the
contrary, was to be told them; universal calamity was at the door, and these varlets
promise universal tranquillity and plenty.
One; some one or other chief among the false prophets, as Hananiah, Jeremiah
28:15, and Shemaiah, Jeremiah 29:31, or Ahab son of Kolaiah, Jeremiah 29:21,22.
When the state of the church was shattered and ready to fall, these chief false
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69. prophets would undertake to repair and build it, but indeed all was a mere
contrived cheat, like as if a pretended architect should promise to build a wall
substantial and sound, but a pack of deceitful builders in confederacy with this one
set to laying the stones, and then with dirt instead of mortar, with melting and
dissolving mire instead of holding and well-tempered cement, daub the wall. So the
chief seducers cry, Peace, peace, and all the kennel of lesser cheats follow full cry,
Peace, peace. Within two years shall the king of Babylon cease, saith one, Jeremiah
28:11, and all the inferior prophets applaud the conjecture, and persuade the people
to believe it; but the end will evince them liars, as in the following verse.
WHEDON, " 10. One built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered
mortar — Literally, it [the people] buildeth up a little wall, and they [the prophets]
daub it with whited plaster. The people, believing that no danger is ahead, build
their defenses carelessly and the false prophets approve the policy. They whitewash
the actions of the godless government officials and declare that the city is perfectly
safe. But in vain do they seek with their whited plaster to hide the imperfections of
the city wall and fill in with mortar what should have been laid with solid stone.
PETT, "Verse 10
“Because, even because they have led my people astray, saying ‘Peace’, and there is
no peace. And when someone builds up a flimsy wall they daub it with whitewash.”
The word for whitewash comes from a root meaning to talk nonsense. Some in
Israel have built up for themselves ideas, empty hopes, which are the equivalent of a
flimsy wall which will not stand the test (compare Ezekiel 13:5 and Ezekiel 13:16)
and the prophets contribute to their folly by whitewashing it to hide the cracks.
What they speak is nonsense. They declare peace, but there will be no peace. They
promise safety and prosperity for Jerusalem when there will be no safety or
prosperity. Thus they lead the people astray.
It is always a temptation to a preacher to speak what people wish to hear, to
reinforce their prejudices, to make them satisfied with a low level life and a lesser
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70. morality. They please men and not God. But such preachers too will be disqualified
by God from His purposes. If we never disturb people we must question our
ministry.
SIMEON, "DELUSIVE CONFIDENCE REPROVED
Ezekiel 13:10-12. Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying,
Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it
with untempered mortar: say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar,
that it shall fall: there shall be an over-flowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones,
shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be
said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?
SO deeply is unbelief rooted in the heart of man, that scarcely any testimony from
God is ever received with the confidence it deserves. This appears throughout all the
sacred history: and our own lives are one continued exemplification of it. To his
people of old God was pleased to give many repeated warnings of the judgments
that were coming upon them: but the assertions of false prophets were always
credited, in opposition to the declarations of God himself. By the Prophet Ezekiel
God forewarned the people of the captivity to which they would soon be reduced by
their Chaldean invaders. He directed the prophet to set before their eyes symbolic
representations of the calamities that awaited them; to dig through the wall of his
house, and carry forth his goods by night, and to eat bread, and drink water, with
quaking and trembling [Note: See the whole preceding chapter.]. But false prophets
persuaded the people that they had no cause for alarm; for that these signs related
to distant times; and that there would soon be an end of the impending dangers. It
seems that some, women, as well as men, conspired thus to counteract the influence
of God’s word upon the people; and that they sewed pillows to the armholes, or
elbows, of persons, and covered their heads with kerchiefs, in order to intimate to
them, that they might repose themselves in perfect ease and safety. To reprove these
persons, and to confirm his former assertions, is the prophet’s object in the chapter
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71. before us. He compares the men to persons building an ill-constructed wall, and
daubing it with untempered mortar, which would be washed away by the first
shower; and to the women he declares, that God would soon tear from the arms of
their deluded followers the emblems of their delusion, and undeceive those whom
they had so fatally led astray [Note: See the whole chapter.].
But it is not our intention to confine our remarks to that particular occasion.
Similar conduct obtains amongst us at this day; and it calls for similar reproof. We
propose therefore to consider,
I. Who are obnoxious to this reproof—
All ranks and orders of men who attempt to invalidate the messages of the Most
High, are guilty of the evil here spoken of. It is justly imputable to
1. Unfaithful ministers—
[Not only amongst the Jews, but even in the Christian Church, there were many,
who, professing themselves to be ambassadors of heaven, were only deceivers of the
people [Note: 2 Corinthians 11:13. Galatians 1:6-8. 1 Timothy 4:1. 2 Peter 2:1-2.].
Their habit has at all times been, to “say, Peace, peace, when there was no peace
[Note: ver. 10. with Jeremiah 6:14.]. Would to God that none of this character yet
existed in the world! But are there not still some who keep out of view the desperate
depravity of the human heart, the absolute necessity of a new birth, the impossibility
of being saved by any righteousness of our own, and the duty of giving up ourselves
wholly and unreservedly to God as his redeemed people? — — — Are there not
those who decry these things as enthusiasm; and who tell their hearers, that there is
a smoother and an easier way to heaven than what the Scriptures have marked
out? — — — If then such persons exist, say whether they do not resemble the
prophets and the prophetesses spoken of in our text? — — —]
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72. 2. Unbelieving people—
[Whether seduced by others or not, all are prone of themselves to speak peace unto
their own souls: they will not receive the declarations of God concerning them: they
cannot endure to think that they are in such danger as God’s word declares them to
be; or that the way to heaven is so strait and narrow as his Gospel represents it.
They substitute some terms of their own in the place of those which God has
prescribed; and they persuade themselves that they shall be saved at last, though
they conform themselves in no respect either to the principles or practice of the
Christian code — — — Are not these then daubing their wall with untempered
mortar, and sewing to their arms pillows which shall he rent away? — — —]
Let us then proceed to notice,
II. The warning here given them—
Their labour is, alas! and must ever be, in vain: it will end,
1. In certain and bitter disappointment—
[Their wall will surely fall: and shall it not then be said to them, “Where is the
daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?” Sad indeed will be the reproaches which
both the deceivers and the deceived will cast on each other: the one will say, Why
did ye mislead me? the others will say, Why did ye believe me in preference to the
word of God? Sad reflections too will all cast upon themselves: Why did I set up my
own opinion against the most express declarations of my God? — — — The very
disappointment which the Jews experienced, when Ezekiel’s prophecies were
verified in the destruction of their city, and in their own captivity, will ere long be
realized by all who now buoy themselves up with their own delusions. If they should
entreat their God to give them an opportunity of undeceiving their surviving
relatives, the answer will be, No: they have Moses and the Prophets; and if they will
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73. not attend to their voice, they must receive their deserved recompence.]
2. In irremediable and endless ruin—
[No further means of salvation will be afforded them. Their day of grace is
irrecoverably gone: their state is fixed for ever. O to what anguish of heart are they
now a prey! What weeping, what wailing, what gnashing of teeth do they now
experience, under a sense of God’s wrath, and in the prospect of its everlasting
duration! This must assuredly be the end of all our self-deception. As “Ezekiel was a
sign to the Jews [Note: Ezekiel 12:14.],” so have we signs in plenty, that the
threatened vengeance shall come [Note: 1 Corinthians 10:5-11. 2 Peter 2:4-9. Jude,
ver. 6, 7. “Set forth for an example.”], and that they who will not believe God’s word
shall find it true at the last [Note: Jeremiah 44:28.] — — —]
Address—
1. To careless sinners—
[You will persuade yourselves that no evil consequence shall arise to you from your
neglect of God and of your own souls. But will God falsify his word to save you? Do
not entertain so vain, so impious, a thought. He will not, he cannot, deny himself:
nor shall one jot or tittle of his word ever fail — — —]
2. To self-complacent formalists—
[You profess to reverence the word of God, and to comply with its commands: but,
whilst you rest in mere forms and ceremonies of religion, you greatly err. God
requires the religion of the heart: you must have “the power of godliness as well as
its form.” The wall that you are constructing may look fair to the eye; but it will not
stand: it is raised on a sandy foundation: it is formed of bad materials: it wants the
cement of the Spirit: the showers shall soon wash off its external covering; and the
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74. stormy wind shall scatter the loose materials: in the name of God we declare to you,
that “it shall fall.” Nothing will ever stand, but that which is laid on Christ as the
foundation, and has all the graces of the Spirit for its superstructure — — —]
3. To inconsistent professors—
[Be it granted, that, as far as relates to your views of the Gospel, you are right: still
we must look to the effects of the Gospel on your heart and life; and must declare
unto you, that, if you do not manifest by your life and conversation that you have
“the same mind as was in Christ,” you only deceive your own souls: you may have a
faith indeed; but it is no better than the faith of devils. From this point we cannot
recede a hair’s breadth. We do not say that you must possess sinless perfection; for
then who could be saved? But we say, that no sin must have allowed, or habitual,
dominion over you: the right eye, or right hand, if knowingly retained contrary to
the will of God, will as effectually cast you into perdition, as any number of sins
whatever: your condemnation indeed may be increased by a multitude of sins; but it
will not be rendered more certain, than it is by one reigning sin. O that those who
are worldly-minded, or covetous, or proud, or passionate, or impure, or slothful, or
addicted to any one sinful disposition, would consider this! God says, By their fruits
ye shall know them: and by their fruits they shall be known. If ever we would be
Christ’s, we must “walk as Christ walked.”]
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:10
Peace, when there was no peace. This, as in Micah 3:5; Jeremiah 6:14; Jeremiah
23:17; Zechariah 10:2, was the root evil of the false prophet's work. He lulled men
into a false security, and so narcotized their consciences. One built up a wall. The
imagery starts from the picture of a ruined city already implied in Zechariah 10:4
and Zechariah 10:5, and expands into a parable in which we note a parallelism
With an incisive sarcasm, Ezekiel describes what we should call the "scamp-work"
of their spiritual building. They profess to be "repairers of the breach" (Isaiah
58:12) in the walls of the spiritual Zion, and this is how they set about it. One built
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75. up a wall. This may point to a false prophet, but the "one" (Hebrew, "he") is
probably indefinite, like the French on, equivalent to "some one." Some scheme is
devised, an Egyptian alliance or the like, to which the people look for safety. It is, as
in the margin of the Authorized Version, a "slight wall," such as was used for
partition walls inside houses. They make it do duty as an outside wall (kir in verse
12). It has no sure "footings," and materials and workmanship are alike defective.
The false prophets would smear it over with untempered mortar (the Hebrew word
is found only here and in Ezekiel 22:28, and is probably an example of Ezekiel's
acquaintance with the technical vocabulary of his time)—with a stucco or plaster,
which is hardly better than whitewash, used to hide its detects and give it a
semblance of solidity. They come, that is, with smooth words and promises of peace.
BI 10-12, "One built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar.
The wall daubed with untempered mortar
I. The text speaks of a wall. Men look about them to discover some sort of wall or other
behind which to shelter from conscience and Divine threatening. I suppose this is
because conscience is not quite dead in any man. In some men it has been so drugged
and chloroformed that it never seems to act with anything like vigour, and when it
speaks it is only with a still small voice, and not at all with the thunder which its voice
ought to have to the mind of men; yet that little relic of conscience, which with a
microscope you can detect in all men, needs to be pacified, and men are glad if by any lie,
however barefaced, they can create an excuse by which they may go on quietly in their
sins.
1. Perhaps the greatest wall behind which men shelter themselves is that of utter
indifference to anything like Divine truth. Some silly dancer at the opera, some new
invention, some novel trick of legerdemain, some fresh anything or nothing, and the
world is all agog; but as to things which will outlast sun and moon, and stand fast
when yon blue heaven, like a scroll, has been rolled up and put away—these all-
important things our wiseacres think but trifles, and they continue trampling God’s
eternal truth beneath their feet, as swine do trample pearls, and rushing madly after
the bubbles of this world, as though they were all that men were made to hunt after.
2. Numbers, however, are not quite so stupid, so besotted, so blind, so brutalised as
to put up with this. Like a crying child, their conscience will be heard. Like a horse
leech, it ever cries “Give, give,” and will not be content. Who comes next? Who is the
anointed one of Satan to quiet this spirit? Who will yield a quietus to a mind
alarmed? See the wall of ceremonies behind which many rest so contentedly.
3. You may be building another wall, namely, that of self-righteousness. How many
have been piling up their wall, and gathering their wood, their hay, their stubble,
with which to erect a defence to screen themselves from God by their own doings?
II. Whenever a man tries to build a wall behind which to shelter, he always finds a
volunteer band of ready assistants.
75

76. 1. For instance, a man who is easy in his pleasures, how many will help him to
continue at his ease! “He is right,” says one; “You are a good fellow,” says another;
and they both try to keep him in countenance by their company.
2. Another company of scoffers will loudly boast themselves, and cry, “Yes, you are
all right in continuing in neglect of God and of Divine truth, because the saints are no
better than they should be. I remember what So-and-so did once—he was a deacon;
and I know the inconsistencies of Mr. Zealous, and he is one of the parsons.”
3. A numerous body of daubers gather at the sign of the “Sneerer,” in Atheist Street;
and with their doubts, or their supposed doubts, of inspiration and biblical
authenticity, are ready to daub and plaster any amount of wall an inch thick.
4. If the wall be built of ceremonies, how many are busy daubing that! What
multitudes of books are streaming from the press, books of ability, too, all going to
show that salvation is infallibly connected with a mechanical process, conducted by
specified officials, and not a spiritual work independent of all outward performances!
III. The Word of God declares that this wall will not stand. The wall to which Ezekiel
alludes is one of the cob walls in the East, daubed with bad mortar, which had not been
well tempered, that is to say, not well mixed with the straw which they use in place of the
hair which we use in England; when the rain comes, it softens the whole structure of
such a wall, melts it, and washes it quite away. Such a deluge as that is coming ere long
to try and test every human hope.
1. It comes to some men when they enter upon times of spiritual trial.
2. But if the test come not thus it will usually come at death.
3. And if death does not do it—for some men die like lambs, and like sheep are they
laid in the grave; but the worm shall feed upon them—if death does not do it, the
judgment shall.
IV. If we shall be found lost at the last, it will be an everlasting reproach to us that we
once accepted the false helps of our friends. “Where is the daubing wherewith ye have
daubed it?” That voice may proceed from many lips.
1. It may come from the lips of Jesus. “I said unto you, ‘Come unto Me and live,’ but
you would not come; you refused the refuge which I presented to you, and you chose
your own works, and rested in ceremonies of your own devising, and now where is
the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?”
2. I could imagine such a voice as that coming from a faithful minister, or other
Christian labourer, who may have honestly pointed out to you the one and only way
of salvation.
3. And there shall come another voice, with quite another tone-a hoarse and horrible
voice—a voice full of malice and grim laughter, which shall say, “Where is the
daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?” You shall understand it to be the voice of him
who once deceived you—the fallen spirit, the devil.
4. There shall be heard amidst that thick darkness and horrid gloom, that never shall
be broken by a ray of light, another voice which once you knew. Perhaps the husband
shall hear the voice of the wife, who shall say, “Ah! where is the daubing wherewith
ye have daubed it? You would not let me go to the house of God; you laughed me out
of my religion. I was once a young woman unmarried, who cared for the things of
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77. God in some respects; you courted me and enticed me away from my father’s God,
and then you laughed me out of my prayers and Sabbath worship; you have laughed
me into hell, but you cannot laugh me out of it again.”
5. And then, last of all, your own conscience, from which you never can escape,
which is, perhaps, the worm that never dies, and the flame which kindles the fire of
remorse that never shall be quenched, your conscience will say to you, “Where is the
daubing wherewith you have daubed it?” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Prophets feeble and yielding
The figure incisively describes the futile projects of the people and the feeble flattery and
approval of the prophets. When a weak man cannot originate anything himself, he
acquires a certain credit (at least in his own eyes) by strong approval of the schemes of
others, saying, “Right! I give it my cordial approval, and, indeed, would have suggested
it.” What made the prophets whitewash the wall which the people built was partly the
feeling that from the place they occupied they must do something, and maintain their
credit as leaders even when being led; and partly, perhaps, that, having no higher
wisdom than the mass, they quite honestly approved their policy. Being sharers with
them in the spirit of the time, they readily acquiesced in their enterprises. (A. B.
Davidson, D. D.)
False hopes
I. What are the foundations of this fabric?
1. It is built upon falsehood. Observe, it is here imputed to these false prophets that
they led the people to suppose that their state by nature was not one of enmity with
God,—that, in fact, they were at peace with Him. Now, this falsehood is manifest. We
are not at peace by nature. We all know that God has a strife with man, a righteous
ground of controversy with every man born into the world. Our first conscious
thoughts are those of disaffection and dislike to holiness; and our first voluntary
actions are to take up arms against God. We, then, are not at peace, but at enmity
with God. How was this breach to be made up? Usually, a vanquished foe expects to
buy peace at a large price; but we had nothing to pay. It remained, therefore, that the
benignant Being with whom we had been carrying on this fruitless and ungrateful
warfare should Himself originate a scheme of reconciliation. We know that Christ is
our peace, and our only peace. He brings peace, He preaches peace, He bestows
peace. “To as many as received Him, gave He power to become the sons of God.”
“Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” This is the foundation, and other
can no man lay. He who shall dare to build on any other shall see the fabric perish
before the overflowing shower, and the stormy wind shall rend it.
2. It is not laid deeply enough. In the fourteenth verse it is said, with regard to this
foundation, “The foundation thereof shall be discovered,” laid bare, open to the sight
of the beholder. The image is commonly used in Scripture to denote that which is
superficial and unsound. Everything that is to be firm strikes deeply into the ground.
Job speaks of having “the root of the matter” in himself; and the stony ground,
hearer, fell, we are told, because there was in him no depth of earth. What is the kind
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78. of foundation here spoken of? Doubtless, we must take it as applying here to a
religion which rests upon slight convictions of sin,—little sense of its heinousness
and guilt. The Spirit convinces of sin, to lead to Him that shall take all sin away. The
Spirit of God opens no wounds, except with a view the more effectually and kindly to
bind them up.
3. Another element of this unstable foundation is presumption, an unwarrantable
appropriation of the promises; as if the benefit of an amnesty could be extended to
those who were still in an attitude of rebellion; as if the promises of salvation could
still be held out to those who continued in unrepented sin. This is strongly marked in
the latter part of the twenty-second verse. It may be a grievous error in a teacher,
according to the first part of that verse, to make the hearts of the righteous sad,
whom God hath not made sad; but surely it is a much more grievous error to hold
out the promise of life to those to whom, as yet, God has not given peace. Our Lord
must be our example here.
II. What are the walls of this fabric? In other words, by what supports and excuses do
men keep this unsound and unscriptural hope together? “One built up a wall, and others
daubed it with untempered mortar.” The meaning of the prophet’s allusion will be best
explained by a reference to Jewish domestic architecture. Although hewn stones were
employed for the purpose of very large buildings, for small houses a tile was commonly
used, formed of white clay and baked in the sun. These tiles were cemented together by
mortar, which, as among ourselves, was made to acquire a certain adhesive property by
means of straw and chaff. Travellers tell us that whole villages are formed of houses built
with this white clay or tile, and they tell us, further, that after rain the filth occasioned by
the dissolving of the cement will make the ways in front of the houses perfectly
impassable; whilst, if the mortar which has been used has been very badly tempered,
that is, very imperfectly mixed with the straw or the chaff, it is no uncommon thing to
see the house fall down entirely, under the violence or dissolving action of the rain, the
very effect which we see alluded to in the text. What a picture have we here of the refuges
which worldly men make for themselves against that day, when judgment shall be laid to
the line and righteousness to the plummet! Oh, how many of these slight walls are
people running up every day! There is the wall of evil example, by which a man fortifies
himself in his low standard of personal and practical godliness by what he sees in
someone around him. There is the wall of pretended necessity; the urgent claims of daily
life making it, as he alleges, impossible for him to attend to the cares of his family and
the interests of his soul. There is the wall of constitutional impediment, the pretence that
something in our peculiar temperament and constitution or circumstances makes it so
difficult for us to attend to the things of our salvation. There is the wall of perverted
doctrine, where men, waiting for some impulse from above, knowing that Divine grace
must begin the work, say, they can do nothing themselves, they must wait till God by His
Spirit changes their hearts. And then there is the wall of good intentions, the purpose of
serving God, but not now, the miserable promise that we will give to God the remnant of
our days, that He shall have the reversion of our “convenient season.” Oh, how many of
these flimsy fabrics will fall, and do fall daily, before the first breath of the Divine
displeasure. But observe, further, it is said that when one built the wall, another daubed
it with untempered mortar. This seems to intimate to us that foolish and unconverted
men are in the habit of encouraging each other in their foolish hopes: justifying one
another in their vain excuses; each confirming the reasonableness of the other’s
pretences, and then going away confirmed and strengthened in his own.
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79. III. These false hopes shall be thrown down. This false builder shall wake and see the
crumbling of his own wretched wall; this mere dauber shall see the melting and
dissolving of his own untempered mortar, that God alone may be exalted in that day, and
that every unscriptural and unauthorised, unsanctioned hope may perish. And oh, will
not the weakness and instability of this wall appear before this hurricane of Divine
indignation comes upon us? When the silver cord is loosed, and the golden bowl is
broken; when the pitcher is broken at the fountain, shall we not then perceive that we
have been building upon a treacherous foundation? But then, if we feel it in that day,
what shall we feel in that remoter time, when the storm of the Divine indignation shall
come upon the whole world? (D. Moore, M. A.)
The false prophet
The false prophets are much in evidence up to the point of the fall of Jerusalem. Ezekiel
accuses them of the crime of the hireling shepherd: they used the flock to make wages,
and so became the type for all time of those who make
“The symbols of atoning grace
An office key.”
The false prophet gained favour with the military party in the nation, by his telling
advocacy of a vast and well-prepared army and of brilliant foreign alliances, he won
favour with the clerical party by not demanding too much virtue, either from the
individual or from the State. As a class they had a ready apology for every shifting policy.
True, the apology, although always ready, was only an apology—or, to use the prophet’s
own figure, it was only a daubing of the ill-built wall with untempered mortar (Eze_
13:8-16)—“that is to say, when any project or scheme of policy is being promoted, they
stand by glozing it over with fine words, flattering its promoters, and uttering profuse
assurances of its success.” The daub, in hiding the infamy, hurries the disaster. “Ye, O
great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.” When the scheme has failed,
when God has suddenly intercepted a people’s mad pride, the false prophet may be—
may be—called to account: “Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you,
Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?” But it may happen, in a nation’s
downfall and the daze of its calamity, that the moral collapse is so complete that the man
who daubed the wall escapes unblamed—but not the man who was honest enough to say
plainly from the first that it was a mere daub! But, blamed or not of the men he has
misled, the false prophet shall not go unpunished. “I the Lord will answer him by
Myself.” Above all things, may God’s mercy save us from having, under such conditions,
to bear God’s answer, by Himself! (H. E. Lewis.)
11 therefore tell those who cover it with
whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in
79

80. torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down,
and violent winds will burst forth.
CLARKE, "There shall be an overflowing shower - That shall wash off this bad
mortar; sweep away the ground on which the wall stands, and level it with the earth. In
the eastern countries, where the walls are built with unbaked bricks, desolations of this
kind are often occasioned by tempestuous rains. Of this sort of materials were the walls
of ancient cities made, and hence the reason why no vestige of them remains. Witness
Babylon, which was thus built. See the note on Eze_4:1.
GILL, "Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar,.... The false
prophets, that flattered the people with peace, prosperity, and safety:
that it shall fall; the wall they have built and daubed over; the city of Jerusalem shall
be taken and destroyed; the predictions of the prophets shall prove lies; and the vain
hopes and expectations of the people fail:
there shall be an overflowing shower; that shall wash away the wall with its
untempered mortar; meaning the Chaldean army, compared to an overflowing shower of
rain, for the multitude of men it, and the force, power, and noise, with which it should
come, bearing down all before it; see Isa_8:7;
and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; upon the wall, and break it down: or, "ye, O
great hailstones, shall cause it to fall" (h); or, "I will give great hailstones, and it shall
fall" (i). The word "elgabish", which in some copies is one word, and in others two, as
Kimchi and Ben Melech observe, is either the same with "gabish", which signifies a
precious stone, and is rendered pearl in Job_28:18; or it may be, as it seems to be, an
Arabic word; and Hottinger (k) takes it to be "gypsus", or lime, or the "lapis laminosus",
or slate; so the Lord threatens to rain down lime or slate upon them from heaven, which
should destroy the wall built with untempered mortar:
and a stormy wind shall rend it; this seems to signify the same as the overflowing
shower, the Chaldean army, compared to a strong tempestuous wind; see Jer_4:11; as
the hailstones, may signify the king of Babylon, with his princes, nobles, and generals.
JAMISON, "overflowing — inundating; such as will at once wash away the mere
clay mortar. The three most destructive agents shall co-operate against the wall - wind,
rain, and hailstones. These last in the East are more out of the regular course of nature
and are therefore often particularly specified as the instruments of God’s displeasure
80

81. against His foes (Exo_9:18; Jos_10:11; Job_38:22; Psa_18:12, Psa_18:13; Isa_28:2;
Isa_30:30; Rev_16:21). The Hebrew here is, literally, “stones of ice.” They fall in
Palestine at times an inch thick with a destructive velocity. The personification heightens
the vivid effect, “O ye hail stones.” The Chaldeans will be the violent agency whereby God
will unmask and refute them, overthrowing their edifice of lies.
CALVIN, “How, then, can it happen that we can be at rest while God is opposed to
us? Thou shalt say, therefore, to those who daub with untempered mortar, it shall
fall. Here the Spirit signifies that the false prophets should be subject to the greatest
ridicule, when they shall be convicted by the event, and their is shall be proved by
clear proof. Hence, also, we may gather the utility of the doctrine which Paul
teaches, that we must stand bravely when God gives the reins to impostors to
disturb or disperse the Church. They shall not proceed any further, says he. (2
Timothy 3:9.) He says elsewhere in the same epistle, (2 Timothy 3:13,) They shall
wax worse and worse; that is, as far as God pleases to be patient with them. But
meanwhile the end is at hand, when the Lord shall shame all the impious false
prophets, and detect their ignorance, rashness, and audacity, because they dared to
use his name in offering peace to the reprobate. Thou shalt say, therefore, the wall
shall fall. He speaks here of doctrine. There shall be an overflowing shower, says
he — a desolating rain. Here the Spirit signifies that there shall be a violent
concussion which shall disperse all the artifices of the false prophets, and detect
their frauds, when the Lord should bring on the Chaldaeans, and deliver the city to
them. Hence the same meaning is intended by the shower, by stones, by the rush of a
whirlwind, but it was necessary to express the same thing in many ways, because the
Israelites had grown torpid through their fallacies, and willingly seized upon what
the false prophets said — that God would be propitious to them. After he had
mentioned the shower, he goes on to hailstones. The more probable reading is, Ye, O
great hailstones, shall fall; unless perhaps it is better to take the verb ‫,תפלנה‬
thephelneh, transitively, as I am inclined to do, ye shall make fall. This apostrophe is
emphatic, because God addresses the stones themselves, and thereby obliquely
reproves the sloth of those who thought to escape in safety through their
blandishments. When God, therefore, addresses the stones, he doubtless reproaches
the Israelites for hardening themselves so completely. He adds the violence of
whirlwinds, or of tempests, in the same sense. The violence of the whirlwinds, then,
shall break down or overthrow the wall. In conclusion, Ezekiel teaches that the
doctrine of the false prophets had no need of any other refutation, that the arrival of
the Chaldaeans, and their boasting, is like a storm and whirlwind to devastate the
whole land: and thus he derides those praters who used their tongues so
audaciously: he says that those strangers should come to refute these lies, not by
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82. words only, but by a violent attack. It follows —
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:11 Say unto them which daub [it] with untempered [morter],
that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones,
shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend [it].
Ver. 11. Say unto them.] Tell them so from me, and they may trust to it. Dei dicere
est facere. For God, to say is to do.
That it shall fall.] And the fall of it shall be great, as Matthew 7:27, where our
Saviour seemeth to allude to this text.
There shall be an overflowing shower.] The Chaldean army. [Isaiah 59:19; Isaiah
8:7-8]
Great hailstones.] Sept., λιθους πετροβολους, catapults, battering rams, to make
breaches in stone walls. The Hebrew is Elgabiah, i.e, grandis grandinis lapides, huge
hailstones of God’s own hurling. (a)
POOLE, " Unto them; the meaner and less noted, who follow the arch false
prophets, and are as under-workers in this wall.
It shall fall; most certainly its fall shall be the shame and loss of the builders, and
those that hoped its duration.
An overflowing shower; abundant, violent, and continued showers shall soak into
your wall and dissolve the cement; and this shower is the Babylonish invasion,
which all your provision shall be no more able to withstand, than mire in a wall can
keep the stones together when drenched with showers. I will summon in the storms
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83. of hail, which with mighty stones shall beat upon the ruinous wall.
A stormy wind; a whirlwind, to shake the tumbling stones, which without much
shaking would ere long drop down; but, to hasten the downfall, soaking showers,
storms of hail and violent winds, shall meet; so shall your crazy state, O deceived
Jews, come down to ruin.
PETT, "Verse 11
“Say to those who daub it with whitewash that it will fall. There will be an
overflowing rainstorm, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind will
rend it.”
Yahweh now declares a vivid picture of judgment. The flimsy wall which the
prophets have tried to make respectable will collapse under a great storm. It will be
tested by drenching rain, great hailstones and a stormy wind and will be unable to
stand the test. It can be compared with those who build their lives on sand because
they do not receive the words of Christ (Matthew 7:26-27). They too will be
devastated by the judgment.
Note the change to addressing the hailstones. This vivid way of making things
personal in the middle of a sentence or paragraph is found again and again in
Scripture. Many however repoint the Hebrew to mean ‘and I will cause great
hailstones to fall’.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:11
In words which would almost seem to have been in our Lord's thoughts in Matthew
7:25, we have the picture of an Eastern storm, torrents of rain passing into hail
(LXX; λίθοι πετρόβολοι), accompanied by a tornado of irresistible violence
(compare like pictures in Exodus 9:22; Joshua 10:11; Isaiah 30:30; Isaiah 28:2,
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84. Isaiah 28:17). And when the disaster comes men will turn to those who professed to
be master builders and repairers of the breach, with derision, and ask, "Where is
the daubing wherewith ye have daubed?" And then men shall see that through all
this it is Jehovah's hand that has been working. It is he who "rends" the wall; he
who "brings it down to the ground;" he who "accomplishes his wrath" (Matthew
7:13-15). That shall be the end of the false "visions of peace."
12 When the wall collapses, will people not ask
you, “Where is the whitewash you covered it
with?”
GILL, "Lo, when the wall is fallen,.... Jerusalem is taken:
shall it not be said unto you; the false prophets, by the people who had been
deceived by them:
where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it? what is become of all your
promises of peace, and assurance of safety and prosperity; your smooth words and
plausible arguments; your specious pretences, and flattering prophecies? thus would
they be insulted by those they had deceived, as well as laughed at by such who
disregarded their predictions, and believed the prophets of the Lord.
JAMISON, "shall it not be said — Your vanity and folly shall be so manifested that
it shall pass into a proverb, “Where is the daubing?”
CALVIN, “He confirms the last sentence, namely, that the false prophets would be a
laughing-stock to all when their prophecies and divinations came to nothing, for the
event would show them to be liars. For when the city was taken it sufficiently
appeared that they were the devil’s ministers of deceit, for they were trained in
wickedness and boldness when they put forth the name of God. Now the Prophet
teaches that a common proverb would arise when the wall fell; for by saying, shall it
not be said to them, he signifies that their folly and vanity would be completely
84

85. exposed, so that this proverb should be everywhere current — where is the daubing
with which you daubed it? It follows —
ELLICOTT, "(12) Where is the daubing?—The basis of all their false prophesying
being destroyed by the coming judgments, the folly and falsehood of their words
would be exposed to the eyes of all. As it is said in Ezekiel 13:14, the wall itself being
thrown down to its very foundation, they who have tried to make the people trust in
it shall be overwhelmed in its ruin.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:12 Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you,
Where [is] the daubing wherewith ye have daubed [it]?
Ver. 12. Lo, when the wall is fallen.] As fall it will, and with a force, because made of
ill mortar; and they that stand under it for shelter shall perish, as did sometimes
seven and twenty thousand of Benhadad’s men in Aphek. Vocat autem eloquentiara
secularem et rhetoricam inanem, lutum sine palea, &c., saith Oecolampadius here -
i.e., by untempered mortar is meant worldly eloquence and empty rhetoric in
sermons; this is as sand without lime, or as lime without litter, hair, chaff, or the like
stuff to hold it together.
Where is the daubing?] What is your false doctrine come to? your work is lost, if not
your souls. [1 Corinthians 3:15]
WHEDON, "12. Where is the daubing — Without God and holiness the defenses of
the city are rotten, and the prophet’s work is but the veneer which shall make the
wreck more conspicuous. Many a weak place may be hidden from men’s eyes by the
prophet’s brush, but when God blows against it with his mighty wind there is no
daubing of cracks that can save it.
PETT, "Verse 12
“Lo, when the wall is fallen will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the whitewash with
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86. which you whitewashed it?’ ”
The prophets should consider what will happen when their prophecies prove false.
When the storm washes away the whitewash, and causes the collapse of the wall,
what will they say then when they are questioned about it, as they certainly will be?
13 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord
says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind,
and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain
will fall with destructive fury.
GILL, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... Confirming what he had before bid
the prophet say, Eze_13:11;
I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; stormy winds sometimes rend
rocks asunder, 1Ki_19:11; and much more feeble tottering walls; what is before ascribed
to the stormy wind is said to be done here by the Lord himself, making use of that as an
instrument; stormy winds fulfil his word, Psa_148:8; the cause of which is his wrath,
which made the dispensation, or the invasion of the Chaldean army, the more terrible;
and this is mentioned in all the following clauses:
and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great
hailstones in my fury to consume it; which, coming from the Lord, and attended
with his wrath and fury, must needs bring on utter ruin and destruction. The whole is
paraphrased by the Targum thus,
"and I will bring a mighty king with the force of tempests; and a destroying people as a
prevailing rain in my fury shall come; and kings, who were powerful as hailstones, in
wrath to consume.''
86

87. HENRY 13-16, " How they will be soon undeceived by the judgment of God, which,
we are sure, is according to truth. 1. God will in anger bring a terrible storm that shall
beat fiercely and furiously upon the wall. The descent which the Chaldean army shall
make upon Judah, and the siege which they shall lay to Jerusalem, will be as an
overflowing shower, or inundation (such as Solomon calls a sweeping rain that leaves
no food, Pro_28:3), will bear down all before it, as the deluge did in Noah's time: You, O
great hailstones! shall fall, the artillery of heaven, every hailstone like a cannon-ball,
battering this wall, and with these a stormy wind, which is sometimes so strong as to
rend the rocks (1Ki_19:11), much more an ill-built wall, Eze_13:11. But that which makes
this rain, and hail, and wind, most terrible is that they arise from the wrath of God, and
are enforced by that; it is that which sends them; it is that which gives them the setting
on (Eze_13:13); it is a stormy wind in my fury, and an overflowing shower in my
anger, and great hailstones in my fury. The fury of Nebuchadnezzar and his princes,
who highly resented Zedekiah's treachery, made the invasion very formidable, but that
was nothing in comparison with God's displeasure. The staff in their hand is my
indignation, Isa_10:5. Note, An angry God has winds and storms at command
wherewith to alarm secure sinners; and his wrath makes them frightful and forcible
indeed; for who can stand before him when he is angry? 2. This storm shall overturn
the wall: it shall fall, and the wind shall rend it (Eze_13:11), the hailstones shall
consume it (Eze_13:13); I will break it down (Eze_13:14) and bring it to the ground, so
that the foundation thereof shall be discovered; it will appear how false, how rotten it
was, to the prophetical reproach of the builders. When the Chaldean army has made
Judah and Jerusalem desolate then this credit of the prophets, and the hopes of the
people, will both sink together; the former will be found false in flattering the people and
the latter foolish in suffering themselves to be imposed upon by them, and so exposed to
so much the greater confusion, when the judgment shall surprise them in their security.
Note, Whatever men think to shelter themselves with against the judgments of God,
while they continue unreformed, will prove but a refuge of lies and will not profit them
in the day of wrath. See Isa_28:17. Men's anger cannot shake that which God has built
(for the blast of the terrible ones is but as a storm against the wall, which makes a great
noise, but never stirs the wall; see Isa_25:4), but God's anger will overthrow that which
men have built in opposition to him. They and all their attempts, they and all the
securities wherein they intrench themselves, shall be as a bowing wall and as a
tottering fence (Psa_62:3, Psa_62:10); and when their vain predictions are disproved,
and their vain expectations disappointed, then it will be discovered that there was no
ground for either, Hab_3:13. The day will declare what every man's work is, and the fire
will try it, 1Co_3:13. 3. The builders of the wall, and those that daubed it, will
themselves be buried in the ruins of it: It shall fall, and you shall be consumed in the
midst thereof, Eze_13:14. And thus the threatenings of God's wrath, and all the just
intentions of it, shall be accomplished to the uttermost, both upon the wall and upon
those that have daubed it, Eze_13:15. The same judgments that will prove the false
prophets to be false will punish them for their falsehood; and they themselves shall be
involved in the calamity which they made the people believe there was no danger of, and
become monuments of that justice which they bade defiance to. Thus, if the blind lead
the blind, both the blind leaders and the blind followers will fall together into the ditch.
Note, Those that deceive others will in the end prove to have deceived themselves; and
no doom will be more fearful than that of unfaithful ministers, that flattered sinners in
their sins. 4. Both the deceivers and the deceived, when they thus perish together, will
justly be ridiculed and triumphed over (Eze_13:12): When the wall has fallen shall it not
87

88. be said unto you, by those that gave credit to the true prophets, and feared the word of
the Lord, “Now where is the daubing wherewith you have daubed the wall? What has
become of all the fine soft words and fair promises wherewith you flattered your wicked
neighbours, and all the assurances you gave them that the troubles of the nation should
soon be at an end?” The righteous shall laugh at them, the righteous God shall,
righteous men shall, saying, Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, Psa_
52:6, Psa_52:7. I also will laugh at your calamity, Pro_1:26. They will say unto you
(Eze_13:15), “The wall is no more, neither he that daubed it; your hopes have vanished,
and those that supported them, even the prophets of Israel,” Eze_13:16. Note, Those
that usurp the honours that do not belong to them will shortly be filled with the shame
that does.
JAMISON, "God repeats, in His own name, as the Source of the coming calamity,
what had been expressed generally in Eze_13:11.
CALVIN, “He still pursues the same sentiment; but he says he will send forth
storms and hail, and a whirlwind. He formerly spoke of hail, and showers, and
violent storms; but he now says, that those winds, storms, and showers should be at
hand to obey him. We see, therefore, that this verse does not differ from the former,
unless in God’s showing more clearly that he would send forth storms, whirlwind,
and hail to overthrow the empty building which the false prophets had raised. It
follows —
COKE, "Verse 13
Ezekiel 13:13. I will even rend it, &c.— The Chaldee paraphrast expounds this
passage in the following manner, as prophetical of the destruction of Jerusalem by
the Chaldean army: "I will bring a mighty king, with the force of a whirlwind, a
destroying people resembling an over flowing storm, and powerful princes like great
hailstones."
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD I will even rend [it]
with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine
anger, and great hailstones in [my] fury to consume [it].
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89. Ver. 13. I will even rend it with a stormy wind.] Vento turbinum; with a whirlwind
or hurricane. See Isaiah 25:4; Isaiah 29:6, Jeremiah 23:19.
And great hailstones in my fury.] Thrice in this one Ezekiel 13:11 : is fury
threatened, so hot is God’s displeasure against seducers.
POOLE, "Verse 13
This confirms what was said Ezekiel 13:11, where it is explained. This verse addeth
that God will do this by his hand, and in anger and fury, taking vengeance on this
scoffing, atheisticaI, and secure generation in his just displeasure; he will execute
the fierceness of his anger upon prince, prophets, people, city, and all their
confederates.
PETT, "Verses 13-16
“Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my
anger, and there will be drenching rain in my fury, and great hailstones in anger to
consume it. So will I break down the wall which you have daubed with whitewash,
and bring it down to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare, and it will
fall, and you will be consumed in its midst. And you will know that I am Yahweh.
Thus will I accomplish my anger on the wall, and on those who have daubed it with
whitewash, and I will say to you, ‘The wall is no more, nor those who daubed it’,
that is, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see
visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, says the Lord Yahweh.”
Notice the continual repetition which is so much a mark of Hebrew literature. Once
again the picture of the great storm and its effects is used and amplified, with the
whitewash completely washed off, the wall crashing down, and the very foundations
being laid bare. Platitudes and superficiality will not stand the test of judgment.
Note also the stress on Yahweh’s anger and fury. When men refuse to acknowledge
God’s holiness and proclaim a low immorality, they become the objects of His anger,
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90. that is, of His implacable attitude towards sin. And His judgments will then reveal
what He is, will reveal His holiness and His demand for response to His ways.
And as the wall crashes down, so will the prophets. And this is a prophecy
concerning Jerusalem and its future. The present lives of those who live there are
built on lies, and the prophecies of peace are gross deceit. For Jerusalem is doomed,
and with it the false prophets. Note the stress on the fact that this is the work of God
Himself. It is twice emphasised that these are the words of Yahweh, and once that it
will reveal that He is Yahweh (twice if we go back to Ezekiel 13:9). In all that is to
happen they are to realise that it is Yahweh Who is at work.
14 I will tear down the wall you have covered with
whitewash and will level it to the ground so that
its foundation will be laid bare. When it[b] falls,
you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that
I am the Lord.
GILL, "So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered
mortar,.... Which is repeated and expressed in these words, both for the sake of
confirmation and explanation of what is before said:
and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be
discovered; meaning the city of Jerusalem, and by these phrases declaring the utter
destruction of it; whereby also would be discovered the vain assurances and lying
predictions of the false prophets, and which would appear to be entirely groundless: so
the Targum,
"and I will destroy the city in which ye have prophesied false prophecies; and I will cause
it to fall to the ground, and its foundations shall be discovered:''
90

