Ezekiel 13

13: 1, 2 AND the word of the LORD 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 the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD: 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, neither made up the fence for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD. They have seen vanity and lying divination, that say, The LORD saith; and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made men to hope that the word should be confirmed. Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The LORD saith; albeit I have not spoken? 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. And mine hand shall be against the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: 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 GOD. 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 which 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 have daubed it? 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 fury 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 discovered: and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. Thus will I accomplish my fury 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 which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord GOD. 17 And 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, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD: 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 19 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 20 should not live, by your lying to my people that hearken unto lies. 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 I will let the souls go, even the 21 souls that ye hunt 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 22 that I am the LORD. 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 23 from his wicked way, and be saved alive: therefore ye shall no more see vanity, nor divine divinations: and I will deliver my people out of your hand; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

14: 1, 2 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the 3 word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be in- 4 quired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: Every man of the house of Israel that taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD 5 will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols; that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. 6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God: Return ye, and turn your- 7 selves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For every one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I the LORD will an- 8 swer him by myself: and I will set my face against that man, and will make him an aston- ishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and 9 ye shall know that I am the LORD. And if the prophet be deceived and speaketh a word, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will 10 destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity: the 11 iniquity of the prophet shall be even as the iniquity of him that seeketh unto him; that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord God.

12,13. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, when a land sinneth against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out mine hand upon it, and break the 14 staff of the bread thereof, and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast; though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls 15 by their righteousness, saith the Lord God. If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the 16 beasts; though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver 17 neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off 18 from it man and beast; though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves. 19 Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off 20 from it man and beast: though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by 21 their righteousness. For thus saith the Lord God: How much more when I send my four sore judgements upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beasts, and the 22 pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast? Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil 23 that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. And they shall comfort you, when ye see their way and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord God.

Chap. 13. This chapter must be read together with the twenty-third of Jeremiah. The identity of phrases and ideas force upon us the conclusion that the author of the one must have had the other before him. We know that Jeremiah’s writings were forwarded to the Jews in Chaldea (Jer. 29), and there is therefore no reason to doubt 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. Ezekiel now would teach them that it is not at Jerusalem alone that false prophets are to be discovered and reproved. B. C.

In this chapter the Lord rebukes the false prophets (verses 1-16) and the false prophetesses (verses 17-23), denouncing wars and judgments upon them, and pledging Himself to deliver His people from their pernicious influence.

1-3. False prophets were a fearful curse to the people in this corrupt age. Jeremiah had occasion to expose and rebuke their devices repeatedly. (See Jer. 14: 13-16; 23: 9-40; 27 and 28.) It appears, even in Jeremiah, that there were false prophets not in Judea only, but among the exiles in Chaldea. (See Jer. 29: 15-32 and notes there.) Consequently they withstood Ezekiel’s influence in Chaldea as they had Jeremiah’s in Judea. The Lord, therefore, sends them by His prophet this caustic and scathing message. They are here described forcibly and truly as those who prophesied out of their own heart and not from God; following their own spirit, and not the Spirit of the Lord; foolish in the sense of lying and impious; men who pretended to have seen visions from God, but who had seen nothing. H. C.

4. 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. A. C.

4,5. False prophets are pertinently compared to foxes, since Israel was the Lord’s vine, and “the little foxes spoiled the vines” (Cant. 2: 5); and because they came in through the breaches in the garden wall, and the rents in the enclosing hedge, and thus did the more mischief because of these weak points in the gardener’s means of protection. They never set themselves to repair these breaches, as God’s true shepherds would have done; but they either perpetrate the more mischief, or slink away into the desert, reckless of all responsibility for repairing the vineyard walls and hedges. (See Ezek. 22: 30.) “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.” In verse 5 there seems to be a double figure; a breach in the enclosure of the vineyard, as above explained; and a breach in the city walls through which the enemy are forcing their way in battle in the day of the Lord’s vengeance upon the city. In the latter emergency all true patriots rush to the breach, to repair it if possible, or at least to confront the foe at this point of chief peril. These false prophets had no such patriotism.

