Ezekiel Chapter 13
Thursday, 01/08/26 at 10:38
Solitary Man
Solitaryman.substack.com
20251020
Eze 13:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
In the last chapter Yehovah has just finished rebuking the people for not believing the true prophets of the Lord. If they paid any attention, they quickly concluded that these pronouncements of doom were for a far off time. In this next word from the Lord, Yahweh turns to his attention to the false prophets. Whether in Jerusalem or here at the river Chebar in Babylon, the message is the same.
Eze 13:2 Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the LORD;
This chapter lays out a strong denunciation of those who would presume to prophesy in the name of Lord when the Lord has not sent them. In this chapter, you will find its parallel in Jeremiah chapter 23. We will insert several verses from that chapter, to show how that even if these men of God were physically separated by hundreds of miles in the natural, they were on exactly the same page in the spirit.
Jer 23:16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
Jer 23:17 They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
How to tell if a prophet is from the Lord or not? Especially in this internet age, where thousands of ‘words from the Lord’ are a keystroke away, how can one tell? Let us list some guidelines to follow.
1. The utterance cannot contradict the bible. This first item almost goes without saying.
2. Are they a mature believer? I would be very careful of someone who has recently been saved, suddenly claiming that God is speaking direct messages to them to share with individuals, or the church. All great men (and women) of God must go through a time of seasoning and proving. Jeremiah and Ezekiel did not start prophesying as children.
3. There should be some sort of tangible calling and confirmation in one’s life. I am not saying that you will necessarily be taken up to heaven to view the Seraphim as was Isaiah, or be given a vision of the Cherubim like Ezekiel, but some event in your life will be of some special significance, where you truly are touched by the Lord and receive his gifting.
4. The New Testament allows for the simple gift of prophecy, versus the calling of the office of the prophet. Paul said we all are to desire all the spiritual gifts, but especially that we may prophesy:
1Co 14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
The simple gift of prophecy in the church has a different purpose than the prophetic word of the prophet:
1Co 14:3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
Speaking of the false prophets, God reveals the purpose of the true:
Jer 23:22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
The New Testament gift of prophesy is one of nine gifts that the Holy Spirit gives according to his will and not ours.
1Co 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
Because the gift of prophecy is given to many more people than is the office of the prophet, the purpose is different. It is one that emphasizes encouragement and motivation. But in the verse in Jeremiah, the purpose of the prophetic office is mainly to expose sin, and urge God’s people to turn away from it. Which leads us to the 5th and most important point.
5. A true prophet will be predominantly concerned with the spiritual health of the body. That is, he never tickles the ears, or says what your flesh would like to hear. His message will always be an unpopular one. While he may on occasion point to a precious promise of the Lord, that is a secondary function. His whole reason for being is to turn the hearts of the people back to the Lord. He is sent by God to wake the people up. To expose their sins. To reveal what God really thinks of his people when they stray. To warn them of consequences for their behavior. To confront the false teachers, prophets, and preachers in the church. In short, he is the doctor bringing you the bad news. You’ve got cancer, and unless you undertake radical treatment, you will die. It will be painful, there will be loss, your whole lifestyle will have to permanently change, but if you want to live, you better do what I say.
The false prophets, on the other hand, speak no such thing. They are upbeat, they are positive. All is well in the land, and God has sent them to tell you just how special you are! You are loved, you are cherished, your place in heaven is secure, and you’ve got nothing to worry about. God wants you to know that your enemies will soon be defeated, that cancer will soon be gone, that the loved one who has gone astray will soon return to the fold, and a double portion of heavenly blessing is on its way!
So don’t worry, be happy, and trust the word of the man of God of the hour! And if you really want to get on the blessing train, just send me the biggest offering that you can, and I guarantee you that God will open the windows of heaven to such an extent, that you will not be able to contain it!
Had enough bulldoodle and blasphemy yet? Or perhaps your heart is strangely warmed by such words of comfort. If so, I can tell you that you are in the wrong place! Ezekiel is about to destroy these purveyors of fiction. God does not waste his time sending his chosen vessels just to tell you how wonderful you are. If you were so wonderful in the first place, the Father would not have had to send his Son to be beaten, crucified, and die for you.
Ezekiel is called to prophesy against the false prophets. Being given a word from the Lord is not always a good thing! If God has to send his prophet to your house, there is a good chance it is because you need straightening out!
These false ones are said to prophesy out of their own hearts. What does that mean? Well, it is saying that God is not the one inspiring them to speak. But they speak of things that their own defiled heart desires. They preach things that a fleshly, worldly, selfish heart would want, and claim that God is actually speaking through them! Thus they are attributing their own words as coming from Yehovah himself.
If you stop and think about this, does this sort of thing not rank near the top of what would constitute genuine blasphemy? We know that the worst sort of blasphemy is not speaking the occasional curse. Jesus told us the worst blasphemy was attributing the work of God to satan. If you do this, you could not be forgiven.
Mat 12:22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.
Mat 12:23 And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?
Mat 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
Mat 12:25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
Mat 12:26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?
Mat 12:27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.
Mat 12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.
Mat 12:29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
Mat 12:30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
Mat 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
Mat 12:32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
Mat 12:33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
Mat 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Mat 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
Mat 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Mat 12:37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
This long passage clearly teaches that when the Pharisees refused to believe the evidence of their own eyes, in hearing and seeing an amazing deliverance, they uttered the ultimate blasphemy by claiming the Son of God was casting out demons by the power of satan. This sort of utterance would not be forgiven. Jesus reinforced that truth with a short sermon on the importance of speech. He says that anyone who denounces a supernatural miracle done by the power of God as the work of the devil, proves that they are evil people, in Jesus’ eyes. Their words prove the wickedness that resides within.
This sort of behavior really ticked Jesus off. Cessationists, beware! I cringe whenever I hear someone automatically pronounce every supernatural miracle, including all instances of speaking in an unknown tongue, as the work of satan. If I am reading this passage correctly, Jesus says that this is not simply a misguided brother in the Lord who happens to be in error on this one doctrinal point. No, according to Jesus, these are vipers, evil men who have evil hearts, and can only speak evil things. They shall be condemned on the day of judgment.
Be very careful before you make a judgment. While I have several times in the past denounced the charlatans and the fakes that litter the charismatic landscape, never would I dare to claim that the supernatural workings of the Holy Spirit are a thing of the past! Such presumption should never be found in the heart of a true disciple of Jesus.
Eze 13:3 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit (ruach), and have seen nothing (bil-tee – a failure of sight)!
Woe is all the false prophets have coming to them. When you follow the imaginations of your unsanctified soul, God says that you have actually seen nothing. That is because unless the word comes from heaven, the word of man is nothing but vanity. There is no power in it, no healing. No conviction, and no fruit. While it may contain a truth or two, if it is not the word that God wants spoken in this season, it is less than worthless actually. It is dangerous and harmful.
What do I mean by that? Well, someone may prophesy that God is about to rescue Canada! A great revival is the next great thing that God wills for the land. Now, revivals do occur. In the perfect will of God, I am sure that he would like all his children to walk in a perennial state of revival. But if the reality on the ground is one of apostasy, blasphemy, murder, and oppression, with no repentance, then this word gives a false sense of hope. It prevents people from repenting, which is the only thing God wants from his people at this moment.
