Ezekiel 13:19, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 13:19 rebukes false prophets who claim the Lord has spoken when He has not sent them, following their own ideas with vain visions and lying divination while polluting and profaning God among His people for trivial material gain. By lying to people who love to hear lies they slay the souls that should not die and save alive the souls that should not live, wrongly deciding who shall live or die. They ease the consciences of souls in sin and strengthen the hands of the wicked by promising him life so he does not turn from his wicked way, while making sad the heart of the righteous and destroying souls that should live. That souls can be slain to death proves the soul is capable of dying and is mortal and not naturally immortal, and to promise the wicked life is to deceive them that they have an immortal soul when the souls of the wicked should not live. Their work is a wall insecurely built and daubed with untempered mortar that cannot stand the coming storm and judgment, and it is now met in ministers who set aside God's law and change His Sabbath to a counterfeit Sunday without Scripture warrant while crying peace and safety when destruction is near.

False Prophets Exposed

The verse is a denunciation of women who falsely prophesy, flatter people, and practice soothsaying. These prophets claim that the Lord has spoken when He has not sent them, but speak out of their own ideas. Their visions are vain and their divination is lying, and they make others hope their word will be confirmed and lead them to trust in deception. Claimed spiritual gifts joined with breaking the commandments and teaching that they are abolished are such vain vision and lying divination, and those who cry Lord, Lord and claim wonderful works while working iniquity are self-deceived, with vain religion and abominable prayer.

They pollute and profane God among His people for trivial material rewards, for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread. By lying to a people who hear lies they ease the consciences of souls in sin and seduce others to sin. They make sad the heart of the righteous and strengthen the hands of the wicked by promising him life, so that he does not return from his wicked way. Their lies in God's name can destroy the souls of believers who trust them.

They slay the souls that should not die and save alive the souls that should not live, wrongly declaring who should live and who should die. They destroy those who should live and preserve those who should die. Their work is like a wall insecurely built and daubed with untempered mortar. It is superficial and erroneous work done in Christ's name that cannot make a permanent solid structure or withstand the coming test, storm, and judgment, so both the wall and those who daubed it will fall and come to ruin.

Soul Proved Mortal

The word souls means people, so to slay souls that should not die and to save souls alive that should not live is to bring death upon people who should not die and to preserve people who should not live through false teaching. The verse thus speaks of souls as capable of dying. To die and death and to live and be alive here speak of the real death and life of the soul. They do not mean merely the first temporal corporeal death that comes alike to those who turn from sin and to those who do not, nor a death in sin, but the penal death that follows dying out of Christ in sin and then dying for sin. That penal death is brought by lying, and the saving alive is done by polluting God among His people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread.

Souls can be slain and killed to death, which proves the soul is capable of dying and is mortal and subject to death. The soul is therefore not naturally immortal, and death ends life. God threatens the soul itself with death. His rebuke for saving alive souls that should not live exposes the deception of promising the wicked life. To tell them they have an immortal soul when they do not is to pollute Him, because the souls of the wicked should not live, being mortal and subject to death.

Warning for Last Days

Ezekiel 13 is God's word about these times, describing the professed people of God in the last days, giving the conditions predicted and the responsibility resting upon religious teachers, now met by its fulfillment. Its prophets are like foxes in deserts who have not gone up into the gaps nor made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in battle in the day of the Lord. They see vanity and lying divination, saying the Lord saith when the Lord has not sent them, and make others hope their word will be confirmed, and by lying to people who hear lies they make sad the heart of the righteous and strengthen the hands of the wicked by promising him life, so he does not return from his wicked way.

It predicts professed ministers of Christ who ignore the basis of God's government, His holy law, call it Jewish and treat it with contempt, abolish in preaching the law Christ lived and died to honor and magnify while demanding human governments enact their amended code into civil law, make God like themselves, bring law and religion into contempt and disrepute, and sow the wind from pulpit, lobby, platform and press to reap the whirlwind in oncoming wars of anarchy. Claimed spiritual gifts joined with breaking God's commandments and teaching that they are abolished are vain vision and lying divination. Those who cry Lord, Lord and claim many wonderful works in His name while working iniquity are self-deceived, their religion is vain and their prayer abomination, and Jesus will say Depart from me, while those who keep the law are happy and do not perish, since antinomianism and the Spirit cannot go together and God does not bestow the precious gifts of His Spirit on those who reject His law.

A prime modern fulfillment is changing God's Sabbath commandment and promoting Sunday as a counterfeit Sabbath, falsely declaring a day holy and holier than the seventh day and transferring its sacredness and commands to Sunday without Scripture warrant or proof, as a man-made institution lacking the Lord's word. Such teachers follow their own ideas, claim the Lord has spoken when He has not, build an unsound wall and daub it with untempered mortar, profane God, mislead people, and oppress them for gain, and the wall will fall in the coming storm and expose their lies. Polluting God by lying to those who hear lies includes teaching the unscriptural idea of an unmentioned seventh part of time for rest, never mentioned by God nor His inspired servants but inferred from Scriptures that plainly command keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord, while refusing the commanded day and letting the supposed day fall where tradition and human law make it popular.

Changing God's law, breaking the everlasting covenant, and compromising His word for charity, tolerance, and sectarian favor pollutes God among His people for small gain and lies to those who hear the lies, building a wall daubed with untempered mortar that cannot make a permanent solid structure, so both the wall and those who daubed it come to ruin. The false promise of peace, safety, and security when danger and destruction are near is an example of such deception, misleading people and lulling them into spiritual danger instead of warning them truthfully, like builders covering a weak wall with untempered mortar while judgment is coming. By such lying they profane God for trivial payment, using lies to destroy those who should live and preserve those who should die, and give false hope to those who claim to speak for God.

The verse shows the danger of putting trust in the lying words of men instead of knowing the truth and trusting in it, for great condemnation rests on those who say the Lord has said a thing when He has not said it, who divine lies and lead people to trust in them. Those who believe the lies are not excusable for failing to find out what truth is, numbers agreeing together without scriptural authority do not protect them, and in the day when God's presence exposes them as transgressors every one of them will be ashamed. The verse is linked with the great hailstorm described as heaven's artillery in the battle of the great day under the seventh plague. Its warning calls for the errors and dangers to be exposed and the breach thoroughly repaired before each person's work is tested in the judgment, since superficial and erroneous work done in Christ's name cannot withstand the coming test.