6, 7. “Vanity” here (as usual), in the sense of falsehood. They claimed to be sent of God, and made use of the established formula of prophecy, “the Lord saith;” when in fact the Lord had said nothing to them at all. Yet they made some of the people believe them, or at least hope that their words would prove true. In verse 7 the interrogative repeats the thought in a stronger form, appealing to themselves to say if this charge of lying were not true.

10-16. The false prophets seduced the people by promising them peace from God when God had not promised peace, but had predicted ruin. The figure of a wall, built up and plastered with worthless mortar, looks somewhat to the similar allusion in verse 5. The false prophets did not rush into the deadly breach and breast the foe there, nor did they labor to close up the rent hedge; but they did build up a miserable wall of protection for the people and plaster it with mortar that had no cohesive power; in other words, their lives allayed those fears of the people which God sought to arouse, and also inspired hopes of peace which God sought to dispel, that He might press them to look to Himself alone for refuge. A “wall” should naturally be a symbol of strength and protection—here, against the judgments with which God had threatened the nation. The figure of the worthless wall and its treacherous mortar is carried out fully. It shall surely fall. The Lord will overwhelm it with terrific showers, great hailstones and a furious wind; its very foundations shall be laid bare, and its builders (even all these false prophets) shall be utterly consumed under its ruins—for verse 16 is entirely explicit in applying this figure. H. C.

These are the very agencies by which the Lord now overthrows in a night whole villages thus built with untempered mortar. “So will

I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundations thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof. A calamity, this, of very frequent occurrence. I have known many such during my residence in this land, and this whole passage is so graphic and true to experience that the prophet, beyond a doubt, drew the picture from scenes with which he was personally familiar. W. M. T.

The builders of the wall, and those that daubed it, will themselves be buried in the ruins of it—“It shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof” (verse 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 them that have daubed it (verse 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 bid defiance to. Thus, if the blind lead the blind, both the blind leaders and the blind followers will fall together into the ditch. Those that deceive others will, in the end, prove to have deceived themselves; and no doom will be more dreadful than that of unfaithful ministers, that flattered sinners in their sins. H.

To tempt another is worse than to sin thyself. When you tempt, you do that which you cannot undo with your repentance. Gurnall.—It is devils’ work to seduce simple souls from allegiance to Christ. There are busy hands to-day laying stumbling-blocks in the way, especially of young Christians—stumbling-blocks of doubt, of frivolity, of slackened morality and the like. It were better, says one who saw clearly into that awful realm beyond, if the big millstone were knotted about their necks, and they were flung into the deepest place of the lake that lay before him as he spoke. He does not speak exaggerated words; and if a solemn strain of vehemence, unlike his ordinary calm, is audible here, it is because what he knew, and did not tell, gave solemn earnestness to his veiled and awe-inspiring prophecy of doom. What imagination shall fill out the details of the “worse than” which lurks behind that “better”? A. M.

17-19. Some women also as well as men were guilty of this horrible sin of lying prophecy to deceive souls to their ruin. To such the remainder of the chapter relates. The figures which represent their seductive influence belong to their sex, being drawn from things which women manufacture. The male prophets are builders of walls; the female sew pillows, cushions, quilts; providing every luxury in that line to allure people away from God and into deeper sin. The word rendered “armholes” clearly means the finger-joints. Pillows for the head are not deemed extravagant; but cushions for the elbows savor of luxury, and much more pillows for every finger joint. The prophet intended to make a strong case of effeminacy. “The head of every stature” means the heads of people of every height, boys and men of all ages. By “kerchiefs” our translators probably meant head-coverings. The original word favors the sense of quilt, mattress or spread. In the clause rendered “upon the head,” perhaps the thought may be that they are large and long enough to cover the entire person, however tall, even to the head. The general sense is, who provide luxuries for the tastes of the people and use their feminine skill to ensnare souls. By yet another special figure, they are thought of as hunters of game, meaning, however, hunters of human souls, to kill those whom they should let live, and to promise life to those whom God would destroy. H. C.