I am completely convinced that the world is in a season of total judgment. As for Canada, we may be number one on God’s hit list at this time, due to the depth of depravity that we have fallen into, especially when you consider all the light and truth that we once walked in. We have backslid far worse than Israel or Judah ever did. To even contemplate for one moment that God is about to bless us in any way, shape or form is absurd in the fullest meaning of the word. You don’t need a special revelation from the Lord. Common sense would tell you that this is nonsense.
If you are one of those who believe that this is a season for blessing, revival, and a restoration of godliness in the west, then you are in the wrong place! Unless you are here with a genuinely open heart, and want to hear the reasonings of those who believe otherwise.
I believe the spiritual climate in the west is very similar to the climate found in Judah during the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. I believe that is why the Lord wants me to write these long commentaries on these great prophetic books. Never before in our nation’s history have these books been as relevant as they are in this decade of the 2020’s. I don’t think you would be here reading this, if you did not agree.
Nothing spells foolishness like the man (or woman) who presumes to speak in the name of the Lord, when the Lord has not moved them to do so. Can you imagine anything greater in presumption, than saying ‘thus saith the Lord’, when that person would not recognize the Lord if they met him in a phone booth! However, it takes 2 things to be able to discern the true voice from the false. First, you must be steeped in the word. And not just the New Testament, but all of the bible. Second, you must be a person of prayer. Only in continual prayer do you learn to hear the voice of the master. If you are in real fellowship with the Messiah, then when you read something on the internet, your spirit will either confirm the truth in it, or you will experience a check in your spirit. The message will feel “off”, or it will strike you as absurd fairly quickly. Sometimes though, it takes prayer to truly discern. Remember that the enemy is much smarter than we are. He has honed the arts of subtlety and deception to a fine degree.
Eze 13:4 O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.
Due to a scarcity of prey in the desert, desert foxes’ typical physical state would be creatures that had a ravenous hunger. Thus they would become exceedingly crafty in order to find food. They were said to live amongst the ruins in the desert (Lam 5:18). So these false prophets would live amongst those with ruined hearts, willing to hear and believe any and every lie. The Song of Solomon 2:15 speaks of foxes spoiling the vines. So these false ones would spoil the people of Israel with their lies. They dig holes in the ground, undermining the soil. So these men undermine the faith of the people.
Eze 13:5 Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge (fence, wall) for the house of Israel to stand in the battle (war) in the day of the LORD.
This is the crux of the matter. Prophets are to stand in the gap. They’re to repair the breaches in the walls. These are the spiritual walls that God wants to surround us with. But should we choose to disobey our commander in chief, we open up gaps in our protection. This applies to an individual, a family, a church, a nation, and a civilization.
This verse is for us today. As we enter the day of the Lord, prophetic revelation is meant to purify us via repentance and consecration. Otherwise we cannot hope to stand at this time, on the cusp of the greatest of battles. In fact, you are not even a candidate to be a participant without this total commitment. The true prophetic word is to stir and convict us toward that goal.
So much of today’s Christianity, whether it be sermons, or prophecies, or so called manifestations, is simply fantasies and fairy tales. We speak of a Jesus as we imagine him to be, and not as he actually is. That is why most preaching is so powerless, regardless of how much shouting we do, or shofars that we blow. We worship a Jesus that is never mad at us, one who would never send evil upon his children, no matter how sinful that they are.
Many would see a reference here to intercessory prayer. While the topic is false prophets, there are secondary truths to glean here. The true word of the Lord closes the gaps that we have opened through our disobedience. Sins are pointed out, so they can be repented of and forgiven. That is the only way to close the doors that we have opened for the enemy.
But prayer is also a gap closer. If we want the convicting word to return to the land, then the soil must be prepared by those unsung heroes who birth it in their prayer closets. Nobody will see you. No one will know of you. Unlike those popular Youtubers, you will have no public profile. But no move of God will begin without that preparing of the way by those little ones who willingly and joyfully spend their lives in complete anonymity.
All you prayer warriors, don’t give up! Your task is a hard one. You must toil and labor with little or no encouragement. But your reward in heaven shall be great.
We would be amiss if we failed to mention that this verse is directly speaking of the end times. The ‘day of the Lord’ is the time of the last judgment before Jesus returns. Also known as the great tribulation, or ‘Jacob’s trouble’, Yahweh is saying that we need genuine prophets to equip us by speaking the words that will not only seal the weaknesses in our spiritual defenses, but that will enable us to stand the very awful things that will occur as the day of the Lord commences.
This final day is not something to be desired. While we all fervently desire the return of the Lord, there is something that must occur first. And that something will be as deeply evil as the return of Jesus will be deeply wonderful. We will have to go through a time of such darkness, that unless all our bad habits, our ignorance, and our weaknesses have been dealt with and fixed, we will not be able to stand. That is what the true prophet of God is called to do. They are the drill instructors to get the troops ready before the decisive battle of the war.
Eze 13:6 They have seen vanity (shawv – useless falsities) and lying (kaw-zawb – deceitful, falsehood, figuratively idols) divination (keh-sem – oracle, witchcraft), saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope (trust) that they would confirm (make good) the word.
False prophets put pressure on other false prophets to confirm their words. If they don’t, they often resort to mockery and rejection. For example, if some goofball claims that God is about to unleash prosperity into the hands of the church, and a real prophet speaks a word of rebuke and judgment, the false prophet will mock him as a ‘doom and gloom’ preacher, or some such insult.
Have you ever noticed that on certain prophecy websites, a lot of the prophecies seem to copy each other? For example, this ‘3 days of darkness’ nonsense that was being bandied about earlier this year (or was it last year?). In any event, this was a so called prophecy given by a Catholic mystic back in the 1950’s. This is not the first time that it’s been revived. But in this case, it seemed as soon as one person revived it, there were half a dozen more speaking of the same thing! Never mind that it was spoken by a Catholic, whom most of these false prophets would reject outright (being part of the beast system, in their mind), but that this prophecy is nothing new. It has made the rounds several times before. Now this example is not the most egregious, as at least it does speak of judgment. But I used it as an example of where false prophets often get their ‘inspiration’ from other false prophets. And let us not forget the ‘Jesus is returning during the feast of trumpets in 2025’ hysteria. That was a doozy, was it not?
Look at this passage from the days of Jehoshaphat and Ahab:
1Ki 22:5 And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to day.
1Ki 22:6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
Ahab loved the pretense of religion, but he had no tolerance for the truth. Apparently it was not hard to find 400 men who would all prophesy the same thing. But if we kept on reading, there was only one man left in the northern kingdom who would yet prophesy truth.
False prophets have one thing in common. Unrelenting positivity. That’s what most of humanity wants to hear. They want good news. That is why mega churches are, well, mega churches! The crowds follow the popular people. The remnant follows the Master.
Jer 28:8 The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
Jer 28:9 The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.
Jeremiah states that a true prophet of the Lord, by default prophesies judgment. If he does happen to prophesy something positive, special attention is to be given to verify that word. Only if the positive news is verifiable in a reasonable amount of time does one also embrace that word. Otherwise we are to ignore it. In essence, God is saying that positive prophecies are the rare exception. If your local neighborhood prophet is known for his propensity to dispense good news all the time, all day long, then watch out! That is one of the surest signs that he is not from God.