91. and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst of it; the false prophets
perished in the destruction of Jerusalem, and not one of them escaped:
and ye shall know that I am the Lord; who is true to his word, and able to
accomplish it, whether of punishment or of threatening.
JAMISON, "The repetition of the same threat (see on Eze_13:11) is to awaken the
people out of their dream of safety by the certainty of the event.
foundation — As the “wall” represents the security of the nation, so the “foundation”
is Jerusalem, on the fortifications of which they rested their confidence. Grotius makes
the “foundation” refer to the false principles on which they rested; Eze_13:16 supports
the former view.
CALVIN, “This verse ought to be united with the other: God says, I will throw
down the wall. For the false prophets had acquired so much favor, that their
boasting was as much esteemed as an oracle. Hence the people were persuaded that
what even these impostors dreamt was uttered by God. Since, therefore, they had so
bound men’s minds to themselves, the Prophet was obliged to inveigh vehemently
against those impostures, since he would not have succeeded by simple language.
This language, indeed, may seem superfluous; but if any one considers how greatly
these miserable exiles were deluded by the false prophets, he will easily acknowledge
that God does not repeat the same thing so often in vain: as in this place he brings
forward nothing new; but he so inculcates what we have already seen as to confirm
it. I will pull down, therefore, the wall which you have daubed with untempered
mortar, and I will lay it low on the ground, and its foundation shall be uncovered, or
discovered. Here the Prophet signifies that God would so lay bare the fallacies of
those who had deceived the people with vain hopes, that no disguise should remain
for them, but their disgrace should be plain to every one. Now, such was the
shamelessness of these impostors, that if they were convicted on one point, yet they
did not desist on that account, but took credit to themselves if anything turned out
more fortunately than they could expect, (19) as if they had not prophesied in vain,
while a single thing came true. Since, therefore, the impious so turned their backs
when God detected their folly, the Prophet adds, that the false prophets would have
nothing left, because God will not only overthrow whatever they seemed to build,
but he will uncover even the foundations, so that the people may understand that
there was not a scruple or the least particle of truth in them.
And it shall fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. He had just said that
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92. it should be ruinously consumed: hailstones, he said, should fall to consume it; by
which word he understood that the final slaughter should be so severe that no hope
should be left. For as long as Jerusalem stood, the Israelites always look forward to
a return. But when they saw the kingdom not only weakened, but utterly destroyed,
the temple overthrown, and the city ruined, whenever they heard of their dreadful
dispersion, not the slightest remnant of hope survived. Now this consumption is
transferred to the false prophets. As that consumption was final, and without a
gleam of hope, ye shall be consumed, says he,in the midst of it, and ye shall know
that I am Jehovah. He does not inculcate this particular so often in vain; but he
inveighs with indignation against the wicked audacity of the false prophets, who
dared so petulantly to oppose themselves to the true servants of God, and to assume
his name, and to trifle with him like children. Such is the prodigious madness of
mortals who dare to set themselves against God: for this reason, he says, they shall
at length perceive with whom they have to do. It follows —
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:14 So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with
untempered [morter], and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation
thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst
thereof: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.
Ver. 14. So that the foundation thereof shall be discovered.] So that all men shall see
your falsehoods. See 2 Timothy 3:9, Revelation 17:16. The old whore is first made
naked and then desolate. Mr Philpot, martyr, dealt plainly by the Popish prelates in
open convocation when he said to them, Before God ye are all bare arsed. God hath
detected you, &c. (a)
And ye shall be consumed.] See on Ezekiel 13:12.
POOLE, " This verse with very little variation repeats the same dreadful procedure
of God against this people, and these false prophets, and their false, ill-grounded
confidences. And this repeating these things is to give us to know the certainty of the
thing, the terror wherewith God will do it, and the stupidity of the Jews bewitched
by the flatteries of their false prophets.
I will break down the wall; pull it down stone by stone; level it with the ground. The
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93. unsoundness of the foundation, whatever it may seem to be,
shall be discovered to every one that will look on it, and this to the utter shame of
the builders.
And ye, who deceive and are deceived by it, shall perish in the midst thereof. So all
that hearkened to these false prophets, rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, fortified
the city, and obstinately stood it out, fell with the ruins of the city, and perished, and
then felt the stroke of God’s hand, and truth of his prophet.
WHEDON, " 14. So will I break down the wall — Although it was the Chaldeans
who swept like a flood or a windstorm over Judea, and whose blows fell like
hailstones, yet these were but the agents of Jehovah. It was not because the walls of
the city were fragile, but because the God of the city did not protect it, that it fell
before its enemies.
15 So I will pour out my wrath against the wall
and against those who covered it with whitewash.
I will say to you, “The wall is gone and so are
those who whitewashed it,
GILL, "Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall,.... Or upon the city, as
the Targum; pour out all his indignation, and inflict just punishment upon the city of
Jerusalem and its inhabitants:
and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar; the false
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94. prophets: so the Targum,
"and the false prophets that prophesy in it false prophecies:''
and will say unto you, the wall is no more, neither they that daubed it; neither
the city of Jerusalem, nor the prophets that prophesied of its safety; nor their false
prophecies; nor the vain hopes of the people they fed them with: so the Targum,
"there is no city, nor false prophets.''
CALVIN, “If the inveterate obstinacy of the people had not been known to us,
Ezekiel would seem too verbose, since he might have said in a few words what he
explains at such length. But if we bear in mind the perverse and refractory
disposition of the people, we shall find that there was need of such continual
repetition, I will fulfill, says he, my burning wrath upon the wall; that is, I will show
how detestable and destructive to my people was this doctrine. Hence God fined up
his anger on the wall, when he reduced to nothing all the lies of the false prophets:
afterwards also he attacked them, since the mark of disgrace was attached to their
characters, and this rendered their doctrine detestable: afterwards, says he, I will
say, There is no wall; those who daubed it are not. When God speaks thus, he means
that he will suffer the false prophets to triumph among the people for only a short
time. For even to the destruction of the city and temple they always withstood God’s
servants with a bold forehead, as if they would thrust their horns against God and
his announcements. Let us observe, then, that while Jerusalem was standing, the
appearance of a wall existed; for there was the prop of false doctrine, and the people
fed willingly on such deceits. Their daubing, therefore, stood till it vanished with the
ruin of the city, and then their vanity was proved, for God took vengeance on these
insolent triflers. It follows —
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:15 Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon
them that have daubed it with untempered [morter], and will say unto you, The wall
[is] no [more], neither they that daubed it;
Ver. 15. Thus will I accomplish my wrath.] God’s wrath is dreadful, when let out in
little minums only; but when to be accomplished, who can abide or avoid it?
Neither they that daubed it.] It may very well be that some of these cementaries of
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95. Satan were slain by the people, when once they saw themselves cheated by them into
remediless misery.
POOLE, "Verse 15
Thus, in this dreadful manner, by my hand visible in doing it,
will I fulfil what my prophets foretold, and perform my word and theirs, and fully
pour out my wrath, so that it shall be fully according to the just displeasure they
have provoked in me.
Will say unto you; I will deride them in their ruin, as Psalms 2:4 Proverbs 1:26. God
curseth confidences in an arm of flesh, and will destroy them, for they are set up in
direct opposition to his justice and sovereignty, to his threats and truth of them.
16 those prophets of Israel who prophesied to
Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when
there was no peace, declares the Sovereign
Lord.”’
GILL, "To wit, the prophets of Israel, which prophesy concerning
Jerusalem,.... This explains who are meant by those that daubed with untempered
mortar:
95

96. and which see visions of peace for her; not in reality, but in pretence; they boasted
that they had visions and revelations from the Lord, and assured the people they should
enjoy great peace and prosperity; but these, as they are before called, were vain visions
and lying divinations: there seems to be in this an allusion to the name of Jerusalem,
which, according to some, signifies,
"they shall see peace:''
and there is no peace, saith the Lord God; not to the wicked; nor to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, who listened to the false prophets; nor to the false prophets
themselves.
JAMISON, "prophesy concerning Jerusalem — With all their “seeing visions of
peace for her,” they cannot ensure peace or safety to themselves.
CALVIN, “He now concludes this discourse, and shows what he had hitherto
intended by a building badly cemented, by using sand without lime. The prophets of
Israel prophesied concerning Jerusalem. Here he does not mean false prophets, with
whom Jeremiah was continually contending, but those who in exile still hardened
the wretched. While they thought to make use of the occasion, and so to humble the
people who had been so grievously wounded by the hand of God, they stirred them
up to pride, as we have formerly seen. Our Prophet was obliged to strive with them
for the comfort of his exiles, for he was peculiarly sent to the captives, as we have
said, although the advantage of his prophecies also reached Jerusalem. The
prophets, those of Israel, that is, the ten tribes dispersed in different directions,
prophesied concerning Jerusalem. Why then did they not rather predict a happy
result? For they were reduced to extremes, and meanwhile promised victory to the
Jews. And they saw a vision, for it, says he. This clause seems opposed to another, in
which the Prophet says that they saw nothing. How, then, do these two things
agree — to see a vision, and yet to see nothing’? What he now says as to seeing a
vision refers to their false boasting. For they were altogether without the Spirit of
God, nor did they possess any revelation. Yet when they boasted themselves to be
endowed with the Spirit, and many had faith in their words, the Prophet concedes to
them the name of a vision, although there was none, by accommodation. He says,
therefore, that they saw a vision, that is, that they boasted in one since they
professed to be spiritual. As at this time the Papists deny that they utter anything
out of their own minds, and say that they have all those fictions, by which they
adulterate all piety, from the Holy Spirit; so these prophets said they were spiritual:
and as far as the title is concerned, the Prophet grants what in reality he disallows
when he adds, there was no peace when they said there was peace. Hence it appears
that a vision was in their mouth united with sacrilegious boldness: yet there was no
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97. vision; because, if God had manifested anything by his Spirit, he would really have
proved it as he says by Moses. (Deuteronomy 18:22.) Since, then, there was no peace,
but the final overthrow of the city was at hand, it is easily collected that they saw
nothing, but made false use of that sacred name of vision to acquire confidence for
themselves. As to his saying there is no peace, it extends to the future. They
promised peace by saying that the siege of the city was to be raised, and prosperity
to await the Jews. But God, on the other hand, pronounces there should be no peace,
because it will shortly be evident that Jerusalem is devoted to utter destruction.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:16 [To wit], the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning
Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and [there is] no peace, saith the
Lord GOD.
Ver. 16. To wit, the prophets of Israel.] A name too good for them; but so they
would needs be called. See Titus 1:12, 2 Peter 2:1.
BI, "Which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace.
Peace, and there is no peace
I. They “see visions of peace” who preach and speak what is pleasing rather than what is
of truth and of God. A people’s folly will find exponents. But truth perverted will be
avenged. False doctrine is but untempered mortar.
II. They “see visions of peace,” and “there is no peace.” Who neglect duty and still hope
for reward. Foolish dreamers are they who look for fortune, or learning, or piety without
careful attention and unremitting diligence.
III. They “see visions of peace” when “there is no peace” who live in sin and worldliness,
and hope for everlasting salvation. (Homiletic Magazine.)
17 “Now, son of man, set your face against the
daughters of your people who prophesy out of
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98. their own imagination. Prophesy against them
BARNES 17-18, "A rebuke to the false prophetesses, and a declaration that God will
confound them, and deliver their victims from their snares. Women were sometimes
inspired by the true God, as were Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, and Huldah; but an order
of prophetesses was unknown among the people of God, and the existence of such a class
in the last days of the kings of Judah was a fresh instance of declension into pagan
usages.
Eze_13:18-21. Render thus: “Woe to the women that” put charms on every finger-
joint, that set veils upon heads of every height to ensnare souls. “Will ye” ensnare “the
souls of my people,” and keep your own souls alive, and will ye profane my name “among
my people for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not
die, and to” keep alive “the souls that should not live, by lying to my people” who listen
to “a lie? Wherefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold” I will come upon your charms,
where ye are ensnaring the souls like birds; “and I will tear them from your arms and
will let the souls go” free, “even the souls” which ye are ensnaring like birds. “Your” veils
“also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in
your hand to be” ensnared; “and ye shall know that I am the Lord.”
Most ancient interpreters and many modern interpreters have understood the
“pillows” (or charms) and “kerchiefs” (or veils), as appliances to which the sorcerers had
resort in order to attract notice. The veil was a conspicuous ornament in the east -
women whatever their “stature” (or, height) putting them on - and it was worn by
magicians in order to seem more mysterious and awful.
CLARKE, "Set thy face against the daughters of thy people, which
prophesy - From this it appears that there were prophetesses in the land of Israel, that
were really inspired by the Lord: for as a false religion necessarily implies a true one, of
which it is the ape; so false prophetesses necessarily imply true ones, whom they
endeavored to imitate.
That there were true prophetesses among the Jews is evident enough from such being
mentioned in the sacred writings. Miriam, the sister of Moses Exo_15:20; Num_12:2;
Deborah, Jdg_4:4; Huldah, 2Ki_22:14; Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, Luk_2:36; the
four daughters of Philip the deacon, Act_21:9.
Calmet observes that there was scarcely a heresy in the primitive Church that was not
supported and fomented by seducing women.
GILL, "Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy
people,.... The false prophetesses; for as there were women in some ages, who had the
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99. true spirit of prophecy, as Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah, Exo_15:20; so there were
some that pretended to it, who had it not, as Noadiah in the times of Nehemiah, Neh_
6:14; and such there were in the times of Ezekiel; against whom he is bid to set his face,
and look them out of countenance, and make them ashamed; who, contrary to the
modesty of the sex, had impudently taken upon them to prophesy to the people; and
such have been since in the times of the Gospel, as Jezebel, Rev_2:20; and Prisca,
Maximilia, Quintilia, and others:
who prophesy out of their own heart; as the men did, Eze_13:2; what their own
hearts suggested to them; what came into their minds, and their own fancies and
imaginations led them to; what was according to their carnal affections and desires, and
agreeable to those that heard them:
and prophesy thou against them; declare their prophecies false; warn the people
from giving heed to them; and foretell what shall befall them for deceiving the people.
HENRY 17-23, "As God has promised that when he pours out his Spirit upon his
people both their sons and their daughters shall prophesy, so the devil, when he acts as
a spirit of lies and falsehood, is so in the mouth not only of false prophets, but of false
prophetesses too, and those are the deceivers whom the prophet is here directed to
prophesy against; for they are not such despicable enemies to God's truths as deserve
not to be taken notice of, nor yet will either the weakness of their sex excuse their sin or
the tenderness and respect that are owing to it exempt them from the reproaches and
threatenings of the word of God. No: Son of man, set they face against the daughters of
thy people, Eze_13:17. God takes no pleasure in owning them for his people. They are
thy people, as Exo_32:7. The women pretend to a spirit of prophecy, and are in the same
song with the men, as Ahab's prophets were: Go on, and prosper. They prophesy out of
their own heart too; they say what comes uppermost and what they know nothing of.
Therefore prophesy against them from God's own mouth. The prophet must set his face
against them, and try if they can look him in the face and stand to what they say. Note,
When sinners grow very impudent it is time for reprovers to be very bold. Now observe,
I. How the sin of these false prophetesses is described, and what are the particulars of
it. 1. They told deliberate lies to those who consulted them, and came to them to be
advised, and to be told their fortune: “You do mischief by your lying to my people that
hear your lies (Eze_13:19); they come to be told the truth, but you tell them lies; and,
because you humour them in their sins, they are willing to hear you.” Note, It is ill with
those people who can better hear pleasing lies than unpleasing truths; and it is a
temptation to those who lie in wait to deceive to tell lies when they find people willing to
hear them and to excuse themselves with this, Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur - If the
people will be deceived, let them. 2. They profaned the name of God by pretending to
have received those lies from him (Eze_13:19): “You pollute my name among my
people, and make use of that for the patronising of your lies and the gaining of credit to
them.” Note, Those greatly pollute God's holy name that make use of it to give
countenance to falsehood and wickedness. Yet this they did for handfuls of barley and
pieces of bread. They did it for gain; they cared not what dishonour they did to God's
name by their lying, so they could but make a hand of it for themselves. There is nothing
so sacred which men of mercenary spirits, in whom the love of this world reigns, will not
profane and prostitute, if they can but get money by the bargain. But they did it for poor
99

100. gain; if they could get no more for it, rather than break they would sell you a false
prophecy that should please you to a nicety for the beggar's dole, a piece of bread or a
handful of barley; and yet that was more than it was worth. Had they asked it as an
alms, for God's sake, surely they might have had it, and God would have been honoured;
but, taking it as a fee for a false prophecy, God's name if polluted, and the smallness of
the reward heightens the offence. For a piece of bread that man will transgress, Pro_
28:21. Had their poverty been their temptation to steal, and so to take the name of the
Lord in vain, it would not have been nearly so bad as when it tempted them to prophesy
lies in his name and so to profane it. 3. They kept people in awe, and terrified them with
their pretensions: “You hunt the souls of my people (Eze_13:18), hunt them to make
them flee (Eze_13:20), hunt them into gardens (so the margin reads it); you use all the
arts you have to court or compel them into those places where you deliver your
pretended predictions, or you have got such an influence upon them that you make them
do just as you would have them to do, and tyrannise over them.” It was indeed the
people's fault that they did regard them, but it was their fault by lies and falsehoods to
command that regard; they pretended to save the souls alive that came to them, Eze_
13:18. If they would but be hearers of them, and contributors to them, they might be
sure of salvation; thus they beguiled unstable souls that had a concern about salvation as
their end but did not rightly understand the way, and therefore hearkened to those who
were most confident in promising it to them. “But will you pretend to save souls, or
secure salvation to your party?” Those are justly suspected that make such pretensions.
4. They discouraged those that were honest and good, and encouraged those that were
wicked and profane: You slay the souls that should not die, and save those alive that
should not live, Eze_13:19. This is explained (Eze_13:22): You have made the heart of
the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; because they would not, they durst not,
countenance your pretensions, you thundered out the judgments of God against them, to
their great grief and trouble; you put them under invidious characters, to make them
either despicable or odious to the people, and pretended to do it in God's name, which
made them go many a time with a sad heart; whereas it was the will of God that they
should be comforted, and by having respect put upon them should have encouragement
given them. But on the other side, and which is still worse, you have strengthened the
hands of the wicked and emboldened them to go on in their wicked ways and not to
return from them, which was the thing the true prophets with earnestness called them
to. “You have promised sinners life in their sinful ways, have told them that they shall
have peace though they go on, by which their hands have been strengthened and their
hearts hardened.” Some think this refers to the severe censures they passed upon those
who had already gone into captivity (who were humbled under their affliction, by which
their hearts were made sad), and the commendations they gave to those who rebelled
against the king of Babylon, who were hardened in their impieties, by which their hands
were strengthened; or by their polluting the name of God they saddened the hearts of
good people who have a value and veneration for the word of God, and confirmed
atheists and infidels in their contempt of divine revelation and furnished them with
arguments against it. Note, Those have a great deal to answer for who grieve the spirits,
and weaken the hands, of good people, and who gratify the lusts of sinners, and animate
them in their opposition to God and religion. Nor can any thing strengthen the hands of
sinners more than to tell them that they may be saved in their sins without repentance,
or that there may be repentance though they do not return from their wicked ways. 5.
They mimicked the true prophets, by giving signs for the illustrating of their false
predictions (as Hananiah did, Jer_28:10), and they were signs agreeable to their sex;
100

101. they sewed little pillows to the people's arm-holes, to signify that they might be easy and
repose themselves, and needed not be disquieted with the apprehensions of trouble
approaching. And they made kerchiefs upon the head of every stature, of persons of
every age, young and old, distinguishable by their stature, Eze_13:18. These kerchiefs
were badges of liberty or triumph, intimating that they should not only be delivered
from the Chaldeans, but be victorious over them. Some think these were some
superstitious rites which they used with those to whom they delivered their divinations,
preparing them for the reception of them by putting enchanted pillows under their arms
and handkerchiefs on their heads, to raise their fancies and their expectations of
something great. Or perhaps the expressions are figurative: they did all they could to
make people secure, which is signified by laying them easy, and to make people proud,
which is signified by dressing them fine with handkerchiefs, perhaps laid or
embroidered on their heads.
JAMISON, "set thy face — put on a bold countenance, fearlessly to denounce them
(Eze_3:8, Eze_3:9; Isa_50:7).
daughters — the false prophetesses; alluded to only here; elsewhere the guilt
specified in the women is the active share they took in maintaining idolatry (Eze_8:14).
It was only in extraordinary emergencies that God bestowed prophecy on women, for
example on Miriam, Deborah, Huldah (Exo_15:20; Jdg_4:4; 2Ki_22:14); so in the last
days to come (Joe_2:28). The rareness of such instances enhanced their guilt in
pretending inspiration.
K&D 17-19, "Against the False Prophetesses
As the Lord had not endowed men only with the gifts of prophecy, but sometimes
women also, e.g., Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah; so women also rose up along with the
false prophets, and prophesied out of their own hearts without being impelled by the
Spirit of God. Eze_13:17-19. Their conduct. - Eze_13:17. And thou, son of man, direct
thy face towards the daughters of thy people, who prophesy out of their heart and
prophesy against them, Eze_13:18. And say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Woe to those
who sew coverings together over all the joints of my hands, and make caps for the head
of every size, to catch souls! Ye catch the souls of my people, and keep your souls alive.
Eze_13:19. And ye profane me with my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of
bread, to slay souls which should not die, and to keep alive which should not live, by
your lying to my people who hearken to lying. - Like the prophets in Eze_13:2, the
prophetesses are here described as prophesying out of their own heart (Eze_13:17); and
in Eze_13:18 and Eze_13:19 their offences are more particularly described. The meaning
of these verses is entirely dependent upon the view to be taken of ‫י‬ ַ‫ָד‬‫י‬, which the majority
of expositors, following the lead of the lxx, the Syriac, and the Vulgate, have regarded as
identical with ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ָד‬‫י‬ or ‫ָד‬‫י‬, and understood as referring to the hands of the women or
prophetesses. But there is nothing to justify the assumption that ‫י‬ ַ‫ָד‬‫י‬ is an unusual form
for ‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ָד‬‫י‬, which even Ewald takes it to be (Lehrbuch, §177a). Still less can it stand for the
singular ‫ָד‬‫י‬. And we have not sufficient ground for altering the text, as the expression
101

102. ‫ם‬ ֶ‫יכ‬ ֵ‫ת‬ֹ‫ע‬ ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ in Eze_13:20 (I will tear the ‫ת‬ ‫ת‬ ָ‫ס‬ ְ‫כּ‬ from your arms) does not require the
assumption that the prophetesses had hidden their arms in ‫;כסתות‬ and such a
supposition is by no means obviously in harmony with the facts.
The word ‫ת‬ ‫ת‬ ָ‫ס‬ ְ‫,כּ‬ from ‫ת‬ ֶ‫ס‬ֶ‫,כּ‬ with ‫ת‬ fem. treated as a radical letter (cf. Ewald, §186e),
means a covering or concealment = ‫סוּת‬ ְ‫.כּ‬ The meaning “cushion” or “pillow” (lxx
προσκεφάλαια, Vulg. pulvilli) is merely an inference drawn from this passage, and is
decidedly erroneous; for the word ‫ר‬ַ‫פ‬ ָ‫תּ‬ (to sew together) is inapplicable to cushions, as
well as the phrase ‫ל‬ַ‫ע‬ ‫י‬ֵ‫יל‬ ִ‫צּ‬ ַ‫ל־א‬ָ‫כּ‬ ‫י‬ ַ‫ָד‬‫י‬, inasmuch as cushions are not placed upon the joints
of the hands, and still less are they sewed together upon them. The latter is also a
decisive reason for rejecting the explanation given by Hävernick, namely, that the
ke
sâthōth were carpets, which were used as couches, and upon which these voluptuous
women are represented as reclining. For cushions or couches are not placed upon, but
under, the arm-joints (or elbows) and the shoulders, which Hävernick understands by
‫י‬ֵ‫יל‬ ִ‫צּ‬ ַ‫א‬ ‫ָד‬‫י‬. This also overthrows another explanation given of the words, namely, that they
refer to carpets, which the prophetesses had sewed together for all their arm-joints, so as
to form comfortable beds upon splendid carpets, that they may indulge in licentiousness
thereon. The explanation given by Ephraem Syrus, and adopted by Hitzig, namely, that
the ke
sâthōth were amulets or straps, which they would round their arm-joints when they
received or delivered their oracles, is equally untenable. For, as Kliefoth has observed, “it
is evident that there is not a word in the text about adultery, or amulets, or straps used in
prayer.” And again, when we proceed to the next clause, the traditional rendering of
‫ת‬ ‫ח‬ָ‫פּ‬ ְ‫ס‬ ִ‫,מ‬ as signifying either pillows (ὑπαυχένια, Symm.; cervicalia, Vulg.) or broad
cloaks = ‫ת‬ ‫ח‬ַ‫פּ‬ ְ‫ט‬ ִ‫מ‬ (Hitzig, Hävernick, etc.), is neither supported by the usage of the
language, nor in harmony with ‫ל‬ַ‫ע‬ ‫ֹאשׁ‬ ‫.ר‬ Mispâchōth, from sâphach, to join, cannot have
any other meaning in the present context than a cap fitting close to the head; and ‫ל‬ַ‫ע‬
must denote the pattern which was followed, as in Psa_110:4; Est_9:26 : they make the
caps after (answering to) the head of every stature. The words of both clauses are
figurative, and have been correctly explained by Kliefoth as follows: “A double charge is
brought against the prophetesses. In the first place, they sew coverings together to wrap
round all the joints of the hand of God, so that He cannot touch them; i.e., they cover up
and conceal the word of God by their prophesying, more especially its rebuking and
threatening force, so that the threatening and judicial arm of God, which ought above all
to become both manifest and effective through His prophetic word, does not become
either one or the other. In the second place, they make coverings upon the heads of men,
and construct them in such a form that they exactly fit the stature or size or every
individual, so that the men neither hear nor see; i.e., by means of their flattering lies,
which adapt themselves to the subjective inclinations of their hearers at the time, they
cover up the senses of the men, so that they retain neither ear nor eye for the truth.”
They do both of these to catch souls. The inevitable consequence of their act is
represented as having been intended by them; and this intention is then still further
defined as being to catch the souls of the people of God; i.e., to allure them to
destruction, and take care of their own souls. The clause ‫ת‬ ‫שׁ‬ָ‫פ‬ְ‫נּ‬ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ָה‬‫נ‬ ְ‫ד‬ ֵ‫ד‬ ‫צ‬ ְ‫תּ‬ is not to be
taken as a question, “Will ye catch the souls?” implying a doubt whether they really
thought that they could carry on such conduct as theirs with perfect impunity
(Hävernick). It contains a simple statement of what really took place in their catching of
102

