Ezekiel 13:3

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Foolish prophets.—They were certainly foolish who undertook to forge the name of the Omniscient, as it were, to utterances of their own devising. Folly according to the use of the word in the Old Testament, was not merely an intellectual failing, but was always associated with moral obliquity. (See Psalm 14:1, and Proverbs throughout.) The last clause of the verse is better expressed in the margin: these prophets were. “seers of that which they have not seen.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-9 Where God gives a warrant to do any thing, he gives wisdom. What they delivered was not what they had seen or heard, as that is which the ministers of Christ deliver. They were not praying prophets, had no intercourse with Heaven; they contrived how to please people, not how to do them good; they stood not against sin. They flattered people into vain hopes. Such widen the breach, by causing men to think themselves deserving of eternal life, when the wrath of God abides upon them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

That follow ... nothing - Better in the margin. A true prophet (like Ezekiel) spoke "the word of the Lord," and declared what he had seen "in the visions of God." These pretenders are stigmatized in scorn "prophets out of their own hearts," "seers of what they have not seen."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. foolish—though vaunting as though exclusively possessing "wisdom" (1Co 1:19-21); the fear of God being the only beginning of wisdom (Ps 111:10).

their own spirit—instead of the Spirit of God. A threefold distinction lay between the false and the true prophets: (1) The source of their messages respectively; of the false, "their own hearts"; of the true, an object presented to the spiritual sense (named from the noblest of the senses, a seeing) by the Spirit of God as from without, not produced by their own natural powers of reflection. The word, the body of the thought, presented itself not audibly to the natural sense, but directly to the spirit of the prophet; and so the perception of it is properly called a seeing, he perceiving that which thereafter forms itself in his soul as the cover of the external word [Delitzsch]; hence the peculiar expression, "seeing the word of God" (Isa 2:1; 13:1; Am 1:1; Mic 1:1). (2) The point aimed at; the false "walking after their own spirit"; the true, after the Spirit of God. (3) The result; the false saw nothing, but spake as if they had seen; the true had a vision, not subjective, but objectively real [Fairbairn]. A refutation of those who set the inward word above the objective, and represent the Bible as flowing subjectively from the inner light of its writers, not from the revelation of the Holy Ghost from without. "They are impatient to get possession of the kernel without its fostering shell—they would have Christ without the Bible" [Bengel].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They shall be doubly miserable, suffering with the deceived, and suffering by the enraged, when their lies are detected.

Foolish prophets; either in a moral sense, i. e. wicked; or in a literal sense, unwise. It is both foolishly wicked and imprudent to pretend revelations, and yet have none from God.

Their own spirit; in contradistinction to the Spirit of God, the true Spirit of prophecy, they strongly fancy what they would have, and then presumptuously prophesy that it shall come to pass.

Have seen nothing; God hath showed them no vision, nothing of all they pretend to is from God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thus saith the Lord God, woe unto the foolish prophets,.... The false prophets, as the Targum; who are foolish, as all are who are not sent of God, and furnished by him with wisdom and knowledge, and who prophesy out of their own hearts; for what else but folly can proceed from thence? this must be a great mortification to these prophets to be called foolish, when they reckoned themselves wise men, being vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds, and were accounted so by others; but what is wisdom with men is foolishness with God:

that follow their own spirit; or "walk after it" (c); and not the Spirit of God, who leads into all truth; they pretended to a spirit of prophecy, but it was their own spirit and the dictates of it they followed, and not the Spirit of the Lord; and therefore it is no wonder that they prophesied false things, and led the people wrong; as all such teachers do, who give way to their own fancies and imaginations, and forsake the word of God, and do not implore the assistance and teachings of the blessed Spirit:

and have seen nothing; no vision, as the Syriac version renders it; they pretended to have revelations of things future from the Lord, but they had none; what they saw were vain visions and lying divinations, and were as nothing, and worse than nothing; yea, they said what they never saw.

(c) "qui ambulant post spiritm suum": Pagninus, Calvin, Cocceius, Starckius.