In effect, this is the simplest test that the most immature believer can make. If a prophetic word is one of warning, what harm is there to examine your heart, and if the sin is found in your life, would not the Lord want you to get rid of it asap? But if it’s a positive word, don’t worry about it. If it happens to come to pass, great. But since it usually doesn’t require a change of lifestyle on your part, then who really cares? Now, if this good word depends on you giving an offering to the prophet, then run away as fast as you can!
Now, did these false prophets knowingly speak lies, or did they sincerely believe that they were God’s mouthpiece? The scripture does not say. I tend to believe that they actually believed that they were the real deal. It would be hard to maintain a knowing deception at all times. Sooner or later, something would give you away. No, delusion is delusion! First you delude yourself, justifying your wickedness. Then, you end up deluding others.
Yehovah makes it very clear that these deceitful workers of iniquity are seeing useless falsities. They are lying, and often the lying is of such a nature as to draw you away from the true and living God into some form of idolatry, whether actual or simply a heart that has been led astray. They even resort to the occult, as this verse says they use lying divination. We will see this later in this chapter, when Ezekiel goes on to describe some exceedingly strange occultish ritual that certain prophetesses were using to ensnare the souls of the simple. And they will use the occult, but then brazenly claim that they are speaking in Yehovah’s name! And by being so bold, they actually encourage other false prophets to go ahead and release their false words, as the same demons are speaking to more than one of them at the same time.
This is where the idea of confirmations can get tricky. All of us have heard of stories where someone believes they heard God, and relate their story again and again, until someone agrees with them. For example, some rebellious woman wants to divorce her husband. She goes to the pastor and says that she has prayed about it, and God told her it’s okay, she shouldn’t be unequally yoked, or some such excuse. The pastor wants her to take counselling. She doesn’t like that, so she runs to a friend. Her friend tries to talk her out of it, and she doesn’t like that. She goes through her whole list of friends, and can’t find anyone to agree with her. Finally, she goes to youtube. There, she finds several ‘confirmations’ that the sin she is about to wilfully undertake is definitely the will of the Lord! People like that may be even beyond God’s help.
When you enter your prayer closet, what is it that you want to hear? Do you simply want Jesus to whisper sweet nothings into your ear? Is all you want is a spiritual husband who endlessly tells you how much he loves you? Are you truly that pathetic and that much of a loser?
Or do you humbly go to Jesus and continually ask him to reveal what things in your life displease him. Do you desire him to root out all your secret sin? Don’t you want him to get rid of everything that keeps you from a closer walk with him?
So it is with the will of God. The will of God is our sanctification.
1Th_4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
Our walk with God is not rocket science. God sends his prophets to chastise and correct his people, when they have become too dull of hearing. When the cares of this world hinder our ability to hear the voice of the Lord, isn’t it a wonderful thing that God, in his mercy over our lack of devotion, is kind enough to send us someone who has paid the price to hear his voice? Who will be bold enough to tell us the truth? Or would you rather only hear smooth things?
Isa_30:10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
Let us not be like the people in Isaiah’s time.
Eze 13:7 Have ye not seen a vain (shawv) vision, and have ye not spoken a lying (kaw-zawb) divination (mik-sawm – augury), whereas ye say, The LORD saith it; albeit I have not spoken?
God challenges these phony ones by asking a rhetorical question. Have you not seen a vision of nothingness? Have you not spoken nothing but pure lies, you who say you prophesy, but I say that you are engaging in the forbidden practice of divination. Are you not speaking the worst sort of lie, confidently proclaiming that Yehovah has spoken, when Yehovah has done no such thing?
I find it interesting that the bible calls what these prophets are doing divination. I think it would be profitable here to take a detour and study exactly what divination is, according to the word of God.
We tend to think of divination as something that was only practised by pagan occultists. Perhaps apostate Jews may have backslid into this demonic practice during the height of Israel’s apostasy. But here it is the false prophets who are simply prophesying in the name of Yehovah. I don’t think they are engaging in any overtly occultic rituals. At least not the men. Later in the chapter we may have good reason to challenge this thought, when Yehovah turns his attention to denounce the false prophetesses.
There are a few words that are translated as divination.
1. keh-sem – derived from kaw-sam, this contains the idea of charging a fee for services. It is giving an oracle, it is also translated as witchcraft.
2. kaw-sam – to distribute, to determine by lot or magical scroll, to divine as a soothsayer.
3. mik-sawm – also derived from kaw-sam – an augury, only here in Ez 13:7 and Ez 12:24.
4. poo-thone – Ac 16:16, only time in NT, the python spirit, in the area where the famous oracle of Delphi was located.
We see that a fee for service was a fundamental feature of those who practised divination:
Num_22:7 And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words of Balak.
There is only one main injunction against divination in all its forms, and that is found here:
Deu 18:9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Deu 18:12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Deu 18:13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
Deu 18:14 For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
The key in the above passage is that God wants us to understand that it does not matter what method you use, or what label you want to call it – if you are attempting to obtain knowledge in the spirit realm by any other means than by the Holy Spirit of God, you are engaging in the occult. You may call it divination, or be some sort of observer of times (ie, probably refers to astrology), or be an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer (too many of those in the pulpits these days), or one who talks to familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. God does not care what you call yourself. The crucial fact is that you are attempting to obtain hidden information by a means other than from heaven. God calls that an abomination. This is the main reason God desired to wipe out every human being in Canaan. Under no circumstances will God ever allow this by anyone anywhere.
So even if someone is prophesying and it does not come from God, here God calls it divination. Note that verse 3 says that these false ones followed their own spirit. It did not say that they simply prophesied out of their own heart, but rather, they wilfully rejected following Yahweh and instead followed their own will. What this says to me is that this wasn’t a case of some innocent, but naive believer attempting to prophesy, but missing it, by speaking what was in his heart rather than what actually came from God. No, these reprobates chose to follow their own wicked spirit. As a result, they obtained prophetic words from somewhere, but it was not from heaven. They were most certainly inspired, but not by God. And when the devil speaks, you get a whole lot of nothing. That is why God calls it nothing but vanity and lies.
There was only one mention in the history books that spoke of this practice, and that was during the reign of the final king of the northern kingdom, before it was completely removed out of God’s sight:
2Ki_17:17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
7 times the prophets of Judah’s destruction speak of divination:
Jer_14:14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
Eze_12:24 For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.
Eze_13:6 They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.
Eze_13:7 Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The LORD saith it; albeit I have not spoken?
Eze_21:21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
Eze_21:22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.
Eze_21:23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.
Jeremiah confirms the fact of these evil men, as he also tells us that they spoke out of a deceived heart. Ezekiel in the first 3 instances speaks of these false prophets as engaging in this forbidden practice. How they actually carried out this practice is not known. They may have actually performed some sort of occult ritual to obtain the false word, or God may simply label the speaking in his name by the false prophet as another form of divination itself.
The last 3 verses in Ezekiel have to do with the pagan king of Babylon engaging in this practice in order to determine whom he will attack next. Because of the gross sins of Judah, God ensures that his nonsensical divination will cause him to choose to attack Judah, as this was God’s will at the time.