103. souls, namely, “they catch the souls of the people of God, and preserve their own souls;”
i.e., they rob the people of God of their lives, and take care of their own (Kliefoth). ‫י‬ ִ‫מּ‬ַ‫ע‬ ְ‫ל‬
is used instead of the genitive (stat. constr.) to show that the accent rests upon ‫י‬ ִ‫מּ‬ַ‫.ע‬ And
in the same way we have ‫ָה‬‫נ‬ֶ‫כ‬ ָ‫ל‬ instead of the suffix. The construction is the same as in
1Sa_14:16. Eze_13:19 shows how great their sin had been. They profane God among His
people; namely, by delivering the suggestions of their own heart to the people as divine
revelations, for the purpose of getting their daily bread thereby (cf. Mic_3:5); by hurling
into destruction, through their lies, those who are only too glad to listen to lying; by
slaying the souls of the people which ought to live, and by preserving those which ought
not to live, i.e., their own souls (Deu_18:20). The punishment for this will not fail to
come.
CALVIN, “WE may gather from this passage that Satan’s lies were not spread
among the people so much by men as by women. We know that the gift of prophecy
is sometimes though rarely allowed to women, and there is no doubt that female
prophets existed whenever God wished to brand men with a mark of ignominy as
strongly as possible. I say as much as possible, because the sister of Moses enjoyed
the prophetic gift, and this never ceased to the reproach of her brother. (Exodus
15:20.) But when Deborah and Huldah discharged the prophetic office, (Jude 4:4,
and 2 Kings 22:14,) God doubtless wished to raise them on high to shame the men,
and obliquely to show them their slothfulness. Whatever may be the reason, women
have sometimes enjoyed the prophetic gift. And this is the meaning of Joel’s second
chapter, (Joel 2:28,)Your sons shall see visions and your daughters shall prophesy.
There is no doubt that the Spirit transfers to the kingdom of Christ what had been
customary among the ancient people. For we know that Christ’s kingdom is
described, or rather depicted, under the image of that government which God
formerly held under the law. Since, then, certain women were gifted with the
prophetic spirit, Satan, according to his custom, abused this under a false pretense.
We know that he always emulates God and transforms himself into an angel of light,
because if he were to show himself openly, all would instantly flee from him: hence
he uses God’s name deceptively, to ingratiate himself among the simple and
incautious. And he not only sends forth false prophets to scatter abroad their lies
and impostures, but he turns even females to the same injurious use.
Here we see how anxiously we ought to guard against any corruption which may
creep in to contaminate the pure gifts of God. But this contest seems not to have
been sufficiently honorable to the servant of God; for it was almost a matter of
shame when they engaged with women. We know that those who desire praise for
103

104. their bravery do not willingly engage with unequal antagonists who have no
strength to resist; since there is no praise in a victory when it is too easy: so also
Ezekiel could put away from him this undertaking, since it was unworthy of the
prophetic office. Hence it appears, that God’s servants cannot faithfully discharge
the duties assigned to them, unless they strive to remove all impediments. This then
is the condition of all those to whom God assigns the office of teaching, that they
may oppose all false doctrines and errors, and never consider or wish for great
praise from their victory: it should suffice them to assert God’s truth against all
Satan’s devices. Thus we see Paul strove with a workman (Demetrius), (Acts 19:24,)
and that was all but ridiculous: and truly he might seem not sufficiently to regard
his dignity; for from the time when he saw secret things which it was not lawful for
him to utter, and was carried up to the third heaven, (2 Corinthians 12:4,) when he
engages in a contest with a craftsman, he seems to forget that dignity to which God
had raised him. But we must remember the reason which I have mentioned, that as
the duty of teaching is assigned to God’s servants, so they are appointed as his
avengers and defenders of the doctrine of which they are heralds. Hence if, so to
speak, fleas were to come out of the earth and rail at sound doctrine, none who are
influenced by a desire of edification will hesitate to contend even with those fleas.
Thus the Prophet’s modesty is conspicuous, because by God’s command he turns to
these weak women to refute even them.
COFFMAN, "Verse 17
"And thou, son of man, set thy face against the daughters of my people, that
prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them, and say, Thus
saith the Lord Jehovah: woe to the women that sew pillows upon all elbows, and
make kerchiefs for the head of persons of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt
the souls of my people, and save souls alive for yourselves? And ye have profaned
me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls
that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to
my people that hearken unto lies."
PROPHECIES AGAINST THE FALSE PROPHETESSES
104

105. A number of prophetesses are mentioned in the Bible: Miriam in Exodus 15:20;
Deborah, Judges 4:4; Huldah, 2 Kings 22:14; Noadiah, Nehemiah 6:14; Elizabeth,
Luke 1:41-45, Anna, Luke 2:36-38, the four virgin daughters of Philip, Acts 21:9,
and Jezebel, Revelation 21:20. Isaiah's wife is also called "a prophetess" (Isaiah
8:3); but in her case, the title is usually construed as meaning merely, "the prophet's
wife."
The evil prophetesses mentioned here were a strange lot indeed, and Cooke stated
that, "Prophetesses is too good a word for them; witches or sorceresses would suit
the description better."[9] "These people were the ancient forerunners of the
palmists, phrenologists, madams, fortune-tellers, card readers, and crystal ball
watchers that ply their nefarious trade today in every large city on earth."[10]
It is not known exactly what is meant by the pillows and kerchief's mentioned here;
but whatever they were, Bruce stated: "They evidently belonged to the
paraphernalia of witchcraft."[11] "It seems that the kind of witchcraft practiced by
these "prophetesses" exercised a certain amount of control over individuals, like one
sees in the West Indies in the voodoo cults. It was an art practiced solely from the
profit motive (Ezekiel 13:19)."[12] Of course, the connecting of the holy name of the
Lord Jehovah with such a crooked and shameful art was a profanation indeed.
"They did it for poor gain. If they could get no more for it, rather than refuse,
they would sell you a false prophecy that would please you for the beggar's dole, a
handful of barley, or a piece of bread."[13]
The meaning of this paragraph is somewhat obscure, but Cooke said that, as
rendered, "The passage describes the malicious, self-interested designs of these
women, who victimized others by means of Witchcraft, and make a living by it for
themselves."[14]
As Leal noted, "Ignorance of exactly what those women were doing derives from the
fact that a number of expressions used in this chapter are used nowhere else in the
Bible."[15]
105

106. Although Feinberg rejected the idea, he reported that some have suggested these
women could also have engaged in harlotry and licentiousness, a suggestion that we
accept as reasonable enough. After all, the New Testament prophetess, Jezebel,
"Taught God's servants to commit fornication, seducing them into this sin"
(Revelation 2:20); and the ambiguity of our passage here in Ezekiel makes us very
reluctant to rule out this same possibility in the evil prophetesses mentioned here.
"To slay souls that should not die ..." (Ezekiel 13:19). This reference to the ability of
those false prophetesses to "slay" or keep alive persons as their pleasure dictated
cannot be a reference to what any of them could really do, but a sarcastic reference
to what those evil women "claimed" they could do!
COKE, "Verse 17-18
Ezekiel 13:17-18. Likewise, thou son of man— The prophet is here ordered to direct
his discourse against the female pretenders to prophesy, as had been done in the
former part of the chapter against the male. There seems no doubt that the
expressions in the 18th verse allude to certain magical ceremonies which were made
use of in their incantations, by these female pretenders to prophesy: but no
commentator has yet been able to ascertain their precise meaning; nor do I think it
possible without farther light than the text affords. See 1 Samuel 28:7-8. It is
thought by some, that the prophet speaks metaphorically of those, who, by their
seducing words, taught men to rest securely in their evil ways, and indulged them in
softness and effeminacy. See Houbigant, Calmet, and Pilkington's Remarks, p. 117.
ELLICOTT, "Verses 17-23
(17-23) Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face . . .—This passage deals with a class
of people the false prophetesses, who are not mentioned elsewhere in the Old
Testament. True prophetesses, as in the case of Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah
(Judges 4:4), and, at this very time, Huldah (2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chronicles 34:22), and
somewhat later, Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14), are frequently spoken of, and continued
to exist in New Testament times, as in the case of Anna (Luke 2:36). It was naturally
106

107. to be expected that as false prophets dogged the steps of the true, the same thing
would happen with the other sex, and we find express mention of a false prophetess
in Revelation 2:20. Their course, in prophesying “out of their own heart” deceiving
the people, was essentially the same as that of the false prophets; but they are
described as doing this in ways suited to their sex. Of the general meaning of this
description there can be no doubt; but it is difficult to follow it with certainty in the
details, because of the occurrence of some words of uncertain meaning, found
nowhere else, and of some others in an unusual sense. Without attempting a
discussion of each single word, (which would be useless except with a careful
examination of the original), the following is given as the most probable translation
of Ezekiel 13:18-21; but it is to be remembered that several of the words, like the
similar ones in Isaiah 3:16-24, are so uncertain that there is a difference of opinion
in regard to their exact meaning :—“Woe to those who fasten charms on every
finger-joint, that place kerchiefs on heads of every height to snare souls. Will ye
snare the souls of my people, and keep your own souls alive? (19) And will ye
profane me with my people for handfuls of barley, and for pieces of bread, to slay
souls that should not die, and to make live souls that should not live, by your lying to
my people who hearken to a lie? (20) Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah,
Behold, I am against your charms, when ye snare the souls like birds, and I will tear
them from your arms, and will let the souls go, the souls that ye are snaring like
birds. (21) Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand,
and they shall be no more in your hand to be snared; and ye shall know that I am
the Lord.” (See Excursus 8 at the end of this book, on Ezekiel 13:6-7; Ezekiel 13:14.)
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:17 Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the
daughters of thy people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou
against them,
Ver. 17. Likewise, thou son of man.] A prophet’s work is never done. Agricolis redit
labor actus in orbem.
Set thy face against the daughters.] The prophet had rather have contended with
men than women, and more honour it had been for him; but he must do as bidden.
Mulieres genus fragile sunt; Women are delecate; yet the prophet must set his face
against them as stout agents for the devil, who hath ever made great use of them.
Such were Noadiah; [Nehemiah 6:14] that apocalyptical Jezebel, Bridget Matild;
107

108. those two Jezebels of New England, Mrs Hutchinson and Mrs Dyer, our recent most
impudent preacheresses in London and elsewhere. (a)
POOLE, "Verse 17
Now turn thyself and discourse against the prophetesses, fear them not: see the
phrase, Ezekiel 4:3. Some would have the prophet’s words to be intended against
the effeminate men, who were of no value, and by contempt called the daughters of
his people; but I see no cause why the prophet’s words should not be directed
against the women who pretended to be prophetesses.
Of thy people, that were with him in Babylon. Or rather, because they were Jews,
they are called daughters of his people. Or might they not be daughters of priests,
and so more nearly of kin to Ezekiel?
Which prophesy; there were women who had the gift of prophecy, Exodus 15:20
Jude 4:4 2 Kings 22:14 Joel 2:28, and brought messages from God, but these in the
text pretend themselves to be prophetesses, and speak their own imaginations, and
fasten their lies on the God of truth.
WHEDON, "17. Set thy face against the daughters of thy people — For good or for
evil the influence of woman was powerful in Hebrew history. We know the names of
several true prophetesses, like Miriam and Huldah, but the name of but one false
prophetess has come down to us (Nehemiah 6:14). When women turn politicians,
and attempt to prophesy out of their own hearts concerning the future, look out for
trouble (Jeremiah 44:15). When women become false prophetesses they drop to the
lowest level of superstitious fortune tellers.
PETT, "Verses 17-19
“And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who
108

109. prophesy out of their own heart, and you prophesy against them. And say, ‘Thus
says the Lord Yahweh, Woe to the women who sew pillows (or armbands) on all
joints of the hands (wrists and/or elbows), and make kerchiefs (shrouds) for the
head of people of all heights to hunt lives. Will you hunt the lives of my people, and
save those that are yours for yourselves? And you have profaned me among my
people for a handful of barley, and for pieces of bread, to kill those who should not
die, and to save those alive who should not live, by your lying to my people who
listen and respond to lies.”
Those being prophesied against clearly participated in magic practises. The passage
is difficult to translate simply because we do not know enough about magic practises
in ancient Palestine. In Babylonia the magical binding of the wrists is witnessed, the
purpose of which was to ‘enforce’ the binding power of a spell or incantation. That
may well be what is in mind here. The ‘shrouds’ are long pieces of cloth that went
over the head and reached down to the ground, covering the person from head to
foot. They were used in order to ‘hunt persons’. Possibly the purpose of these was to
enable the person so covered to reach out magically through spells or curses, while
insulated against the natural world, to cause harm to their enemies. Perhaps it was
to give the illusion of astral travel, the body supposed to disappear while under the
shroud, and travelling magically to do its evil work on the enemy. Alternately it may
be that the shrouds were impregnated with magic and thrown over the victim, or
over some effigy or object belonging to him, ‘imprisoning’ him within the spell.
‘Will you hunt the persons of my people, and save those that are yours for
yourselves?’ The purpose of the witchcraft was that those who submitted to the
witchcraft (and paid for it) would be saved alive, for they were involved in the
witchcraft and protected beneath the shroud, but those who were their enemies, who
would be God’s own people, would be slain. There may well have been examples
known, brought about by the combination of communication of what was
happening and autosuggestion.
‘And you have profaned me among my people by a handful of barley, and by pieces
of bread, to kill those who should not die, and to save those alive who should not
live, by your lying to my people who listen and respond to lies.’
109

110. Here the idea is probably of magic rites involving handfuls of barley and pieces of
bread, possibly tossed onto a flat surface to be ‘read’ (like tea leaves), the reading
intended to result in death for the victim in mind. That the reading had to be
communicated to the victim is suggested by the last phrase. It would seem that some
of God’s people were on the whole so weak and unbelieving that they accepted the
truth of what they heard and died by autosuggestion. Among those who
superstitiously believed in the witchcraft the suggestion that they were cursed might
well produce death through fear and hopelessness, and lack of a will to live.
For the use of barley and bread in worship compare the cakes to the Queen of
Heaven (Jeremiah 7:18. See also Ezekiel 44:17-19). Thus eating the bread may have
been part of the spell.
‘To kill those who should not die.’ They had done nothing to deserve death, and
therefore what was done was a form of murder. ‘To save those alive who should not
live.’ This may suggest that those who had done something worthy of death got rid
of the witnesses and the accusers by this means, and so perverted justice. Or it may
simply mean that the people in question were worthy of death for indulging in
witchcraft (Leviticus 20:6; Leviticus 20:27; compare Leviticus 19:31; Deuteronomy
18:11; Deuteronomy 22:5; Isaiah 47:9; Isaiah 47:12-14).
‘By your lying to my people who listen and respond to lies.’ It would seem that only
those who believed what they were told were likely to suffer. Those who rejected
such ideas in the power and name of Yahweh were not affected.
Verses 17-23
The False Prophetesses (Ezekiel 13:17-23).
We know from Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4) and Huldah (2 Kings
22:14) that there were recognised prophetesses in Israel (see also Nehemiah 6:14),
the latter two playing an important role in guidance in the ways of Yahweh,
110

111. although they were exceptional. But we know little else about their function as a
whole. Here again we come across prophetesses, but like the prophets they had
ceased to speak truly and were involved in occult activity. Indeed ‘prophetesses’
may simply refer to women who seek to foretell the future through occult means,
rather than a genuine group of cult prophetesses.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:17
Set thy face against the daughters of thy people. Here we note that the formula, "thy
people," of Ezekiel 3:11 reappears. The section which follows (Ezekiel 3:17-23)
throws an interesting side light on the position of women in the religious life of
Israel. For good as for evil, their influence was stronger there than in most other
nations. Miriam had led the way (Exodus 15:21), and had been followed by Deborah
( 5:4). Huldah had been almost as prominent in Josiah's reformation as Hilkiah the
high priest (2 Kings 22:14-20; 2 Chronicles 34:22). It was but natural that there
should be women on the other side also, guiding their own sex; and it is probable
that Ezekiel had in his thoughts some special leaders who headed the women of
Jerusalem in their opposition to Jeremiah, as afterwards at Pathros (Jeremiah
44:15). So, later on, we have the prophetess Noadiah heading the opposition to
Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:14); and in the New Testament, on the one hand, Anns
(Luke 2:36) and the daughters of Philip (Acts 21:9), and on the other, the ill-
regulated prophetesses of Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:5) and the woman Jezebel, who
called herself a prophetess (Revelation 2:20).
18 and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord
says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms
on all their wrists and make veils of various
lengths for their heads in order to ensnare people.
Will you ensnare the lives of my people but
111

112. preserve your own?
CLARKE, "That sew pillows to all arm holes - I believe this refers to those
cushions which are so copiously provided in the eastern countries for the apartments of
women; on which they sit, lean, rest their heads, and prop up their arms. I have several
drawings of eastern ladies, who are represented on sofas; and often with their arm
thrown over a pillow, which is thereby pressed close to their side, and against which they
thus recline. The prophet’s discourse seems to point out that state of softness and
effeminacy to which the predictions of those false prophetesses allured the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. A careless voluptuous life is that which is here particularly reprehended.
And make kerchiefs - The word kerchief is French, couvre chef, that which covers
the head; hence handkerchief and neck handkerchief, and pocket handkerchief are
pitifully improper; because none of them is used to cover the head, from which alone
that article of dress has its name. But what are we to understand by kerchiefs here?
Probably some kind of ornamental dress which rendered women more enticing, so that
they could the more successfully hunt or inveigle souls (men) into the worship of their
false gods. These they put on heads of every stature - women of all ages, ‫קומה‬ komah, of
every woman that rose up to inveigle men to idolatry.
The word ‫מספחות‬ mispachoth, translated here kerchiefs, and by the Vulgate cervicalia,
bolsters, Calmet contends, means a sort of nets used in hunting, and in every place
where it occurs it will bear this meaning; and hence the use to which it is here said to be
applied, to hunt souls.
GILL, "And say, thus saith the Lord God, woe to the women that sew pillows
to all armholes,.... Or, "put pillows to all elbows" (l); thereby signifying that they
might be at ease, and rest secure, and look upon themselves as in the utmost safety, and
not fear any enemy, the invasion of the Chaldeans; or that their city would be destroyed,
and they carried captive, as the prophets of the Lord had foretold:
and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature; whether taller or lower; the
word stature, according to Kimchi, is used, because the people stood when they inquired
of these prophetesses whether they should have peace or not, or good or evil should
befall them: or, "of every age", as the Septuagint version; young or old; they put these
kerchiefs, or "veils" (m), as some render the word, upon all sorts of persons (for they
refused none that came to them they could get any thing by), upon their heads, either as
a token of victory and triumph, signifying that they should have the better of their
enemies, and rejoice over them; or to make them proud, and suggest to them that they
should never be stripped of their ornaments; or else, as the former sign shows that they
lulled them asleep upon pillows, and led them on in a carnal security, so they kept them
in blindness and ignorance: and this they did,
112

113. to hunt souls; to bring them into their nets and snares; to catch them with their false
prophecies, and deceive them by their fallacious signs, and superstitious rites and
ceremonies, and so ruin and destroy them (n);
will ye hunt the souls of my people; that cleave to me, and regard my prophets; will
ye endeavour to ensnare those, and seek to destroy their peace and comfort, and even
their souls? ye shall not be able to do it:
and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you? and inquire of you how
things will be, and listen to your lying divinations; can you save them from the ruin and
destruction that is coming upon them? no, you will not be able to do it; and what
wickedness is it in you to attempt the one or the other? The Targum is,
"the souls of my people can ye destroy or quicken? your souls, which are yours, can you
quicken?''
the sense is they could neither do the one nor the other; and yet such was their iniquity,
that they sought to do both.
JAMISON, "sew pillows to ... armholes — rather, elbows and wrists, for which
the false prophetesses made cushions to lean on, as a symbolical act, typifying the
perfect tranquility which they foretold to those consulting them. Perhaps they made
their dupes rest on these cushions in a fancied state of ecstasy after they had made them
at first stand (whence the expression, “every stature,” is used for “men of every age”). As
the men are said to have built a wall (Eze_13:10), so the women are said to sew pillows,
etc., both alike typifying the “peace” they promised the impenitent.
make kerchiefs — magical veils, which they put over the heads of those consulting
them, as if to fit them for receiving a response, that they might be rapt in spiritual trance
above the world.
head of every stature — “men of every age,” old and young, great and small, if only
these had pay to offer them.
hunt souls — eagerly trying to allure them to the love of yourselves (Pro_6:26; 2Pe_
2:14), so as unwarily to become your prey.
will ye save ... souls ... that come unto you — Will ye haul after souls, and when
they are yours (“come unto you”), will ye promise them life? “Save” is explained (Eze_
13:22), “promising life” [Grotius]. Calvin explains, “Will ye hunt My people’s souls and
yet will ye save your own souls”; I, the Lord God, will not allow it. But “save” is used
(Eze_13:19) of the false prophetesses promising life to the impenitent, so that English
Version and Grotius explain it best.
CALVIN, “It is said, then, woe to those who sew pillows or cushions; it is the same
thing — to all armholes, and to those who make covers for the head of every stature.
There is no doubt that by these tricks they deluded the minds and eyes of the simple.
It is evident from the law that some ceremonies are useful, since God commands
113

