Study notes

Ezekiel 13

Introducing EzekielWho wrote it, when, why, and what to look for as you read

12:1–24:27 Section

Ezekiel continued sharing God’s messages of judgement among the Jews in Babylon. His actions of prophecy included packing bags for a trip and trembling while eating. He groaned and beat his chest and also drew a map for the king of Babylon. He didn’t cry when his wife died even though he loved her.

Some messages he spoke clearly to the people. He gave a short account of the entire history of Israel. He spoke against men and women who were false prophets. He spoke against elders who asked God for advice even while they worshipped false gods. Some people accused God of being unfair. They said that God punished them for sins they hadn’t committed. Those sins had been committed by their parents and their people from long ago. Ezekiel explained that God always and only ever does what is fair. God holds each person responsible for their own choices.

Ezekiel sang a sad song about Israel’s princes. Then he spoke clearly about King Zedekiah as an unholy and evil prince. Some Jews said that the judgement Ezekiel announced wouldn’t come for a very long time. They didn’t believe that God would allow Jerusalem to be destroyed. They didn’t believe that they deserved to be judged in this way. They didn’t think that they had lived in evil ways that had to be stopped. And they trusted that other nations would save Jerusalem from the Babylonian armies. God said that the time had come for him to act. This made it clear that no one could stop his judgement from coming.

Ezekiel shared some of God’s messages as poems and others as stories. In these stories God compared his people to different things. He compared them to a useless vine that was burnt in a fire. He compared them to a vine that grew the wrong way. He compared them to the scum left behind when metals are burnt to make silver. They were like meat in a pot that would be cooked over a hot fire. These were ways to describe the sins of the southern kingdom.

God compared his people to a baby girl that God rescued from the desert. But she grew up to be an unfaithful wife to God. God described Jerusalem and Samaria as two sisters who belonged to God. But they acted like prostitutes. These stories don’t mean that God had sex with anyone. God used marriage as a way to talk about being faithful and committed.

God had committed himself to being the Israelites’ God for ever. He had done this in the Mount Sinai covenant. The Israelites had committed to faithfully following the Law of Moses. The most important part of that was to worship and serve God only. But the people of the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom hadn’t done that. They didn’t trust God to give them peace, rest and safety. Instead they trusted the governments of nations like Assyria, Egypt and Babylon to protect them.

They followed the practices of the nations around them. They worshipped the false gods of other nations. This led them to treat needy people badly. It led them to want more and more wealth. It led them to sacrifice children to false gods. All of these things went against God’s laws. These were ways that God’s people had been unfaithful to him.

12:21–14:11

The messages in this section address the issue of true and false prophecy.

13:1–3

The basic difference between true and false prophets was clear. False prophets made up their own messages. True prophets spoke the word of the Lord.

Now the false prophets would hear a message from the Lord. This message was about their own destruction.

These messengers had been deceived, and they had also deceived others. Great sorrow and judgment were coming upon them.

13:4–5

People compare false prophets to jackals that dig in ruins to hunt small animals. These false prophets did not fix the broken walls by urging people to repent, live holy lives, and resist evil. Instead, they gained prestige, and possibly money, by spreading lies that encouraged rebellion. Like jackals, these false prophets were tearing down walls, not building them up (see Nehemiah 4:3).

13:6–7

The false prophets knew their words were lies and false predictions. Yet, they confidently expected God to fulfill their prophecies. These false hopes gave God's people a false sense of security. This false security would prove empty and destructive on the coming day of judgment (compare Jeremiah 6:14).

13:8–9

The false prophets wanted to protect themselves. But this desire would bring the opposite result.

Instead of being safe, they would be removed from the community. They would never return to their own land again.

13:10–16

The people's "righteousness" was like a weak wall ready to fall. Instead of urging the people to repent and build their wall properly, the false prophets just painted over it. They told the people that peace would come to Jerusalem.

This made the wall look stronger than it was. A heavy rainstorm would reveal its true weakness. Water would seep into the unsealed cracks, wash away the mortar, and cause the stones to fall.

In this case, the storm would be the great flood of God's anger, which would destroy the people's false righteousness and the false prophets who supported it. Meanwhile, they would find no peace.

13:17–19

Similar to the false male prophets (Ezekiel 13:1–16), some women prophets spoke words from their own imaginations. The false male prophets used traditional prophecy methods, but the women used magical techniques with charms and veils. Seeking personal gain, such as a few handfuls of barley or a piece of bread, they promised life and death (compare Ezekiel 3:17–21; 33:1–9) to the wrong people.

13:20–23

The false women prophets did not speak about life and death the way God did. They did not judge people by God’s standards.

Because of this, they discouraged righteous people. The righteous began to think that obeying God was useless. At the same time, these false prophets encouraged wicked people. The wicked began to believe they could continue in sin and not be punished.

This wrong teaching trapped both groups. It gave the righteous and the wicked false ideas about who God is and how he judges.

Verse notes: Adapted by Mission Mutual (Aquifer Open Study Notes) from Tyndale Open Study Notes © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. CC BY-SA 4.0. Section notes: Biblica Study Notes © 2023 Biblica, Inc. CC BY-SA 4.0, via BibleAquifer. About the sources