The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel
Ezekiel 13
Chapter XIII · Vol. III, pp. 1326–1327
1 The reproof of lying prophets, 10 and their untempered mortar. 17 Of prophetesses and their pillows.
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, prophesy aagainst the prophets1 of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy2 out of their own hearts,3 Hear ye the word of the LORD;
a Mi.2.11; 3.5,11. Zep.3.4. ch.22.25,28; 34.2. Je.6.13,14; 8.10; 14.13-15; 23.2,11-22; 27.14-18; xxviii.; 29.8,21-23,31,32. 2 Pe.2.1-3.
1 See note * in second column.
2 Heb. them that are prophets, ver.3,17. Je.23.16,26; 14.14.
3 Without being inspired, called, or commissioned by God, through his Spirit, church, or providence.—C.
* 'This,' says Hengstenberg, 'is explained by the fact that the false prophets had at that time absolutely the upper hand, and demeaned themselves simply as the prophets. Jeremiah in Jerusalem, and Ezekiel among the exiles, stood as individuals over a great multitude, and not only so, but the false prophets alone had public recognition as prophets of Israel, at least in the capital, while the true prophets were regarded as peculiar, and had the government and the spirit of the age, and the people absolutely against them.' Such a state of things is unfortunately not peculiar to one age or nation. True religion is generally opposed by worldly politicians. The spirit of the age, being a spirit generated by sinful human nature, cannot accord with the spirit of divine truth.—P.
3 Thus saith the Lord GOD, Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow4 their own spirit, and5 have seen nothing!6
4 Heb. walk after, ver.3.
5 Or, and things which they have not seen, Je.23.28,32. ver.6,7.
6 Only pretended to revelations.—Gill.
4 O Israel, thy prophets are blike the foxes7 in the deserts.8
b Ca.2.15. 2 Co.11.13. Mi.3.5,11. ch.22.25.
7 Hungry, ravening, crafty, and guileful.—Poole.
8 'Like foxes in the desolate places,' destroying and wasting everything around them. So the false prophets destroy God's people. 'Ruins are a favourite resort of foxes. So also the spiritual foxes: the false teachers flourish the better the more degraded the condition of the people.'—P.
5 Yec have not gone up into the gaps,9 neither made up1 the hedge for the house of Israel, to dstand in the battle in ethe day of the LORD.
A.M. cir. 3411. B.C. cir. 593.
d Ep.6.13,14.
e Re.6.17. Je.25.30. Joel 2.1,11. Zep.1.14-16,18. Am.5.18-20.
c Ps.106.23,30,31. Ex.32.10,11. Nu.xxv.xiv.xvi. 1 Sa.12.23.
9 Or, breaches.
1 Heb. hedged.
6 Theyg have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made others hto hope that they would confirm the word.
g La.2.14. ver.10,23; ch.12.23,24; 22.28. Mi.2.11; 3.5,11. Zep.3.4. Je.6.13,14; 8.10; 14.13-15; 23.11-21; xxviii.; 29.8,21-23. 2 Pe.2.1-3,18.
7 Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The LORD saith it; ialbeit I have not spoken?
i Mat.24.23,24.
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Because ye have spoken vanity, and jseen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord GOD.
j 1 Ti.4.1,2.
9 Andk mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they lshall not be in the assembly2 of my people, neither shall they nbe written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the oland of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
10 Because, even because they have pseduced my people, saying, qPeace, and there was no peace; and one built up a wall,3 and, lo, others rdaubed it with untempered mortar:4
q Je.6.14; 8.11; 4.10; 23.14,17. ver.16. 1 Th.5.3.
3 Or, a slight wall.
r ver.6,11,12,14,15. Je.29.9. ch.22.28. Is.30.10.
4 The statement is figurative. The wall represents the political combination with Egypt, by which the Israelites proposed to resist the power of the Chaldeans. The 'untempered mortar' or rather, as the word signifies, 'falsehood,' with which the false prophets tried to cover it, and thus conceal its defects, represents the appearance of divine sanction which they attempted to give it by pretended revelations from heaven.—P.
11 Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall: sthere shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.
s ch.38.22. Job 27.20. Ps.11.6; 18.13,14. Je.4.13. Mat.7.27. Is.25.4; 8.7,8; 28.2,15,17,18. Je.23.19. ch.30.19. Hab.1.6-10.
12 Lo, when the wall is fallen, tshall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?
t La.2.15. Je.7.4; 28.1-17; 29.31. 1 Ki.22.24-28.
13 Thereforeu 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 vgreat hailstones, in my fury, to consume it.
14 So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that xthe foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall yfall, and zye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and aye shall know that I am the LORD.
15 Thusb will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar; and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it;
16 To wit, the prophets of Israel, which cprophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which dsee visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord GOD.
17 Likewise, thou son of man, eset thy face against the gdaughters5 of thy people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them,
e ch.4.3; 20.46; 21.2.
g Ex.15.20. Ju.4.4. 2 Ki.22.14. Lu.2.36, with Re.2.20. ver.2,3.
