Ezekiel 13:22

Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life: BECAUSE WITH LIES YE HAVE MADE THE HEART OF THE RIGHTEOUS SAD - by lying predictions of calamities impending over the godly. WHOM I HAVE NOT MADE SAD - against whom I have pronounced no sentence of calamity. STRENGTHENED THE HANDS OF THE WICKED - (. "They strengthen also the hands of evil-doers, that none cloth return from his wickedness"). YE HAVE MADE THE HEART OF ... RIGHTEOUS ... HANDS OF ... WICKED. Heart is applied to the righteous, because the terrors foretold penetrated to their in-most heart and feelings; hands, to the wicked, because they were so hardened as not only...

He explains in other words what we saw yesterday: but the repetition adds to the weight of the matter. The Prophet therefore shows that he had a just cause of complaint, because the women so deceived the people. He says now _that they made the heart of the righteous sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked_: the sentiment is the same, though the words are changed. He had previously said that they gave life to those devoted to death, and slew those destined to life; but now he shows more clearly the meaning of killing the soul that should not, or ought not to die, when the heart of the righteous is made sorrowful. By the righteous he means those whom the false prophets inspired with causeless terror. But why, it is asked, does he say that the righteous are grieved, since we have formerly taught that no others were deceived unless those who spontaneously throw themselves into the snar...

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 13:22. _WITH LIES YE HAVE MADE THE HEART OF THE RIGHTEOUS SAD_] Here is the _ministry_ of these false prophetesses, and its effects. _They told lies_: they would _speak_, and they had no _truth_ to tell; and therefore spoke _falsities_. They "saddened the souls of the righteous, and strengthened the hands of the wicked." They promised them life, and prevented them from repenting and turning from their sins....

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,...

BECAUSE WITH LIES YE HAVE MADE THE HEART OF THE RIGHTEOUS SAD,.... By polluting the name of the Lord; by hunting and decoying souls into their destructive nets; and by threatening such who would not give heed to their superstitious rites, lying divinations, and false prophecies: so false teachers make the hearts of such sad, who, having seen the insufficiency of their own righteousness, trust in the righteousness of Christ, and are justified by it; by teaching such doctrines as depreciate the love and grace of God the Father; making his love dependent on the creature; his covenant conditional, and salvation to be by works, and not by grace; as detract from the person, offices, and grace of Christ; denying his deity and divine sonship; making light of his blood, and setting up man's righteousness against his: and such as are injurious to the Spirit's work; ascribing regeneration and conve...

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...

THE RIGHTEOUS. a righteous one. THE WICKED. a lawless one. Hebrew. _rasha._ App-44. HIS WICKED WAY. his wrong way. Heb _raa_. App-44. BY... LIFE. Here the Figures in Ezekiel 13:20 are translated. LIFE. Continuance in life: i.e. escape from the judgments announced by Jehovah....