114. nothing superfluous; but Satan by his cunning turns everything useful to man’s
destruction. Meanwhile we must remark that false prophets were always
immoderately fond of outward signs; for since they have nothing substantial to
offer, they have need of ostentation to dazzle all eyes. This then is the reason why
men and women who intend to deceive, always heap together a number of
ceremonies. Hence Ezekiel says, that those women had sown together pillows, and
he adds, for all armholes. Whence it appears that they laid them under the armpits
of those by whom they were consulted, although he afterwards seems to hint that
they themselves reclined upon these pillows. But now he is treating of the people.
The ancients were accustomed when they reclined at table to have cushions under
their arms, though this is not our habit. But there is no doubt that they wished to
represent a kind of sleep, like the foolish who consult oracles, and think themselves
in ecstasies, and snatched away beyond all thoughts of this world. Then they had
veils or coverings which they put over their heads. In this way imposture flourished
with the Roman augurs; for they veiled their head when they wished to begin their
incantations. Livy says, that the augur stood at the threshold with his head covered,
and uttered these words, “O Jupiter, hear;” (23) so that it is probable that veils
covered the heads of those who wished to consult God, that they might be as it were
separated from the world, and no longer look upon human things, but have only
spiritual eyesight. With this view these women used such ceremonies that wretched
men thought themselves caught up above the world, and all earthly thoughts being
laid aside, they dozed so as to receive the oracles, and at the same time had the head
covered to avoid everything which might call them off and distract them, and to be
wholly intent on spiritual meditations.
As to his saying, upon all arms, and upon the head of every stature. I doubt not that
the Prophet teaches by these words that these women exercised a promiscuous
trade, making no distinctions, but, gratifying all without choice, so long as they
brought their money in their hands, as we shall by and by see. Hence this mark of
universality ought to be noticed emphatically, because these women did not attend
to the disposition with which persons came, but only grasped at their reward, and
thus the gate was as open to all as that of the market-place. For shops are open to
all, since all are expected to promote profit and make bargains, and merchants by
their allurements entice as many as they can to purchase their goods. So also veils
were provided for all heads and cushions for all arms, for there was no difference
except in reference to profit from these profane and base transactions. With regard
to the word “stature,” the opinion of those who think it used, because the women
ordered those who consulted the oracles to stand, appears to me forced, and not in
114

115. accordance with the Prophet’s intention. I have no doubt that, the Prophet uses the
word for “age,” or person, as others correctly interpret it; as if he had said, that
they made no difference between old and young, tall and short, but prostituted their
answers to all from whom they looked for gain.
It afterwards follows, Is it not to hunt souls? Here God reproves one crime, but he
will shortly add another, namely, the profanation of his sacred name. But he here
speaks only of the death of souls, as if he said that the women laid those snares to
deceive wretched souls. And because Ezekiel was commanded to, prophesy against
them, he here addresses them more vehemently — Will ye hunt the souls of my
people? It is literally the souls which belong to my people; but it will be more simple
to receive it thus — will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye give life to your
own souls, unless any one wishes to interpret it so as to make the Prophet repeat the
same thing twice. For the souls of the people were also their own. For as we shall
afterwards see, no one is deceived by the devil unless he offers himself of his own
accord, and entangles himself in his snares on purpose. Since then it is always true
that wretched men who catch at vain oracles devote themselves to the devil and his
ministers, hence the passage may be explained in this way. But the sense which I
have proposed is more simple, namely, that these women must not be yielded to
because they have hunted the souls of the people; as if the Prophet had said, the
people are precious to God, who has undertaken the care of them. Thus then he
reasons; such is your audacity, nay, even fury, that you doubt not to seize upon
God’s people: since therefore your impiety is so licentious and bold, will God suffer
you to rage with impunity against the souls of which he is the guardian? Lastly, he
signifies that punishment is prepared for the women who ensnare God’s people,
because although those who are deceived are worthy of death, yet God will still
exact punishment of Satan’s ministers who have endeavored to despoil him of his
rights. It, follows —
COKE, "Verse 18
Ezekiel 13:18. To all arm-holes— See Jeremiah 38:12. This may be figurative
language, designed to express that men were taught to recline at ease on their
couches, and to partake of banquets. See what Harmer says concerning the eastern
mode of sitting supported by pillows, ii. 98. Carpets, mattresses, and cushions are
the furniture of divans. Russell's Hist. of Aleppo, 4to, 101. Sir John Chardin also
115

116. mentions a mattress with large cushions placed at the back and sides of the person,
who uses it as a bed. Harmer, ii. 123. See also Shaw's Travels, 209, 4to; who says
that several velvet or damask bolsters were placed on the carpets or matrasses in
Barbary.
To hunt souls— To destroy men, to expose them to God's vengeance by lulling them
into security. See Proverbs 6:26. ‫נפשׁ‬ nepesh signifies a person, or life, as well as soul.
This may be a strong eastern manner of expressing that these women hoodwinked
their votaries, and kept them in spiritual darkness.
Or the covering of the head may have been of the ornamental or triumphal kind, to
denote prosperity or victory; as pillows denoted tranquillity and plenty: and both
may have been significantly applied to the heads and arms of those who consulted
the prophetesses. "The prophetesses may be represented as covering the heads of
those whom they by their prophesyings destined to death; as the head of Haman was
covered when he was really in those circumstances."
"I am nevertheless disposed to understand the clause in a different sense. These
prophetesses did the same thing by their flattering words as would have been best
expressed if they had thought fit to signify the same thing by actions only, (as the
prophets sometimes did,) by making bolsters for the arms, and presenting them to
the Israelitish women whom they wanted to assure of the continuance of their
prosperity; and embroidering handkerchiefs proper to bind over the ornaments of
females in a state of honour, and afterwards putting them on their heads." Harmer,
ii. 98.
Perhaps incantations were used. See Chald. on Ezekiel 13:20.: and we learn from 1
Samuel 28:7 and from the Greek and Roman writers, that women employed
themselves in magical rites. It is not impossible that every stature may refer to
images of different sizes:
116

117. Lanea et effigies erat, altera cerea: major Lanea, quae poenis compesceret
inferiorem. HOR. Sat. lib. I. viii. 30, 31.
Of wool and wax the forms were wrought; The woollen was erect and tall, And
scourg'd the waxen image small. FRANCIS.
Terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore Licia circumdo, terque haec altaria
circum Effigiem duco. VIRG. Ecl. viii. 73, &c.
Around his waxen image first I wind Three woollen fillets, of three colours join'd;
Thrice bind about his thrice-devoted head, Which round the sacred altar thrice is
led. DRYDEN.
The easterns had, and still have, frequent amulets and ribands of charms, which
they put principally at their hands and heads. Such charms these female prophets
fabricated; and, as appears, attributed to them the power of preserving the life of
those who wore them, and of bringing death on their enemies.
See commentary on Ezekiel 13:17
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:18 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD Woe to the [women]
that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature
to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive
[that come] unto you?
Ver. 18. That sew pillows.] In token of most certain and constant rest and peace.
To make kerchiefs.] Vela vel pepla. The Roman soothsayers, caput velabant cum
volebant exordiri suos exorcismos, used the like ceremonies; so did those that gave
117

118. oracles at the den of Trophonius.
To hunt souls.] And so to destroy them. See Proverbs 6:26. Women are insinuative
creatures, especially when they have a repute for holiness, and are esteemed
prophetic.
Will ye hunt the souls?] O indignum facinus Are precious souls no more set by?
Upon the head of every stature.] Fitting the humours of all sorts and sizes of people,
by prophesying to the younger of pleasure, and to the elder sort for profit. David, by
a like art, tells old men of gold and silver, young men of honey and honeycomb, to
be found in God’s statutes. [Psalms 19:10]
Will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?] q.d., I hardly think you will. Will
ye not kill and eat, as the hunter doth his prey? or rather, will not the devil deal by
you both as the cock master doth by his fighting cocks, take pleasure in their mutual
killing one another, that he may make a supper of them both?
POOLE, "Verse 18
Woe; calamities of all sorts shall fall upon them.
That sew pillows; a figurative speech, expressing their flatteries and security, which
the women promised to every one that came to them to know the fate of themselves
and others; in token of which safety and ease, either these women did put them for
these inquirers to sleep on; or else to lean on as they lay on their side at meat; or else
these gypsies, fortune-tellers, did sleep or pretend to sleep on those pillows, and
thereby signify the peace, safety, and ease which this people should have.
118

119. To all arm-holes; all comers had the same answer, these women made not any
difference.
Kerchiefs; either veils, or triumphal hats or caps, which were made by these
prophetesses, and these were put upon the head of every one who consulted them;
and by these habits the deceived inquirer was either persuaded he was made fit to
receive the oracle, or was to interpret the sign as promise of victory over the
Babylonian, and a triumphant rest in Judea. Perhaps they might use both; the veils
were put on to signify the shame with which their enemies’ faces should be covered,
the triumphant caps to note the joys of the Jews; but the event showed which
belonged to the one and other.
Of every stature, i.e. of every age, whether younger or elder, which usually is
somewhat seen by their stature or growth.
To hunt: all this is a pretence, while really it is spreading a net, as hunters do, to
catch the prey and devour it.
Souls; the persons, life, estate; and all to enrich or maintain themselves.
Will ye hunt the souls of my people? dare you promise they shall live when I do
promise no such thing? Or can you preserve them alive whom you deceive by your
promises? Are you no whit afraid thus to profane my name, and to insnare my
people? WHEDON, " 18. Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes —
Rather, who sew coverings [fillets, or bandages] upon all joints of the hand. The
exact meaning of this expression is not known. It could hardly refer merely to the
luxurious voluptuousness of these women, as so many of the early commentators
believed. Garlands, fillets, and amulets of various kinds are mentioned as being used
on the hand, not only in the Greek mysteries, but in the ancient Babylonian
incantations; but whether these “cushions” were used on knuckles or wrist or
elbow, or what was the method of their use, is not yet discovered. Bertholet thinks
these were amulets which possessed some natural magnetic power.
119

120. Make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature — These kerchiefs or veils seem to
have been thrown over the heads of those who came to consult the soothsayers
concerning the future, in order to blindfold them and draw them into the magic
circle. These coverings differed in length according to the stature of the inquirer.
“We may perhaps read between the lines the thought that their utterances, like their
veils, were adapted to suit every age and every taste.… Ezekiel points out, we may
believe, what he had seen. And in those veils he had seen a net cast over the victims
of the false prophetesses, a snare from which they could not escape.” — Plumptre.
Will ye save the souls alive that come unto you — Literally, and save souls alive for
yourselves? These hunters of souls killed without mercy, but saved some alive — the
very ones that deserved to die (Ezekiel 13:19). The meaning is that their prophecies
brought comfort to the wicked and sadness to the righteous (Ezekiel 13:22). “To
keep alive is to predict life and good fortune and to slay is to predict death.” — Toy.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:18
Woe to the women who sew pillows, etc. Ezekiel's minute description, though it is
from a different standpoint, reminds us of that in Isaiah 3:18-26. In both cases there
are the difficulties inseparable from the fact that he had seen what he describes, and
that we have not; and that he uses words which were familiar enough then, but are
now found nowhere else. so that (as in the case of the ἐξουσία of 1 Corinthians
11:10) we have to guess their meaning. The picture which he draws of a false
prophetess is obviously taken from the life, and the dress, we can scarcely doubt,
was one that belonged to her calling. The word for "sew" meets us in Genesis 3:7;
Job 16:15; Ecclesiastes 3:7; and the English is an adequate rendering. For the word
rendered "pillows," the LXX. gives προσκεφάλαια, the Vulgate pulvilli (equivalent
to "cushions"). The word here obviously denotes an article of dress, something
fastened to the arms. For arm-holes read joints of the two hoods, which may mean
either knuckles, wrists, or (as in the Revised Version) elbows. Possibly these may
have been, like the phylacteries of Matthew 23:5, eases containing charms or
incantations, and used as amulets. Something analogous to, if not identical with,
these ornaments, is found in the "seeress wreaths," and "divining garments" of
Cassandra, and in the "garlands" or "fillets" of the Pythian priestess in AEsch;
120

121. 'Eumeu.,' 39. By some writers (Havernick) the word has been taken, as, perhaps, in
the Authorized Version, for "pillows" in the larger sense, either literally as used in
wanton luxury, like the "tapestry" of Proverbs 7:16, or figuratively, like the "wall"
of the preceding section, for counsels that lulled the conscience into the slumber of a
false security. Strangely enough, the Hebrew noun rendered "arm-holes" has the
pronominal suffix "my arms," or "my hands." Keil accepts this rendering, and
explains it as meaning that the prophetesses sought to "bind the arms," i.e. to
restrain the power of Jehovah. On the whole, it is safer to follow Ewald and Hitzig,
as I have done above. Make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature. The word for
"kerchiefs" is again unique, but is, perhaps, a variant of the word in Isaiah 3:22,
and rendered "wimples" in the Authorized Version. There is a fair consensus of
interpretations that it means, as "kerchief" means, some covering for the head, a
veil that hangs down over it, like the Spanish mantilla. Its use is, perhaps, explained
by the words that follow, which suggest that the veils were not worn by the
prophetesses themselves, but by those who came to consult them. The former had, as
it were, a whole wardrobe of such veils adapted to persons of various heights, so
that in all cases it shrouded their whole form. We may, perhaps, read between the
lines the thought that their utterances, like their veils, were adapted to suit every age
and every taste. Analogous usages present themselves in the tallith of later Judaism,
and the veil worn by the Roman augurs. Ezekiel paints, we may believe, what he
had seen. And in those veils he had seen a net cast over the victims of the false
prophetesses, a snare from which they could not escape. Will ye hunt, etc.? The
question is one of burning indignation. Omitting the words, "that come" (which
have nothing in the Hebrew corresponding to them), the second clause will run,
"Will ye make your own souls live?" and the question is explained by what follows.
The prophetesses were living upon the credulity of the victims over whom they cast
their nets.
BI, "Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes.
Pillows for all elbows
There is often something very quaint and forcible about the imagery of the old prophets.
It lays hold upon you and impresses you much more effectually than if they had
delivered their message in plain though powerful language. The image of the text is
easily understood. Ezekiel has been commissioned to lift up his voice against the many
false prophets who both in Jerusalem and among the exiles are misleading the people by
announcing salvation without repentance, and grace without judgment. He is so
indignant at their feebleness and effeminacy, that he describes as women, and
pronounces his woe upon the persistency of their endeavours to accommodate
themselves and their teaching to the wishes and desires of the community. A true peace,
real security, genuine tranquillity, could be obtained only by fearlessly and bravely laying
121

