Ezekiel 13:20

Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly. BEHOLD, I AM AGAINST YOUR PILLOWS - i:e., against your lying ceremonial tricks, by which ye cheat the people. YE ... HUNT THE SOULS TO MAKE THEM FLY - namely, into their snares, as fowlers disturb birds so as to be suddenly caught in the net spread for them. "Fly" is peculiarly appropriate as to those lofty spiritual flights to which they pretended to raise their dupes, when they veiled their heads with kerchiefs, and made them rest on luxurious arm-cushions (). I WILL TEAR THEM FROM YOUR ARMS, AND WILL LET THE SOULS GO, EVEN THE SOULS THAT YE HUNT TO MAKE THEM FLY....

Here Ezekiel begins to threaten those women with what would shortly happen, namely, that God would not only render them contemptible, but also ridiculous, before the whole people, that their delusions and impostures might sufficiently appear. This is the Prophet’s intention, as we shall afterwards see; but the Prophet is verbose in this denunciation. God therefore says, _that he is an enemy to those cushions_, that is, to those false ceremonies which were like cloaks to deceive miserable men: hence he says, that those souls were a prey. He uses the comparison from hunting: _ye have hunted_, says he, _the souls of my people_. And this is the meaning of the word used immediately afterwards _for flying_. This word פרח, _pherech_, signifies also “to flourish;” but I here willingly subscribe to the opinion of all who interpret it to fly: unless the paraphrast is right in translating it “to pe...

17-23 It is ill with those who had rather hear pleasing lies than unpleasing truths. The false prophetesses tried to make people secure, signified by laying them at ease, and to make them proud, signified by the finery laid on their heads. They shall be confounded in their attempts, and God's people shall be delivered out of their hands. It behoves Christians to keep close to the word of God, and in every thing to seek the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Let us so trust the promises of God as to keep his commandments....

Verse Ezekiel 13:20. _THE SOULS THAT YE HUNT TO MAKE_ THEM _FLY._] לפרחות _lephorechoth_, into the _flower gardens_, says _Parkhurst_. These false prophetesses decoyed men into these gardens, where probably some impure rites of worship were performed, as in that of אשרה _Asherah_ or _Venus_. See _Parkhurst_ under פרח....

A rebuke to the false prophetesses, and a declaration that God will confound them, and deliver their victims from their snares. Women were sometimes inspired by the true God, as were Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, and Huldah; but an order of prophetesses was unknown among the people of God, and the existence of such a class in the last days of the kings of Judah was a fresh instance of declension into pagan usages. Ezekiel 13:18. Render thus: “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” wh

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 13:1 Another interval follows, and then a fresh and fuller burst of inspiration, manifestly in close connection with Ezekiel 12:21, and to be read in combination with Jeremiah 23:1; which, as Jeremiah was in communication with the exiles (Jeremiah 29:1), Ezekiel may probably have seen. There were false prophets and prophetesses among the exiles as well as in Jerusalem, and an utterance is now found for his long pent up indignation. EZEKIEL 13:2,...

WHEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD, BEHOLD, I [AM] AGAINST YOUR PILLOWS,.... Not only had an abhorrence of them, but was determined to destroy them, detect their fallacies, and expose the folly of such actions, and them to shame and contempt: WHEREWITH YE THERE HUNT THE SOULS TO MAKE [THEM] FLY; to the places where they prophesied; into the toils and nets they spread for them, in order to catch them with their divinations and prophecies, and make a gain of them: or, "into the gardens", or "groves" o; there to commit idolatry, Isaiah 65:3; AND I WILL TEAR THEM FROM YOUR ARMS; by which it seems that those pillows were not only put under the arms of those that came to inquire of these female prophets or fortune tellers; but they put them under their own arms, and lay upon them as if they were asleep, and in a trance or ecstasy; and so the kerchiefs or veils w

Ezekiel 13:1. And now the Lord speaks through Ezekiel about the false prophets in the midst of His people. They prophesied out of their own hearts; or as it might be rendered, “Who prophesy from their own mind without having seen.” Such they were and such are the false teachers of this present age 2 Peter 2:1. Of such our Lord warned: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” Matthew 7:15. Every man who prophesies out of his own heart, who utters his own mind, whose preaching and teaching is not according to the oracles of God, is a false prophet, a blind leader of the blind. Like false prophets in Israel the false teachers in Christendom are the cause of the spiritua

THE FALSE PROPHETESSES. But women, as well as men, contributed, and just as fatally, to the popular delusion. The false prophets were public men, who exercised an influence on politics; the false prophetesses corresponded roughly to our modern fortune-tellers, and wielded an enormous private influence over a people prone to superstition, and confused by the complexity of the situation. We have here a very vivid picture of their mysterious practices. They are seen sewing magic bands or amulets (not pillows) on to the wrists or elbows of their clients, and attaching long, flowing veils to their heads. The professed object of these superstitious practices is the capture and control of souls more plainly to slay and to spare, _i.e._ to determine their fate by a solemn prediction of death or good fortune, as the case may be. Ezekiel takes three objections to all this profane jugglery: (_a_) i...

BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos._ App-6. FLY. escape. I WILL TEAR. So that these wraps could be torn away....