Ezekiel 13:3

3 The LORD and King says, "How terrible it will be for you foolish prophets! You say what your own minds tell you to. Your visions did not come from me.

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 A message came to me from the Lord. He said,
2 "Son of man, prophesy against those who are now prophesying in Israel. What they prophesy comes out of their own minds. Tell them, 'Listen to the LORD's message!
3 The LORD and King says, "How terrible it will be for you foolish prophets! You say what your own minds tell you to. Your visions did not come from me.
4 " ' "Israel, your prophets are like wild dogs that live among broken-down buildings.
5 You have not repaired the cracks in the city wall for the people of Israel. So it will not stand firm in the battle on the day I judge you.
Holy Bible, New International Reader's Version® Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998 by Biblica.   All rights reserved worldwide.