---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Ezekiel 13"
description: "CHAPTER 13   :-. DENUNCIATION OF
FALSE PROPHETS
AND PROPHETESSES;
THEIR FALSE
TEACHINGS, AND GOD"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/ezekiel/13"
---

CHAPTER 13

. DENUNCIATION OF
FALSE PROPHETS
AND PROPHETESSES;
THEIR FALSE
TEACHINGS, AND GOD'S
CONSEQUENT JUDGMENTS.

**1.** As the twelfth chapter
denounced the false expectations of the people, so this denounces the
false leaders who fed those expectations. As an independent witness,
Ezekiel confirms at the Chebar the testimony of Jeremiah ([Jeremiah 29:21](../../../kjv/jeremiah/29/21);
[Jeremiah 29:31](../../../kjv/jeremiah/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 ([Jeremiah 29:31](../../../kjv/jeremiah/29/31)). The conscious knaves gave only *general* assurances
of peace ([Jeremiah 5:31](../../../kjv/jeremiah/5/31); [Jeremiah 6:14](../../../kjv/jeremiah/6/14);
[Jeremiah 14:13](../../../kjv/jeremiah/14/13)). The language of
Ezekiel has plain references to the similar language of Jeremiah (for
example, [Jeremiah 23:9-38](../../../kjv/jeremiah/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.

**2. that prophesy**—namely, a
speedy return to Jerusalem.
**out of . . . own
hearts**—alluding to the words of Jeremiah ([Jeremiah 23:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/23/16);
[Jeremiah 23:26](../../../kjv/jeremiah/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, [2 Peter 1:21](../../../kjv/2-peter/1/21)),
whom they might have known to be such, but they did not wish to know
([John 3:19](../../../kjv/john/3/19)).

**3. foolish**—though vaunting as
though exclusively possessing "wisdom" (); the fear of God being the only beginning of wisdom ().
**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"
([Isaiah 2:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/2/1); [Isaiah 13:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/13/1);
[Amos 1:1](../../../kjv/amos/1/1); [Micah 1:1](../../../kjv/micah/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].

**4. foxes**—which cunningly
"spoil the vines" (), Israel being the vineyard ([Psalms 80:8-15](../../../kjv/psalms/80/8-15);
[Isaiah 5:1-7](../../../kjv/isaiah/5/1-7); [Isaiah 27:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/27/2);
[Jeremiah 2:21](../../../kjv/jeremiah/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.

**5. 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 ([Ezekiel 22:30](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/30);
[Psalms 106:23](../../../kjv/psalms/106/23); [Psalms 106:30](../../../kjv/psalms/106/30)).
**hedge**—the law of God
([Psalms 80:12](../../../kjv/psalms/80/12); [Isaiah 5:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/5/2);
[Isaiah 5:5](../../../kjv/isaiah/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.

**6. made others to hope,**
&c.—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 (). Subjective revelation is false unless it rests on the
objective.

**8. I am against you**—rather
understand, "I *come* against you," to punish your
wicked profanation of My name (compare [Revelation 2:5](../../../kjv/revelation/2/5);
[Revelation 2:16](../../../kjv/revelation/2/16)).

**9. mine hand**—My power in
vengeance.
**not . . . in . . .
assembly**—rather, the "council"; "They shall not
occupy the honorable office of *councillors* in the senate of
elders after the return from Babylon" ([Ezra 2:1](../../../kjv/ezra/2/1);
[Ezra 2:2](../../../kjv/ezra/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 [Jeremiah 17:13](../../../kjv/jeremiah/17/13); [Luke 10:20](../../../kjv/luke/10/20);
[Revelation 3:5](../../../kjv/revelation/3/5), as to those *spiritually*
Israelites; [John 1:47](../../../kjv/john/1/47), and those
not so. Literally fulfilled ([Ezra 2:59](../../../kjv/ezra/2/59);
[Ezra 2:62](../../../kjv/ezra/2/62); compare [Nehemiah 7:5](../../../kjv/nehemiah/7/5);
[Psalms 69:28](../../../kjv/psalms/69/28)).
**neither . . . enter . . .
land**—They shall not so much as be allowed to come back at all
to their country.

**10. Because, even because**—The
repetition heightens the emphasis.
**Peace**—*safety* to
the nation. Ezekiel confirms [Jeremiah 6:14](../../../kjv/jeremiah/6/14);
[Jeremiah 8:11](../../../kjv/jeremiah/8/11).
**one**—literally, "this
one"; said contemptuously, as in [Jeremiah 8:11](../../../kjv/jeremiah/8/11).
**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" ([Jeremiah 8:11](../../../kjv/jeremiah/8/11)), 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 [GROTIUS].
FAIRBAIRN translates,
"plaster it with whitewash." But besides the hypocrisy of
merely *outwardly* "daubing" to make the wall look
fair ([Matthew 23:27](../../../kjv/matthew/23/27); [Matthew 23:29](../../../kjv/matthew/23/29);
[Acts 23:3](../../../kjv/acts/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" ([Acts 23:3](../../../kjv/acts/23/3)).

