12:21–25 The Lord often instructs his prophets to address and confront popular sayings among the people (e.g., Malachi, in which each of the oracles quotes and refutes a saying of the people). Ezekiel is called to confront the adage “The days grow long, and every vision comes to nothing” (v. 22). That is, the prophets may spout their visions, but they are uttering empty words; their threats can safely be ignored. None of the negative consequences of which these prophets warn ever actually happens. In response to this widespread perception, the Lord frames his own (slightly revised) version of the proverb: “The days are near, and the fulfillment [lit., “word”; ESV mg.] of every vision.” The time is at hand for the visions the Lord has given Ezekiel (and his contemporary, Jeremiah) to be fulfilled. Inasmuch as these visions are the word of the Lord, they cannot fail. They are certain to come about at the appointed time. As the prophet Isaiah asserted many years before, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:8).

Part of the reason for the peoples’ confusion is the prevalence of false prophets, speaking visions of their own imagining. In such troubled times there is a market for people who give the people the message they so want to hear. False prophets are happy to declare that Babylon’s power would not prevail over Judah, that the Lord would bring back the exiles and King Jehoiachin, and that as a result there would be peace in their time (cf. Hananiah’s message in Jeremiah 28). The Lord will bring an end to the words of the false prophets, however, taking away the false visions and flattering divinations (a topic in focus in Ezekiel 13). Hananiah himself is an example of this judicial sentence: he dies in consequence of his false prophecy (Jer. 28:17).

“No more” is Ezekiel’s characteristic way of contrasting the past and the future.82 In the days to come false prophecy will be silenced, while true prophecy will be vindicated. Since the Lord is who he is, the sovereign Lord of history (cf. Ex. 3:14), whatever he speaks must come to pass (Ezek. 12:25). The pattern “God said . . . and it was so,” established at creation (cf. Genesis 1), continues throughout history. Nor will fulfillment be delayed indefinitely. The Lord affirms that the threatened destruction of Jerusalem will occur during the lifetime of Ezekiel’s own hearers—and so it does, just a few years later.

12:26–28 The second proverb is “The vision that he sees is for many days from now, and he prophesies of times far off” (Ezek. 12:27). The first proverb denied the validity of prophecy altogether, claiming that visons always went unfulfilled. The second affirms the validity of the prophecy but denies its applicability: the vision is for the far distant future, the saying claims. Of course, some OT prophecies indeed addressed times in the far future. Isaiah had foretold the Babylonian invasion of Judah more than one hundred years ahead of time, and thus Hezekiah took comfort in the fact that there would at least be peace in his own time (Isa. 39:5–8). Ezekiel’s contemporaries likewise comfort themselves with the hope that the devastating words of judgment the prophets are announcing in their day might be deferred for some future generation to suffer. But this time there will be no delay. The Lord declares that his words will come to pass in the imminent future, not at some distant date.

Of course, by the time the book of Ezekiel was written down, the prophecies of destruction had been fulfilled and Ezekiel’s credentials as a prophet of doom vindicated. Yet the same skeptical attitudes persisted with regard to his prophecies of restoration, either denying that they would come true or deferring them to the far distant future (cf. Ezek. 33:30–33). Yet in reality Ezekiel’s words are of relevance to every day and generation, since they are the very words of God himself, who does not change or abandon his promises to his people.

13:1–7 The Lord is committed to fulfilling all the words he has spoken (12:25, 28). The problem is that many of the prophets of Israel are speaking not the Lord’s words but their own, which they are passing off as if they were the Lord’s. Their own words have no power to effect anything; they are wishful thinking and imagination, a tissue of lies, without substance. This is demonstrated by the fact that although there is a recognizable group that could be addressed as the “prophets of Israel,” the Lord nonetheless must raise up Ezekiel if his people are to know that a prophet is in their midst (cf. 2:5). The clear implication is that the vast majority of the “prophets of Israel” are actually false prophets who have seen nothing. If the Lord is to address the problem expressed in the two proverbs of 12:21–28, he must first address the issue of false prophecy. He does so in this chapter in two broadly parallel sections, first speaking to the false prophets (13:1–16) and second confronting the false prophetesses (vv. 17–23).

The false prophets are not simply harmless optimists, conveying an upbeat message to encourage morale in difficult times. Their visions are faked and their prophecies a lie, for they claim divine authority for messages that actually come from their own hearts. They use the common prophetic formula “declares the Lord” (Hb. neʾum yhwh) even though the Lord has not commissioned them into his service. They expect the Lord to fulfill words they make up and announce, whereas true prophets announce only the words the Lord gives them.

