Ezekiel 22:28

28 Forsooth the prophets thereof pargeted them without tempering, and saw vain things, and divined leasings to them, and said, The Lord God saith these things, when the Lord spake not. (And its prophets mortared them without tempering, and saw empty and futile things, and divined lies for them, and said, The Lord God saith these things, when the Lord did not speak.)

Ezekiel 22:28 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 22:28

And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar
Palliated their sins, declared it to be right to shed the blood they did; and seize on the estates of men; but this, though it might for a while satisfy the consciences of these princes, and stop the clamours of the people against them; yet would not last long, but be like the building of a wall with bad stuff, which will not stand; and daubing it with mortar, which will soon wash off. So the Targum,

``and the false prophets which are in the midst of her are like to those that build a wall, and daub it with mere clay, without straw;''

(See Gill on Ezekiel 13:10). Seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them;
pretending visions from God, when what they see, or pretend to see, is nothing but vanity and emptiness, mere delusions; and prophesying good things, peace and prosperity, when they are all lies; giving out they have messages from God, and are ordered to foretell that happy times will be, when it is all falsehood: saying, thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken;
herein mimicking the true prophets, who came in the name of the Lord, and usually prefaced their prophecies with a thus saith the Lord; and so did these false prophets, when the Lord said nothing to them, and gave them no commission to speak in his name, or say the things they did.

Ezekiel 22:28 In-Context

26 [The] Priests thereof despised my law, and defouled my saintuaries (Its priests despised my Law, and defiled my sanctuaries); they had not difference betwixt holy thing and unholy, they understood not betwixt defouled thing and clean thing; and they turned away their eyes from my sabbaths, and I was defouled in the midst of them.

27 The princes thereof in the midst thereof were as wolves ravishing prey, to shed out blood, and to lose men, and in following lucres greedily. (Its princes in its midst were like wolves tearing apart their prey, who shed out blood, and destroy people, to greedily acquire filthy lucre.)

28 Forsooth the prophets thereof pargeted them without tempering, and saw vain things, and divined leasings to them, and said, The Lord God saith these things, when the Lord spake not. (And its prophets mortared them without tempering, and saw empty and futile things, and divined lies for them, and said, The Lord God saith these things, when the Lord did not speak.)

29 The peoples of the land challenged false challenge, and ravished by violence; they tormented a needy man and (a) poor (man), and oppressed a comeling by false challenge, without doom. (The peoples of the land oppressed, and robbed with violence; they tormented the needy and the poor, and oppressed newcomers, without justification.)

30 And I sought of them a man, that should set an hedge betwixt, and stand set against me for the land, that I should not destroy it, and I found not. (And I sought someone among them, who would make a hedge between, and would stand against me for the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.)