Geneva Study Bible

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. foolish prophets] The word, not used again by Ezekiel, is rather a moral term, meaning destitute of that wisdom the beginning of which is the fear of the Lord (Psalm 13:1). Jeremiah charges the prophets of his day with shameful vices, “They commit adultery with their neighbours’ wives” (Jeremiah 29:23; cf. Jeremiah 23:14, and pass.); but, without supposing that all the “false” prophets were so bad, it characterized them in general that they were superficial men in a moral sense. Their notions of religion and life were not high or strict, and hence they saw nothing in the condition of the people or the state calling for the judgment of God, and prophesied “peace.” This was what distinguished them from Jeremiah and other prophets whom we call “true.” Micah says in opposition to them: “I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin” (ch. Ezekiel 3:8); and Jeremiah goes so far as to declare it to be the mark of a true prophet that he threatens judgment upon the nation (Jeremiah 28:8-9). A true prophet is one by whom the Lord speaks, and a “false” prophet (the expression is not used in the Old Testament, though the prophets are said to speak “falsely”) is one by whom he does not speak. This is true: but the converse has also its truth—the Lord did not speak by these prophets because they were “false” (1 Kings 22:6 seq.). There is a spirit of false prophecy as well as a spirit of true prophecy. The spirit of true prophecy is the spirit of the theocracy and of the religion of Jehovah, the spirit that comprehends its principles, sympathises with its lofty morality, understands its aims, and therefore can perceive the true means to be used for fulfilling them. The spirit of false prophecy is the untheocratic spirit, which, even when speaking in the name of Jehovah, has not entered with any profoundness into the nature and aims of his kingdom, and consequently misapprehends the means needful to further it. In his encounters with the prophets of his day Jeremiah opposes them in three spheres: that of policy; that of morals; and that of personal experience. In policy the genuine prophets had some fixed principles, all arising out of the idea that the kingdom of the Lord was not a kingdom of this world. Hence they opposed military preparation (Psalm 20:7), riding on horses and building of fenced cities (Hosea 14:3; Micah 5:10-11; Isaiah 31:1), and counselled trust in Jehovah (Isaiah 7:9; Isaiah 10:20-21; Isaiah 17:7; Isaiah 30:15). These prophets were moving forward (often unconsciously) towards that conception of the kingdom of God which has been realized in the “Church;” and external providence was shaping the history of the nation on lines parallel to this conception, which eventually received form by the destruction of the state and the reduction of the people to be a mere religious community. The false prophets, on the other hand, desired their country to be a military power among the powers around, they advocated alliances with the Eastern empires and with Egypt, and relied on their national strength (Amos 6:13). Again, the true prophets had a stringent personal and state morality (see above). In their view the true cause of the destruction of the state was its immoralities. But the false prophets had no such deep moral convictions, and seeing nothing unwonted or alarming in the condition of things, prophesied of “peace.” They were not necessarily irreligious men, but their religion had no truer insight into the nature of the God of Israel than that of the common people (Amos 5:18); hence they pointed to the Temple as the house of the Lord, which he must protect; while Jeremiah told them that they had made it “a cave of robbers,” in which they thought themselves safe after committing their crimes, and threatened it with the fate of Shiloh (Jeremiah 7, 26). And finally Jeremiah expresses his conviction that the prophets whom he opposed did not stand in the same relation to the Lord as he did; they had not his experiences of the word of the Lord, into whose counsel (Amos 3:7) they had not been admitted, and they were without that fellowship of mind with the mind of Jehovah which was the true source of prophecy (Jeremiah 23 pass.). Hence he satirizes their pretended supernatural “dreams,” and charges them from conscious want of any true prophetic word with “stealing” words from one another. Cf. Ezekiel 13:6-7 and ch. 14.

their own spirit] The term is used in opposition to the “spirit” of the Lord which inspired the true prophet, who is called “a man of the spirit” (Hosea 9:7). As distinct from heart “spirit” is rather the force or power moving the prophet. In early times the prophets were the subjects of considerable excitation; and looking on them thus powerfully affected men recognised the influence of the spirit of God upon them.

and have seen nothing] Rather: and (go after) that which they have not seen. They did not see, though no doubt they thought they saw. They were self-deceived.

