Ezekiel 13:3

3 Adonai ELOHIM says: "Woe to the vile prophets who follow their own spirits and things which they have not seen!

Ezekiel 13:3 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 13:3

Thus saith the Lord God, woe unto the foolish prophets
The false prophets, as the Targum; who are foolish, as all are who are not sent of God, and furnished by him with wisdom and knowledge, and who prophesy out of their own hearts; for what else but folly can proceed from thence? this must be a great mortification to these prophets to be called foolish, when they reckoned themselves wise men, being vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds, and were accounted so by others; but what is wisdom with men is foolishness with God: that follow their own spirit;
or "walk after it" F3; and not the Spirit of God, who leads into all truth; they pretended to a spirit of prophecy, but it was their own spirit and the dictates of it they followed, and not the Spirit of the Lord; and therefore it is no wonder that they prophesied false things, and led the people wrong; as all such teachers do, who give way to their own fancies and imaginations, and forsake the word of God, and do not implore the assistance and teachings of the blessed Spirit: and have seen nothing;
no vision, as the Syriac version renders it; they pretended to have revelations of things future from the Lord, but they had none; what they saw were vain visions and lying divinations, and were as nothing, and worse than nothing; yea, they said what they never saw.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 (Mxwr rxa Myklh) "qui ambulant post spiritm suum": Pagninus, Calvin, Cocceius, Starckius.

Ezekiel 13:3 In-Context

1 The word of ADONAI came to me:
2 "Human being, prophesy against the prophets of Isra'el who prophesy. Tell those prophesying out of their own thoughts, 'Listen to what ADONAI says!
3 Adonai ELOHIM says: "Woe to the vile prophets who follow their own spirits and things which they have not seen!
4 Isra'el, your prophets have been like jackals among ruins.
5 You [prophets] have not gone up to the breaks in the barricade or repaired it for the house of Isra'el, so that they can stand fast in battle on the day of ADONAI.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.