Ezekiel 13:17, commentary and pictures

God commands the prophet to set his face against women among his own people who claim to speak for him while speaking only from their own hearts and thoughts, and to confront rather than fear such self-originated teaching. Their prophesying is empty vision and lying divination, because they falsely claim the Lord sent them and has said what he has not said. They mislead souls by promising life and peace when sin and danger are present, which saddens the righteous and encourages the wicked to remain in sin like a poorly built wall that will fall on those who trusted it. The same condition pictures religious teachers in the last days who treat God's law with contempt and profane the seventh-day Sabbath, building up human institutions such as Sunday observance with no word from the Lord to uphold them until the coming storm tears their work down. Spiritual gifts claimed by those who prophesy from their own hearts while working lawlessness and teaching the commandments abolished are the same vain vision, for God does not bestow his Spirit where lawlessness reigns and those who unite profession with lawlessness will perish.

Meaning and Setting

Ezekiel 13:17 belongs to messages of warning and reproof directed to sinners among the prophet's own people. It falls within the first twenty chapters of the book, given during ministry among the captives in Babylonia by the river Chebar. In it God set the prophet against the women who prophesied from their own hearts, that he should confront them with their false messages rather than fear their faces.

God commands the son of man to set his face against the daughters of his people who prophesy out of their own heart, and to prophesy against them. Self-originated religious teaching therefore stands under God's judgment. Such prophesying is to be confronted with warning, in order to expose false teaching among the professed people of God and repair what has been wrongly taught.

The daughters are women who prophesy falsely from their own hearts and thoughts rather than from God. They speak without having received a message from Him, and for that reason are counted as false prophets. They are agents used by Satan, whose flattering, fortune-telling practices for ensnaring souls include sewing pillows to the armholes of statues, as described in the surrounding verses.

Their prophesying is vain vision and lying divination. They falsely claim the Lord sent them and that the Lord has said what He has not said, saying the Lord has said a thing when He has not said it and divining lies. False prophecy is in this way a form of lying, leading others to trust falsehood. Such teaching is destructive even when the teachers are themselves deceived, and God opposes it.

Deception and Its Doom

The daughters prophesy from their own hearts rather than from God, speaking vain visions and lying divinations while falsely claiming that the Lord sent them and that he has spoken what he has not spoken. Their words mislead the people by giving false reassurance instead of warning about sin and danger, promising life to those in peril. That promise saddens the righteous and strengthens the wicked to remain in sin, and these conditions portray religious teachers and the professed people of God in the last days.

Their message belongs to the false cry of peace and safety raised when danger is present, assuring the people that all is well though the Lord has not sent the word. It is like a poorly built wall daubed to look sound, which will fall and bring destruction upon all who trusted it.

The verse exposes the danger of trusting the lying words of men instead of learning the truth and trusting in it, for these prophets and prophetesses divine lies and lead people to put confidence in them. Great condemnation rests upon the deceivers for so doing, yet those who believe their lies are not excusable for failing to find out what truth is. Numbers do not protect error, for even when a great many agree together and long continue in a practice for which there is no scriptural authority but only the word of man, they will every one be ashamed in the day when God's presence shows them to be transgressors. Such teaching is a form of lying, speaking from the human heart while claiming to deliver God's message and leading others to trust falsehood, and it is destructive even when the teachers are themselves deceived, so that God stands opposed to it.

Law Sabbath and Last Days

The conditions described are a picture of religious teachers in the last days and of the professed people of God in the last days. They claim to speak for God but prophesy out of their own hearts rather than from God, giving vain visions and lying divinations while falsely claiming that the Lord sent them and has spoken. Their messages mislead people by giving false reassurance and promising life instead of warning about sin and danger, which saddens the righteous and encourages the wicked to remain in sin.

The verse predicts a last-days religious world that ignores the basis of God's government, His holy law, calling it Jewish, treating it with contempt, and abolishing the law Christ lived and died to honor and magnify, while demanding human governments enact an amended code into civil law. By making God like themselves these false prophets bring law and religion into contempt. They sow wind from pulpit, lobby, platform and press that ripens into the whirlwind of anarchy and war before Christ's coming.

The wall built by a false teacher and daubed by others with untempered mortar represents false religious teaching that supports trampling God's law and profaning the Sabbath. The Sunday institution is such an unsupported human construction, with no word from the Lord to uphold it. Its weak covering cannot make it sound, and the coming storm will tear it down so that it will fall. The chapter condemns prophets who speak from their own spirits and falsely claim the Lord has spoken, while disregarding God's commandment and the seventh-day Sabbath He blessed, sanctified and calls His holy day. Its warning is applied to teachers who declare a day holy without Scripture and to the claim that Sunday has become a sacred Sabbath by transfer of the seventh day's holiness and commands, which is false prophecy.

The verse condemns replacing the plain command to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord God with the human inference that God gave one seventh portion of time for rest. That is a thing neither the Lord nor His inspired servants ever said, and it always falls on a day made popular by tradition and the statutes of men, while self-originated religious teaching stands under God's judgment and must be confronted. The chapter exposes false teaching among the professed people of God so that what was wrongly taught can be repaired. Those who prophesy out of their own heart compromise the word by changing the law and breaking the everlasting covenant, building a wall and daubing it with untempered mortar by covering sectarian prejudice with large charity and tolerance while divided into parties saying I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Christ. Such incohesive work cannot make a permanent solid structure, and what became of the wall and those who daubed it stands in contrast to a building fitly joined together growing into a perfect building in Christ, going up without the sound of a hammer when all speak the same thing and are of one mind and one judgment.

Spiritual gifts claimed by those who break God's law are vain vision and lying divination, for those who prophesy out of their own heart while working iniquity have no vision from God. Though they profess faith in Jesus, cry Lord, Lord, and claim many wonderful works in His name, they are self-deceived because they disregard the commandments and teach that they are abolished. God does not bestow the precious gifts of His Spirit where lawlessness and antinomianism reign. Those who unite profession and claimed gifts with lawlessness will perish when Jesus commands them to depart from Him.