Ezekiel 13:11

Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Great hailstones.—Hail is unusual in Palestine, but its destructive effects were well known. The figure of this prophecy may be compared with the parable of Matthew 7:27.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:10-16 One false prophet built the wall, set up the notion that Jerusalem should be victorious, and made himself acceptable by it. Others made the matter yet more plausible and promising; they daubed the wall which the first had built; but they would, ere long, be undeceived when their work was beaten down by the storm of God's just wrath; when the Chaldean army desolated the land. Hopes of peace and happiness, not warranted by the word of God, will cheat men; like a wall well daubed, but ill built.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wall - A partition wall; in Ezekiel 13:12, the word used is the usual word for the outer wall of a house or city. The fall of the partition wall would perhaps involve the fall of the whole house.

Untempered morter - Or, whited plaster, employed to patch up a wall, so as to give it an appearance (without the reality) of strength and beauty. Compare Matthew 23:27. In the original there is a play upon a word rendered "folly" in Jeremiah 23:13.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. overflowing—inundating; such as will at once wash away the mere clay mortar. The three most destructive agents shall co-operate against the wall—wind, rain, and hailstones. These last in the East are more out of the regular course of nature and are therefore often particularly specified as the instruments of God's displeasure against His foes (Ex 9:18; Jos 10:11; Job 38:22; Ps 18:12, 13; Isa 28:2; 30:30; Re 16:21). The Hebrew here is, literally, "stones of ice." They fall in Palestine at times an inch thick with a destructive velocity. The personification heightens the vivid effect, "O ye hail stones." The Chaldeans will be the violent agency whereby God will unmask and refute them, overthrowing their edifice of lies.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Unto them; the meaner and less noted, who follow the arch false prophets, and are as under-workers in this wall.

It shall fall; most certainly its fall shall be the shame and loss of the builders, and those that hoped its duration.

An overflowing shower; abundant, violent, and continued showers shall soak into your wall and dissolve the cement; and this shower is the Babylonish invasion, which all your provision shall be no more able to withstand, than mire in a wall can keep the stones together when drenched with showers. I will summon in the storms of hail, which with mighty stones shall beat upon the ruinous wall.

A stormy wind; a whirlwind, to shake the tumbling stones, which without much shaking would ere long drop down; but, to hasten the downfall, soaking showers, storms of hail and violent winds, shall meet; so shall your crazy state, O deceived Jews, come down to ruin.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar,.... The false prophets, that flattered the people with peace, prosperity, and safety:

that it shall fall; the wall they have built and daubed over; the city of Jerusalem shall be taken and destroyed; the predictions of the prophets shall prove lies; and the vain hopes and expectations of the people fail:

there shall be an overflowing shower; that shall wash away the wall with its untempered mortar; meaning the Chaldean army, compared to an overflowing shower of rain, for the multitude of men it, and the force, power, and noise, with which it should come, bearing down all before it; see Isaiah 8:7;

and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; upon the wall, and break it down: or, "ye, O great hailstones, shall cause it to fall" (h); or, "I will give great hailstones, and it shall fall" (i). The word "elgabish", which in some copies is one word, and in others two, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe, is either the same with "gabish", which signifies a precious stone, and is rendered pearl in Job 28:18; or it may be, as it seems to be, an Arabic word; and Hottinger (k) takes it to be "gypsus", or lime, or the "lapis laminosus", or slate; so the Lord threatens to rain down lime or slate upon them from heaven, which should destroy the wall built with untempered mortar:

and a stormy wind shall rend it; this seems to signify the same as the overflowing shower, the Chaldean army, compared to a strong tempestuous wind; see Jeremiah 4:11; as the hailstones, may signify the king of Babylon, with his princes, nobles, and generals.

(h) "et vos, O lapides grandinis, ruere facietis aedificium", Munster. (i) "Et dabo lapides grandinis, qui corruere facient parietem", Pagninus. (k) Smegma Oriental. l. 1. c. 7. p. 119.

