No prophet is to give any other answer. - Ezekiel 14:9. But if a prophet allow himself to be persuaded, and give a word, I have persuaded this prophet, and will stretch out my hand against him, and cut him off out of my people Israel. Ezekiel 14:10. They shall bear their guilt: as the guilt of the inquirer, so shall the guilt of the prophet be; Ezekiel 14:11. In order that the house of Israel may no more stray from me, and may no more defile itself with all its transgressions; but they may be my people, and I their God is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - The prophet who allows himself to be persuaded is not a prophet מלּבּו (Ezekiel 13:2), but one who really thinks that he has a word of God. פּתּה, to persuade, to entice by friendly words (in a good sense, Hosea 2:16); but generally sensu malo, to lead astray, or seduce to that which is unallowable or evil. "If he allow himself to be persuaded:" not necessarily "with the hope of payment from the hypocrites who consult him" (Michaelis). This weakens the thought. It might sometimes be done from unselfish good-nature. And "the word" itself need not have been a divine oracle of his own invention, or a false prophecy. The allusion is simply to a word of a different character from that contained in Ezekiel 14:6-8, which either demands repentance or denounces judgment upon the impenitent: every word, therefore, which could by any possibility confirm the sinner in his security. - By אני יהוה (Ezekiel 14:9) the apodosis is introduced in an emphatic manner, as in Ezekiel 14:4 and Ezekiel 14:7; but פּתּיתי cannot be taken in a future sense ("I will persuade"). It must be a perfect; since the persuading of the prophet would necessarily precede his allowing himself to be persuaded. The Fathers and earlier Lutheran theologians are wrong in their interpretation of פּתּיתי, which they understand in a permissive sense, meaning simply that God allowed it, and did not prevent their being seduced. Still more wrong are Storr and Schmieder, the former of whom regards it as simply declaratory, "I will declare him to have gone astray from the worship of Jehovah;" the latter, "I will show him to be a fool, by punishing him for his disobedience." The words are rather to be understood in accordance with 1 Kings 22:20., where the persuading (pittâh) is done by a lying spirit, which inspires the prophets of Ahab to predict success to the king, in order that he may fall. As Jehovah sent the spirit in that case, and put it into the mouth of the prophets, so is the persuasion in this instance also effected by God: not merely divine permission, but divine ordination and arrangement; though this does not destroy human freedom, but, like all "persuading," presupposes the possibility of not allowing himself to be persuaded. See the discussion of this question in the commentary on 1 Kings 22:20. The remark of Calvin on the verse before us is correct: "it teaches that neither impostures nor frauds take place apart from the will of God" (nisi Deo volente). But this willing on the part of God, or the persuading of the prophets to the utterance of self-willed words, which have not been inspired by God, only takes place in persons who admit evil into themselves, and is designed to tempt them and lead them to decide whether they will endeavour to resist and conquer the sinful inclinations of their hearts, or will allow them to shape themselves into outward deeds, in which case they will become ripe for judgment. It is in this sense that God persuades such a prophet, in order that He may then cut him off out of His people. But this punishment will not fall upon the prophet only. It will reach the seeker or inquirer also, in order if possible to bring Israel back from its wandering astray, and make it into a people of God purified from sin (Ezekiel 14:10 and Ezekiel 14:11). It was to this end that, in the last times of the kingdom of Judah, God allowed false prophecy to prevail so mightily, - namely, that it might accelerate the process of distinguishing between the righteous and the wicked; and then, by means of the judgment which destroyed the wicked, purify His nation and lead it on to the great end of its calling.

Ezekiel 14:22 Parallel Commentaries

behold, therein

Ezekiel 6:8 Yet will I leave a remnant, that you may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations...

Deuteronomy 4:31 (For the LORD your God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake you, neither destroy you...

2 Chronicles 36:20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon...

Isaiah 6:13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them...

Isaiah 10:20-22 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob...

Isaiah 17:4-6 And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean...

Isaiah 24:13 When thus it shall be in the middle of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree...

Isaiah 40:1,2 Comfort you, comfort you my people, said your God...

Isaiah 65:8,9 Thus said the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one said, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it...

Jeremiah 4:27 For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

Jeremiah 5:19 And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why does the LORD our God all these things to us? then shall you answer them...

Jeremiah 30:11 For I am with you, said the LORD, to save you: though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you...

Jeremiah 52:27-30 And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath...

Micah 5:7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the middle of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers on the grass...

Mark 13:20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he has chosen...

Hebrews 12:6-11 For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and whips every son whom he receives...

ye shall see

Ezekiel 6:9,10 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations where they shall be carried captives...

Ezekiel 16:63 That you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame...

Ezekiel 20:43 And there shall you remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein you have been defiled...

Ezekiel 36:31 Then shall you remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good...

Jeremiah 31:17-21 And there is hope in your end, said the LORD, that your children shall come again to their own border...

ye shall be

Jeremiah 3:21-25 A voice was heard on the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way...