Ezekiel 13:9

And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) The assembly of my people.—The original word bears also the meanings placed in the margin, but the sense here is correctly given in the text. The several clauses are intended to emphasise the utter exclusion of the false prophets from the people of God: they shall not be in the congregation; their names shall not be written in the genealogical registers of Israel; they shall not even enter the land when the purified and repentant people should once more return.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-9 Where God gives a warrant to do any thing, he gives wisdom. What they delivered was not what they had seen or heard, as that is which the ministers of Christ deliver. They were not praying prophets, had no intercourse with Heaven; they contrived how to please people, not how to do them good; they stood not against sin. They flattered people into vain hopes. Such widen the breach, by causing men to think themselves deserving of eternal life, when the wrath of God abides upon them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Assembly - Here "the congregation of the people." These false prophets were to be struck off from "the writing" or, the rolls, in which the names of all Israelites were registered (compare Psalm 87:6; Exodus 32:32); and therefore when the restoration Ezekiel 11:17 shall take place these men shall not have part in it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. mine hand—My power in vengeance.

not … in … assembly—rather, the "council"; "They shall not occupy the honorable office of councillors in the senate of elders after the return from Babylon" (Ezr 2:1, 2).

neither … written in … Israel—They shall not even have a place in the register kept of all citizens' names; they shall be erased from it, just as the names of those who died in the year, or had been deprived of citizenship for their crimes, were at the annual revisal erased. Compare Jer 17:13; Lu 10:20; Re 3:5, as to those spiritually Israelites; Joh 1:47, and those not so. Literally fulfilled (Ezr 2:59, 62; compare Ne 7:5; Ps 69:28).

neither … enter … land—They shall not so much as be allowed to come back at all to their country.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Mine hand; my power striking them; so that it shall be evident they fall under Divine revenge, as Pelatiah, Ezekiel 11:13, and Hananiah, Jeremiah 28:15,16. Or if they escape this stroke,

they shall not be in the assembly of my people; have no seat among the rulers, nor voice among the counsellors, nor credit among the judges of my people; but, as false fellows, teachers of lies, be branded with infamy after the return from captivity. Or, they shall not be among those that return, dead before, or rejected as dangerous seducers and blasphemous abusers of the name of God. It may also refer to the excluding them out of. the assembly of glorified ones in heaven.

Neither shall they be written; registered among those that return, of which registry Ezra 2:1,2, but blotted out for their impiety; this literally: mystically, it may be an obliterating or blotting them out of the book of life; they shall not be written with such as shall escape spiritually, they shall not be found among the elect that shall live for ever.

Neither shall they ever more come into the land of Israel, not survive the captivity. Or, with disgrace cast off, shall die in strange lands. In brief, the approaching prosperity which they promise the people none shall see, Jeremiah 29:21,32; but the prosperity after seventy years’ captivity, which I promise, my people shall see, but these false prophets never shall see, my hand shall be so against them. They shall not be written in the book of eternal life, which is written for the just ones of the house of Israel, saith the Chaldee paraphrast. See Ezekiel 12:15.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies,.... Meaning, by his hand, not the true spirit of prophecy, attended with a divine power and energy, as in Ezekiel 1:3; but the wrath and power of God seizing on them and punishing them. So the Targum,

"and the stroke of my power shall be upon the false prophets, &c.''

The sense is, that they should feel the weight of his hand, and the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his wrath, by inflicting punishment upon them:

they shall not be in the assembly of my people; shall have no place in the church of God, nor fellowship with the saints; they shall not join with them in religious worship here; but either shall be left by the righteous judgment of God to separate themselves from them, or shall be excluded their communion; and much less shall they stand in the congregation of the righteous hereafter: or, "they shall not be in the secret", or "council of my people" (g); shall not be consulted by them on any account, civil or religious; or not be let into the secret counsels of the Lord, as the Lord's people be, who are his favourites and his friends; see Psalm 25:14. The Targum is,

"in the good secret which is hidden for my people they shall not be:''

neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel; their names shall not be in the roll or register of those that return from captivity, as in Ezra it but shall die in their exile; they shall not be in the list and catalogue of the citizens of any city in the land of Israel, particularly of Jerusalem, the chief city; see Isaiah 4:3; and it should appear that their names were never written in the Lamb's book of life; or that they ever were among the number of God's elect, the true and spiritual Israel of God. So the Targum,

"and in the writing of eternal life, which is written for the righteous of the house of Israel, they shall not be written;''

see Psalm 69:28;

neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; should not return to the land of Israel, when the captives should at the end of the captivity; nor enter into the land of Canaan, the heavenly rest, which remains for the people of God; for into the New Jerusalem state shall nothing enter that makes an abomination, or a lie, as these prophets had done; see Revelation 21:27;

and ye shall know that I am the Lord God; omniscient, omnipotent, true and faithful, holy, just, and good.