Geneva Study Bible

Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. and ye, O great hailstones] The apostrophe to the hailstones is rather unnatural. A different pointing gives the sense, and I will cause great hailstones to fall, but the construction is altogether improbable. Jeremiah 8:13, is not in point.

wind shall rent it] Or, a strong wind shall break forth.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - In words which would almost seem to have been in our Lord's thoughts in Matthew 7:25, we have the picture of an Eastern storm, torrents of rain passing into hail (LXX., λίθοι πετρόβολοι), accompanied by a tornado of irresistible violence (compare like pictures in Exodus 9:22; Joshua 10:11; Isaiah 30:30; Isaiah 28:2, 17). And when the disaster comes men will turn to those who professed to be master builders and repairers of the breach, with derision, and ask, "Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed?" And then men shall see that through all this it is Jehovah's hand that has been working. It is he who "rends" the wall; he who "brings it down to the ground;" he who "accomplishes his wrath" (vers. 13-15). That shall be the end of the false "visions of peace." Ezekiel 13:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Punishment of the False Prophets

Ezekiel 13:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because ye speak vanity and prophesy lying, therefore, behold, I will deal with you, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Ezekiel 13:9. And my hand shall be against the prophets who see vanity and divine lies: in the council of my people they shall not be, and in the register of the house of Israel they shall not be registered, and into the land of Israel shall they not come; and ye shall learn that I am the Lord Jehovah. Ezekiel 13:10. Because, yea because they lead my people astray, and say, "Peace," though there is no peace; and when it (my people) build a wall, behold, they plaster it with cement: Ezekiel 13:11. Say to the plasterers, that it will fall: there cometh a pouring rain; and ye hailstones fall, and thou stormy wind break loose! Ezekiel 13:12. And, behold, the wall falleth; will men not say to you, Where is the plaster with which ye have plastered it? Ezekiel 13:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I cause a stormy wind to break forth in my wrath, and a pouring rain will come in my anger, and hailstones in wrath, for destruction. Ezekiel 13:14. And I demolish the wall which ye have plastered, and cast it to the ground, that its foundation may be exposed, and it shall fall, and ye shall perish in the midst of it; and shall learn that I am Jehovah. Ezekiel 13:15. And I will exhaust my wrath upon the wall, and upon those who plaster it; and will say to you, It is all over with the wall, and all over with those who plastered it; Ezekiel 13:16. With the prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem, and saw visions of peace for her, though there is no peace, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - In Ezekiel 13:8 the punishment which is to fall upon the false prophets is threatened in general terms; and in Ezekiel 13:9 it is more specifically described in the form of a climax, rising higher and higher in the severity of its announcements. (1) They are no longer to form part of the council of the people of God; that is to say, they will lose their influential position among the people. (סוד is the sphere of counsellors, not the social sphere.) (2) Their names shall not be registered in the book of the house of Israel. The book of the house of Israel is the register in which the citizens of the kingdom of God are entered. Any one whose name was not admitted into this book, or was struck out of it, was separated thereby from the citizenship of Israel, and lost all the privileges which citizenship conferred. The figure of the book of life is a similar one (cf. Exodus 32:32). For Israel is not referred to here with regard to its outward nationality, but as the people of God; so that exclusion from Israel was also exclusion from fellowship with God. The circumstance that it is not the erasure of their names from the book that is mentioned here, but their not being entered in the book at all, may be accounted for from the reference contained in the words to the founding of the new kingdom of God. The old theocracy was abolished, although Jerusalem was not yet destroyed. The covenant nation had fallen under the judgment; but out of that portion of Israel which was dispersed among the heathen, a remnant would be gathered together again, and having been brought back to its own land, would be made anew into a holy people of God (cf. Ezekiel 11:17.). But the false prophets are not to be received into the citizenship of the new kingdom. (3) They are not even to come into the land of Israel; i.e., they are not merely to remain in exile, but to lose all share in the privileges and blessings of the kingdom of God. This judgment will come upon them because they lead astray the people of God, by proclaiming peace where there is no peace; i.e., by raising and cherishing false hopes of prosperity and peace, by which they encourage the people in their sinful lives, and lead them to imagine that all is well, and there is no judgment to be feared (cf. Jeremiah 23:17 and Micah 3:5). The exposure of this offence is introduced by the solemn יען וּביען, because and because (cf. Leviticus 26:43); and the offence itself is exhibited by means of a figure.