The lesson to be grasped here is that there is indeed a grave danger for people who are open to the supernatural things of God to not be caught up and carried away in something that is not connecting with heaven. Living through this Laodicean generation of the church age, which I believe really took off around the 1980’s, we have seen and lived through many examples of what was thought to be a genuine charismatic movement, but instead morphed into an occultic practice. Think about the worst examples, such as ‘grave sucking’. For those of you who don’t know what that is, try looking it up. You will be shocked at what some apostates are engaging in, and what gullible sheep will believe. Other things such as ‘glitter’ falling on the shoulders of preachers, who then claim it is genuine gold dust from heaven! I’ve seen some claim that manna fell from heaven and landed in their bibles. When shown a picture of it, they certainly looked like regular soup crackers! Or how about that ‘holy oil’ that supposedly dripped from the hands of the fired up minister? I could go on and on. What all those experiences had in common is that they served no discernible purpose in furthering the kingdom of God. No one got saved, and no one increased in holiness. In fact, the opposite often occurred. People became less holy and more flaky.
Zealous converts all long to see God move. But the zealous ones living in Laodicea did not have the patience and the discipline to be taught the word, so that they could readily discern what was good, and what was evil.
Do not follow false prophets. God calls them diviners, and they are an abomination to him. Because of divination, God destroys nations when it goes too far.
Eze 13:8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken vanity (shawv), and seen lies (kaw-zawb), therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord GOD.
After God finishes asking the rhetorical question, he now begins to pronounce judgment against them. The fact that God says that he is against them should be all that needs to be said. If God is against you, what news could be worse than that? Notice that somehow they have seen lies. This is what deluded people see. Never in human history have so many souls been deluded by so many lies as in this current era of unbelievable insanity. Infinite genders, carbon dioxide is evil, chemtrails are saving the planet, mRNA vaccines save lives, western civilization is evil, illegal immigrants are good, diversity is our strength, women can do anything a man can, men can get pregnant, many are born with the wrong gender, evolution is true, the universe is many billions of years old, islam is a religion of peace, social media fosters deeper and more genuine personal relationships – the list is virtually endless. And what deluded souls see, that is what they speak. The word for vanity is shawv. It means uselessness. Something false. Desolating, ruinous evil. Turn on MSNBC, CNN or CBC. Shawv is all that you will hear.
Eze 13:9 And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity (shawv), and that divine (kaw-sam – determine by lot or magical scroll) lies (kaw-zawb): they shall not be in the assembly (sode – company) of my people (am – flock, tribe, nation), neither shall they be written (kaw-thab – engraved, inscribed, recorded) in the writing (kaw-thawb – book, register) of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
People love to hear the promises of God! We love sermons that continually quote all the wonderful things God has promised us in his word. Well, false prophets get their own set of promises too! God promises that they shall go to hell. They shall never be a part of God’s people. They will never be written in the Lamb’s book of life. Here, it is simply called the register of the house of Israel. Are we not all grafted in to the house of Israel by the shed blood of the Messiah? Is not the Lamb’s book of life simply a register of those who shall be found in the assembly of the righteous? These diviners shall not be there. They also in some physical sense shall never enter into the land of Israel. I suppose one could see this as a reference to no wicked people being allowed to dwell in Zion, once Jesus returns.
All these judgments will serve the purpose of making God known once more in the earth. It is not simply saving the lost, but it is in the punishing of the wicked that the reality of God manifests in the earth. Do we not groan over all the unpunished evil all around us? Do we not all long for the Father to come and mete out justice to all those who have destroyed the lives of the innocent?
Eze 13:10 Because, even because they have seduced (taw-aw – cause to wander, to lead astray) my people, saying, Peace (shalom); and there was no peace (shalom); and one built up (baw-naw – set up) a wall (khah-yits – from a root meaning to separate by a wall, only time in OT), and, lo, others daubed (too-akh – smear, overlay, plaster) it with untempered (taw-fale – smear, plaster with gummy slime, figuratively with foolish, frivolous, unsavory things) morter:
It is bad enough that these wicked ones have departed from the living God. But to compound sin upon sin, they have caused many to stumble and be lost, right alongside them. And how did they accomplish this? By preaching peace!
Now you may wonder: ‘What is wrong with that?’. Isn’t Jesus the Prince of Peace? Sure, but preaching peace in a time of destruction is deceiving the people. Instead of revealing God’s heart and God’s intention towards them, you have seduced them with a false sense of security. Fear not, the prophets of the Lord say all is well. God is pleased with us. He is on our side, and against our enemy. There is no need of repentance, as the man of God has told us that we are in right relationship with him.
Can there be anything more wicked than that? Telling your church that they are going to heaven, when virtually all of them are headed to hell? Can you imagine each of them waking up in hell after they breathe their last? The bewilderment, that turns to fear, that turns to rage against these evil preachers that seduced them into thinking that they were pleasing God, when all the while God was in a white hot rage over their rebellions and abominations? Words fail to impress the seriousness of this matter.
Yahweh says there is no peace. A nation that openly mocks and blasphemes God, especially a nation that calls itself a Christian nation, can look forward to nothing but death and destruction. Eternal hell fire awaits. Nothing more, nothing less.
We now are given this image of a wall being built. In this verse, the word for wall is a more flimsy interior wall, while in verse 12 a stronger outer wall is indicated. Either way, whether we are speaking of the inside of our spiritual house or the outside, this wall is not being built to last, if you allow false teachers to build it.
We all know that Paul speaks of building our spiritual house:
1Co_3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
1Co_3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
If our doctrines are not all built upon Christ, then that house will not last.
The key concept that God is trying to paint here is the quality of the mortar. Various commentators over the ages have come up with many embellishments, in order to help us to understand exactly what it is that God is saying. It is as if you tried to make mortar with sand but left out the lime, if you tried to make bricks with mud but without straw. Another nuance that this verse points to is the type of mortar is said to be one that is a gummy slime that is smeared over the wall. In other words, the quality is Chinese quality – all shiny on the surface, but utterly horrid and dangerous underneath. Others say that this kind of untempered mortar is one that may be white and shiny on the outside, to make it look wonderful, but is not cured and hardened with the right ingredients, nor with the correct process. Thus, it is guaranteed to crumble at the first sign of distress that is placed upon it.
Gill’s Exposition of the Bible has this to say about it:
These men are builders, but not wise master builders; they do not build upon the foundation Christ, but build up a wall without him; leaving him out of the building who is the chief corner stone; deliver out some loose and unconnected doctrines, that are not according to the Scriptures, nor consistent with each other; and encourage the people to perform some loose duties and cold services, without the cement of faith and love; and which is no other than building upon the sand, or with it; though they fancy it to be a wall, a shelter, and protection to them, from the wrath and justice of God, and by which they shall climb up to heaven; which will prove a bowing wall, and a tottering fence; and in these mistakes they are buoyed up by false teachers, and are flattered as being in a fair way for eternal happiness. [end]
False teachers and prophets sure make us feel good and powerful when we first allow them to build our spiritual walls for us. But when trouble strikes, the wall has no ability to withstand even the slightest of trials, and will quickly betray us when trouble hits. By then, the false ones are long gone, having pocketed their fees for divination, and have moved on to the next flock to fleece, leaving the shorn sheep at the mercy of the wolves and the roaming evil beasts of the land.
Eze 13:11 Say unto them which daub (too-akh) it with untempered (taw-fale) morter, that it shall fall (naphal – cast down, cease, overthrown, smitten, slain): there shall be an overflowing shower (a gushing rain); and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall (naphal); and a stormy (hurricane) wind (ruach) shall rend (baw-kah – break, rip, cleave asunder) it.
I see two meanings in this verse. One, God’s wrath will wash away this flimsy wall. Two, the storms of life also will rip these fake walls apart.