(g) "in secreto populi mei non erunt", Montanus; "in arcano", Munster; "in comilio", Junius & Tremellius, Calvin, Polanus; "in concilio", Vatablus.

Geneva Study Bible

And my hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the {e} writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

(e) That is in the book of life, in which the true Israelites are written.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. The punishment is described in three steps, which form a climax. At present these prophets possess influence, they are counsellors and leaders; when Israel is a nation again upon her own land they shall have no place in the council of the people—read council for assembly as marg. Now they occupy a high place in the roll of citizens, and have names distinguished; then their names shall not be written in the writing (i.e. the book or register-roll) of the house of Israel; cf. Ezra 2:62; Isaiah 4:3. And finally, they shall not have a place in the land at all—Israel shall return, while they shall perish. Jeremiah had already used the same language in regard to Shemaiah, a prophet who misled the exiles, Jeremiah 29:32.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Mine hand shall be, etc. After Ezekiel's manner, the thought of ver. 6 is repeated in an altered form in vers. 7, 8. What had been a statement appears as a question to which there could be but one answer. The prophet, as it were, cross examines his rivals. Could they deny the charge? Was not every word of it true? Then, after the statement of the sin of the false prophets, comes the proclamation of the punishment. The hand of Jehovah would be upon them for evil and not for good. In the assembly of my people. The Hebrew word indicates not a large popular gathering, but a secret council of those who deliberate together to carry out their plans (Psalm 89:7; Psalm 111:1; Jeremiah 6:11). The prophets who had acted together, and been looked up to by the people as forming such a council, should lose that position of authority. The words that follow point to a yet lower degradation. They should be in the strictest sense of the word excommunicated. The city of Jerusalem, perhaps every city of Judah, had its register of citizens. In such a register were inscribed also the names of proselytes of other races (Psalm 87:6), and so men came to think of a like register as kept by the King of kings, containing the names of those who were heirs of the "life" of the true Israel (Exodus 32:32; Isaiah 4:3; Daniel 12:1). In neither of those registers, the earthly and the heavenly (but stress is probably laid upon the former), shall the false prophets find a place. Ezra 2:62 gives an example of the use made of such registers on the return from the Captivity. One notes the contrast between the "my people" which recognizes Israel as still the heritage of Jehovah, and the "thy people" used in Ezekiel 3:11 of the rebellious house of the Captivity. For the false prophets there should be no return to the land of Israel such as that which the prophet anticipated for the faithful and the penitent (Ezekiel 37:21; comp. Isaiah 57:13). Here there is no specific mention of the name being struck out. The prophet contemplates a new register, in which their names will never even have appeared. Ezekiel 13:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Punishment of the False Prophets

Ezekiel 13:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because ye speak vanity and prophesy lying, therefore, behold, I will deal with you, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Ezekiel 13:9. And my hand shall be against the prophets who see vanity and divine lies: in the council of my people they shall not be, and in the register of the house of Israel they shall not be registered, and into the land of Israel shall they not come; and ye shall learn that I am the Lord Jehovah. Ezekiel 13:10. Because, yea because they lead my people astray, and say, "Peace," though there is no peace; and when it (my people) build a wall, behold, they plaster it with cement: Ezekiel 13:11. Say to the plasterers, that it will fall: there cometh a pouring rain; and ye hailstones fall, and thou stormy wind break loose! Ezekiel 13:12. And, behold, the wall falleth; will men not say to you, Where is the plaster with which ye have plastered it? Ezekiel 13:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I cause a stormy wind to break forth in my wrath, and a pouring rain will come in my anger, and hailstones in wrath, for destruction. Ezekiel 13:14. And I demolish the wall which ye have plastered, and cast it to the ground, that its foundation may be exposed, and it shall fall, and ye shall perish in the midst of it; and shall learn that I am Jehovah. Ezekiel 13:15. And I will exhaust my wrath upon the wall, and upon those who plaster it; and will say to you, It is all over with the wall, and all over with those who plastered it; Ezekiel 13:16. With the prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem, and saw visions of peace for her, though there is no peace, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - In Ezekiel 13:8 the punishment which is to fall upon the false prophets is threatened in general terms; and in Ezekiel 13:9 it is more specifically described in the form of a climax, rising higher and higher in the severity of its announcements. (1) They are no longer to form part of the council of the people of God; that is to say, they will lose their influential position among the people. (סוד is the sphere of counsellors, not the social sphere.) (2) Their names shall not be registered in the book of the house of Israel. The book of the house of Israel is the register in which the citizens of the kingdom of God are entered. Any one whose name was not admitted into this book, or was struck out of it, was separated thereby from the citizenship of Israel, and lost all the privileges which citizenship conferred. The figure of the book of life is a similar one (cf. Exodus 32:32). For Israel is not referred to here with regard to its outward nationality, but as the people of God; so that exclusion from Israel was also exclusion from fellowship with God. The circumstance that it is not the erasure of their names from the book that is mentioned here, but their not being entered in the book at all, may be accounted for from the reference contained in the words to the founding of the new kingdom of God. The old theocracy was abolished, although Jerusalem was not yet destroyed. The covenant nation had fallen under the judgment; but out of that portion of Israel which was dispersed among the heathen, a remnant would be gathered together again, and having been brought back to its own land, would be made anew into a holy people of God (cf. Ezekiel 11:17.). But the false prophets are not to be received into the citizenship of the new kingdom. (3) They are not even to come into the land of Israel; i.e., they are not merely to remain in exile, but to lose all share in the privileges and blessings of the kingdom of God. This judgment will come upon them because they lead astray the people of God, by proclaiming peace where there is no peace; i.e., by raising and cherishing false hopes of prosperity and peace, by which they encourage the people in their sinful lives, and lead them to imagine that all is well, and there is no judgment to be feared (cf. Jeremiah 23:17 and Micah 3:5). The exposure of this offence is introduced by the solemn יען וּביען, because and because (cf. Leviticus 26:43); and the offence itself is exhibited by means of a figure.

