Ezekiel 13

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 .

14. The repetition of the same threat 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 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 Ezekiel 3:9 , 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 ( Ezekiel 8:14 ). It was only in extraordinary emergencies that God bestowed prophecy on women, for example on Miriam, Deborah, Huldah ( Exodus 15:20 , Judges 4:4 , 2 Kings 22:14 ); so in the last days to come ( Joel 2:28 ). 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 ), 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 , 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 ( Ezekiel 13:22 ), "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 ) 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 Micah 3:11 , 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 ).
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 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 ( John 3:19 ).

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 ( Ezekiel 13:18 ).
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 , Proverbs 6:5 , 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 ).
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 , Ezekiel 14:8 , 15:7 , Micah 3:6 ).