Ezekiel 13
Death to lying prophets
A prophet against the prophets
1The LORD gave me this message:2Human, I want you to condemn the prophets in Israel who make up their own prophecies and say, “Hey everyone, listen to me. I’ve got a message from the LORD!”
3Well, the Lord God has a message for you:
It’s a shame what’s going to happen to you foolish prophets who talk about what you never saw as though you saw it. You make it all up.
4Israel, your prophets are like jackals, those wild dogs that lurk in the ruins, hunting whatever prey they can find. [1] 5They haven’t done anything to prepare the people for war. They didn’t fix any holes in the city wall. 6They tell the people fake prophecies. And they say I’m the source. Then they expect me to do what they say and fulfill their predictions.
7You prophets did that, didn’t you—passed along your own fiction as my facts, facts from the LORD? But I didn’t talk to you, did I?
Fake prophets, doomed to die
8Well, I’m talking now. This is the Lord God. Since you took it upon yourself to lie like that, listen to me. You’re on one side and I’m on the other. I’m your enemy now. 9I’m going to turn my power against people who lie about seeing visions or talking to the dead. There’s no room for people like that in my nation. I’m erasing their names from the membership rolls of Israel. And I’m showing them the way out of this land. This is how I’ll show you that I’m the Lord God.10You lied to my people. You told them there will be peace when there will be no peace. What you did is like repairing a broken city wall by filling it in with lightweight plaster instead of stones. 11What will the plaster workers say when the wall comes down. What will they say when violent wind, torrential rains, and massive hailstones tear that plaster apart?
12Listen to me, when that wall falls, won't people start asking who filled the holes with nothing but plaster? 13Here’s what I'm telling you. And this message comes from the Lord God. I’m going to sic my wrath on you. It’ll hit you like a storm—a violent wind loaded with hammering hail and lashing rain. 14I’ll tear down your pretty, plastered wall—all the way to the bare foundation. When the wall falls, so will you. But before you die, you’ll realize that I am the Lord.
15I am going to empty my wrath on that wall and on the workers who plastered over it and painted it white. When that happens, the wall will disappear. So will the people who plastered it. 16Going with them: the prophets of Israel. They told the people of Jerusalem there would be peace when there would be no peace. This is the real message from the Lord God.
Women prophets hunt followers
17Human, I want you to prophesy against the female prophets, too. Like the men, they’re making up their own prophecies and passing them off as messages from me. 18Tell those women that the Lord God says this, “I've got some really bad news for you women who hawk those magic bands [2] you put on people's wrists and those veils you make them wear. You use these to mark people as your followers. You hunt them down like prey and use the people for yourselves.19You dirty my name for a few handfuls of barley grain and some pieces of bread that they give you. And you go so far as to tell lies that get innocent people executed and that save the guilty.
20Here's what I'm going to do. I the Lord God oppose your magic bands. You use them to target people like you're hunting birds. I'm going to tear your followers from your arms and I'm going to set them free. 21I’ll tear off those shaws and veils, too, which you've been giving your people to brand them as yours. They're not going to belong to you anymore. When that happens, you’ll finally figure out that I am the LORD.
22You discouraged and demoralized good people with your lies. These are people I had no intention of punishing. And you have encouraged and enabled bad people instead of redirecting them away from their wicked lifestyle, which would have saved their lives.
23For all of this, you women are no longer going to work as mediums, consulting the dead. And you won’t lie about visions you never saw. I will take my people back and leave you empty-handed. Then you’ll know that I am the LORD.’
Footnotes
113:4
The vexing Hebrew phrase more literally means the prophets are “like jackals (or) foxes among ruins.” We are left guessing what that would have meant to Ezekiel’s readers. Some scholars say the similarity is that jackals hunt prey alone but meet later to hang out in packs and have a few drinks, from the stream.
213:18
It seems the female prophets sold merchandize a bit like football jerseys, which tagged people as their fans and followers and perhaps financial supporters. The magic Ezekiel mentions may be spells intended to bless some patrons and curse their enemies. Magic became popular among Jews later, for a time.
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