When the people build a wall, the false prophets plaster the wall with lime. והוּא (Ezekiel 13:10) refers to עמּי, and the clause is a circumstantial one. תּפל signifies the plaster coating or cement of a wall, probably from the primary meaning of תּפל, to stick or plaster over ( equals טפל, conglutinare, to glue, or fasten together), from which the secondary meaning of weak, insipid, has sprung. The proper word for plaster or cement is טיח (Ezekiel 13:12), and תּפל is probably chosen with an allusion to the tropical signification of that which is silly or absurd (Jeremiah 23:13; Lamentations 2:14). The meaning of the figure is intelligible enough. The people build up foolish hopes, and the prophets not only paint these hopes for them in splendid colours, but even predict their fulfilment, instead of denouncing their folly, pointing out to the people the perversity of their ways, and showing them that such sinful conduct must inevitably be followed by punishment and ruin. The plastering is therefore a figurative description of deceitful flattery or hypocrisy, i.e., the covering up of inward corruption by means of outward appearance (as in Matthew 23:27 and Acts 23:3). This figure leads the prophet to describe the judgment which they are bringing upon the nation and themselves, as a tempest accompanied with hail and pouring rain, which throws down the wall that has been erected and plastered over; and in connection with this figure he opens out this double thought: (1) the conduct of the people, which is encouraged by the false prophets, cannot last (Ezekiel 13:11 and Ezekiel 13:12); and (2) when this work of theirs is overthrown, the false prophets themselves will also meet with the fate they deserve (Ezekiel 13:13-16). The threat of judgment commences with the short, energetic ויפּל, let it (the wall) fall, or it shall fall, with Vav to indicate the train of thought (Ewald, 347a). The subject is תּפל, to which יפּל suggests a resemblance in sound. In Ezekiel 13:12 this is predicted as the fate awaiting the plastered wall. In the description of the bursting storm the account passes with ואתּנה (and ye) into a direct address; in other words, the description assumes the form of an appeal to the destructive forces of nature to burst forth with all their violence against the work plastered over by the prophets, and to destroy it. גּשׁם שׁוטף ., pouring rain; cf. Ezekiel 38:22. אבני אלגּבישׁ here and Ezekiel 38:22 are hailstones. The word אלגּבישׁ, which is peculiar to Ezekiel, is probably גּבישׁ (Job 28:18), with the Arabic article אל; ice, then crystal. רוּח , wind of storms, a hurricane or tempest. תּבקּע (Ezekiel 13:11) is used intransitively, to break loose; but in Ezekiel 13:13 it is transitive, to cause to break loose. The active rendering adopted by Kliefoth, "the storm will rend," sc. the plaster of the wall, is inappropriate in Ezekiel 13:11; for a tempest does not rend either the plaster or the wall, but throws the wall down. The translation which Kliefoth gives in Ezekiel 13:13, "I will rend by tempest," is at variance with both the language and the sense. Jehovah will cause this tempest to burst forth in His wrath and destroy the wall, and lay it level with the ground. The suffix in בּתוכהּ refers (ad sensum) to Jerusalem not to קיר (the wall), which is masculine, and has no תּוך (midst). The words pass from the figure to the reality here; for the plastered wall is a symbol of Jerusalem, as the centre of the theocracy, which is to be destroyed, and to bury the lying prophets in its ruins. וכלּיתי (Ezekiel 13:15) contains a play upon the word לכלה in Ezekiel 13:13. By a new turn given to klh כלה, Ezekiel repeats the thought that the wrath of God is to destroy the wall and its plasterers; and through this repetition he rounds off the threat with the express declaration, that the false prophets who are ever preaching peace are the plasterers to whom he refers.