False preachers build fake spirituality into the believer’s life. They try to build on things like ‘kingdom now’, ‘name it and claim it’, ‘no weapon formed against you shall prosper’, ‘you can do all things through Christ’, and so on and so forth. But when a crisis hits, trying to stand on those false doctrines will do you no good, as you have built a wall of vanity. Your wall is useless, it is a thing of nothing. At that point, you have a choice. Either humble yourself and repent, and undergo the humiliating and painstaking process of relearning the bible correctly, or delude yourself by pretending that reality is not reality and convince yourself yet again that all is well, or walk away from Jesus in bitterness and defeat.
The choice is yours.
Given the harsh language of this verse, remembering that we are still speaking in the overall context of God’s wrath, the primary truth is that God’s anger will rip through your stupid false doctrines and rend your phony spiritual life apart at the seams.
Eze 13:12 Lo, when the wall is fallen (naphal), shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing (tee-akh – mortar, plaster) wherewith ye have daubed (too-akh) it?
Speaking directly to these false prophets, these occultic diviners, the people whom you have deceived with your lying promises of peace are going to want to know what happened to all those wonderful words that you guaranteed were ours to inherit? Your daubing of our outer wall of defence looked so good and shiny, but why has it crumbled so easily? How come peace has been so quickly taken from us, when you had just promised it? Where did this plastering over of our sins lead us to?
The word for wall is slightly different from verse 10. it means an outward wall, which could mean our most important wall of defence. Not some flimsy inner wall, but our whole edifice has now been torn apart. In other words, false prophets do not simply bring you 95% good things and one or two bad things. While they may say true things, the way they say them and the way they use them to build your spiritual foundation has to be completely ripped out of your soul, and you must learn to rebuild from scratch.
What do I mean by that? When I fell for the heretical word of faith movement in the 1980’s, it was not enough to simply reject the prosperity gospel. So many verses were misinterpreted, and spun with a diabolical meaning, that one had to read the bible almost as if for the first time. It took many years for the false interpretations to be completely purged from my soul. It tainted certain things permanently. For example, I am continually leery of any minister when they start preaching about giving money. Those wicked lunatics who accumulated jet airplanes and mansions on the backs of the widows and the gullible, so destroyed the joy of helping someone out with money, that to this day I still have a hard time giving to any ministry without any qualms whatsoever. In fact, my giving now centers on the poor and the needy. I have had quite enough of kingdom building by men, thank you very much.
Ultimately, this verse teaches us that every false prophet will be exposed for the heretic and the danger that he is.
Eze 13:13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even rend (baw-kah) it with a stormy (hurricane) wind (ruach) in my fury (khay-maw – poisonous, furious rage and wrath); and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger (af – wrath as smoke from the nostril), and great hailstones in my fury (khay-maw) to consume (kaw-law – destroy completely, make an utter end) it.
This confirms that the primary meaning of all this destruction will come from the direct hand of a vengeful God, rather than the normal storms of life. Yahweh is completely enraged at these men. These phonies are not be be merely laughed at, as we look upon their excesses when we come across some damning youtube clip. No, they are not just some mischievous clown, let loose in the churches to cause a bit of grief. These men are inspired by, and motivated by the demons of hell themselves. And hell is where they will abide forever, along with all those who are captured and seduced by their smooth sounding and looking mortar. Beware. Check the foundation. Examine the building specs. Dig a bit into the mortar. Is it rock solid? Has it been hardened and tempered? Has it stood the test of time? Beware those who bring new doctrines and new revelations all the time. God may have a fresh word for us, but it will always line up with some relevant portion of scripture that fits the spiritual climate that we are currently in. And remember, if someone preaches nothing but good news, be very careful. We are not that holy and blameless, that Yehovah has nothing but good things to say about us.
Eze 13:14 So will I break down (haw-ras – pull down in pieces, pluck down, ruin) the wall that ye have daubed (too-akh) with untempered (taw-fale) morter, and bring it down (naw-gah – violently beat) to the ground, so that the foundation (yes-ode – bottom) thereof shall be discovered (gaw-law – uncovered), and it shall fall (naphal), and ye shall be consumed (kaw-law) in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
God will reveal the foundation that the false prophets have built upon. Inevitably, once you break free from their spell, you will find that they never had any intention to show you how to become more like Christ. When you finally step out of the delusion, you will see that you were not becoming more like Jesus, but were actually becoming less like him. You were probably growing in pride, arrogance, presumption, selfishness, greed, and covetousness. You were allowing evil men to stir up your fleshly impulses, rather than crucifying them. You became obsessed with the things of this world, rather than growing in a healthy disdain of them. Your prayers were focused on ‘I’, and not on ‘they’.
Yahweh speaks of breaking, pulling down, ruin, violently beat to the ground, consumed. These are supremely masculine words. God does not allow some woke simpering wimp telling him that they will hang up on him if he raises his voice when they call in to complain about something. God’s normal behavior when he encounters rebellion is to freak out. Hanging up on God, calling him a hater, or complaining about his ‘toxic masculinity’, shall not abate the judgment of hell fire that awaits you. Bet your eternity by embracing the deadly lies of the false prophets, and you will lose that bet every time.
Eze 13:15 Thus will I accomplish (kaw-law) my wrath (khay-maw) upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed (too-akh) it with untempered (taw-fale) morter, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed (too-akh) it;
What God says that he will do, will get done. He will destroy the edifice of false doctrine in his church, and he will destroy all the purveyors of such blasphemies along with it. The wall, and those that have built it, shall see his righteous and holy wrath. So not only do the false prophets get to burn, but all those churches that were built by false teaching will also be burnt up, never to rise again.
Eze 13:16 To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions (khaw-zone) of peace (shalom) for her, and there is no peace (shalom), saith the Lord GOD.
In conclusion, God says that he is speaking of anyone and everyone that preaches no judgment, when God has decreed judgment. It makes you wonder exactly who God includes in this category of false prophet. We think of false prophets who get up and prophesy. That is, those who call themselves prophets and say ‘thus saith the Lord’. But one meaning of prophesy is to teach under inspiration. If you are being inspired by anything other than the Holy Spirit of God, you are acting in the capacity of a false prophet. All these mega churches, who never speak of judgment, nor of the need of repentance, I believe are included in this indictment.
Anyone and everyone who rejects the foundational biblical doctrine of the judgments of the Lord shall not be found in the book of life. The one error spoken of in this chapter thus far, is the error of preaching peace, peace, when there is no peace. In other words, telling the people all is well when God is about to kill them. That is a sure ticket to hell.
A God who never punishes sin is a church that is smeared with foolish ideas. One that teaches that tribulation will never touch us, God says that he will destroy that church, and all the preachers that engage in such a lie.
Eze 13:17 Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them,
This is the only place in the entire bible where Yehovah has something specific to say about prophetesses. Female prophets are rare, but not unheard of. They would definitely be the exception to the rule. There are only 4 mentioned in the entire Old Testament – 3 good and one false.
1. Miriam (Ex 15:20)
2. Deborah (Judg 3-4:4)
3. Huldah (2Ki 22:14; 2Chronicles 34:22)
4. Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14) who was a false prophetess.
