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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
E Z E K I E L.
CHAP. XIII.
Mention had been made, in the chapter before, of the vain visions and
flattering divinations with which the people of Israel suffered
themselves to be imposed upon
(ver. 24);
now this whole chapter is levelled against them. God’s faithful
prophets are nowhere so sharp upon any sort of sinners as upon the
false prophets, not because they were the most spiteful enemies to
them, but because the put the highest affront upon God and did the
greatest mischief to his people. The prophet here shows the sin and
punishment,
I. Of the false prophets,
II. Of the false prophetesses,
Both agreed to sooth men up in their sins, and, under pretence of
comforting God’s people, to flatter them with hopes that they should
yet have peace; but the prophets shall be proved liars, their
prophecies mere shams, and the expectations of the people illusions;
for God will let them know that “the deceived and the deceiver are
his,” are both accountable to him,
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1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that
prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own
hearts, Hear ye the word of the LORD;
3 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that
follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!
4 O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.
5 Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge
for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the
LORD.
6 They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD
saith: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made
others to hope that they would confirm the word.
7 Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a
lying divination, whereas ye say, The LORD saith it; albeit I
have not spoken?
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken
vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you,
saith the Lord GOD.
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.
The false prophets, who are here prophesied against, were some of them
at Jerusalem
I have seen in the prophets at Jerusalem a horrible thing; some
of them among the captives in Babylon, for to them Jeremiah writes
(Jer. xxix. 8),
Let not your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you.
And as God’s prophets, though at a distance from each other in place or
time, yet preached the same truths, which was an evidence that they
were guided by one and the same good Spirit, so the false prophets
prophesied the same lies, being actuated by one and the same spirit of
error. There were little hopes of bringing them to repentance, they
were so hardened in their sin; yet Ezekiel must prophesy against them,
in hopes that the people might be cautioned not to hearken to them; and
thus a testimony will be left upon record against them, and they will
thereby be left inexcusable.
Ezekiel had express orders to prophesy against the prophets of
Israel; so they called themselves, as if none but they had been
worthy of the name of Israel’s prophets, who were indeed Israel’s
deceivers. But it is observable that Israel was never imposed upon by
pretenders to prophecy till after they had rejected and abused the true
prophets; as, afterwards, they were never deluded by counterfeit
messiahs till after they had refused the true Messiah and rejected him.
These false prophets must be required to hear the word of the
Lord. They took upon them to speak what concerned others as from
God; let them now hear what concerned themselves as from him. And two
things the prophet is directed to do:–
I. To discover their sin to them, and to convince them of that if
possible, or thereby to prevent their proceeding any further, by making
manifest their folly unto all men,
2 Tim. iii. 9.
They are here called foolish prophets
(v. 3),
men that did not at all understand the business they pretended to; to
make fools of the people they made fools of themselves, and put the
greatest cheat upon their own souls. Let us see what is here laid to
their charge.
1. They pretend to have a commission from God, whereas he never sent
them. They thrust themselves into the prophetic office, without warrant
from him who is the Lord God of the holy prophets, which was a
foolish thing; for how could they expect that God should own them in a
work to which he never called them? They are prophets out of their
own hearts (so the margin reads it,
v. 2),
prophets of their own making,
v. 6.
They say, The Lord saith; they pretend to be his messengers, but
the Lord has not sent them, has not given them any orders. They
counterfeit the broad seal of heaven, than which they cannot do a
greater indignity to mankind, for hereby they put a reproach upon
divine revelation, lessen its credit, and weaken its credibility. When
these pretenders are found to be deceivers atheists and infidels will
thence infer, They are all so. The Lord has not sent them; for
though crafty enough in other things like the foxes, and very
wise for the world, yet they are foolish prophets and have no
experimental acquaintance with the things of God. Note, Foolish
prophets are not of God’s sending, for whom he sends he either finds
fit or makes fit. Where he gives warrant he gives wisdom.