The behavior of these false prophets is utterly destructive, like that of “jackals83 among ruins” (v. 4). Prophets are supposed to build up what is broken down in society, standing in the breaches of the wall. This metaphor draws, appropriately enough, on the image of a besieged city. As attackers sought to breach the mud-brick walls, the defenders would frantically seek to reinforce the damaged area with additional material—all of which would make the “breaches in the wall” the most contested and dangerous place to be stationed during the battle.84 True prophets are called to serve in such difficult locations. The false prophets feel no such obligation (cf. the similar charge in 22:30). Though they may view their positive messages as “building up the walls” of their community, in reality they are doing nothing more than digging burrows in the ruins, like jackals or foxes, who are interested only in creating comfortable nests for themselves (13:4). It is the true prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel—who faithfully take the blows that go with speaking God’s uncomfortable truth to the people—who are actually used to build up and to restore the ruins. First, though, the old, corrupt material must be rooted out and torn down through confronting sin with the reality of coming judgment (cf. Jer. 1:10).

13:8–16 The hand of the Lord is against these false prophets in judgment.85 Those who as prophets claim access to the divine council will be excluded from the council of the Lord’s people (Ezek. 13:9). This means being cut off from the Israel of God, who will inherit his promises. To be removed from the register of the house of Israel means becoming a nonperson, someone who, to all intents and purposes, no longer exists.86 Climactically, they will not be among those who will “enter the land of Israel” (v. 9). This is the first apparent acknowledgement by Ezekiel in his otherwise gloomy declarations that a future return to the land is not only possible but certain. The positive future of peace that the false prophets proclaim so loudly will ultimately return, for God has promised to give his people the land. Yet, ironically, the prophets who loudly proclaim imminent peace at a time when God’s word is declaring imminent judgment will not live to see the peace for which they so long. They will die in exile.

This makes clear the sin of the false prophets. It is not that they proclaim peace, for legitimate prophets also proclaim comforting words to God’s people (cf. Isaiah 40). It is that they proclaim peace when there is none (Ezek. 13:10), making up inspiring words of hope at a time when God is speaking devastating words of judgment to his people. The result is that they are like people who “whitewash”87 a wall that is structurally compromised and ready to fall down. When the imminent flood comes—a storm of such massive magnitude, combined with flooding rain and hailstones, that would test even the most firmly grounded edifice—the beautifully decorated but fragile wall will collapse upon its painters. Far from holding the wall together, the whitewash disguises the damaged nature of the wall and blinds people to the need for it to be repaired. The whitewashers are therefore held accountable for the wall’s demise and will go down with the wall. When the wall is no more, they too will be obliterated.

13:17–23 The second panel in this chapter addresses prophetesses, although, unlike the men in verse 1, they are not dignified with that title; they are simply called “daughters of your people, who prophesy” (v. 17). Like the men, they are prophesying out of their own hearts rather than on the basis of a word or vision from the Lord (v. 17; cf. v. 2). However, unlike the men, who are simply speaking messages they claim to be from the Lord, these women seem to be employing a number of practices with magical overtones. The nature of these practices is not entirely clear. The prophetesses are apparently binding “magic bands”88 on peoples’ “wrists” (v. 18), though it is unclear who is being bound or for what purpose. They also manufacture something that goes around peoples’ heads; ESV “veil” is a plausible translation of mispakhot, though “amulets” is equally possible. Presumably these accouterments are promoted as providing personal protection and prosperity in a dangerous and uncertain world.

It appears that, in contrast to the false prophets who speak words of peace concerning the nation as a whole, the ministry of the prophetesses is concerned more with individuals.89 They say to these people “You shall live” and “You shall die” in a way that mimics Ezekiel’s own calling (cf. 3:17–21; 33:19)—but they do so not on the basis of a word from the Lord but simply as a means to serve their own goals (13:19). Their motivation is payment; they traffic in peoples’ souls not for vast sums of silver and gold but for mere “handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread” (v. 19).90 Similarly to the jackal-like prophets of Israel, they exploit vulnerable peoples’ gullibility in order to serve their own interests, pretending to speak for the Lord when they have no such commission. Unlike the “prophets of Israel,” who apparently speak only positive messages, the prophetesses deliver positive or negative words as suits a particular client. But since these messages are invented, they often dishearten the righteous falsely when the women should be speaking an affirming word to them, while encouraging the wicked instead of confronting them with the need for repentance (vv. 22–23). The Lord promises to deliver his people91 from this fake power and these false visions, with the result that his power and true identity would once again become clear to Israel. By exposing the false prophets and prophetesses the Lord will vindicate his true prophets in his people’s sight and restore their confidence in the power of the prophetic word.