In the New Testament, only 2 are mentioned:
1. Anna (Lk 2:36)
2. Jezebel (Rev 2:20), whom Jesus said had self proclaimed herself a prophetess, but led the people into gross sin.
It is significant to note that of the first 2, no one would have guessed that they were prophetesses, if the bible did not name them as such, as there is no recorded prophetic word given by them. The same can be said for Anna of the New Testament, though it is said that she spoke to all of the infant Jesus. Only Huldah has a single prophecy recorded in the word of God. Noadiah, and this creature called Jezebel in the early church, were false prophetesses that were called by name.
It is interesting to note that the proliferation of false prophetesses had gotten so bad at this point in history (ie, around 592 BC, 6 years before the end of Judah), that Yehovah feels it is necessary to take the time to single this class of people out for specific condemnation. And only in Rev 2:20-23, does Jesus take the time to single out a specific woman, for her demonic teachings and utterances in the church at Thyatira. Of course, those 7 letters to the 7 churches have multiple layers of meaning, being relevant for the specific church at that time, as well as being a pattern and prophecy for various stages that the historical church would pass through, as well as embodying 7 different types of churches in any age. Every period in church history has churches that reflect the problems and sins of each of these churches, but some points in history have a certain type of church predominate in the culture. For example, for the last 40 years in the west, the Laodicean church is the dominant pattern in our lands. Selfish, lukewarm, greedy, shallow, and blind to reality, these are the predominant characteristics of the churches in our lands today.
One can draw a parallel between the description of the false women in the church in Ezekiel’s day with the false women in the church in the end times. The book of Revelation primarily deals with the end of days, and the 7 churches have more lessons for the end days than at any other point in church history. What I see is a pattern that as a nation comes to the end of its existence, women take a more prominent role, and never in a positive way. In fact, women play a bigger role in society when it is about to fall. Here, in the last decade of Judah’s existence, the false female prophets have gained such prominence, that for the first and only time in biblical history, Yehovah feels it worth his while to point them out for a special denouncement. And in our own time, have not women fallen to the lowest moral level in the history of the west? Women are especially addicted to their social media. They have become slaves to digital affirmation that being part of the herd provides. Women have never been more shallow, uncaring, manipulative, and bereft of truth than now, since social media enslaved them. As Eve was deceived into thinking paradise was not enough, so women today have been deceived into believing that the God given role that they were given to raise a family and be a strong pillar of support to their husbands was somehow demeaning and enslaving. They abandoned their husbands, they forwent having children, they even forwent marriage until they were too old for any sane man to desire them anymore. What we are left with is a barren, sterile society. The vast majority of those with terminal TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome), are well off white women in their 40’s. They know nothing of right and wrong, or of good and evil. They scream for the genital mutilation of children. They scream to free Palestine. They scream at the most righteous administration in the history of America. They scream for the protection of pedophiles, terrorists, muslims, gang members and rapists, because they are told they all have a right to invade America and be supported by everyone else. It is these women who form the backbone of the demonic Democratic party of today. Kept away from the teachings of the bible, never darkening the door of a church, not led and guided by a husband who knows good from evil, surrounded by like minded Jezebels, all of them blaming men for all their woes, while they spread their legs to every passer by with no thought of commitment of consequence, aborting any and every child that they may have created in their unending debauchery, these spawns of satan provide the voting bloc needed for the wicked to take the reins of power and destroy the land.
Of course, all this has been made possible because the men abandoned God in the first place. The men were to lead their families in serving God. But they would not. As men rebelled against their master, so the women rebelled against their men. God has repaid man according to his own evil ways.
Have you noticed on any prophecy website that the vast majority of so called prophetic words are given by women? And have you noticed that the vast majority of words are nonsensical? Many prophesy only smooth things, as Isaiah warns us about. Many others are nothing but failed prediction after prediction, imitating the psychics in the land. I have met many of these so called independent women who think they have been called to break away from all authority and oversight and start some ministry on their own. I even had one close family member do this very thing. While I do not doubt her sincerity, without any sort of male covering in her life, her doctrines became unbalanced and unstable. Her gatherings degenerated into embarrassing emotional outbursts by numerous unstable women, who all refused to take instruction by any serious male. Any attempt by myself to interject some sound scriptural truth in the midst of them was met with polite, but firm, rejection, as they were totally content to continue on as they always had. The few men who joined with this group became as cowed and feminized as one could be, which is what I observed anyway. In short, they were not interested in actually having a voice of anyone with a masculine bent in their midst! This woman had achieved a level of authority, and was not interested in relinquishing it for any reason. After her untimely death, from what I understand, the group struggles years later to find a solid direction and purpose.
At the end of a nation, everything is out of whack. That most certainly includes the mix-up and intermingling of the roles of the man and the woman. I will tell you the main reason why so many boys want to become girls. We have told them that their masculinity is toxic. That it was men who ruined everything in the past. Men were responsible for every evil. They receive no praise growing up, only condemnation. But if they say they want to become a girl, suddenly they are elevated to the most special and praised and important person in the group! By putting on a dress, they become instant heroes!
How sick and diabolical our nations have become! Only America seems to be attempting to resist this madness in the west. The rest of us are going the way of Britain – silenced, arrested, overrun, and destroyed utterly.
If it’s mostly women who are prophesying or giving words from the Lord, watch out! Women being used by God are the rare exception to the rule. I know many will hate me for pointing that out, but it’s true. Women have always been in the majority when it comes to practising religion. If God was selecting people to use via a random draw, then he would have picked mostly women. But that is not how it goes. God could care less about your satanic idea of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The bible is male centric. Always has been, always will be. The bible speaks of mankind, not humankind. I never make any apologies for it. There are such an extremely few examples of women being used by God in any significant way, that preachers have to go so far out of their way in order to try and make women feel better. Just how many times can you preach about Esther? Don’t forget she married a pagan king. What exactly did Miriam do, except sing one song, and being given leprosy for rebelling against her own brother Moses? Deborah was the one and only female judge in all the tribes of Israel of any note during those 400 years. Huldah was a prophetess during Josiah’s reign, after Manasseh’s 55 years had driven or destroyed all the men of God out of the land. In these rare cases, it was almost as if God had to go and use a woman as a last resort.
Now don’t get me started on the elevation of Mary to near divine status in Catholicism! To broaden the appeal of this strange religion to a pagan world, Catholics introduced a female deity figure, since virtually every heathen religion revolved around some sort of goddess personage. Since women were so crucial for any religion to thrive, creating more and fanciful and unbiblical doctrines about Mary would appeal to all these pagan women, who were used to worshipping the goddess. And mark my words, I do not care how devout Catholics try to rationalize their behavior in praying the rosary and honoring the so called queen of heaven. The fact that their devotion is focused on a person rather than Jesus is idolatry. If you focus your spiritual devotions on someone or something other than Jesus, you are an idolater. And all idolaters will end up in hell. I don’t care if it’s Jesus’ mother. She is simply just another human being.
Ezekiel is told to set his face against these wicked, reprobate women. Like the wicked men, they too are not connected to heaven in any way. They prophesy things out of their own heart. And that heart is pure wickedness, as we shall see.
Eze 13:18 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe (hohee – alas) to the women that sew pillows (keh-seth – cushions, coverings) to all armholes (ats-tseel yawd – joint, knuckle hand), and make kerchiefs (mis-paw-khaw – veils) upon the head of every stature (ko-mah – height) to hunt (tsood – to lie in wait) souls (nephesh)! Will ye hunt (tsood) the souls (nephesh) of my people (am), and will ye save the souls alive (khaw-yaw nephesh – revive, nourish, quicken souls) that come unto you?
