Ezekiel 13:18, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 13:18 pronounces woe upon women acting as false prophets who hunt souls by flattering and soothing work, easing consciences in sin and lulling souls to ease and slumber unto destruction while claiming to save alive those who come to them. To sew pillows to armholes and make coverings for heads is to speak smooth, soft words about sin instead of reproving it plainly, renaming faults so sinners can rest undisturbed, and to promise peace and safety where there is none. By such lies they make sad the heart of the righteous and strengthen the hands of the wicked by promising him life that he will not turn from his way, saying the Lord has said what He has not said and leading God's people to trust in deception to their ruin. The chapter pictures this as building a wall and daubing it with untempered mortar, fulfilled in professed ministers who set aside God's law and claim divine authority without proof for doctrines without Scripture, especially in calling the first day holy while denying the holiness of the seventh-day Sabbath. Prophecies, miracles, loud profession of Jesus, and claims to spiritual gifts are vain vision and lying divination when joined with breaking God's law, and the rebuke belongs to these last days, laying heavy condemnation on teachers who mislead and leaving hearers without excuse for trusting the word of man instead of learning the truth, but calling every believer to do all that can be done to save souls rather than hunt them.

Words and Historical Setting

The word rendered pillows means a pillow or cushion. The word rendered armholes means the joints of the hands or arms, given as elbows in the margin of the common version and as joints of the hands in the Revised Version. The customs behind sewing such pillows to armholes and making coverings for heads are not well known now, and the root of the meaning is given in verses 19, 22, and 23. That work included sewing pillows to the armholes of statues as part of flattering, soothsaying work used to hunt souls.

The verse belongs to the first twenty chapters of Ezekiel, which belong to the period when Ezekiel served as God's prophet among the captives in Babylonia by the river Chebar, while Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem. It pronounces woe on women used as false prophets in that flattering, soothsaying work to hunt souls. It condemns easing the consciences of souls in sin and seducing others to sin. It condemns lulling souls to ease and indolence and slumber so as to destroy them. It also condemns claiming to save alive the souls that come to them while using deceptive practices to ensnare the lives of God's people. It has no reference to the large and full style of present women's sleeves and is not to be forced to condemn fashion, which is condemned by the simple principles of the Gospel without torturing this text into what it does not mean.

False Prophets and Deception

Sewing pillows to armholes and making kerchiefs means speaking smooth, soft words about sin instead of naming the fault plainly, so as not to probe the sore or provoke the sensitive. It calls stubbornness firmness, tattling sociability or freedom, and likewise renames fickleness, dishonesty, passion as hastiness or harshness, pride, and selfishness as closeness, using terms that do not convey the true meaning. This pillow-sewing lets people repose calmly in stubbornness, tattling, fickleness, dishonesty, passion, pride, and selfishness, in disobedience to the command to tell a brother his fault between thee and him alone. It hunts souls by lulling them until it is too late to reform, when only the wail Too late remains.

The sewn pillows represent false reassurance, promising peace and safety with comforting words where there is none, and soothing people in time of danger instead of warning them truthfully. People are misled to trust that message of peace and assurance, but the protection built on it will fail and bring destruction on those who trust it. By hunting souls with lies the false prophets make sad the heart of the righteous whom God has not made sad, and strengthen the hands of the wicked by promising him life so that he will not return from his wicked way. They see vanity and lying divination, saying the Lord saith when the Lord has not sent them nor spoken, divine lies that make others hope their word will be confirmed, and they lead others to trust in them. Like foxes in the deserts they have not gone up into the gaps nor made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord, and by misleading and exploiting God's people they endanger and even destroy the souls of believers who trust the lies, even when the teachers themselves are deceived.

The false teaching is pictured as building a wall and daubing it with weak or untempered mortar, giving a superficial and insecure repair to the breach, and the wall will fall with those who daubed it. It belongs to those who have changed the law and broken the everlasting covenant, and it is applied to the effort to change God's law and profane the Sabbath. What was predicted then is fulfilled now in professed ministers of Christ who ignore the basis of God's government, His holy law, calling it Jewish and treating it with contempt while ignoring its plainest statements. In one breath they abolish the law Christ lived and died to honor and magnify, and in the next they demand human governments enact their amended code by civil law, and by making God like themselves they bring law and religion into contempt. Instead they should uphold civil government by letting politics alone and preaching the gospel of Christ to individual men, for by sowing this error from pulpit, legislative lobby, platform and press they sow the wind that reaps the whirlwind of oncoming wars of anarchy, which lays the duty of thoroughly correcting errors in teaching before each person's work is tested.

The chapter is fulfilled in teachers who claim divine authority without proof or word from the Lord for teachings not supported by Scripture, especially calling the first day holy while denying the holiness of the seventh-day Sabbath. Sunday is thus a man-made institution with no word from the Lord to support it, and the unsupported claim that it has received the seventh day's sacredness and commands and is a greater Sabbath because of Christ's resurrection turns people from what God commanded. The same condemnation falls on the inferred seventh-part-of-time theory, which is only inferred from Scriptures that plainly command keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord our God, and which always follows tradition and the statutes of men instead of Jehovah's commandment. Prophecies, miracles, loud profession of the name of Jesus, many wonderful works, and claims to the gifts of the Spirit, when joined with breaking the law of God and working iniquity, are a vain vision and lying divination not from God and no proof of discipleship. Such professors are self-deceived, their religion is vain, they have no vision from God, they will perish and Jesus will command them to depart, because antinomianism and the Spirit cannot go together and God does not bestow the precious gifts of His Spirit on those who reject His law.

Prophecy and Present Responsibility

The rebuke of false prophets belongs to these last days and shows the responsibility resting upon religious teachers. The prophets are like foxes in the deserts who have not gone up into the gaps nor made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. They see vanity and lying divination, saying the Lord saith when the Lord has not sent them nor spoken, and make others hope their word will be confirmed. What was predicted then is fulfilled now in professed ministers and religious teachers. It is grouped with Isaiah 30 and Ezekiel 22 as describing the same time and people, God's professed people warned of their spiritual danger.

The verse shows the danger of putting trust in the lying words of men instead of knowing the truth and trusting in it. It condemns those who say the Lord has said what He has not said, who divine lies and lead others to trust in them, and great condemnation rests on them. Those who believe their lies are not excusable for failing to find out what truth is. Even when a great many agree together in practicing something that has no scriptural authority but only the word of man, numbers give no safety. In the day when God's presence shows them to be transgressors they will every one be ashamed.

The chapter warns the professed people of God against false teaching that gives a superficial and insecure repair to the breach in the wall. It lays the duty of thoroughly correcting errors in teaching before each person's work is tested. Its closing question asks whether those addressed will hunt the souls of God's people or save alive the souls that come to them. That question calls every believer to do all that can be done to save people, including honest souls in every land. It comes to mind when seekers such as sailors becoming interested in the truth seek out religious books, lest those who come seeking help be spiritually ensnared rather than having their souls saved.