5 God was pleased, at sundry times, to bestow the prophetic spirit upon women—as Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah. These endowments naturally produced, in vain minds, the ambitious desire of similar attainments, and for the sake of popular applause or filthy lucre, ver.19, the impious pretenders to a divine commission employed their influence to misrepresent the divine will, and counteract God's holy law.—C.
18 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD, Woe to the women that hsew pillows to all arm-holes,6 and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature, ito hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and jwill ye save the souls alive that come unto you?
19 And will ye kpollute me among my people for handfuls of barley, and for pieces of bread, lto 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?
k 1 Sa.2.16,17. Mal.1.10. 1 Pe.5.2. ch.20.39; 22.25. Mi.3.5,11. Pr.28.21. 2 Pe.2.2,3.
l ver.22. Je.29.5,6. ch.5.12. Je.23.14,17. Pr.19.27.
20 Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD, nBehold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls 7to make them fly;8 and oI will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.
n ver.9,15,16. Pr.19.27. ver.23.
7 Or, into gardens.
8 To make them fly. 'To ensnare them' (Boothroyd). Or, as rendered by others, 'who hunt the souls into the flower-gardens,' or places dedicated to idolatrous worship and consequent licentiousness. See Is.1.29; 65.3; 66.17.—C.
o ver.23. 2 Ti.3.8,9. Zec.13.2-4. Ju.9.24. 2 Sa.23.6. Je.23.14.
21 Your kerchiefs9 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.
9 It seems they made pillows and kerchiefs as a kind of signs in their false predictions.
Notes
Ver. 2-6. According to their own inclinations and affections, they publish their own imaginations without any warrant from me, and are extremely crafty, covetous, hardened, and mischievous. But they never do anything to reform the people, or to prevent judgments, or for the security and defence of church or state, which can enable them to hold out in the day of the Lord's judgments. Yea, their visions are but false and counterfeit, though, by their high pretences to inspiration, they have made the credulous people to believe their predictions will be accomplished. 9-16. I will manifest my power in punishing these false prophets, and will expel them from among my people, and I will deny them a return from captivity, because some of them affirmed their seductions for truths, and others supported them by specious but weak pretences. Yea, the Chaldeans, by their desolating ravage and fury, shall disprove their counterfeit oracles, and every argument used to support them. 18-21. They, by their signs of pillows and kerchiefs, and especially by their flattering predictions of peace and prosperity, lull all ranks into vain confidence and carnal security. By fitting their predictions to every one's humour, they promote their destruction instead of saving them. For the most pitiful rewards, they pretend my name and authority to countenance their abominable flatteries, denouncing destruction to those in Babylon whom I will preserve; and promising life and liberty to those in Jerusalem whom I will destroy. Therefore will I so refute and expose their delusions that no one shall be in danger of being ensnared thereby; and I will make them more and more abhorred than ever they were loved or feared.
Ver. 5. Gaps. Have not defended the breaches effected by heretical and ungodly men in the doctrinal and moral defences which the Lord has raised for the protection of truth and godliness, Phi. 1. 7, 17; have not interceded, like Moses, standing in the breaches which an offended God has threatened, or made, in the walls of the ecclesiastical and national prosperity and safety, Ex. 32. 10-14; Ps. 106. 23; Eze. 22. 30. C.
Ver. 9. Neither shall they be written, &c. An allusion to the public genealogies, whereby descent, and privilege, and property were secured, Ezr. 2. 62; and thence to that 'Lamb's book of life,' Re. 21. 27, which is not temporal, but eternal, which they who receive 'shall never perish,' Jn. 10. 28. C.
Ver. 11. A shower of two hours penetrating the walls, built only with palm-branches, mud, and tiles baked in the sun, caused the fall of several houses at Tazer (Shaw). Sir J. Chardin states such occurrences to be common among many of the imperfect buildings of the East. See also Skinner's Travels. C.
Ver. 14. Untempered mortar. So called, either because being unmixed with hair, moss, or straw, it would not adhere; or being earthy and uncombined with any species of lime, it would not set or take band. The apt emblem of the attempt to reform men's lives by the mere word of the law, 'unmixed with faith' towards the Lord Jesus Christ, He. 4. 2. C.
Ver. 18. Sew pillows to all arm-holes. 'Fit cushions to all elbows' (Waterland). An allusion to luxurious sofas prepared for those who came to listen to their pretended visions.—Make kerchiefs 'Fabricate hunting-nets for every stature'—for young and old. C.
Reflections.—God never places any in offices for which he does not qualify them. Nor have covetous and men-pleasing preachers any proper evidence of a divine mission. How daring and blasphemous is it to counterfeit commissions from God, or to father the devil's falsehoods, flatteries, and impieties upon him! Very dreadful shortly shall be the condition of such. And they who will not be awed by God's threatenings, forfeit his promised blessings. Alas! how terrible are the winds and storms of judgment that God has in readiness to plague his opposers! and none shall share more dreadfully in them than deceitful preachers who have flattered their hearers in wickedness. Shamefully shall they be stripped of their usurped honour, and exposed to indignation and wrath. And all their arts of seduction—their tormenting of the godly and encouraging of the wicked—will at last redound to their own infamy and ruin. And it is a great mercy to be delivered from such as would impose on or tyrannize over our conscience.