Ezekiel 13

Ezekiel 13: 1-16 Proclamation Against Male False Prophets

¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² Mortal, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are prophesying; say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: “Hear the word of the LORD!” ³ Thus says the Lord GOD, Alas for the senseless prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! ⁴ Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel. ⁵ You have not gone up into the breaches, or repaired a wall for the house of Israel, so that it might stand in battle on the day of the LORD. ⁶ They have envisioned falsehood and lying divination; they say, “Says the LORD,” when the LORD has not sent them, and yet they wait for the fulfillment of their word! ⁷ Have you not seen a false vision or uttered a lying divination, when you have said, “Says the LORD,” even though I did not speak?

⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have uttered falsehood and envisioned lies, I am against you, says the Lord GOD. ⁹ My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations; they shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD. ¹⁰ Because, in truth, because they have misled my people, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace; and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear whitewash on it. ¹¹ Say to those who smear whitewash on it that it shall fall. There will be a deluge of rain, great hailstones will fall, and a stormy wind will break out. ¹² When the wall falls, will it not be said to you, “Where is the whitewash you smeared on it?” ¹³ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: In my wrath I will make a stormy wind break out, and in my anger there shall be a deluge of rain, and hailstones in wrath to destroy it. ¹⁴ I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare; when it falls, you shall perish within it; and you shall know that I am the LORD. ¹⁵ Thus I will spend my wrath upon the wall, and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash; and I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it — ¹⁶ the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for it, when there was no peace, says the Lord GOD.

The authentic prophets of God already have difficult roles when they are given an unpopular message of judgement to deliver to the people of God, and their role is made significantly more challenging when false prophets appear delivering a message of peace when there is no peace. Although there are significant differences between the society and worldview of Ezekiel’s time and our own, both times struggle to separate truth from opinion. In our own time different news sources present a completely different version of reality based on the political narrative the network holds. Likewise, a person can go to different congregations and receive drastically different interpretations of faith, some that would be unrecognizable as Christianity’s traditional beliefs.[1] As quote attributed the former senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan says, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.” But when the facts in question are competing divine messages from God how are the people to discern the true prophet from the foolish and senseless prophets who have seen nothing and speak from their own spirit?

From our canonical standpoint we know that Ezekiel is the true prophet bearing the word of the LORD while his opponents are those who have envisioned falsehood and lying divination. Yet, in this time where Ezekiel and Jeremiah were declaring the judgment upon the temple, Jerusalem, the land, and the Davidic line of kings other prophets gave reasonable sounding reassurances of peace because of the covenant status of the people, the temple, the Davidic king, the land, and the favored position of Jerusalem with God. Jerusalem had been spared once before from the Assyrians, and these popular prophets proclaimed that deliverance would come once again. The guidance in Deuteronomy only allows a prophet’s truth to be evaluated in retrospect:

You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the LORD has not spoken?” If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously; do not be frightened. Deuteronomy 18: 21-22

Yet, Deuteronomy also indicates that the prophet who either speaks in the name of another god or the prophet who speaks a word that the LORD has not given them will die. (Deuteronomy 18: 20) Here the LORD declares, through Ezekiel, the judgment of these foolish prophets who have spoken what they have not heard and declared what they have not seen.

Although the NRSV declares the prophets as senseless, the Hebrew word (nabal) is normally translated foolish. As Daniel Block describes this word:

The adjective nābāl is used in wisdom literature of a special kind of fool: one who is arrogant (Prov. 30:32), crude of speech (Prov. 1:17), spiritually and morally obtuse (Job 2:10), a scoundrel (Job 30:8). In the Psalms the nābāl denies (14:1; 53:2 [End. 1]) and blasphemes God (74:22). (Block, 1997, p. 400)

These foolish prophets have not received a divine vision, unlike Ezekiel, and are following their own human spirit rather than being directed by the spirit of God. These prophets are like jackals who inhabit the ruins of foreign cities in Isaiah[2] and in the ruins of Jerusalem in Micah 1:8. These foolish prophets rather than building up and defending the people have helped to bring about their downfall. The true prophet should have stood in the breach or helped to repair the wall literally or metaphorically. Instead, they stood in a position of privilege inside the city and away from the danger of conflict on the wall during the siege. Yet, instead of reinforcing the divine message or recalling people to the covenant they have resisted the true prophets like Ezekiel, and provided the illusion of peace where there was no peace.

The problem with these foolish prophets is not that they proclaim a message of peace, Ezekiel will later proclaim a message of peace and hope, but that they are not sent from God, and they do not understand the time. It is unclear whether these prophets are in Jerusalem or being encountered by Ezekiel in exile, although it is clear that Jeremiah encountered prophets who declared peace in contrast to his message of Babylon’s impending invasion and God’s judgment:

For from the least of them to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. Jeremiah 6:13-14[3]

These prophets have provided cosmetic treatments to cover up the flaws in the walls that will not endure the storm to come. These false prophets have contributed to a future where Jerusalem will have her foundations laid bare like Samaria[4] was by the Assyrians. These prophets have contributed to a cover up of the flaws in Jerusalem and have contributed to the fall of the city.

