Ezequiel 13:10

One built up a wall. — The original word is used for a partition wall — of course a comparatively slight wall — as noted in the margin; in Ezequiel 13:12, however, the ordinary word for an outer, or a city wall, is used. One of the false prophets would build a wall, set up of his own device — some vision as a defence against the warnings of calamity; and his fellows would join in his deceit by covering this wall “with untempered mortar.” The word is not the usual one for plaster, and indeed is used in this sense only in these verses and in Ezequiel 22:28. Elsewhere, the word is used in Jó 6:6 = unsavoury, Lamentações 2:14= foolish things, and a closely-related form in Jeremias 23:13=folly (marg., an absurd thing). Here (and also in Ezequiel 13:11; Ezequiel 13:14) it must mean plaster, but the use of the word elsewhere shows plainly enough what sort of plaster is intended. Calvin understands it of mortar mixed with sand and water only, the lime being left out. It is still a common practice in the East, as it has always been, to cover over their walls with stucco. In this case the other false prophets are represented as joining with the one who built the wall by covering over its weaknesses and defects with a fair-seeming plaster. (Comp. Mateus 23:27; Atos 23:3.) They helped on the delusion by giving it the weight of their influence, and persuading the people to believe a lie.