122. bare the truth, however stern and uncomfortable it might be, and not by covering it up
with devices calculated to hide its hideousness and soften its painfulness. Now, this old
trade of sewing pillows, of making cushions for all elbows that feel the hardness and
uncomfortableness of unwelcome facts, is not yet extinct. In truth, it is specially
prosperous at the present time. Let me, however, not be misunderstood. Discomfort has
no merit in itself. You come across people occasionally who evidently think it has—
irritating, troublesome people, with certainly nothing in them of the spirit of Ezekiel’s
false prophets. They glory in making you uncomfortable. Every painful incident or
troublesome piece of news that comes to their knowledge is seized upon with avidity,
eagerly communicated, and secretly gloated over. Your distress and anxiety is meat and
drink to them. The only excuse for the infliction of pain, whether of body or mind, is the
sincere desire to bring about thereby a more thorough and lasting immunity from it; the
earnest wish to show a man that the position he is occupying may for the time be
pleasant, but, being deceptive, it can end at last only in trouble more serious than that
which you unwillingly bring upon him. Our times, I have said, are effeminate. We dislike
everything that disturbs our peace of mind, or ruffles the serenity of our conscience. We
are adepts at hiding unwelcome facts, and toning down unpleasant truths. Let me just
indicate one or two directions in which we are specially ingenious and industrious in
sewing pillows for our elbows. We are so, I think, in regard to the doctrines of our
Christian faith. The Christianity taught and professed nowadays is, it seems to me, often
of a very emasculated character. I very much doubt if the great mass of professing
Christians have any other creed than a vague trust in the mercy of God, which they hope
will save them from all ill in the world to come, but which allows them to go on with
comparative comfort, satisfying their desires in the world that now is. If Christ had
anything to do with their salvation, they do not see clearly what it is; they may believe He
was a good man, more than a man, perhaps, whose words they gladly accept, so far as
they are agreeable and comforting, and whose example they cannot but admire, though
they make no serious effort to imitate it. Just let a man live a fairly decent and
respectable life, outraging in no gross manner the properties and standards of civilised
society, and they believe all will be well with him; God will not be hard on him. They
know little or nothing of a complete surrender of the soul to God as their Father, to
Christ as their Saviour, to the Holy Ghost as their Sanctifier; of the necessity of that new
birth which gives an entire change to the bias of the will, and which makes life
henceforth one long endeavour, even amid failure and weakness, to conform to the
pattern of the perfect Christ; they do not apprehend the bearing upon human life and
destiny of the momentous facts of our Lord’s incarnation, death, resurrection, and
ascension. Life would scarcely be one whir poorer to them if these events had never
taken place, This being so, they have none of the Lord’s anxiety, nor the anxiety of His
apostles, to bring the world into the kingdom of God. There is another direction in which
our love of ease and comfort continually shows itself—the manner in which we
persistently hide from ourselves the misery of the world around us. Everywhere pain is
racking fair human bodies; secret anguish is tormenting human souls; sin in its hydra-
headed forms, through drunkenness and lust and anger and godlessness, is working ruin
incalculable. At our very doors it is so; in every city of the empire it is so; in distant lands
it is so. The cry of perpetual torment rises to heaven; the wail of woe ascends day and
night from the trampled and despairing, from the suffering and the dying, from the
sinning and sinking of our kind, our brethren and sisters for whom Christ died. You
know this; secretly you know it; but you do not want to know it, so you lock up the
knowledge of it, like the gaunt skeleton it is, in the inmost chamber of your mind, and
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123. act as if you were aware of no such hateful presence. It is marvellous what power we
have of putting out of sight, and even out of mind for a time, what is disagreeable to us,
of shutting our ears to what we do not wish to hear, of persuading ourselves that, after
all, things are not so bad as some would have us believe, of settling down comfortably on
our cushions, and taking our ease. But the skeleton will not always remain in its inner
chamber; it will stalk abroad in due season, whatever we do, and overwhelm us with fear
and shame. And there is one other direction in which we are in constant danger of
weakly sewing pillows for our elbows, of concealing from ourselves painful facts—that is,
as regards our present condition and future prospects in the sight of God. We quieten
ourselves by saying, “Let not your heart be troubled, all is right; sin cannot be the
dreadful thing it is made out to be; do as well as you can; God is merciful.” As for the
inevitable and dreaded future, we shut it off from view. Nothing is to be gained by
concealment but temporary peace of the most delusive kind. If we were so hopelessly
sunk in sin that there was no rescue from it, if death were for us the end of all things, if
at the last judgment we had no Advocate with the Father, then there might be some
reason for seeking to bury out of sight facts so hateful and irremediable; but with the
blessed Gospel of our Lord proclaiming salvation from sin, with the great fact of the
resurrection of Christ from the dead attesting that death is but the gate into a higher and
nobler life, with the promise of His perpetual intercession at the right hand of the
Eternal Judge, why should we hesitate to know the worst that can be known? It is not
incurable. The quicker and the better we know it, the more curable it will be, and the
sooner will come our true peace. (James Thomson, M. A.)
Pillows for armholes
The people of the East are generally indolent and voluptuous. The art which they most
study is the art of making themselves comfortable. Enter an Eastern divan, or the saloon
of the more aristocratic mansions, and you will be struck with the ingenuity and expense
with which provision is made for bodily ease and sensual enjoyment. Odours and
perfumes of sweetest fragrance are diffused through the room; fountains or vases of
coldest water help to cool the heated air of the tropics. The sides and corners of the room
are cushioned all round, whilst movable cushions of every form and size, richly
embroidered and ornamented, are spread on the couches and chairs, and even on the
carpet. When this love of ease and luxury was carried to excess, cushions were provided
not only for the head and shoulders and back, but for the arms and for every joint, that
every part of the body might lie softly and feel comfortable. The words of our text might
be rendered “pillows for all arm joints”—including the armholes, the elbows, and wrists.
And their use is significant of the greatest ease and luxury. Some suppose that Ezekiel
refers to the abandoned women whose vile and detestable ways are graphically described
in the Book of Proverbs (chaps. 6, 7). These interpret the words of the prophet almost
literally; they regard these “pillows and kerchiefs” as literal pillows and kerchiefs with
which they furnished their chambers and decked their persons to allure souls into their
snares, and ruin them. They represent these women as of the class who, for a pittance of
remuneration, sell themselves to the lowest vice. But whilst, no doubt, some were of this
dissolute character, I do not think that the passage is to be interpreted literally; I believe
it is best interpreted figuratively. The meaning is almost identical with the “wall of
untempered mortar.” The prophets predicted safety when there was none. The
prophetesses predicted ease, prosperity, and luxury when there should be none. They
did, as it were, sew beautifully soft pillows and cushions, to put under every limb and
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124. joint of the sleepers, to make their repose more undisturbed and their sleep more
profound; and, singing their lullaby o’er the lethargic people, they said,—“Peace, peace,
when there was no peace.” Therefore, saith God,—“Woe to the women who sew pillows
to all armholes.” We may vary the figure a little, to adapt it to modem times and this
Western region. Activity and motion characterise our times and country. Let us, then,
change the figure, and adapt it to our customs. We do not lounge in luxurious divans and
voluptuous saloons: we are in the hurry of business, bustling hither and thither. A large
proportion of the people are always on the roads and thoroughfares of the land. And
what an accommodation to us are these ever-multiplying railways, linking together not
only the larger towns, but even the populous villages, into a network of iron roads. And
what a comfort, to those who can afford it, are our first-class carriages, with their softly
cushioned seats, their resting plates for the arms, and “pillows for all armholes.” One
could almost sleep there as in his own bed, and travel hundreds of miles without seeing
the inside of a house. Now, all this is very well, when one can afford it, and the place of
destination is such as you desire. But supposing you were allured and enticed into such a
conveyance by fair speeches and flattering promises; supposing it were made so
comfortable on purpose to allay your fears and deceive you as to the probable end of
your journey,—would all this comfort satisfy you, were you apprised by some kind angel
that you were in that easy, smooth fashion to be conveyed to a lunatic asylum or a
prison, to end your days amongst madmen or felons, or to be launched headlong over a
steep precipice to sudden destruction? I trow not. No; you would one and all start up,
and indignantly seek to be set down, if possible; feeling that for such an end, the ease of
the conveyance and the smoothness of the path were no compensation whatever. “Ah
yes,” I think I hear someone say,—“yes, I see; you mean the rich sinners, who fare
sumptuously every day,—who never know what it is to want a luxury or a comfort,—who
have little work and much pay,—who spend on an article of fancy more than would keep
a poor family for twelve months,—who can commit great and many sins, and cover them
over with gold and silver, so that they shall never be mentioned,—who pacify conscience
with wine or alms, and appease society by their high social standing.” No! I rather mean
you than them. Those you have mentioned may be included in the list; but so, in all
probability, are you. Of course you may be startled, you may be offended when I say so,—
mean you. The rich sinner may have his pillow,—you have yours. There is no more
common pillow for sinful and fatal lethargy than the one you are sleeping on, which has
this inscription: “It is not I.” “I am not the person meant; it is the rich man; it is the
hypocrite; it is my neighbour; anybody but me.” In other words, thousands are
continuing in their sins and vicious career, because they never apply the warnings and
descriptions of God’s Word and servants to themselves. Tell them, “Except ye repent and
be converted, ye shall all perish,” they say, “It does not mean me; I have nothing to
repent of, or if ever I had, I have long ago repented; it must be some other sinner.” You
will now see what I mean by the use of pillows, after a figurative sense. I mean the
various devices and delusions by which sinning is rendered easy, and the way to
perdition made smooth. So common are these pillows, that it is rare indeed for any
person to be without one of some kind, and many have more than one. I have already
described one. A second is a misappropriation of heavenly material to earthly and
wicked purposes. It is made from a perversion of the eternal decrees of God, and
mistaken notions of Divine sovereignty. This is a pillow on which many a sinner has
slept soundly and fatally. The cushion has two sides: on the one side is Election, and on
the other is Reprobation. And nosy they lie on one side, and now on the other, and all
your preaching and warning cannot rouse them. Where shall we look for a third pillow?
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125. There is the pillow of Procrastination. I speak of this in general; no pillow is more
frequently used, more comfortable to lie upon, and sin upon, than this: “I admit the
Bible is true, the minister is right; I am a sinner; Christ is a Saviour; I am a dying man; I
must stand before the judgment seat of God; I must go to heaven or hell, according to
my faith and character here. But then, the trump is not yet to be sounded; I am not
expecting to die at present; I hope to live a good while longer; I should like to enjoy the
pleasures of life as long as possible, and at some more convenient season I will repent; I
will seek Jesus as my Saviour, and I hope through Him to die happily, and ultimately
reach heaven.” But what if your sleep become heavier and deeper every day, so that the
voice of warning or mercy no longer can reach your heart, and you perish in your sins? A
fourth pillow is the hope of escaping detection. “No eye saw me; it will never be known.”
This is a most wretched, yet common delusion, Sin will out. You cannot long tamper
with the intoxicating cup, and not give evidence of intemperance. You cannot long prove
unfaithful to your marriage vows, and not be looked down upon as a base and
abandoned man. You cannot long embezzle the money entrusted to your care and rob
your master, but soon suspicion will be excited, and proof sufficient to convict you
transpire. You cannot long live inconsistently with your Christian profession as a
member of Christ’s Church and keep up the semblance of godliness, but soon some act
of dishonesty or immorality will declare that you are but a whited sepulchre and a vile
hypocrite. Or if you do escape the detection and chastisement of your fellowmen, you
cannot escape from the omniscience of God, who will judge everyone according to the
deeds done in the body. (R. Bruce, M. A.)
Judgments denied none the less sure
The Chaldeans were to capture Jerusalem. God said so. False prophetesses denied it, and
to quell the anxieties of the people employed a significant symbol by sewing little pillows
under the arms, as much as to say: “Whenever you feel these soft pads at the arm sleeve,
bethink yourselves all shall be easy and well.” But alas for the delusion: Notwithstanding
all the smoothness of the prophecy, Jerusalem went down in darkness and fire and
blood. It is not more certain that you are here this morning, not more certain that that is
a window, not more certain that that is a ceiling, not more certain that that is a chair, not
more certain that that is a carpet, than it is certain that God has declared destruction to
the finally impenitent. Universalism comes out and tries to quell this fear, and wants to
sew two pillows under my arm sleeves, and wants to sew two pillows under your arm
sleeves. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
19 You have profaned me among my people for a
few handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. By
lying to my people, who listen to lies, you have
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126. killed those who should not have died and have
spared those who should not live.
BARNES, "Eze_13:19
Pollute me - Profane Me by your false words, which ye pretend to be from Me.
Handfuls of barley - Such were the gifts with which men used to approach a seer
(compare 1Sa_9:7-8; 1Ki_14:3).
GILL, "And will ye pollute me among my people,.... Defile the name of the Lord,
by abusing it, to cover their wicked designs and practices, pretending they were seat by
him, when they were not; that what they said came from him, though he spoke not by
them; and that it was his will they declared, when it was their own, and what came out of
their own hearts and heads: so the Targum, "will ye pollute my will among my people";
to profane his name among the Gentiles was a great sin, but to pollute it among his own
people was greater; attempting to draw them aside from his fear and worship, and that
for gain, for small gain too:
for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread; which shows them to be
abandoned creatures, that were ready to do or say anything for the meanest trifle; their
consciences were seared; they gave up themselves to work wickedness with greediness,
and for filthy lucre's sake, and for a small portion of that; which exaggerates their sin
and folly; see Pro_28:21;
to slay the souls that should not die; by threatening the captives in Babylon, who
had surrendered themselves in Jehoiachim's time, with destruction and death; who
ought to have been comforted in their exile, and whom the Lord in his own time would
deliver:
and to save the souls alive that should not live; by promising the inhabitants of
Jerusalem long life, safety, and prosperity; when they should either die by the sword,
famine, and pestilence; or be carried captive, which was as death; for so they did, or
attempted to do, both the one and the other, by their false prophecies, as follows:
by your lying to my people that hear your lies? their false prophecies, which
some hearkened to, and believed; and others were intimidated by, and feared that so it
would be.
JAMISON, "handfuls — expressing the paltry gain for which they bartered
immortal souls (compare Mic_3:5, Mic_3:11; Heb_12:16). They “polluted” God by
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127. making His name the cloak under which they uttered falsehoods.
among my people — an aggravation of their sin, that they committed it “among the
people” whom God had chosen as peculiarly His own, and among whom He had His
temple. It would have been a sin to have done so even among the Gentiles, who knew not
God; much more so among the people of God (compare Pro_28:21).
slay ... souls that should not die, etc. — to predict the slaying or perdition of the
godly whom I will save. As true ministers are said to save and slay their hearers,
according to the spirit respectively in which these receive their message (2Co_2:15,
2Co_2:16), so false ministers imitate them; but they promise safety to those on the
broad way to ruin and predict ruin to those on the narrow way of God.
my people that hear your lies — who are therefore willfully deceived, so that their
guilt lies at their own door (Joh_3:19).
CALVIN, “Here God accuses these women of a double crime; one crime was that
which I have mentioned, cruelly to destroy the souls which were sacred to God, and
hence were destined to be saved; but he added a more atrocious crime — that of
sacrilege, because they had abused the name of God to deceive. Nothing is less
tolerable than when God’s truth is turned into a lie, because this is like reducing
him to nothing. God is truth; if, therefore, that is abolished, what else will remain
behind? God will be, as it were, a dead specter. Hence the Prophet, in God’s name,
complains of both: ye have profaned me, says he, before my people. For as the gift of
prophecy was a rare and remarkable pledge of God’s love and paternal anxiety
towards the Israelites, so when that gift was corrupted, the name of God was at the
same time polluted. For God was never willing to be disjoined from his word,
because he is himself invisible, and never appears otherwise than in a mirror. Hence
God’s glory, and sanctity, and justice, and goodness, and power, ought to shine in
the gift of prophecy; but when that gift is contaminated, we see how such a disgrace
becomes a reproach against God. In this way his holiness is defiled, his justice,
virtue, and fidelity, are corrupted, and his very existence called in question. So it is
not without cause that God pronounces his own name to be polluted. Then he adds,
among the people. And this circumstance increases the crime, since God’s name was
profaned where he wished it to be peculiarly worshipped; for it was also profaned
among the Gentiles: but since God had never made himself known there, their
profanation was the less detestable. But, because God erected his throne among the
people of Israel, and wished his glory to shine there, we see how sacrilege increases,
while his name is profaned in that sanctuary which he had chosen. This is one
crime.
But he also adds, on account of handfuls of barley and pieces of bread. Here God
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128. shows how much and how basely he was despised by those females, who sold their
prophecies for a piece of bread or a few grains of barley which any one could hold
in his hand. If they had demanded a great reward, their insatiable avarice would not
have extenuated their crime; but their impiety is the rather discovered, when on
account of a small reward they so prostituted themselves and the name of God. They
boasted themselves to be the organs of the Holy Spirit: but when by this mask they
deceived the people, injustice was done to the Holy Spirit, since for so paltry a
reward they vainly boasted in their prophecies. They prostituted even God himself:
and in fine, this was just as if; being corrupted by a small bribe of no value, they did
not treat God’s name with sufficient respect to be withheld from the crime by the
slightest of the recompense. A comparison will make the matter clearer. If a person
is tempted by a moderate reward to the perpetration of any crime and refuses, and
then when he is offered a far more valuable reward, and thus yields to the
temptation, this shows that his will was upright, though not sufficiently firm. But if
any one, for a single farthing, undertakes to do what he is ordered, and refuses no
crime, this shows his readiness to all sorts of wickedness. If a girl rejects bribes
when she knows her modesty to be assailed, but yet yields for a large reward, here,
as I have said, virtue struggles with vice; but if she prostitutes herself for a morsel of
bread, here she manifests that depravity which all abominate. This, then, is God’s
intention, when he says that these women traded in their lies for handfuls of barley
and pieces of bread. If any one objects that prophecies were anciently saleable, since
it was customary with the people to offer the prophets rewards, I answer, that the
women are not condemned merely for receiving either the handful of barley or the
piece of bread, but because they did not hesitate to corrupt God’s truth for a trifling
gain, and then to turn it into a lie. The Prophet afterwards points out the nature of
their deceit, for it would not have been sufficient to blame these women generally,
unless Ezekiel had pointed with his finger at their pestiferous impostures.
Now, therefore, he says, that they slew the souls which were not dying, and kept
alive the souls which were not living. We have said before, that by this mark the
true and righteous servants of God were distinguished from impostors. For the
servants of God, who faithfully discharge the duty enjoined upon them, kill and
make alive: for God’s word is life, and brings health to lost mankind; but is a savor
of death unto death in those who perish, as Paul says. (2 Corinthians 2:15.) Hence it
is true that prophets who faithfully and properly discharge their duty both kill and
make alive: but they give life to the souls which are to be freed from death, and slay
the souls which are devoted to destruction; for they denounce eternal death to all
unbelievers unless they repent; and whatever they bind on earth is also bound in
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129. heaven. (Matthew 18:18.) Their teaching, therefore, is effective for destruction, as
also Paul elsewhere teaches. We have at hand, says he, vengeance against every high
thing which exalts itself against Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:5.) Hence honest teachers
are armed by God’s vengeance against all unbelievers who remain obstinate: but
they convey life to those who repent, since they are messengers of reconciliation;
nay, they reconcile men to God when they offer Christ to them as our peace, and by
whom the Father is propitious to us. (Ephesians 2:16.) When false prophets desire to
rival God’s servants, they omit the principal part, namely, faith and repentance;
hence it happens that they proclaim life to souls already adjudged to destruction;
for they give life to the reprobate who are hardened in contempt of God by their
flatteries; for they do not require of men either faith or penitence, but only a
reward. Hence also it happens that they slay the souls which ought not to die,
namely, because nothing is prouder or more cruel than these false prophets. For
they fulminate according to their pleasure, and sink even to the lowest hell the whole
world when no hope of profit appears.
Here then we see the vices of these women of whom Ezekiel treats so pointedly out,
that no one need be any longer deceived by them except through his own fault.
Hence also we gather a perpetual rule in examining doctrine, lest the deceits of
Satan should surprise us for the word of God. Let us learn, then, that the prophetic
word is life-giving to us, if we are dissatisfied with our sins, and fly to God’s pity
with true and serious penitence; for all souls are slain who do not receive this kind
of life; and whoever compares the papacy with that corruption which Ezekiel
describes to us, will see that, although Satan has many methods of deceiving men,
yet they will always be discovered like himself. Ezekiel spoke of veils and cushions.
We see many rites exhibited in the papacy, so that the incredulous, being snatched
as it were out of the world, are not only delirious, but suffer themselves to be drawn
in any direction like cattle by the grossest impostures. But in their teaching we
perceive what Ezekiel condemns, namely, that they give life to souls devoted to
death, and slay souls which thought to be kept alive. For what is the meaning of
their immense heap of laws, except to bury wretched consciences? For any one who
wishes to satisfy the laws of the papacy from his heart, must cut himself to pieces, so
to speak, through his whole life. We now perceive with what intent our Prophet will
elsewhere say that legislators of this kind are implacable, since they remit nothing,
and exact all their conditions with the utmost rigor. Hence it happens that these
miserable souls perish, because despair oppresses them and overwhelms them in the
deep. Meanwhile we see how they give life to souls subject to death, since; pardon is
prepared for adulterers, robbers, manslayers, and all criminals, if they only buy
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130. themselves off, as popish priests and monks pretend that God is appeased by
satisfactions and prayers. Hence they thrust expiation’s of no value upon God; and,
to speak more correctly, trifles and follies, which do not deceive even children, they
call expiation’s, as if God could change his nature. Hence we must diligently remark
this passage, that we may know how to distinguish between true and false prophets,
and may not despise the test which the Prophet puts before us.
He says, in deceiving my people by listening to a lie. He accuses some of lying, and
others of willingly embracing is. For the noun ‫,כזב‬ kezeb, which is repeated, is
derived from the same root. Here, again, God undertakes the cause of his people; for
though they were all worthy of being drawn into exile by Satan, yet when God took
care of them, it was like snatching them out of Satan’s hand, and claiming them as
his own peculiar people. This is one point. But meantime these wretches are
deprived of all excuse for seeking false oracles. For the Prophet pronounces them
deceived because they listened to vanity, that is, because they wished to be deceived,
since it was entirely their own fault, and they could not in any way throw it off. It is
true they were deceived under false pretenses through the abuse of the prophetic
name, and hence their vision was obscured by a darkened cloud; but still they
thought to have gone to the fountain, for no opening would have been found for
Satan if they had been properly fortified: for God had surrounded them with
ramparts by giving them a law to protect them from all fallacies. Since, then, they
thus exposed themselves of their own accord, it is not surprising if God allowed
them to be deceived.
COKE, "Verse 19
Ezekiel 13:19. And for pieces of bread— See Jeremiah 37:21.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The false prophets abounded, both in Judaea and among the
captives in Babylon; and by their flattering speeches the hearts of the unwary
people were beguiled: against them therefore the prophet is ordered to direct his
word. They are called the prophets of Israel: probably they arrogated that title to
themselves, and persecuted the few faithful prophets because they remonstrated
against and contradicted their falsehood and lies.
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131. 1. A heavy charge is laid against them. They were daring impostors, pretended a
mission and instruction from God, when he never sent them, forging visions which
they never saw, the mere contrivances of their own brain: instead of being guided by
the Spirit of truth, they followed their own deceived hearts; and dared to advance,
as the dictates of inspiration, that which they knew to be a lie: crafty and ravenous
as the foxes of the desert, they preyed on the deluded people; yet, wise as they
accounted themselves in their deceits, they were in fact foolish prophets, sunk in
spiritual ignorance and sin; they used no efforts to prevent the impending
judgments, nor ever stood up in the breach against the overflowings of ungodliness,
with sharp and faithful rebukes against the wicked, or fervent and importunate
prayer to God, in order to avert his wrath when he arose as an enemy against them.
Nay, they widened the gap which they should have made up, by barely betraying
men's souls, flattering them to their ruin, promising them peace, and with their
solemn pretensions and asseverations emboldening the people to hope that the event
would correspond with their predictions; hardening them in sin, and hastening their
destruction. Note; (1.) To pretend a mission from the Holy Ghost, when men are
conscious that they never were inwardly moved by him, is daring blasphemy and
impiety. (2.) They who run, though God never sent them, will shortly be stopped in
their career, and perish in their lie. (3.) A foolish prophet had never yet a mission
from God: they cannot be called who are not qualified. (4.) A greedy prophet shews
who sent him; not God but Mammon. (5.) They who study to please men's ears,
instead of faithfully addressing their consciences, are justly to be suspected as
deceivers.
2. Vengeance is denounced against them. God is their enemy; and woe unto those
against whom he rises up in anger! As they have justly forfeited all the privileges of
God's Israel, they are for ever excluded from them; they shall either be cut off by
death, or be excommunicated from the church; or, when the issue has proved the
falsehood of their predictions, they shall be confounded, and ashamed to look those
in the face whom they have deluded: they shall be no more consulted, but abhorred
as deceivers; shall die in a miserable exile, and never be enrolled with the other
captives when they return to their own land, excluded from their mercy, an earnest
of eternal exclusion from the heavenly Canaan. And in these judgments inflicted on
the false prophets, God will make known the glory of his justice, holiness, and truth.
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132. 2nd, The false prophets are farther rebuked and threatened.
1. They deceived the people. They cried peace, as if God would give them
deliverance from the Babylonish yoke, when there was no peace, no prospect as yet
of their return from captivity, or hope of their being able to support themselves in
rebellion against the Chaldeans. Thus they seduced God's people, those who in
profession at least were such, and who had been separated from other nations for
his service. One built up a wall, pretending that Jerusalem was impregnable, and
that the enemy should never break through; and this being formed pleasing to the
people, lo! others daubed it with untempered mortar, supporting with specious
arguments the assertion: when, alas! their wall, however solid it appeared, was weak
and tottering, and ready to fall before the first attacks of the besiegers. Such are the
plausible errors which heretics introduce, and the smooth prophesies of ministers
who dare not honestly offend by their simplicity, but court favour by flattering
sinners in their false hopes; the end of which will be the ruin of the deceived and the
deceiver together.
2. Judgment is passed upon them. The Chaldean army, as an overflowing shower, as
great hail-stones, and a stormy wind, shall overturn all their defences, and lay the
walls of Jerusalem in the dust; armed with the fury of God, nothing can resist the
invaders; and then the vanity of these lying prophets will be seen, and the folly of
those who trusted in them be manifest, when they who daubed the wall shall perish
under the ruins. Note; (1.) The false refuges of the sinner shall in the end prove his
bane. (2.) When God is the enemy, resistance is vain. (3.) They who delude others to
their destruction shall receive themselves greater damnation.
3. God ridicules their confidence, and triumphs in their fall. When the wall is fallen,
shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?
Those whom they had deceived would abuse them for their false assurances; and the
truly pious, who disregarded their predictions, see the hand of God in the whole of
these judgments. And it shall be then known and acknowledged that God is the
Lord, when his word is thus verified, and his righteous threatenings executed.
3rdly, As women, as well as men, had been favoured with divine revelation, there
132

133. were such now who pretended to inspiration, and, actuated by the same evil spirit as
the false prophets, joined them in their lies. Against these the prophet is commanded
to set his face. Impudent sinners need a bold reprover.
1. The crimes of the false prophetesses are charged upon them.
[1.] They published the fictitious visions of their own hearts, yet solemnly avouched
God's authority to give weight to their lies. And too many hearkened to them,
hoping or fearing according to their word. Note; (1.) Men easily believe what they
wish to be true. (2.) When sinners desire to be flattered, and hate to be reproved, it
is just in God to give them up to deluders.
[2.] They were vilely mercenary. They meant to fleece the deluded people; and
impiously prostituted God's sacred name, to gain credit to their predictions; even
for a morsel of bread ready to transgress, and to invent a lying answer, such as
would please those who consulted them. Note; (1.) Nothing is more incompatible
with a mission from God, than the love of filthy lucre. (2.) Of all impiety that is
chief, to abuse the sacred name of God and religion to serve worldly ends and
purposes.
[3.] They used every art to ensnare men's souls, and hunt them into their net;
sometimes soothing them with pleasing dreams, sewing pillows to all arm-holes, or
elbows, and making kerchiefs upon the head of every stature; intimating thereby
how securely they might rest, and fear no enemy to strip off their ornaments;
engaging to save the souls alive whom God had doomed to die, and hardening thus
the wicked in his impenitence by promising him life, when death temporal and
eternal awaited him. On the other hand, sometimes they threatened, denouncing
destruction on those whom God had determined to save, and seeking to discourage
the righteous, and make their hearts sad whom God hath not made sad. And this
some refer particularly to the captives, whom they severely censured for yielding to
the Chaldeans, while they promised those who rebelled against Nebuchadrezzar all
success and prosperity. Note: (1.) Nothing strengthens the hands of the wicked so
much as to be bolstered up with hopes that they may be saved, though they persist
in their sins. (2.) They who grieve the hearts of God's people, and seek to discourage
133

134. them, shall severely suffer for it.
2. God threatens them with deserved wrath. He expostulates with them on the
daring impiety of their conduct, and denounces a fearful woe upon them. They shall
be shortly silenced and confounded, when by the event their lies should be detected;
or they should miserably perish in the siege, and God will rescue his poor people
whom they hunted into their toils, tear off the pillows and kerchiefs, discover their
delusions, expose them to contempt, and make them more abhorred than ever they
had been loved or feared; and hereby he will not only deliver his people from their
snares, but eminently magnify his own great name. Note; (1.) It is an unspeakable
mercy, when God saves his people from those who sought to tyrannize over their
consciences. (2.) God will not suffer those who trust in him to be led into essential
errors by the delusions of false teachers; but will bring them to the knowledge of his
blessed Self, comfort their dejected hearts with the views of his free grace and rich
salvation, and, shedding abroad his love in their souls, make them both happy and
holy.
ELLICOTT, " (19) Handfuls of barley.—It was an ancient custom to bring presents
to a prophet on consulting him (1 Samuel 9:7-8; 1 Kings 14:3); but as barley was a
cheap grain, and handfuls a very small quantity, these words show the exceedingly
small gains for which these false prophetesses were willing to pervert the truth, and
lead the people to destruction. God was “polluted” by attaching His name and
authority to that which was not true, and would not come to pass, thus “making
Him a liar” like themselves. Like all falsehood, their lies tended both ways—to
entice the upright to their ruin, and to give false security to the wicked. It is always
impossible that a perversion of the truth, especially in regard to the Divine
judgments, can be harmless.
Hear your lies.—Or, hearken to a lie. The words imply a willingness to listen to the
pleasing falsehood, and the state of things is that described by Jeremiah 5:31. “The
prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and my people
love to have it so.”
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:19 And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of
134

135. barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the
souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear [your] lies?
Ver. 19. For handfuls of barley end for pieces.] Like so many base gypsies or
common beggars. (a) Cato upbraided Marcus Caelius, and worthily, that, being a
pleader, he would sell either his tongue or silence for a morsel of bread. These were
low prized prophetesses. See Micah 3:5.
To slay the souls,] scil., By denouncing death to them, or by stirring up the people to
slay them as miscreants.
That hear your lies.] Such as deceive expectation; for so the word here used
signifieth.
POOLE, " Will ye pollute me? profanely contradicting what is indeed spoken in my
name, and pretending my name for that I never spake, nor will do.
Among my people; who are my peculiar, who have my word and true prophets, by
which your lies are discovered, and further will be. What shameless impudence is
this, to abuse my name, counterfeit my hand and seal, to them, that do or might
know both!
For handfuls of barley; for a mean reward, tell fortunes for a penny! but there may
be herein a provision made against the famine which was threatened and would
come; this grain might be kept.
For pieces of bread; bread and morsels of bread. Mercenary sorceresses! that thus
make sale of their predictions to feed their hungry bellies.
135

136. To slay the souls that should not die; you denounce evil to the best, perhaps
threatened those in Babylon with death, whom God will keep alive there.
To save the souls alive that should not live; declaring safety, plenty, prosperity,
peace, without war, or victory in the war, included in that they live.
By your lying; most falsely flattering those that come to you, and most maliciously
threatening those that come not, because they know you speak your own lies. You
save whom I will kill, and kill whom I will save.
WHEDON, "19. Will ye pollute me… for handfuls of barley — Literally, ye have.
These sorceresses were telling their lies in the name of Jehovah for the sake of the
pay. And they were willing to commit this sacrilege for the slightest recompense, like
that bestowed on the harlot or beggar (1 Samuel 2:36; Hosea 3:2). “Do you keep
alive, for a few handfuls of barley as your reward, the souls of the wicked?” —
Mosheh Ben Shesheth.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:19
Will ye pollute me, etc.? rather, with the Revised Version, ye have profaned, the
interrogative form not being continued in the Hebrew. The prophet dwells with
scorn on the miserable pay for which the prophetesses were guilty of so great a sin.
Not for rewards of divination, like those of Balsam (Numbers 22:7), but for gifts like
those bestowed on the harlot or the beggar (l Samuel 2:36; Hosea 3:2)—for handfuls
of barley and pieces of bread—they plied their wretched trade. For examples of the
lower gifts in kind offered to prophets, compare those of Saul (1 Samuel 9:8), of
Jeroboam's wife (1 Kings 14:3), the false prophets in Micah 3:5. And they did this in
direct opposition to the will of Jehovah. They "slew," i.e. drew on to destruction, the
souls that were meant for life. They "saved the souls alive," i.e. "their own, which
were worthy of death." That was the outcome of their "lying" divinations.
136

137. 20 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord
says: I am against your magic charms with which
you ensnare people like birds and I will tear them
from your arms; I will set free the people that you
ensnare like birds.
BARNES, "Eze_13:20
To make them fly - If the marginal reading “into gardens” be adopted, it must
mean, Ye entice men to the gardens or groves, where magical arts are practiced. That
groves were used for this purpose and for idolatrous rites is notorious.
CLARKE, "The souls that ye hunt to make them fly - ‫לפרחות‬ lephorechoth,
into the flower gardens, says Parkhurst. These false prophetesses decoyed men into
these gardens, where probably some impure rites of worship were performed, as in that
of ‫אשרה‬ Asherah or Venus. See Parkhurst under ‫.פרח‬
GILL, "Wherefore thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against your
pillows,.... Not only had an abhorrence of them, but was determined to destroy them,
detect their fallacies, and expose the folly of such actions, and them to shame and
contempt:
wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly; to the places where they
prophesied; into the toils and nets they spread for them, in order to catch them with
their divinations and prophecies, and make a gain of them: or, "into the gardens", or
"groves" (o); there to commit idolatry, Isa_65:3;
and I will tear them from your arms; by which it seems that those pillows were not
only put under the arms of those that came to inquire of these female prophets or
fortune tellers; but they put them under their own arms, and lay upon them as if they
137

138. were asleep, and in a trance or ecstasy; and so the kerchiefs or veils were upon their
heads, which covered their faces, to show that they were quite retired from the world,
and wholly attentive to the visions and revelations they pretended were made them by
the Lord; and which they gave out, in this superstitious way, to the credulous people that
flocked about them:
and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly; which
were captivated with their superstitions; drawn into their nets and snares; decoyed into
the gardens, where they were prevailed upon to sacrifice to idols, and were taken with
their soothsaying and lying divinations; these the Lord promises to break the snare for
them, and set them at liberty, and preserve them from that ruin and destruction they
were ready to come into; see Psa_124:7.
JAMISON, "I am against your pillows — that is, against your lying ceremonial
tricks by which ye cheat the people.
to make them fly — namely, into their snares, as fowlers disturb birds so as to be
suddenly caught in the net spread for them. “Fly” is peculiarly appropriate as to those
lofty spiritual flights to which they pretended to raise their dupes when they veiled their
heads with kerchiefs and made them rest on luxurious arm-cushions (Eze_13:18).
let ... souls go — “Ye make them fly” in order to destroy them; “I will let them go” in
order to save them (Psa_91:3; Pro_6:5; Hos_9:8).
K&D 20-23, "I am against your pillows — that is, against your lying ceremonial
tricks by which ye cheat the people.
to make them fly — namely, into their snares, as fowlers disturb birds so as to be
suddenly caught in the net spread for them. “Fly” is peculiarly appropriate as to those
lofty spiritual flights to which they pretended to raise their dupes when they veiled their
heads with kerchiefs and made them rest on luxurious arm-cushions (Eze_13:18).
let ... souls go — “Ye make them fly” in order to destroy them; “I will let them go” in
order to save them (Psa_91:3; Pro_6:5; Hos_9:8).
CALVIN, “Here Ezekiel begins to threaten those women with what would shortly
happen, namely, that God would not only render them contemptible, but also
ridiculous, before the whole people, that their delusions and impostures might
sufficiently appear. This is the Prophet’s intention, as we shall afterwards see; but
the Prophet is verbose in this denunciation. God therefore says, that he is an enemy
to those cushions, that is, to those false ceremonies which were like cloaks to deceive
miserable men: hence he says, that those souls were a prey. He uses the comparison
from hunting: ye have hunted, says he, the souls of my people. And this is the
meaning of the word used immediately afterwards for flying. This word ‫,פרח‬
138

139. pherech, signifies also “to flourish;” but I here willingly subscribe to the opinion of
all who interpret it to fly: unless the paraphrast is right in translating it “to perish;”
for he thought the Prophet was speaking metaphorically, as if he meant that those
souls were ensnared, and so vanished away. But I do not think this quite suitable,
since it is more probable that the Prophet is speaking of their lofty speculations. For
we know that false prophets boasted in this artifice, when they either raise, or
pretend they raise, men’s minds aloft, and curious men desire this only; and hence it
happens that the doctrines of the Law and the Gospel are insipid to them, because
subtleties alone delight them. And we see at this day how many embrace the follies
of Dionysius (27) about the celestial hierarchy, who treat all the prophets, and even
Christ himself, as of no value. Hence the Prophet says, that these women hunted the
souls of the people, because they had snares prepared in which they entangled all
who were subject to their impostures and fallacies. Yet, in my opinion, he also
alludes to birds. When, therefore, he has said that all impostures were Satan’s
method of hunting souls, he now adds obliquely another simile, that all false
prophecies are so many allurements to catch birds. The sense of the passage now
appears clear. Behold, therefore, says he, God will arise against your cushions, by
which you have hunted birds to make them fly; that is, when you promised
wonderful revelations those wretched dupes whom their own curiosity urged on
were deceived by such enticements. Afterwards he adds, I will free them from your
arms, and I will let go the souls which you have hunted to make them fly, says he.
He repeats again what we have already said about deep speculations, by the
sweetness of which false prophets are accustomed to entice all fools who cannot be
content with true doctrine, nor be wise with sobriety. Meanwhile it is by no means
doubtful that God here speaks peculiarly of his elect, who were left among the
people. For although they were but few, God was unwilling for them to perish: and
for this reason he announces that he would be their avenger, and undeceive them,
whether they had been already entrapped, or were just surrounded by these
allurements. Since, then, he uses the same word, we gather from this that the phrase
cannot be used indiscriminately. For God suffers many to perish, as he says by the
Prophet Zechariah, “Let what perishes perish,” (Zechariah 9:9); but meanwhile he
rescued a small number as the remnant of his choice, as Paul says. (Romans 11:5.)
COFFMAN, "Verse 20
"Wherefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against your pillows,
wherewith ye hunt the souls to make them fly. Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and
139

140. deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be
hunted; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. Because with lies ye have grieved the
heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad, and strengthened the hands of
the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive;
therefore ye shall no more see false visions, nor divine divinations: and I will deliver
my people out of your hand; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah."
"Hunt the souls to make them fly ..." (Ezekiel 13:20). The the Good News Bible
renders this sentence, "I hate the wristbands you use in your attempt to control life
and death." James Moffatt's Translation of the Bible, 1929, has this: "I am against
those amulets you use to snare poor human souls." Douay has it this way, "I am
against your cushions wherewith you try to catch flying souls." The NIV translates:
"I am against your magic charms with which you ensnare people like birds." The
Septuagint (LXX) has, "I am against your pillows, whereby ye there confound
souls."
The most attractive to us of all such renditions was mentioned by Canon Cook, who
thought that, "hunting souls to make them fly" (Ezekiel 13:20) means "causing
souls to fly into your gardens."[16] All of these serve to show the confusion that
results from a damaged or uncertain text. The wonderful fact is that whatever the
passage means, the message of God is plain enough. Those wicked prophetesses were
rejected and punished by God who delivered his people from their power. Is that
not sufficient anyway?
Howie summed up the teaching here as follows.
"God condemned the sorceresses. He destroyed the badges of their art (the
pillows, cushions, or whatever they were); he freed the souls they hunted and
allowed them to escape like birds. Such women claimed powers over the living and
the dead; the effect of that was to discourage the righteous and to aid and abet the
wicked; and that is always the way it is when magic, witchcraft, and sorcery are
permitted to usurp the place in men's hearts that belongs to true religion."[17]
140

141. TRAPP, "Verse 20
Ezekiel 13:20 Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD Behold, I [am] against your
pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make [them] fly, and I will tear them
from your arms, and will let the souls go, [even] the souls that ye hunt to make
[them] fly.
Ver. 20. Behold, I am against your pillows.] God’s hatred against sin is such that he
hateth anything that is made use of about it. The serpent was cursed because he had
been abused by the devil.
To make them fly.] High pitches, αεροβατουντις: as our high attainers, with their
new truths and strange speculations, do now pretend to do. Such were the
Swenkfeldians - Stinkfeldians, Luther called them, for their ill savour. Swenkfeldius
himself bewitched many with those lofty terms, which were much in his mouth, of
illumination, revelation, deification, the inward and spiritual man, &c. (a)
POOLE, "Verse 20
I am against (the same phrase Ezekiel 13:8)
your pillows; the rite, and its signification too.
There hunt the souls; either at Jerusalem, or wherever you give out answers.
To make them fly: in this sense the word is no where else used, and thus used here
renders the interpretation obscure. Elsewhere it is, to bud, as Numbers 17:8 Ezekiel
7:10; to blossom, Isaiah 27:6; to spring up as a flower or vine, Psalms 92:7 Song of
Solomon 6:11; to grow, as Hosea 14:8. Thus the sense is obvious; by these lying
141

142. ceremonies thus applied you promise a flourishing, growing state to all inquirers,
and this is, the net with which you hunt souls. It is possible these prophetesses might
bring their deceived ones into pleasant gardens, and (if well paid for it) entertain
with all the pleasures of flowers and fruits; and might not these prophetesses be the
priests of Flora, and seduce young, fair, wanton ones to the idolatry and brutish
pleasures of the Floralia?
I will tear them, with some violence and suddenness, that may express an
indignation; as, 2 Kings 5:7, when the king of Israel rent his clothes at the hearing
the letter of Benhadad king of Syria, so in wrath will God suddenly tear your
enchanting and divining habits.
From your arms; either from the arms of such as put them on when they consulted
with these seducers; or may be the seducers might ordinarily wear them, to be
known what they were.
Will let the souls go: you held the souls of those that heard you as captives, or as
bewitched with your enchantments and pleasures; but I will set them free, some I
will enlighten to discover your frauds, others I will undeceive by sending them into
captivity.
WHEDON, " 20. To make them fly — Rather, as birds (Gesenius, Smend). The
figure of the net is still being carried out.
That ye hunt to make them fly — This passage is very corrupt, but by a slight
change the text may read, “that ye hunt go free” (Cornill, Driver).
PETT, "Verse 20-21
“Wherefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold I am against your armbands
(wristbands) with which you hunt the people (nephesh - living person) as birds (or
142

143. ‘as becoming flying ones’), and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the
people go, even the people that you hunt as birds. Your shrouds will I also tear, and
deliver my people out of your hand, and they will no more be in your hand to be
hunted, and you will know that I am Yahweh.”
It is clear from this that the armbands and shrouds were seen as binding people by
spells, not because of their own power but because of the power given by the
superstitions of the people who believed their lies. The hunting as birds again
suggests astral travel, or something similar. Thus when God’s judgment came their
armbands and shrouds would be torn from them. They would no longer be able to
harm others. God’s people would no longer be in their hands or subject to their
suggestive powers. Thus would all see that Yahweh was triumphant over them. The
fact of Yahweh’s all-powerful nature would be revealed.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:20
To make them fly, etc.; rather, with the Revised Version and Ewald, as if they were
birds, carrying out the thought that the amulets on the arms of the prophetesses,
and the veil cast over the heads of the votaries, were like the snare of the fowler. So
the threat that follows, that the amulets should be torn off and the veil rent, is
practically equivalent to the promise that the victims should be "delivered out of the
snare of the fowler" (Psalms 91:3; Psalms 124:7). They should no longer he in the
power of those who traded on their credulity. They too shall know that he who
speaks is indeed Jehovah.
COKE, "Verse 20
"Wherefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against your pillows,
wherewith ye hunt the souls to make them fly. Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and
deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be
hunted; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. Because with lies ye have grieved the
heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad, and strengthened the hands of
the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive;
143

144. therefore ye shall no more see false visions, nor divine divinations: and I will deliver
my people out of your hand; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah."
"Hunt the souls to make them fly ..." (Ezekiel 13:20). The the Good News Bible
renders this sentence, "I hate the wristbands you use in your attempt to control life
and death." James Moffatt's Translation of the Bible, 1929, has this: "I am against
those amulets you use to snare poor human souls." Douay has it this way, "I am
against your cushions wherewith you try to catch flying souls." The NIV translates:
"I am against your magic charms with which you ensnare people like birds." The
Septuagint (LXX) has, "I am against your pillows, whereby ye there confound
souls."
The most attractive to us of all such renditions was mentioned by Canon Cook, who
thought that, "hunting souls to make them fly" (Ezekiel 13:20) means "causing
souls to fly into your gardens."[16] All of these serve to show the confusion that
results from a damaged or uncertain text. The wonderful fact is that whatever the
passage means, the message of God is plain enough. Those wicked prophetesses were
rejected and punished by God who delivered his people from their power. Is that
not sufficient anyway?
21 I will tear off your veils and save my people
from your hands, and they will no longer fall prey
to your power. Then you will know that I am the
Lord.
GILL, "Your kerchiefs also will one tear,.... From their heads; discover their
tricks, and expose them to the contempt of the people, and destroy both them and their
works:
144

145. and deliver my people out of your hand; from being hunted, ensnared, and
deceived by them:
and they shall be no more in your land to be hunted; but should either flee into
Egypt, and other countries, for shelter, or be carried captive into Babylon:
and ye shall know that I am the Lord; see Eze_13:9.
JAMISON, "in your hand — in your power. “My people” are the elect remnant of
Israel to be saved.
ye shall know — by the judgments which ye shall suffer.
CALVIN, “What the Prophet had said concerning the pillows he now pronounces of
the veils, by which they were accustomed to cover either their own heads, or those of
the persons who consulted them. The conclusion is, that God would put an end to
such follies. For the people were so fascinated by these silly things, that it became
necessary to strip away these masks, since these women were always ready to
deceive. He adds also, that he would do that for the benefit of his own people. We
have said that this ought not to be extended generally to all the sons of Abraham
according to the flesh. For God suffered almost all to perish, as he had said by
Isaiah:
“Even if thy people had been as the sand of the sea-shore, a remnant only shall be
saved,” (Isaiah 10:22.)
When, therefore, God speaks here concerning his own people, this sentence ought to
be restricted to the elect: as when it is said in the psalm, How soft and kind is God to
his people Israel; and then he adds by way of correction, to those who are upright in
heart, (Psalms 73:1,) Since many boasted themselves to be Israelites who are very
unlike their father, and through being degenerate deprived themselves of that
honor: hence the Prophet restricts God’s goodness peculiarly to the elect who are
upright in heart, after he had spoken of the whole people. Although Ezekiel did not
distinctly express what we have cited from the psalm, yet the sense is the same; and
this is easily gathered from the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans
(Romans 11:5), where God sets before us the remnant preserved according to God’s
gratuitous election. For the same sense it is added, that they should no longer be for
a prey. We have said how these women hunted these wretched souls, not only for
145

146. purposes of gain, but also because Satan abused their fallacies. So, therefore, it
happened that these souls were enticed to their destruction. For this reason God
pronounces that they should no longer be their prey. And he repeats what he had
already said, ye shall know that I am Jehovah. Here God brings before us his power,
because we know how safely hypocrites allude his sacred name; and this easily
appears in the boldness and licentiousness of these women. Hence God here
threatens them: he says that they should feel at length who had spoken, since they
ridiculed Ezekiel and his other servants. There is, then, a silent antithesis between
God and the prophets; not that God separates himself from his servants; for the
truth, of which they are ministers and heralds, is an indissoluble bond of union
between them; but the language is adapted to the senses of those with whom the
Prophet treats. Now, since these women were so wanton, he says that he was not
despised by them, but God himself. It follows —
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:21 Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of
your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know
that I [am] the LORD.
Ver. 21. And they shall be no more in your hand.] God’s own people may be, for a
time, in the hand of seducers, and taken in their nets, carried away by their false
opinions; but God will at length deliver his people out of their hand.
WHEDON, "21. Your kerchiefs also will I tear — These victims should be delivered
from the snare of the fowler (Psalms 91:3) and the charm of the net should be
destroyed. It is suggestive that after the Babylonish captivity we find very little of
these divinations in Jerusalem. (See Ezekiel 12:24.)
22 Because you disheartened the righteous with
your lies, when I had brought them no grief, and
because you encouraged the wicked not to turn
146

