Ezekiel 14:10

And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him; THEY SHALL BEAR THE PUNISHMENT OF THEIR INIQUITY. As they dealt deceitfully with God by seeking answers of peace without repentance so God would let them be dealt deceitfully with by the prophet whom they consulted, God would chastise their sin with a corresponding sin: as they rejected the safe directions of the true light, He would send the pernicious delusions of a false one: prophets would be given them who should re-echo the deceitfulness that already done in their own bosom, to their ruin (Fairbairn). The people had themselves alone to blame, because they were long ago forewarned how to discern and to treat a false prophet (); the very existence of such deceivers among them was a sign of God's judicia...

Here what Ezekiel had partially touched upon is more clearly taught. For he had said, that at length false prophets should meet with punishment, but he now joins the whole people with them, and at the same time repels the empty pretenses by which men are always willing to conceal their fault. For when he mentions their iniquity by name, it is the same as forbidding them to turn their back any more. In this way, then, God removes all the cavils to which men usually resort, since they never pursue these tortuous paths without being conscious of their iniquity. For when God says that he is a searcher of hearts, he brings openly before us the secret feelings of mankind. As long as hypocrites have to deal with men, they easily delude them: and then they put on various disguises, by which they throw off the blame from themselves. But when God addresses them, his language necessarily penetrates...

1-11 No outward form or reformation can be acceptable to God, so long as any idol possesses the heart; yet how many prefer their own devices and their own righteousness, to the way of salvation! Men's corruptions are idols in their hearts, and are of their own setting up; God will let them take their course. Sin renders the sinner odious in the eyes of the pure and holy God; and in his own eyes also, whenever conscience is awakened. Let us seek to be cleansed from the guilt and pollution of sins, in that fountain which the Lord has opened....

Verse Ezekiel 14:10. _THE PUNISHMENT OF THE PROPHET_] They are both equally guilty; both have left the Lord, and both shall be equally punished....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 14:1 As the result, probably, of the previous utterances, certain ELDERS OF ISRAEL, _i_._e_. of the exiles in Tel-Abib, came to consult Ezekiel, wishing to know what counsels or what predictions he had for them. In Ezekiel 8:1 we have "the elders of Judah," and it is possible that there were two groups in the Population of the town, and that these represented Israel as distinct from Judah—a deputation, as it were, from the earlier exiles. The term appears again in Ezekiel 20:1. More probably, however, the terms are used interchangeably. Ezekiel 14:

AND THEY SHALL BEAR THE PUNISHMENT OF THEIR INIQUITY,.... Both the false prophet, and those that sought unto him, and were deceived by him; and which being laid according to the strictness of divine justice, is intolerable: sad is the case when a man is obliged to bear his own sins, and the punishment of them, and has no surety to undertake for him, and be a mediator between God and him, and make atonement for him: THE PUNISHMENT OF THE PROPHET SHALL BE EVEN AS THE PUNISHMENT OF HIM THAT SEEKEST [UNTO HIM]; they being both alike culpable, each pursuing the desires of their own evil hearts; the one seeking for smooth things to be spoken to him; the other speaking them, in order to gratify him, and for the sake of gain; the one being a false prophet, and the other seeking to and inquiring of him, though he was such, slighting and rejecting the true prophets of the Lord; both being deceive...

Ezekiel 14:1. These inquiring elders, with wickedness in their hearts, give another illustration of the depth of degradation in which the people had sunk. He who searches the hearts knew what was in them. They came with pious, religious pretensions. It sounded well to inquire of the Lord and seek the prophet-priest for that purpose. Their hearts were full of evil. While their lips spoke of asking the Lord, their hearts were full of idolatry. They liked idolatry. Their hearts were in it and this stumbling-block of their iniquity they had put before their faces, which means they openly defied the Lord God of Israel by their doings. “Should I be inquired of at all by them?” To seek the Lord and inquire of Him in such a condition reveals a brazen spirit and the deepest depravity. Yet this also belongs to the conditions in which the professing people of God are when judgment overtakes them....

INSINCERITY OF THOSE WHO CONSULT THE PROPHETS. Like prophet, like people. The prophets, as _we_ have just seen (Ezekiel 13), were greatly to blame; but no less were the people partly because of their scepticism (Ezekiel 12:21), and partly, as we now see, because of their insincerity. This is illustrated by a question put by certain elders on the occasion of a visit to Ezekiel a question which neither deserved nor received an answer; for they are idolaters, certainly at _heart and_ probably in fact; they worship Yahweh with divided heart, and are therefore inevitably excluded from a knowledge of His purpose and will. No answer can be given to such, but the answer of the Divine judgment; and if they continue their policy of impenitent compromise, their fate will be nothing less than terrible (Ezek

THEY SHALL BEAR THE PUNISHMENT, &c. Heb to Pentateuch (Exodus 28:38; Leviticus 5:1; Leviticus 5:17; Numbers 14:34, &c.)...

Both the people and prophet shall perish together; the punishment of the one shall be as that of the other. Already Jeremiah 14:15-16; Jeremiah 27:15. The passage rests on such general assumptions as these: 1. That the principles of the constitution of Israel are known, and the fundamental one is, thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Probably Ezekiel interpreted this first principle as Hosea did, including among "other gods" not only gods different from Jehovah, but images or representations of Jehovah himself (Hosea 8:6). Men's first duty was to be true to this principle; cf. the summary proceeding advocated in Deuteronomy