Ezekiel 13:12-22

12 The wall will certainly fall. Won't it be said about you, "Where is your plaster now?"
13 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: In my fury I will make a storm wind break out, and in my anger there will be flooding rains and hailstones in consuming wrath.
14 I will tear down the wall on which you laid plaster. I will raze it to the ground and expose its foundation. When it falls, you will be destroyed with it, and you will know that I am the LORD.
15 I will exhaust my fury on the wall and on those who laid plaster on it. Then I will say to you, "Where is the wall?" and "Where are those who plastered it,
16 those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and envisioned peace when there was no peace?" This is what the LORD God says!
17 You, human one, face the daughters of your people, those women who prophesy from their imaginations. Prophesy against them
18 and say, The LORD God proclaims: Doom to the women who sew bands on every wrist and make veils for heads of all sizes to entrap human lives. Will you ensnare my people's lives but preserve your own?
19 When you degrade me to my people for handfuls of barley and bread crumbs, you mislead my gullible people, and you bring about the death of those who shouldn't die and keep alive those who shouldn't live.
20 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: I'm against the bands that you use to trap human lives. I will tear them from your arms, and I will set free the lives that you've trapped like birds.
21 I will tear off your veils and snatch my people out of your clutches. They will be prey in your clutches no longer. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
22 You hurt the righteous with slander—I didn't wound them!—and you strengthened the hands of the wicked so that they survived without changing their evil ways!

Ezekiel 13:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 13

It being said in Eze 12:24; that there should be no more a vain vision, nor a flattering divination; the prophet is ordered to prophesy against the false prophets and prophetesses, Eze 13:1,2,17; the former are described as prophesying out of their own hearts, Eze 13:2; as foolish ones, following their own spirit, and seeing nothing, Eze 13:3; they are compared to foxes in the deserts, Eze 13:4; and are represented as unconcerned to stand in the gap for the people, Eze 13:5; and as seeing vanity and lying divination; wherefore the Lord was against them, Eze 13:6-8; what they are threatened with are, that they should not be in the assembly of God's people; nor written in the writing of the house of Israel; nor enter into the land of Israel, Eze 13:9; the reason of which was, because they seduced the Lord's people, by speaking peace to them when there was none; which is figuratively expressed by building a wall, and daubing it with untempered mortar, Eze 13:10; upon which the wall is threatened to be rent, and caused to fall with a stormy wind; signifying the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army; and the false prophets to have the wrath of God poured on them who doubted it, Eze 13:11-16; and then follows the order to the prophet to prophesy against the false prophetesses, and set his face against them, and pronounce woe upon them in the name of the Lord; who are described as prophesying out of their own hearts; sowing pillows to all armholes; and making kerchiefs on the head of all sorts of persons; and which they did for poor small gain, and to the detriment of immortal souls, good and bad, Eze 13:17-19; wherefore the Lord threatens to tear off their pillows and kerchiefs, and deliver his people out of their hands, no more to be hunted by them, Eze 13:20,21; the reason of which was, because they saddened the hearts of the righteous, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, Eze 13:22; and the chapter is concluded with a resolution that they should see no more vanity nor divine divinations; and that the Lord's people should be delivered from them, and they should know that he was the Lord, Eze 13:23.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Syr, cf 13:12; MT There is no wall.
  • [b]. LXX; MT adds like birds.
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