Ezekiel 13

Ezekiel 13:1-23 . 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 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 28:2-4 ). The conscious knaves gave only general assurances of peace ( Jeremiah 5:31 , 6:14 , 14:13 ). The language of Ezekiel has plain references to the similar language of Jeremiah (for example, 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 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 ), whom they might have known to be such, but they did not wish to know ( John 3:19 ).

3. foolish--though vaunting as though exclusively possessing "wisdom" ( 1 Corinthians 1:19-21 ); the fear of God being the only beginning of wisdom ( Psalms 111:10 ).
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 , 13:1 , Amos 1:1 , 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" ( Solomon 2:15 ), Israel being the vineyard ( Psalms 80:8-15 , Isaiah 5:1-7 , 27:2 , 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.