The judgment on these foolish prophets is to revoke their place among the people. Not only will they lose their place in the council of the people, but they will also be removed from the register of Israel and be exiles from the land. Like the jackals they were compared to earlier, they will be the castoffs living among the ruins and not fit to cohabitate with the rest of society. They may be popular at the moment, but history will remember Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The countless false prophets will lose their place in society and history.

One final note before proceeding to the next section which deals with women who are distracting from Ezekiel and other true prophets, is that although most interpreters assume these prophets are acting in the name of the LORD, and the ones mentioned above do seem to be referencing the God of Israel, a large part of the judgment upon Israel is due to their unfaithfulness both to the covenant but also their worship of other gods. It is clear that there were multiple gods worshipped in various ways throughout Judah at this time, and many probably considered this pluralistic worship alongside the worship of the LORD acceptable. There may have been prophets speaking and declaring on behalf of other (false) gods and with the unpopular nature of the harsh messages of Jeremiah and Ezekiel it made these alternative messages even more palatable.

Ezekiel 13: 17-23 Proclamation Against Female False Prophets

¹⁷ As for you, mortal, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own imagination; prophesy against them ¹⁸ and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the women who sew bands on all wrists, and make veils for the heads of persons of every height, in the hunt for human lives! Will you hunt down lives among my people, and maintain your own lives? ¹⁹ You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death persons who should not die and keeping alive persons who should not live, by your lies to my people, who listen to lies.

²⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I am against your bands with which you hunt lives; I will tear them from your arms, and let the lives go free, the lives that you hunt down like birds. ²¹ I will tear off your veils, and save my people from your hands; they shall no longer be prey in your hands; and you shall know that I am the LORD. ²² Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not disheartened them, and you have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their wicked way and save their lives; ²³ therefore you shall no longer see false visions or practice divination; I will save my people from your hand. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

The target of Ezekiel in the second half of this condemnation of false prophets is against ‘the daughters of your people’ who like the male prophets speak from their own heart/imagination.[5] These women, who Ezekiel does not call prophets (although they are prophesying) are sewing something on peoples’ arms and making something for peoples’ heads. Any reconstruction of this scene involves speculation since the references are too obscure to give us an accurate picture of what Ezekiel is protesting against, although it would have been clear in his time. It is not even clear whether these women are in Jerusalem/Judea or in exile with Ezekiel (or perhaps both). Although the law has clear prohibitions against divination and augury as practiced in the surrounding culture[6] it is also likely that these practices did occur among the people at this time of crisis. When a crisis arises people often seek certainty and there will always be those who are vulnerable to those who promise protection or control.

One interpretation of the actions of these women is that they are creating bands and phylacteries, veils, or amulets that have the divine name upon them as a ward against evil times. Although this practice would bear the name of the LORD, it would be utilizing the name of God in a way that other nations invoke their deities. This context would make sense of the statement that these women ‘have profaned me’ and the barley and bread is their payment for these articles of clothing. It is also possible that these bands and veils/amulets may be utilizing other entities as a form of protection. From Ezekiel’s view these women are not prophets and are not only snake oil salespeople, but their practices have actively caused the innocent to die and the wicked to prosper. Their actions represent the opposite of Ezekiel’s call in Ezekiel 3: 16-21 where Ezekiel is responsible to confront the wicked to get them to turn from their ways. Now these daughters of Israel by the lies they tell, and the people who listen to their lies are enabling those who should not live to live, while those who should not die are dying.

There are women prophets in the story of Israel and there are women who resist the ways of the LORD. Although it is possible that as Katheryn Pfister Darr suspects, “that Ezekiel has, in effect, “demonized” these women unfairly.” (NIB VI: 1203)[7] I am less suspicious than she is in her interpretation here. Women have been demonized by men in positions of authority and the line between magic and authority was murkier in the past, but like the male prophets in the first half of the chapter the issue is not that they are prophesying-it is that they were not sent by God and their actions are furthering the injustice in the society.

[1] I would include Christian nationalism and the prosperity gospel among these common belief systems that are alien to traditional Christian theology, although they have emerged at various points throughout history.

[2] Isaiah 13:22, 34:13

[3] See also Jeremiah 8 :10-11, 14:13-24, 23: 16-22.

[4] Echoing the language of Micah 1:6.

[5] The word in Hebrew is “inner mind or heart” rather than the more modern concept of imagination. In verse three the male prophets are led by their own ruach (spirit, wind, breath).

[6] Leviticus 20:6, Deuteronomy 18: 10-14

[7] Referencing Nancy R. Bowen, “The Daughters of Your People: Female Prophets in Ezekiel 13: 17-23,” JBL 118 (199) 420.