**11. 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 against His foes ([Exodus 9:18](../../../kjv/exodus/9/18);
[Joshua 10:11](../../../kjv/joshua/10/11); [Job 38:22](../../../kjv/job/38/22);
[Psalms 18:12](../../../kjv/psalms/18/12); [Psalms 18:13](../../../kjv/psalms/18/13);
[Isaiah 28:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/28/2); [Isaiah 30:30](../../../kjv/isaiah/30/30);
[Revelation 16:21](../../../kjv/revelation/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.

**12. shall it not be said**—Your
vanity and folly shall be so manifested that it shall pass into a
proverb, "Where is the daubing?"

**13.** God repeats, *in His own
name,* as the Source of the coming calamity, what had been
expressed generally in [Ezekiel 13:11](../../../kjv/ezekiel/13/11).

**14.** The repetition of the same
threat (see on [Ezekiel 13:1](../../../kjv/ezekiel/13/1)) 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; [Ezekiel 13:16](../../../kjv/ezekiel/13/16)
supports the former view.

**16. prophesy concerning
Jerusalem**—With all their "seeing visions of peace for
her," they cannot ensure peace or safety to themselves.

**17. set thy face**—put on a bold
countenance, fearlessly to denounce them ([Ezekiel 3:8](../../../kjv/ezekiel/3/8);
[Ezekiel 3:9](../../../kjv/ezekiel/3/9); [Isaiah 50:7](../../../kjv/isaiah/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 ([Isaiah 50:7](../../../kjv/isaiah/50/7)). It was only in extraordinary emergencies that God bestowed
prophecy on women, for example on Miriam, Deborah, Huldah ([Exodus 15:20](../../../kjv/exodus/15/20);
[Judges 4:4](../../../kjv/judges/4/4); [2 Kings 22:14](../../../kjv/2-kings/22/14));
so in the last days to come ([2 Kings 22:14](../../../kjv/2-kings/22/14)). The rareness of such instances enhanced their guilt in
pretending inspiration.

**18. 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 ([Ezekiel 13:10](../../../kjv/ezekiel/13/10)), so
the women are said to sew pillows, c., 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 ([Proverbs 6:26](../../../kjv/proverbs/6/26)
[2 Peter 2:14](../../../kjv/2-peter/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 ([2 Peter 2:14](../../../kjv/2-peter/2/14)), "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 ([Ezekiel 13:19](../../../kjv/ezekiel/13/19)) of the
false prophetesses *promising life* to the impenitent, so that
*English Version* and GROTIUS
explain it best.

**19. handfuls**—expressing the
paltry gain for which they bartered immortal souls (compare [Micah 3:5](../../../kjv/micah/3/5);
[Micah 3:11](../../../kjv/micah/3/11); [Hebrews 12:16](../../../kjv/hebrews/12/16)).
They "polluted" God by 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 [Proverbs 28:21](../../../kjv/proverbs/28/21)).
**slay . . . souls that should
not die,** c.—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 ([2 Corinthians 2:15](../../../kjv/2-corinthians/2/15)
[2 Corinthians 2:16](../../../kjv/2-corinthians/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 *wilfully* deceived, so that their
guilt lies at their own door ([2 Corinthians 2:16](../../../kjv/2-corinthians/2/16)).

**20. 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 ().
**let . . . souls go**—"Ye
make them fly" in order to destroy them; "I will let them
go" in order to save them ([Psalms 91:3](../../../kjv/psalms/91/3);
[Proverbs 6:5](../../../kjv/proverbs/6/5); [Hosea 9:8](../../../kjv/hosea/9/8)).

**21. 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.

**22. ye have made . . . the righteous
sad**—by *lying* predictions of calamities impending ever
the godly.
**strengthened . . . wicked**—
([Jeremiah 23:14](../../../kjv/jeremiah/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.

**23. ye shall see no more vanity**—The
event shall confute your lies, involving yourselves in destruction
([Ezekiel 13:9](../../../kjv/ezekiel/13/9); [Ezekiel 14:8](../../../kjv/ezekiel/14/8);
[Ezekiel 15:7](../../../kjv/ezekiel/15/7); [Micah 3:6](../../../kjv/micah/3/6)).

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