22. 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 (verse 19). This is explained (verse 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.” H.

The evil of their doings, how they deceived others, and were themselves deceived; the points which alone concern us practically, these are set before us plainly. “With their lies they made the heart of the righteous sad, whom God had not made sad; and they strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life.” Where the way of life was broad, they strove to make it narrow; and where it was narrow, they strove to make it broad: by their solemn and superstitious lies, they frightened and perplexed the good, while, by their lives of ungodliness, they emboldened and encouraged the wicked.

It may not, at first sight, seem necessary that these two things should go together; there might be, it seems, either the fault of making the heart of the righteous sad, without that of strengthening the hands of the wicked; or there might be the strengthening of the hands of the wicked, without making sad the heart of the righteous. And so it sometimes has been: there has been a wickedness which has not tried to keep up superstition: there has been a superstition, the supporters of which have not wilfully encouraged wickedness. Yet, although this has been so, with respect to the intention of the parties concerned, yet in their own nature, the tendency of either evil to produce the other is sure and universal. We cannot exist without some influences of fear and restraint, on the one hand, and without some indulgence of freedom, on the other. God has provided for both these wants, so to speak, of our nature; He has told us whom we should fear, and where we should be restrained, and where, also, we may be safely in freedom—there is the fruit forbidden, and the fruit which we may eat freely. But if the restraint and the liberty be either of them put in the wrong place, the double evil is sure to follow. Restrained in his lawful liberty, debarred from the good and wholesome fruit of the garden, man breaks out into a liberty which is unlawful; he eats of the forbidden fruit, whose taste is death; or, surfeited with an unholy freedom, and let to run wild in a space far too vast for his strength to compass, he turns cravingly for that support to his weariness which a narrowed range would afford him; and he limits himself on that very quarter in which alone he might expatiate freely. Superstition, in fact, is the rest of wickedness, and wickedness is the breaking loose of superstition.

But, however true this may be, are we concerned in it? First of all, when we find an evil dwelt upon often in the prophets, and find it dwelt upon again by our Lord and His apostles with no less earnestness, there is, at least, a strong presumption, that an evil of this sort is nothing local or passing, but that it is fixed in man’s nature, and is apt to grow up in all times and in all countries. Now, the double evil spoken of in the text occurs again in the Gospel; there we find men spoken of who, in like manner, insisted upon what was trifling, and were careless of what was important; and in the epistles we find, again, the same characters holding up as righteous others than those who worked righteousness—men who spoke lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. We may presume, therefore, that this evil is of an enduring character; but if we look back to the history of the Christian Church, or look around us, the presumption becomes the sad conviction of experience. T. Arnold.

It was a fearfully solemn responsibility assumed by those lying men and women in Ezekiel’s day, when they sought thus to thwart the benevolent efforts of the great and holy God. No less solemn to-day is the responsibility assumed by men who abate from the doom threatened against all persistent sinners and encourage men to make the most of sinful pleasures while they can, till the day of mercy ends all suddenly in the night of eternal death!

Chap. 14. Again certain of the elders of Israel come and sit before the prophet, and the Lord gives him another message in continuation of the subject of the previous chapter. The Lord will not let men come to Him asking favors, with their idols enthroned in their hearts. If they do, He will answer them according to their idols and abominations. If they seduce a prophet to inquire of the Lord for them, God will let that prophet be deceived and then deceive those who try in this way to make use of His prophetic functions. The only right thing a guilty people can do is to repent of their sins and put away all their abominations. Another turn is given to this leading thought in verses 12-21. If, for the great wickedness of the land, God shall send upon them His sore judgments, He will not be entreated in their behalf. Though even those great and good men, distinguished as intercessors high in favor with God, Noah, Daniel and Job, were in it, they should save their own souls only. Their prayers or their presence could not save so wicked a people. H. C.

The preceding prophecy was a reproof of false prophets, this of those who consult them.