We are now entering a part of the bible that cannot be accurately interpreted with 100% certainty, since it speaks of a practice that has been lost to us today. These false prophetesses were engaging in some sort of occultic ritual that was well known at the time. Perhaps something similar that most of us would be familiar with today, but maybe not in centuries past or centuries in the future, would be the reading of tea leaves, of gazing into a crystal ball. Whatever these women were doing, it was something that was known at that time, but not now. All we can do is try and carefully examine each word, and see if we can glean some idea of what they were actually doing.
Keeping in mind that there is no unanimity of opinion as to the exact meaning of several of the words used, as well as entire passage itself, we could do worse than reading Ellicott’s commentary for his best shot at translating verses 18 through 21:
“Woe to those who fasten charms on every finger-joint, that place kerchiefs on heads of every height to snare souls. Will ye snare the souls of my people, and keep your own souls alive? (19) And will ye profane me with my people for handfuls of barley, and for pieces of bread, to slay souls that should not die, and to make live souls that should not live, by your lying to my people who hearken to a lie? (20) Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am against your charms, when ye snare the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, the souls that ye are snaring like birds. (21) Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be snared; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” [end]
Barnes renders it this way:
“Woe to the women that” put charms on every finger-joint, that set veils upon heads of every height to ensnare souls. “Will ye” ensnare “the souls of my people,” and keep your own souls alive, and will ye profane my name “among my people for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to” keep alive “the souls that should not live, by lying to my people” who listen to “a lie? Wherefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold” I will come upon your charms, where ye are ensnaring the souls like birds; “and I will tear them from your arms and will let the souls go” free, “even the souls” which ye are ensnaring like birds. “Your” veils “also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be” ensnared; “and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” [end]
These women were gaudily attired. They placed charms on every finger joint. Have you ever seen a woman with rings on every finger? How ridiculous it really looks? They drew attention to themselves by their flamboyant and outrageous clothes, jewellery, and fashion accessories. Several thoughts come to mind. I think of the gypsy women, who when putting on a show, flaunt and twirl many brightly colored veils, all to catch the eye, while the men go around and pick the pockets of the distracted rubes in the audience!
I also think of the book of Enoch. How those fallen ones taught women the arts of seduction, as well as many other things which were forbidden.
My third thought pertains to a fairly recent phenomena that has cropped up in many churches. The issue of flag waving by women who often wear some sort of ultra filmy, flimsy, silky, super feminized apparel. While the music leader attempts to engage the congregation in the worship of the Lord, these women distract everyone by waving these huge banners back and forth in the air, often engaging in some sort of choreographed dance, as if it is time for the latest Broadway play. Personally, I cannot stand to watch one second of it! Unless I close my eyes, I cannot concentrate on worshipping Jesus. These women draw attention to themselves and their antics, much the same way the gypsy women draw the eye while their men pick your pockets! I strongly believe that this is just another symptom of the narcissistic, me first, self obsessed, feminized, rebellious, man centered type of churches that our lands are now filled with.
Nothing spells selfishness like a silly, vapid, empty headed woman who just has to be in the center of the action!
The verse may speak of some sort of physical statue. They seemed to be tying some special magical kerchief to the head of every idol that they would use in their incantations. Stature meant height, or something risen. It could refer to adorning the head of every high thing, or every idol found in the high places. It almost brings to mind these places in rural areas in backward nations where a local shrine may be set up. People would tie ribbons or amulets on the statue, and leave an offering, hoping for a blessing from whatever it represented. Usually in superstitious Catholic nations you would see roadside shrines of some saint, especially Mary, being adorned with all sorts of baubles and items of covering.
Another interpretation is that this may represent these female charmers as sewing pillows so that they could be placed under their client’s arms, to make them very comfortable, as these seducers practiced their seductive arts upon the unsuspecting. Idle women would repose inclined on various rugs and pillows. As one stretched out, perhaps the place where one’s elbow rested would be cushioned by a thick pillow. In other words, the indolent, the curious, the idolatrous, the backslider, and the jaded may have all visited this local charlatan for amusement, like the wealthy of our day would visit the psychic, or attend a seance.
But whatever the exact picture this is all supposed to paint, the crucial truth to understand is that these vile women pretended to speak for Yahweh, when in fact they were there to hunt for souls! While they were ensnaring the naive and the gullible, at the same time they were also protecting the truly wicked. The way that they did that will be elaborated upon in the following verses.
Eze 13:19 And will ye pollute (khaw-lal – profane, defile, prostitute) me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces (morsel) of bread, to slay (mooth – kill) the souls (nephesh) that should not die (mooth), and to save the souls alive (khaw-yaw) that should not live (khaw-yaw), by your lying (kaw-zab – deceiving) to my people that hear (shama – to hear with the intention of obeying) your lies (kaw-zawb – falsehoods, figuratively idolatrous work)?
By speaking in Yahweh’s name, they defiled his reputation, his name, and his character. The content of what they prophesied expressly contradicted the true word of the Lord. They would justify the wicked and denounce the righteous. How? By proclaiming that the deeds of the wicked were righteous, and that the words of the real prophets were a lie. Thus they would give the naive comfort that everything was okay when it was not, and would exalt the wicked man in the eyes of himself and others that the road he was on was the correct one.
This would be like saying to the homosexual that God loves him, and that he understands that his heart is in the right place. That God accepts who he is, and that he should not feel guilty that God made him that way. Or to tell someone that it is perfectly okay to divorce your mate for any reason, as God wants you to be happy. All of this is meant to make the wicked feel good about his choices, and to destroy the faith of the struggling sheep.
Wicked people, no matter what they do for a living, all contribute to prolonging the life of the wicked and shortening the life of the just. This can be as simple as continuing to re-elect wicked people, just because that is the way you’ve always voted. By continuing to keep the wicked in power, you prolong the lives of the wicked, since they escape temporal consequence, and you shorten the life of the innocent, as they continue to be persecuted and prosecuted for doing good.
Most people in church do not have a strong, unshakable grasp as to why they believe what they believe. They go to church, and are told what to believe. Most will mentally adhere to what they’ve been told. But then when a false teacher comes along, and now tells them that same sex marriage is approved by God, or transgenderism is now okay because ‘science’ has discovered that it is real thing, or that injecting yourself with self replicating spike protein is loving your neighbor, the person weak in faith simply accepts these things, because the religious ‘professional’ (the pastor) tells him that this is so. How many times I have heard my Catholic relatives tell me that something ridiculously unbiblical must be true, because the bishop (or priest) says it is! God will reserve a special place in hell for such despicable reprobates who dare to teach things such as this, and to top it all off, claim that they are speaking as God’s very own mouthpiece!
In a sense, they are prostituting the name, or reputation, of God. Because the main reason they are doing it is that there is money in it. Telling someone that their favorite sin is approved by God will cause them to be grateful to you, and they will gladly empty their wallet for someone like that.
This sure brings to mind all the millions of people around the world that took the jab, contributing to the global genocide, rationalized that they had to do this in order to feed their family. While not quite the same thing as this verse speaks of, the same spirit is there. – one of doing whatever it takes to make a buck.