Ezekiel 13:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Against the False Prophets

Their conduct. - Ezekiel 13:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 13:2. Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to the prophets out of their heart, Hear ye the word of Jehovah. Ezekiel 13:3. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Woe upon the foolish prophets, who go after their spirit, and that which they have not seen! Ezekiel 13:4. Like foxes in ruins have thy prophets become, O Israel. Ezekiel 13:5. Ye do not stand before the breaches, nor wall up the wall around the house of Israel to stand firm in the battle on the day of Jehovah. Ezekiel 13:6. They see vanity and lying soothsaying, who say, "Oracle of Jehovah;" and Jehovah hath not sent them; so that they might hope for the fulfilment of the word. Ezekiel 13:7. Do ye not see vain visions, and speak lying soothsaying, and say, Oracle of Jehovah; and I have not spoken? - The addition הנּבּאים, "who prophesy," is not superfluous. Ezekiel is not to direct his words against the prophets as a body, but against those who follow the vocation of prophet in Israel without being called to it by God on receiving a divine revelation, but simply prophesying out of their own heart, or according to their own subjective imagination. In the name of the Lord he is to threaten them with woes, as fools who follow their own spirit; in connection with which we must bear in mind that folly, according to the Hebrew idea, was not merely a moral failing, but actual godlessness (cf. Psalm 14:1). The phrase "going after their spirit" is interpreted and rendered more emphatic by לבלתּי, which is to be taken as a relative clause, "that which they have not seen," i.e., whose prophesying does not rest upon intuition inspired by God. Consequently they cannot promote the welfare of the nation, but (Ezekiel 13:4) are like foxes in ruins or desolate places. The point of comparison is to be found in the undermining of the ground by foxes, qui per cuniculos subjectam terram excavant et suffodiunt (Bochart). For the thought it not exhausted by the circumstance that they withdraw to their holes instead of standing in front of the breach (Hitzig); and there is no force in the objection that, with this explanation, בּחרבות is passed over and becomes in fact tautological (Hvernick). The expression "in ruins" points to the fall of the theocracy, which the false prophets cannot prevent, but, on the contrary, accelerate by undermining the moral foundations of the state. For (Ezekiel 13:5) they do not stand in the breaches, and do not build up the wall around the house of Israel (לא belongs to both clauses). He who desires to keep off the enemy, and prevent his entering the fortress, will stand in the breach. For the same purpose are gaps and breaches in the fortifications carefully built up. The sins of the people had made gaps and breaches in the walls of Jerusalem; in other words, had caused the moral decay of the city. But they had not stood in the way of this decay and its causes, as the calling and duty of prophets demanded, by reproving the sins of the people, that they might rescue the people and kingdom from destruction by restoring its moral and religious life. לעמד בּמּלחמה, to stand, or keep ground, i.e., so that ye might have kept your ground in the war. The subject is the false prophets, not Israel, as Hvernick supposes. "In the day of Jehovah," i.e., in the judgment which Jehovah has decreed. Not to stand, does not mean merely to avert the threatening judgment, but not to survive the judgment itself, to be overthrown by it. This arises from the fact that their prophesying is a life; because Jehovah, whose name they have in their mouths, has not sent them (Ezekiel 13:6). ויחלוּ is dependent upon שׁלחם: God has not sent them, so that they could hope for the fulfilment of the word which they speak.The rendering adopted by others, "and they cause to hope," is untenable; for יחל with ל does not mean "to cause to hope," or give hope, but simply to hope for anything. This was really the case; and it is affirmed in the declaration, which is repeated in the form of a direct appeal in Ezekiel 13:7, to the effect that their visions were vain and lying soothsaying. For this they are threatened with the judgment described in the verses which follow.