13:1-3 The Lord gave Ezekiel a message for the prophets who were devising messages for the Jews from their own hearts and calling them prophecies from Yahweh. He was using the word "prophet"ironically; these were not true prophets, but they claimed to be such. Ezekiel was to announce judgment on these false prophets. They were foolish (Heb. nabal) because they disregarded God's word and relied on themselves. This is the essential mark of this type of fool in the Old Testament (cf. 1 Sam. 25; 2 Sam. 13:13; Ps. 14:1; 74:18).
It is not clear in this chapter whether the Lord was speaking primarily of the false prophets in Jerusalem or in exile. Probably He meant false prophets in both places.
"In the same way that impersonating a police officer is a crime in modern society, because it harmfully defrauds people who trust and obey the police, impersonating a true prophet of the Lord was, by God's law, a fraudulent misleading of Israelites in Ezekiel's day."201
13:4-5 The Lord compared these false prophets to foxes (Heb. shu'alim) that prowled around among ruins looking for holes in which to hide (cf. Neh. 3:35; Lam. 5:18). They had not tried to repair conditions that had resulted in Israel's weakness and vulnerability nor had they strengthened the nation spiritually (cf. 22:30). Building the wall around the house of Israel so it could stand in the battle of the day of the Lord refers to preparing the people for the invasion and siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The only concern of foxes and these prophets was their own welfare and self-interests. They contributed nothing to the welfare of other needy people.
13:6-7 When these prophets claimed to speak a message from the Lord they were only uttering falsehood and presenting the results of deceptive pagan divination. The Lord had not sent them, yet they expected their prophecies to come to pass. Yahweh asked them if their claimed revelations from Him were not really just false visions and lying divinations.
"Today there are also many false prophets' ministering in religious places, leading people into judgment rather than turning them to Christ and the security of a life of peace with God and eternity with him (cf. 2 Cor 11:13-15)."202
13:8-9 The Lord told these false prophets that He opposed them for what they had done. He would act against them by removing them from positions of influence among His people, depriving them of the rights of citizenship in Israel (cf. Ezra 2:62; Luke 10:20; Rev. 3:5; 20:15), and preventing them from returning to the Promised Land. They had failed as "watchmen"over the house of Israel (cf. 3:16-21). The fulfillment of these judgments would prove to them that Yahweh was Lord (cf. Exod. 7:5).
13:10-11 Judgment would come on them for misleading the Lord's people by falsely predicting peace when no peace was coming. There are two interpretations of the references to whitewashing, the literal and the metaphorical.
The literal interpretation understands God to be saying that when the residents of Jerusalem built their walls (Heb. hayis, a flimsy partition) and houses, believing that they were secure, the false prophets supported their efforts by adding the whitewash. They should have warned them to prepare for coming judgment rather than helping them beautify the walls of their homes. The coming divine judgment would descend on Jerusalem like a rainstorm with hailstones and violent winds and destroy their beautifully whitewashed walls.203
The metaphorical interpretation, which most commentators take and which I prefer, understands God to be saying that these false prophets were putting a good front on the situation in Jerusalem, saying peace rather than judgment was coming. They were compounding Israel's difficulties by hiding problems that needed to be exposed and corrected. Ezekiel was to tell them that invasion would come, like a rainstorm with hailstones and violent winds, and that their facade of a future for the people would then come crashing down (cf. Matt. 7:24-29).
"The false prophets were compared to those who build an unsafe wall and cover up its defects. The untempered mortar [AV] was actually whitewash, which is useless for strengthening insecure walls. Smooth words of false messengers hid from the people the actual seriousness of their spiritual condition. To daub with untempered mortar [or plaster with whitewash], in the metaphorical sense, is to flatter, to use hypocrisy. When the false prophets confirmed the people in their evil ways, by their approval they were whitewashing the flimsy spiritual structure of Israel."204
13:12 When the walls, or the scenario of the future that the false prophets had painted, had collapsed, the people would ask a question. They would question the materials out of which they constructed the wall, either the literal wall or the wall of false speculation. It had proved inadequate and unreliable.
13:13-14 The Lord promised to send a violent storm of judgment on His people in Jerusalem because of His anger against them and to destroy the people's homes and the false prophets' vision of the future. Then the foundations of their homes and the false prophets' vision would lie exposed for all to see, and the false prophets themselves would perish in the judgment. Then they would know that the Lord was God.
13:15-16 The Lord would destroy both the people's homes, or the false vision of the future that these prophets painted, as well as the prophets themselves, those who promised peace to Jerusalem when no peace was coming (cf. Matt. 18:7).
"It is a common failing for preachers to want to speak pleasing and appeasing words to their people, but if they are to be true to their calling they must be sure to receive and to impart nothing but God's clear word, irrespective of the consequences. When church leaders encourage their people in sub-Christian standards or unbiblical ways they make themselves doubly guilty."205