It is amazing how a sinner can murder his own conscience and find peace, just by paying somebody to tell him that God says that your sin is okay! Talk about lunacy! You can pay someone to tell you anything you want them to say. But does that make it true? Just because a false prophetess, with her gaudy apparel and her comfy couch, prophesies a personal word of blessing and prosperity over you, affirming whatever evil thing that you’re doing, does not change the reality of your spiritual situation one bit. Somehow this woman has garnered such a reputation, that whatever she proclaims, people shama’d her. That is, they not only heard, but had every intention of obeying whatever she told them to do. I am sure that part of the message was increasing the size of their offering!
False prophets and prophetesses leave the sinner in their sin, but also make the righteous turn away from the narrow path. They defile everyone and everything. No one escapes unscathed. That is why the bible is so harsh and repetitious when it comes to warning us about false prophets. How many ‘Christian television’ personalities put on a real display of modern day divination, spouting off meaningless personal prophecies to the audience left and right, waving their arms in the air, scrunching up their faces in some sort of fake intensity, generating oohs and aahs from the biblically illiterate sheep that they are more than happy to fleece? Giving these unstable, carnal ones false hope, that all is well with them, that God is well pleased, but perhaps their offerings are a little on the small side? All the while these simple ones are headed straight for hell, thinking that they are safe in the arms of Jesus, when in reality they have never encountered the living God in all their lives. Being coddled and lied to in their churches by every phony and charlatan that comes along, they wallow in their delusions. But the fact of the matter is that they like it just the way it is!
Eze 13:20 Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against your pillows (keh-seth), wherewith ye there hunt (tsood) the souls (nephesh) to make them fly (paw-rakh – break forth, bloom, blossom), and I will tear (kaw-rah – rend) them from your arms, and will let the souls go (shaw-lakh – depart, send away), even the souls (nephesh) that ye hunt (tsood) to make them fly (paw-rakh).
Whether these are accoutrements placed on idolatrous objects, or frivolous and distracting comforts that are meant to lull the hearer to sleep, God opposes it. We hit a particularly obscure passage here. How could pillows be used to hunt souls to make them fly? Some say it is a hunting analogy, where hunters would startle hidden birds, making them take flight, but making them fly straight into a net to snare them. So too these fake women would pretend to take their hearer to amazing spiritual heights, only to trap and ensnare them for the devil.
The actual meaning of the word paw-rakh to to break forth, to bloom or to blossom. Maybe their occult gadgets were used to make the foolish believe that they were blossoming in their walk with God, flying to heavenly heights, as it were.
But as with everything that is not of God, he promises to destroy it. He will break whatever occultic objects they are using. Or, he will remove whatever luxuries they have accumulated, that they are using to ensnare the simple. God then promises to rescue these poor ensnared souls. And that is the best news of this chapter thus far. Even if you have fallen for a some false doctrine from a fake preacher, if you repent, God will rescue you and take you back to him.
Eze 13:21 Your kerchiefs (mis-paw-khaw) also will I tear (kaw-rah), and deliver (snatch away) my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted (maw-tsood – captured, snared); and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
A kerchief was a veil. A veil is used to obscure. Whatever these wicked women used to obscure the truth of God from the people, God will rend it from their hands. In other words, he will tear away the false doctrine that you have been preaching, and make it so that you will never be able to use it to ensnare anyone ever again. All those helpless sheep Yahweh will rescue. He shall remove them to a place far away from the likes of these unholy Jezebels. God shall do it, and you shall know without a shadow of a doubt that God did it. He will prove that this power is greater than every device of the enemy. No weapon formed by the enemy shall prosper, when the wrath of God has been aroused.
Eze 13:22 Because with lies (sheh-ker – deceit, vanity, sham) ye have made the heart of the righteous (tsad-deek – just, lawful) sad (kaw-aw – grieved, broken, dejected), whom I have not made sad (kaw-ab – to feel pain, sorrow); and strengthened (khaw-zak – help, fortify) the hands of the wicked (raw-shaw – morally wrong, ungodly), that he should not return (shoob – turn back, go back to the starting point, turn around) from his wicked way (deh-rek rah – his path or course of life that is morally evil), by promising him life (khaw-yaw – reviving to life):
Does not your heart break every single day in the hour that we live in? At least in America, good things are being done. You have no idea how we, who live in other nations, envy you. Never before has Canada departed so far from the direction that America is headed. While by no means is America out of the woods, since there is such a large minority of the population hell bent on destroying itself, at least you still have enough righteous people to take control of the levers of power in your nation and make a stand. Here in Canada we have no such power. The number of righteous people are not a majority. I truly believe that Canada is well past the point of being able to save our nation in any meaningful way. All we have left as believers is the duty to pray for souls. While the truly wicked have taken over the land, most of the lost are simply deceived, and are still yet capable of being reached. Not to save Canada, but to save their own souls. Being too old to start over in a strange land, people like me and my wife are resigned to witness the utter destruction of this once great land. We are certainly sad! We are grieved, and broken, and dejected. And yet, God is not the direct cause of our sadness. It is the unrestrained wickedness that tears at our souls. And here in 2025, it does not matter what the Liberals do, the majority of people love it so! No matter how much they steal, kill, and destroy, the majority of this now Christ hating nation agrees and applauds every single lie and delusion that is served up for their consumption.
So in one way, God has not made us sad, sin has. But in another way, the Holy Spirit within us is grieved continually. For Canada, true is the curse spoken thousands of years ago:
Deu 28:28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
Deu 28:34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
Deu 28:45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
The second great evil that these women commit is strengthening the hands of the wicked. I still remember the most ridiculous prophecy that I have ever heard in my life. It was about 10 years ago, in the very beginning of Justin Trudeau’s 10 year reign of terror in Canada. This young girl on youtube spoke a ‘word from the Lord’ that Trudeau would be a young lion, and that he was destined to do great things for the Lord!
I could not believe it. How could anyone, even for a split second, ever contemplate in their thinking that this pedophile, this homosexual, this communist, this hater of Yehovah, this enemy of Jesus, would ever have a prophetic word spoken about him by Yehovah as to what a wonderful person he was, and how God was going to use him in a positive way? What sort of ‘Christian’ did this young girl think she was? Especially since she obviously believed in the girts of the Spirit!
If ever there was a modern day example of the women of Ezekiel chapter 23, that certainly would fit the bill!
You strengthen the hand of the wicked by confirming their delusions. Making them feel that they are on the right path, that they are doing no wrong. Sort of like a Copeland prophesying over an Osteen or a Bill Johnson, and them returning the favor. Prophesying about how God is so pleased with each other, that even greater blessings are still ahead for all! Strengthening them in their deh-rek, or path of total wickedness. Promising them eternal life, and preventing them from finding out the reality of their repugnant lifestyle, so that no repentance shall be ever found.
Eze 13:23 Therefore ye shall see no more vanity (shawv), nor divine (kaw-sam) divinations (keh-sem – oracles, witchcraft): for I will deliver (snatch away) my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Yahweh finishes his promise to these appalling, noxious, revolting, sleazy, depraved and contemptible women by stating that they shall no more have any ability (demonic or otherwise) of seeing shawv. That is, disgusting, destructive, morally ruinous evil. Gone is the ability to imagine words and utterances of completely empty uselessness, that speak of nothing but idolatrous impulses. What you are doing is witchcraft, plain and simple, and those days are now over. For a time and a season I allowed my people to fall under your power, but no more. Your sins have surpassed the need for judgment on my people. Now it’s your turn. When you die, and you stand before me and behold my righteousness as I pronounce sentence upon you, then you shall know who is the Lord.
Solitary Man
https://solitaryman.substack.com/
