(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.”

(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.

(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 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.

(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.

(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.

(11) Great hailstones.—Hail is unusual in Palestine, but its destructive effects were well known. The figure of this prophecy may be compared with the parable of Matthew 7:27.

(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.

(18) Souls.—This word is used in the Old Testament in a variety of significations. Here and in the following verses it is nearly equivalent to persons.

(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.”

(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.