147. from their evil ways and so save their lives,
CLARKE, "With lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad - Here is
the ministry of these false prophetesses, and its effects. They told lies: they would speak,
and they had no truth to tell; and therefore spoke falsities. They “saddened the souls of
the righteous, and strengthened the hands of the wicked.” They promised them life, and
prevented them from repenting and turning from their sins.
GILL, "Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad,.... By
polluting the name of the Lord; by hunting and decoying souls into their destructive
nets; and by threatening such who would not give heed to their superstitious rites, lying
divinations, and false prophecies: so false teachers make the hearts of such sad, who,
having seen the insufficiency of their own righteousness, trust in the righteousness of
Christ, and are justified by it; by teaching such doctrines as depreciate the love and grace
of God the Father; making his love dependent on the creature; his covenant conditional,
and salvation to be by works, and not by grace; as detract from the person, offices, and
grace of Christ; denying his deity and divine sonship; making light of his blood, and
setting up man's righteousness against his: and such as are injurious to the Spirit's work;
ascribing regeneration and conversion to man's free will; giving such marks and signs of
grace as are not to be found in any, and representing it as what may be entirely lost:
whom I have not made sad; nor would he have them made sad by others; neither by
false prophets and their lies, nor by any other means; neither by anything within them,
nor anything without them; not by any or all of their spiritual enemies: he would have
them comforted; the covenant of grace, and the promises of it, are made for such a
purpose; the Scriptures are written for this use; ordinances are designed for this end;
ministers are appointed for this work; and this is the office of the divine Spirit; and the
Son of God himself was sent on this account:
and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from
his wicked way; by repentance and reformation; and so far were the wicked from
returning from it in this way, that they were emboldened in sin, and hardened in it; and
were more frequent and open in the commission of it; and that through the prophecies
of these false prophetesses; as wicked men are by the doctrines of false teachers: and
particularly
by promising him life; or that he should live long, and enjoy much peace and
prosperity in the land of Israel, and not be carried captive into Babylon; and so false
teachers harden men in sin, by giving them hopes of eternal life, though they continue in
their evil ways; or upon the foot of universal redemption, and upon their repentance, as
the fruit of their own free will; and therefore take their swing of sin, as believing that
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148. Christ died for all men, and so for them, and therefore shall be saved, live as they will;
and that it is in their power to repent when they please, and therefore procrastinate it to
the last.
JAMISON, "ye have made ... the righteous sad — by lying predictions of
calamities impending ever the godly.
strengthened ... wicked — (Jer_23:14).
heart of ... righteous ... hands of ... wicked — Heart is applied to the righteous
because the terrors foretold penetrated to their inmost feelings; hands, to the wicked
because they were so hardened as not only to despise God in their minds, but also to
manifest it in their whole acts, as if avowedly waging war with Him.
CALVIN, “He explains in other words what we saw yesterday: but the repetition
adds to the weight of the matter. The Prophet therefore shows that he had a just
cause of complaint, because the women so deceived the people. He says now that
they made the heart of the righteous sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked:
the sentiment is the same, though the words are changed. He had previously said
that they gave life to those devoted to death, and slew those destined to life; but now
he shows more clearly the meaning of killing the soul that should not, or ought not
to die, when the heart of the righteous is made sorrowful. By the righteous he means
those whom the false prophets inspired with causeless terror. But why, it is asked,
does he say that the righteous are grieved, since we have formerly taught that no
others were deceived unless those who spontaneously throw themselves into the
snares and traps of Satan? I answer, that the false prophets thundered so, and their
lies were so spread about here and there as to involve the simple: for they scatter
their threats so as to reach all men. Hence they wound weak consciences; as at this
day when the lies of Satan fly about; by which true religion is corrupted, many
simple ones are frightened, for they are destitute of judgment, and do not
distinguish whether God threatens, or man vaunts himself rashly.
We see, then, how false prophets cause the righteous sorrow, when they suggest
scruples, and, under the penalty of mortal sin, denounce first one thing and then
another: then they deprive them of confidence in God’s favor, and strike them with
various terrors, as we discern clearly in the papacy of this very day. Let us take that
one point which is with them without controversy, that our confidence springs from
our works, and hence that we cannot determine whether God is propitious to us or
not., and thus they overthrow all assurance of faith. They retain, indeed, the name
of faith, but meantime they wish wretched consciences to vacillate and be turned
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149. about with disquiet, since no one can know whether he can invoke God as a father.
(31) That confidence which Paul says is common to all Christians, they call
presumption and rashness. (Ephesians 3:12.) We see, then, how that point not only
grieves the righteous, but disturbs innocent consciences: for a series of traditions is
afterwards added, and the penalty of eternal death is always annexed. hence it
happens that those who wish to worship God in any other way, when they are thus
rendered spiritless, know not which way to turn: hence also they lose all fear of God,
since no one can seriously reverence God unless he who feels him to be easily
entreated, as we learn from Psalms 130:6.
We now understand what the Holy Spirit means when he reproves the women
because they made the heart of the righteous sad. It is added, but I was unwilling to
grieve them. For God’s faithful servants often inspire terror, but only when
necessary. For they cannot otherwise subdue those who exult in their lusts, and they
cannot bring them to obedience unless they overcome them with fear. Hence even
true prophets and evangelists cause pain, as Paul says: If I have caused you sorrow,
I do not repent of it: for so I thought to do: for there is salutary grief. (2 Corinthians
7:8.) Besides, true prophets do not afflict men for nothing; they only cause anxiety
in the minds of those whom God wishes to grieve: hence they do not fabricate the
material for sorrow and pain in their own brain, but receive it from God’s mouth
and the spirit of revelation. Hence the word righteous is used, and falsely is added,
by which particle the severity which true prophets are often compelled to use is
distinguished from the roughness, or rather savage rudeness, of false prophets. For
as I have said, they frighten wretched consciences. But by what right? by
transferring God’s power to themselves; just as at the present day the Pope with
swelling cheeks thunders forth that himself and his throne are apostolic, and
therefore infallible. Since, therefore, false prophets thus contend by fallacies, the
simple are overcome by fear.
It is now added, that they strengthened the hands of the impious (literally, of the
impious man in the singular). When the Prophet spoke of the righteous, he used the
word heart: he now uses the word hand, and not without reason. For the false
terrors in which the false prophets indulged, penetrate even to the intimate
affections, and as each is affected by the fear of God, so he becomes afraid of those
threats which he hears uttered in God’s name. We see, then, that it was said with
very good reason that the mind of the righteous was sadly grieved; and now when he
says that he had strengthened the hands of the impious, he means that audacity was
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150. added, so that not only the wicked always remain obstinate against God, but they
break out in unbridled license, and hesitate not openly to violate God’s law: for
strengthening the hands is more than grieving the mind. For it may and it does
happen, that a man may swell with pride and contempt of God, and yet modesty
may hinder him from basely contaminating himself with many crimes. But when the
hands themselves are engaged in licentiousness, all evils are heaped together. Now,
therefore, we understand the reason of this difference. In fine, Ezekiel means that
the impious had been hardened by the blandishments of these women, so as not only
to despise God in their minds, but to bear witness through their whole life, that they
were openly and confessedly erecting the standard of war against God. In this sense,
then, he says, that they had strengthened the hands of the impious.
He adds, that he should not be converted. Here he more clearly defines how those
souls which were devoted to death (32) were kept alive, since such confidence was
set before them as to lull and stupefy their consciences. He does not say, then, that
the hands of the impious were strengthened, as in a conspiracy of the wicked one
often assists another, as if they mutually bound their hands together. But the
Prophet now speaks in another sense, namely, that these women so hardened the
wicked that they went on securely in their wickedness, and made a laughing-stock of
God and his law. You have strengthened the hands that they should not be
converted: but how? by affording them life. Hence we gather that men cannot be
humbled otherwise than by placing death before them, because all willingly indulge
themselves, and hypocrisy is so ingrained in us by natural corruption, that every one
readily persuades himself that all things will turn out well. Unless, therefore, death
is presented before our eyes, and God himself appears as a judge to destroy us, we
remain like ourselves, and proceed to still greater audacity. The Prophet signifies
this when he says, that by giving life to the impious the false prophets strengthened
their hands, and opposed their repentance altogether. How so? When the sinner
thinks God propitious to him, he is not anxious about reconciliation, but abuses
God’s forbearance, and is daily rendered bolder, until at last he puts off all sense of
fear. Hence this is the true preparation for conversion, when the sinner is slain; that
is, acknowledges himself liable to the judgment of God, and takes a formidable view
of his wrath. When, therefore, he sees himself lost, then he begins to think of
conversion; but when men sleep over their sins, as I have said, they persist till they
arrive at constant apathy, as Paul says when he remarks that they have no longer
any sense of sorrow. (Ephesians 4:19.)
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151. TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:22 Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous
sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he
should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:
Ver. 22. Because with lies ye have made the heart of my people sad.] False doctrines
and wicked practices grieve the hearts of the godly, and strengthen the hands of the
ungodly, as these unhappy times do abundantly evince. The times truly are good
(and in many respects better than they have been), but the days are evil.
By promising him life.] Though he walk in hell’s ways.
POOLE, "Verse 22
With lies; diametrically opposing what my prophets told to my people in my name.
The heart; the soul, which in weak ones received some saddening impressions from
your lies; in the strongest and wisest it was matter of grief, to see so many contradict
the Lord to their own ruin.
The righteous; who keep my law, and have respect to all my precepts, though none
can fulfil the law; the upright and just, against whom you do thunder out your
woes; but I know better how to distribute my orders. I never commissioned, nor
ever will commission, any prophet to sadden the heart of a just one, who needs and
is fit for encouragement, or to threaten where they should promise.
By promising him life; your flatteries persuade the worst to think they are in a good
way, need not repent and return, and so, their hearts hardened in wickedness, their
hands do work it. God would convince and turn the wicked, but you confirm them
that they return not from sin; you assure them, but it is with lying words, that they
shall not die by pestilence, nor famine, nor sword, but live and prosper.
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152. PETT, "Verse 22-23
“Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous whom I have not
made sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from
his wicked way and be saved alive. Therefore you will no more see vanity, nor divine
divinations, and I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you will know that I
am Yahweh.”
The prophetesses had done the very opposite of the purpose intended for them.
Instead of making the righteous glad and the wicked aware of their sins, they had by
their lies grieved the hearts of those Whom Yahweh wished to make happy, and had
strengthened the wicked in their sins, removing from them the fear of temporal
judgment. Thus the wicked continued happily on in their wicked ways, instead of
repenting and finding life, and the righteous grieved when they should not have
needed to.
This was why Yahweh would bring His judgment of death on the prophetesses, so
that they could no longer see what was vain and empty and divine what was false, to
the hurt in the end of both righteous and wicked. So were they, and we, discovering
why God’s judgment on Jerusalem was going to fulfil His purposes and was in line
with His justice and holiness. Then all would know that He really is Yahweh, the
holy and living God Who acts.
There is little difference between these prophetesses and those who in our day go to
the occult to receive advice, discover the future and contact the dead, and indeed
even in some cases to bring harm on others. These practises are equally condemned.
So God was building up a picture as to why Jerusalem had to be destroyed. He had
outlined the detail of the different forms of idol worship going on in Jerusalem
(Ezekiel 8:5-18) and its surrounds (Ezekiel 6:1-7), which involved both priesthood
(Ezekiel 8:16) and laity, with its resulting descent into all kinds of wickedness, He
had described the evil ways of the civil leaders, with the resulting violence (Ezekiel
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153. 11:1-13), and now He had demonstrated the evil of the false prophets, and the
wicked practises of the prophetesses. The whole city was a mass of wickedness, ripe
for judgment.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 13:22
Because with lies, etc. What specially stirred Ezekiel's indignation was taut the false
prophetesses saddened the hearts of the righteous (of those who looked to him and
Jeremiah for guidance) with prophecies of evil and deluded the evil door by false
hopes, so that he should not turn from his evil way and live. For by promising him
life, read, with the LXX; Vulgate, and Luther and the Revised Version, that he
should live, as he would do, if he turned from his wickedness (Ezekiel 3:21; Ezekiel
18:9, Ezekiel 18:17).
BI, "Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad.
The baleful influence of infidelity
I. Infidelity exerts a baleful influence upon the righteous. Note the charge,
“Because,” etc.
1. It casts a shadow upon his pathway. It is the shadow of midnight.
Leaves him to grope his way in darkness. Ignoring God’s Word, it points
to “the light of nature,” and says, “This is sufficient, walk here!” But
these are questions that the voice of the winds, the hills, the stars do not
answer, “Can sins be forgiven? If so, how?” In the hour of trial nature’s
light grows dim. The mariner may follow the stars till the storm at
midnight; then the lighthouse.
2. It is a blight to his sweetest joys. “Because with lies ye have made the
heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad.” God makes the
righteous glad, not sad. True religion is as the oil of joy to the heart. The
righteous have “songs in the night.” But as frost is to the flower, so is
unbelief to the better impulses of the heart. What ray of hope, what
ground for rejoicing does infidelity afford? Ah! it is the ruthless hand
that snatches away the staff upon which the struggling soul rests.
3. It seeks to undermine his hopes—strikes at the very foundation of
them (Psa_11:3). Ah! he may sit down in sadness and heave an unending
sigh. He may hang his “harp upon the willows.”
II. Infidelity exerts a baleful influence upon the wicked.
1. It encourages him to follow his own inclinations as his guide. The false
prophets are described as those “that follow their own spirit, and have
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154. seen nothing.” So they taught all to do. And so is the spirit of infidelity in
all ages of the world. The depraved heart is its criterion.
2. It encourages him to continue in sin—“That he should not return from
his wicked way.” It advocates no such return. Nothing to turn from—
nothing to turn to. Nay, it rather “strengthens his hands.”
3. It encourages him to dismiss from his mind all thought of the future. It
cries to the sin-stricken soul, “Peace, peace. Think not of the hereafter;
there may be none, no heaven to gain, no hell to shun. Be at peace!” It is
opposed to God, good men, and bad men. It must be destroyed—Wall of
bulrushes must fall—“There shall be an overflowing shower.” “And ye
shall know that I am the Lord.” (M. L. Bibb.)
Making the righteous sad
That is a severe indictment. It was brought by God, and was addressed to the
false prophets, and especially to the lying prophetess, who exercised their
evil ministry in the days of Ezekiel. In holy wrath, the Lord hurls this
flaming impeachment upon these cruel and deceitful ministrants, “Ye have
grieved the heart of the righteous: whom I have not made sad.” (Revised
Version.) We are here introduced to sad people. They were righteous—God
declares them such. But they were full of grief. Grief and righteousness are
often associated. But the sadness of these grieved ones was not imposed by
God. He recognises the sorrow, but disavows it. “I have not made” them
“sad” is His express word of repudiation. Sometimes sadness is from God.
He doth not willingly grieve the children of men. Especially reluctant is He
to grieve those who are covenanted unto Him. But anon He does it. Sadness
is one of God’s methods of education for His righteous ones. “Thou didst it,”
the saddened righteous can confidently and resignedly say in certain of life’s
calamitous hours. Let all the sad inquire whence cometh their sadness.
From what fountain does the dark and turbid stream arise? It may spring
from yourself. Has some strong besetting sin wrecked your gladness?
Sadness often originates in temperament. Do not blame God if you are
melancholic; blame your yielding to your temperament. Grace can enable a
man to rise above his temperament. If self makes a man presumptuous, it
full as often makes him despondent. The worry of these worrying days
frequently issues in sadness. O righteous one! Thy sadness is not the frown
of thy God. Thou art cumbered with much serving. The pace of life is
exhausting thee. God has not made you sad. Nerve and body and brain are
overwrought. Sadness is wrought, all too often, by our fellow men. Why are
you sad? “An enemy hath done this.” An ingrate friend is responsible. A
prodigal child. A remorseless creditor. A thankless debtor. Oh, the
inhumanity of humanity! Charge not God foolishly because of sadness.
Asperse not the kind Lord. Satan often seeks to ruin us by sadness. Quite as
often as by pleasure he seeks to spoil us by grief. Sadness is one of the
fiercest of his “fiery darts.” Beware of Giant Despair, O pilgrim. I am sure
we far too often charge God with our sadness. It is well we should weigh this
ancient disclaimer of His: “Whom I have not made sad.” Trace your sadness
to its true source. It may be that God has done it. But it may be He is in no
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155. wise responsible. Some impose sadness upon the righteous in God’s name.
That is exactly what these false prophetesses did. The Almighty charges
them with the high crime. He says, “Ye have made the heart of the righteous
sad.” They had spoken in Jehovah’s name. They professed to be His
forthtellers, but they lied. They spake “out of their own hearts.” What awful
things have been done in God’s name! Men have stolen the livery of heaven
to serve the devil in. In the name of God mankind has accomplished its
worst infamies. Men have lied and persecuted and slain, claiming the while
that they thereby fulfilled the counsel of God. Let us see if this wrong-doing
is not perpetrated even in our time. Do not some confound religion and
sadness? Assuredly they do. But, thank God, they are not synonymous.
Religion and seriousness are essentially allied, but not so religion and
sadness. “Say ye to the righteous, It shall be well with him.” The work of
righteousness is not sadness, but peace and assurance. Do not measure the
depth of a man’s piety by the length of his face. Sadness is far oftener the
consequence of a disordered liver than of a righteous heart. Beware, above
all things, of prophet or prophetess representing righteousness as essential
sadness! Here is a great test of a ministry. Is it generally saddening to the
righteous? Then it is undivine. They are no true prophets who make the
heart of the righteous sad. Sadden the evil-doer by all means. Make him to
pierce himself through with many sorrows. But do not sadden the
righteous. Dr. A.B. Davidson renders my text, “Ye have discouraged the
righteous.” So they showed how essentially ungodlike was their ministry.
God never discourages the righteous. He is “the God of all encouragement.”
He ministers every form of legitimate encouragement. God is the supreme
encourager. Fellow servant of God, is yours a saddening ministry to the
saint? Then there is surely a grave wrongness in it. Let all whose ideal and
endeavour it is to be righteous be of good cheer. Refuse to be loaded with
sadness in God’s name. “Be glad in the Lord, ye righteous, and shout for joy,
all ye that are upright in heart.” How had these godless prophetesses
accomplished their beglooming ministry? The Lord supplies the answer,
and in no measured terms: “With lies ye have made the heart of the
righteous sad.” They had uttered false predictions of calamities which were
to descend upon the godly. False teaching usually has a saddening effect
upon the righteous. Truth sometimes makes God’s people sad, but it is not
intended to do so. But “lies” palmed off as religious truth make the heart of
the righteous sad. They often encourage and delight the evil-doer. They give
him warrant to take his licence. Today, as in days past, we can readily see
false teaching working upon the righteous its unkindly work. This is true of
teaching which is intrinsically false. Inveracious theologies sadden the
righteous. What evil presentations we sometimes hear and read! He is
represented now as a despot, and now as morally indifferent. A false
theology makes the heart of the righteous sad. Has not erroneous teaching
concerning the Bible the same effect? If its inspiration were the dubious
thing it is sometimes declared to be, it would indeed be a miserable estate in
which the righteous are found. When the Word of God is described as a
farago of myths and legends and forgeries, is not the heart of the righteous
sad? False teaching regarding the atonement works kindred sorrow. Paul
said, “We joy in God, by whom we have received the atonement.” Destroy
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156. that cardinal truth, and you make the heart of the righteous sad. Resolve the
death of Christ into a martyrdom, an ethical example, the supreme historic
instance of altruism, and you dry up the freshest spring of gladness which
humanity knows. Preach the doleful tidings that our moral chains must
weight us long as we live beneath. And by such erroneous teaching the heart
of the righteous is fatally saddened. Proclaim that there is no privilege of
assurance for God’s children. And again you plunge the righteous in
nocturnal gloom. But this sadness is evoked not alone by indoctrination
which is inherently false, but by that which is such relatively. When true
teaching is perverted in its application, it has the value of false teaching.
This was the fallacy of which Job’s comforters were guilty. They were
capable theologians. Their theology was true in its essence, but false in its
application. Thereby they made Job’s heart sad with sore sadness. We must
study the relativity of truth. Truth misapplied is as untruth. Assurance is a
glorious truth, and a radiant possibility for all, but preach it as essential to
salvation, and you must make the heart of the righteous sad. There is a
Divine retribution for such as give sadness to the righteous. In the two
verses which precede the text, the particular punishment of these false
prophetesses is described. And the verse of my text adds that it is “because
with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad.” In the verse which
follows the threat of God is repeated. All who effect this saddening of the
saints shall suffer for their deed. This principle has worldwide application.
Let ministers and teachers of religion beware lest God judge them for this
disservice to His people. Oh, the delicacy of our office who speak God’s
messages! Masters and mistresses need to watch their ways in this regard.
Take heed lest inadvertently you make the heart of a righteous servant sad.
Friends and acquaintances should be alert to prevent this evil. A
thoughtless word may arouse the anger of God by creating sadness in His
righteous ones. Restrain unkind speech. Parents may grieve right-doing
children. Oh, pray that the judgment of God may never light on us because
we have made the heart of the righteous sad! We do a godly deed when we
cheer the righteous. Is not that plainly implied in this word of Jehovah
which we are studying? We are never more clearly “God’s fellow workers”
than when we hearten God’s people. Be sure you are a true minister of
Christ if you encourage the righteous. They greatly need good cheer in these
strenuous days. They have grievous burdens to bear. Covet to be an
encourager! Strive to uplift the heart of God’s people. Do you ask how you
can accomplish this grateful ministry? Speak cheering words. We can
hearten the righteous by kindly acts. Eloquent deeds have a sonority which
no eloquent speech can attain. A timely gift may fill a sad heart with melody
sweeter than an angel’s song. Our very deportment may accomplish the
service of God upon sad souls. There is a Gospel in some men’s smile. Faces
may be benedictions. Righteousness is the ultimate cure of sadness. Does
not this text proclaim that gospel? Character is the final secret of gladness.
They who hate evil and do righteousness are anointed with gladness above
their fellows. The righteous have a right of gladness. This is especially true
in the Christian dispensation. Christian righteousness is realised by faith in
the crucified and risen Lord. Such as believe rejoice in the Lord, and this joy
none can take from them. (D. T. Young.).
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157. 23 therefore you will no longer see false visions or
practice divination. I will save my people from
your hands. And then you will know that I am the
Lord.’”
CLARKE, "Ye shall see no more vanity - They pretended visions; but they were
empty of reality.
Nor divine divinations - As God would not speak to them, they employed demons.
Where God is not, because of the iniquity of the people, the devil is, to strengthen and
support that iniquity. And if he cannot have his priests, he will have his priestesses; and
these will have a Church like themselves, full of lying doctrines, and bad works.
GILL, "Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations,.... They
should not be suffered any longer to impose upon the people; and they should be so
sufficiently exposed, that the people would not give heed to their vain visions and lying
divinations any more; and no gain coming to them hereby, they would not be disposed to
make pretensions to them, as they had done: or the sense is, that they should perish in
the siege and destruction of Jerusalem; and so they and their false prophecies would
cease together:
for I will deliver my people out of your hand, and ye shall know that I am the
Lord; see Eze_13:21.
JAMISON, "ye shall see no more vanity — The event shall confute your lies,
involving yourselves in destruction (Eze_13:9; Eze_14:8; Eze_15:7; Mic_3:6).
CALVIN, “It follows, you shall not see a lie any more. He has hitherto explained the
reason why God grewarm against these women, because they destroyed miserable
157

158. souls either by their cruelty or their flatteries, and thus were like false prophets:
now he adds, you shall not see a lie any more. This ought not to be understood as if
God promised these women a sound mind, so that they should cease to hurt the
people by their lies: but he confirms the sentiment previously expressed, namely,
that they should be subject to the taunts of all men, as boys themselves acknowledge
that what they boasted to be oracles were mere imposture. It is just as if he had
said — I will make you ashamed, so that hereafter you may be deprived of the use of
the prophetic name, as you have hitherto used it. Although these women persisted in
their madness, yet they saw vanity no more, since it became openly apparent that
those wretched ones who trusted in them were deceived. Lastly, this thought to be
adapted not to any change of feeling in these women, but rather to a failure in the
effect. It is just as if any one were to say to a foolish fellow boasting himself to be a
Lawyer or a physician, — I will take care that you profit no more as either a
Lawyer or a physician; and yet that foolish person should not be able to put away
the opinion which he had ever formed of his own skin. But this is said, because the
mere vanity of his boasting should be evident to all. So also God now speaks. This
addition has the same meaning: you shall not divine divination any more. And yet
there is no doubt that they desired by all means to invent new prophecies, and to
boast in new revelations: but they were despised, because God had detected their
lies when Jerusalem was taken, and the people dragged into exile: then because they
promised the people a speedy return, when the same God refuted them by
prolonging their exile. When, therefore, any one suffers the just penalty of his
impiety, then the vanity of those women was detected: in this way they ceased to
divine. He repeats — I will free my people from your hand: and you shall know that
I am Jehovah. Since I have lately explained this phrase I now pass it by. It
follows —
ELLICOTT, "Verse 23
(23) Ye shall see no more vanity.—As so often the judgment is expressed in the same
form with the Sin. These false prophetesses had sinned by their lying visions, and
they should see them no more, because the event should soon expose their utter
falsity to the eyes of all. The result would be the deliverance of God’s people, whom
they sought to ensnare, and their own conviction, not in penitence, but under
judgment, that He is the Lord.
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159. TRAPP, "Ezekiel 13:23 Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine
divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I
[am] the LORD.
Ver. 23. Therefore ye shall see no more vanity.] By rendering you not only
contemptible, but ridiculous. Or by redding the world of such pestilent people.
POOLE, "See Ezekiel 12:24. Either these prophetesses with the prophets of the
same stamp shall perish in the day of calamity, and of the miseries that they
persnaded others to slight and contemn. Or else, if they live, they shall live to see all
their predictions of prosperity vanish, to see the righteous, whom they threatened,
escape, and the wicked, whom they spake good of, fall under miseries; this shall so
confound them, they shall cease for ever, and pretend no more visions. Your credit
shall be gone, and you found false dreamers, you shall never more be able to keep
up any power over or interest in my people. Not one just, righteous soul shall ever
grieve, or apprehend cause of fear, from what you threaten, and the unrighteous
shall no more joy in the expectation of these lying promises. All shall know that I am
the Lord, who fulfil promises to the just and execute threats on the bad.
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