When the people build a wall, the false prophets plaster the wall with lime. והוּא (Ezekiel 13:10) refers to עמּי, and the clause is a circumstantial one. תּפל signifies the plaster coating or cement of a wall, probably from the primary meaning of תּפל, to stick or plaster over ( equals טפל, conglutinare, to glue, or fasten together), from which the secondary meaning of weak, insipid, has sprung. The proper word for plaster or cement is טיח (Ezekiel 13:12), and תּפל is probably chosen with an allusion to the tropical signification of that which is silly or absurd (Jeremiah 23:13; Lamentations 2:14). The meaning of the figure is intelligible enough. The people build up foolish hopes, and the prophets not only paint these hopes for them in splendid colours, but even predict their fulfilment, instead of denouncing their folly, pointing out to the people the perversity of their ways, and showing them that such sinful conduct must inevitably be followed by punishment and ruin. The plastering is therefore a figurative description of deceitful flattery or hypocrisy, i.e., the covering up of inward corruption by means of outward appearance (as in Matthew 23:27 and Acts 23:3). This figure leads the prophet to describe the judgment which they are bringing upon the nation and themselves, as a tempest accompanied with hail and pouring rain, which throws down the wall that has been erected and plastered over; and in connection with this figure he opens out this double thought: (1) the conduct of the people, which is encouraged by the false prophets, cannot last (Ezekiel 13:11 and Ezekiel 13:12); and (2) when this work of theirs is overthrown, the false prophets themselves will also meet with the fate they deserve (Ezekiel 13:13-16). The threat of judgment commences with the short, energetic ויפּל, let it (the wall) fall, or it shall fall, with Vav to indicate the train of thought (Ewald, 347a). The subject is תּפל, to which יפּל suggests a resemblance in sound. In Ezekiel 13:12 this is predicted as the fate awaiting the plastered wall. In the description of the bursting storm the account passes with ואתּנה (and ye) into a direct address; in other words, the description assumes the form of an appeal to the destructive forces of nature to burst forth with all their violence against the work plastered over by the prophets, and to destroy it. גּשׁם שׁוטף ., pouring rain; cf. Ezekiel 38:22. אבני אלגּבישׁ here and Ezekiel 38:22 are hailstones. The word אלגּבישׁ, which is peculiar to Ezekiel, is probably גּבישׁ (Job 28:18), with the Arabic article אל; ice, then crystal. רוּח , wind of storms, a hurricane or tempest. תּבקּע (Ezekiel 13:11) is used intransitively, to break loose; but in Ezekiel 13:13 it is transitive, to cause to break loose. The active rendering adopted by Kliefoth, "the storm will rend," sc. the plaster of the wall, is inappropriate in Ezekiel 13:11; for a tempest does not rend either the plaster or the wall, but throws the wall down. The translation which Kliefoth gives in Ezekiel 13:13, "I will rend by tempest," is at variance with both the language and the sense. Jehovah will cause this tempest to burst forth in His wrath and destroy the wall, and lay it level with the ground. The suffix in בּתוכהּ refers (ad sensum) to Jerusalem not to קיר (the wall), which is masculine, and has no תּוך (midst). The words pass from the figure to the reality here; for the plastered wall is a symbol of Jerusalem, as the centre of the theocracy, which is to be destroyed, and to bury the lying prophets in its ruins. וכלּיתי (Ezekiel 13:15) contains a play upon the word לכלה in Ezekiel 13:13. By a new turn given to klh כלה, Ezekiel repeats the thought that the wrath of God is to destroy the wall and its plasterers; and through this repetition he rounds off the threat with the express declaration, that the false prophets who are ever preaching peace are the plasterers to whom he refers.