Ezek. 13 False prophets reproved, and their daubing with untempered mortar, Ezek. 13:1–16. The prophetesses also reproved with their impostures under the title of pillows and kerchiefs, Ezek. 13:17–23.

This first verse is the commission, by virtue whereof Ezekiel acteth as a prophet, and it is in the usual style near forty times in Ezekiel.

Prophesy; declare aforehand what I will do. Against the prophets; against prince and people first, next against prophets and prophetesses; against the former in the foregoing chapters, against the latter in this chapter.

They shall be doubly miserable, suffering with the deceived, and suffering by the enraged, when their lies are detected. Foolish prophets; either in a moral sense, i. e. wicked; or in a literal sense, unwise.

O Israel; a pathetical exclamation to awake Israel, both the dwellers at Jerusalem and those at Babylon. Thy prophets, not mine, as Ezek. 13:2. Like the foxes; hungry and ravening, crafty and guileful, and living by their wits, but not one whit helpful to those they deceive.

Ye, vulpine prophets. As in a besieged city whose wall is broken down and the enemy ready to enter, a valiant, faithful, and vigilant soldier would run up into the breach to repel the enemy; so true prophets do partly by prayer, and partly by doctrine, and partly by personal reformation, labour to…

They have seen; they pretend to have seen, but still they see nothing, as Ezek. 13:2. The prophet speaks as if indeed they had seen, but the very censure of the things they said they saw clears it, that all was but pretence.

Consider with your own consciences; do they not tell you that all is vain pretence which you make? Can you think Jerusalem can escape, or the first captives be returned, and all this so soon? Is not this vain to be imagined, and they vainer that imagine and believe it? If it should come to pass,…

The whole verse speaks the dreadful anger of God against those false prophets. It is unspeakable wrath, and we are left to guess at it by the manner of speech here used, which is minatory, Ezek. 21:3, Ezek. 26:3, concealing the greater part intended; an aposiopesis.

Mine hand; my power striking them; so that it shall be evident they fall under Divine revenge, as Pelatiah, Ezek. 11:13, and Hananiah, Jer. 28:15–16. Or if they escape this stroke, they shall not be in the assembly of my people; have no seat among the rulers, nor voice among the counsellors, nor…

The verse is a transition to a new subject, or rather to a new manner of discovering and condemning the sin of the false prophets. They have seduced my people; made my people to err, both in their apprehension of their sin and danger, and of my displeasure and threats, as if all were less than it…

Unto them; the meaner and less noted, who follow the arch false prophets, and are as under-workers in this wall. It shall fall; most certainly its fall shall be the shame and loss of the builders, and those that hoped its duration.

Will not men thenceforth laugh you to scorn? you that built, you that daubed, you that applauded the wall, will they not upbraid you with your folly?

This confirms what was said Ezek. 13:11, where it is explained. This verse addeth that God will do this by his hand, and in anger and fury, taking vengeance on this scoffing, atheisticaI, and secure generation in his just displeasure; he will execute the fierceness of his anger upon prince,…

This verse with very little variation repeats the same dreadful procedure of God against this people, and these false prophets, and their false, ill-grounded confidences.

Thus, in this dreadful manner, by my hand visible in doing it, will I fulfil what my prophets foretold, and perform my word and theirs, and fully pour out my wrath, so that it shall be fully according to the just displeasure they have provoked in me.

The prophets of Israel: see Ezek. 13:2, Ezek. 13:4. Which see visions: see Ezek. 13:7.

Now turn thyself and discourse against the prophetesses, fear them not: see the phrase, Ezek. 4:3. Some would have the prophet’s words to be intended against the effeminate men, who were of no value, and by contempt called the daughters of his people; but I see no cause why the prophet’s words…

Woe; calamities of all sorts shall fall upon them. That sew pillows; a figurative speech, expressing their flatteries and security, which the women promised to every one that came to them to know the fate of themselves and others; in token of which safety and ease, either these women did put them…

Will ye pollute me? profanely contradicting what is indeed spoken in my name, and pretending my name for that I never spake, nor will do. Among my people; who are my peculiar, who have my word and true prophets, by which your lies are discovered, and further will be.

I am against (the same phrase Ezek. 13:8) your pillows; the rite, and its signification too. There hunt the souls; either at Jerusalem, or wherever you give out answers. To make them fly: in this sense the word is no where else used, and thus used here renders the interpretation obscure.

Kerchiefs: see Ezek. 13:18. My people; God owns them, at least some among them; though all were not his, yet he had a people among them. Your hand; power of their seductions.

With lies; diametrically opposing what my prophets told to my people in my name. The heart; the soul, which in weak ones received some saddening impressions from your lies; in the strongest and wisest it was matter of grief, to see so many contradict the Lord to their own ruin.

See Ezek. 12:24. Either these prophetesses with the prophets of the same stamp shall perish in the day of calamity, and of the miseries that they persnaded others to slight and contemn.