2. They pretend to have instructions from God, whereas he never made
himself and his mind known to them: They followed their own
spirit
(v. 3);
they delivered that as a message from God which was the product either
of their subtle invention, to serve a turn for themselves, or of their
own crazed and heated imagination, to give vent to a fancy. For they
have seen nothing, they have not really had any heavenly vision;
they pretend that what they say the Lord saith it, but God
disowns it: “I have not spoken it, I never said it, never meant
any such thing.” What they delivered was not what they had seen or
heard, as that is which the ministers of Christ deliver
(1 John i. 1),
but either what they had dreamed or what they thought would please
those they coveted to make an interest in; this is called their
seeing vanity and lying divination
(v. 6);
they pretended to have seen that which they did not see, and produced
that as a divine truth which they knew to be false. To the same purport
(v. 7):
You have see a vain vision and spoken a lying divination, which
had no divine original and would have no effect, but would certainly be
disproved by the event; the words are changed
(v. 8):
You have spoken vanity and seen lies; what they saw and what
they said was all alike, a mere sham; they saw nothing, they said
nothing, to the purpose, nothing that could be relied on or that
deserved regard. Again
(v. 9),
They see vanity and divine lies; they pretended to have had
visions, as the true prophets had, whereas really they had none, but
either it was the creature of their own fancy (they thought they had a
vision, as men in a delirium do, that was seeing vanity) or it
was a fiction of their own politics, and they knew they had none, and
then they saw lies, and divined lies. See
&c. Note, Since the devil is universally know to be the father of
lies, those put the highest affront imaginable upon God who tell lies,
and then father them upon him. But those that had put God’s character
upon Satan, in worshipping devils, arrived at length at such a pitch of
impiety as to put Satan’s character upon God.
3. They took no care to prevent the judgments of God that were breaking
in upon the kingdom. They are like the foxes in the deserts,
running to and fro, and seeming to be in a great hurry, but it was to
get away and shift for their own safety, not to do any good: The
hireling flees, and leaves the sheep. They are like foxes that are
greedy of prey for themselves, crafty and cruel to feed themselves.
But
(v. 5),
“You have not gone up into the gaps, nor made up the hedge of the
house of Israel. A breach is made in their fences, at which
judgments are ready to pour in upon them, and then, if ever, is the
time to do them service; but you have done nothing to help them.” They
should have made intercession for them, to turn away the wrath of God;
but they were not praying prophets, had no interest in heaven nor
intercourse with heaven (as prophets used to have,
and so could do them no service that way. They should have made it
their business by preaching and advice to bring people to repentance
and reformation, and so have made up the hedge, and put a stop
to the judgments of God; but this was none of their care: they
contrived how to pleased people, not how to profit them. They saw a
deluge of profaneness and impiety breaking in upon the land, waging war
with virtue and holiness, and threatening to crush them and bear them
down, and then they should have come in to the help of the Lord, to
the help of the Lord against the mighty, by witnessing against the
wickedness of the time and place they lived in; but they thought that
would be as dangerous a piece of service as standing in a breach to
make it good against the besiegers, and therefore they declined it, did
nothing to stem the tide, stood not in the battle against vice and
immorality, but basely deserted the cause of religion and reformation,
in the day of the Lord, when it was proclaimed, Who is on the
Lord’s side? Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers?
Ps. xciv. 16.
Those were unworthy the name of prophets that could think so favourably
of sin, and had so little zeal for God and the public welfare.
4. They flattered people into a vain hope that the judgments God had
threatened would never come, whereby they hardened those in sin whom
they should have endeavoured to turn from sin
(v. 6):
They have made others to hope that all should be well, and they
should have peace, though they went on still in their trespasses, and
that the event would confirm the word. They were still ready to say,
“We will warrant you that these troubles will be at an end quickly, and
we shall be in prosperity again.” as if their warrants would confirm
false prophecies, in defiance of God himself.
II. He is directed to denounce the judgments of God against them for
these sins, from which their pretending to the character of prophets
would not exempt them.
1. In general, here is a woe against them
(v. 3),
and what that woe is we are told
(v. 8).
Behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God. Note, Those are in
a woeful condition that have God against them. Woe, and a thousand
woes, to those that have made him their enemy.
2. In particular, they are sentenced to be excluded from all the
privileges of the commonwealth of Israel, for they are adjudged to have
forfeited them all
(v. 9):
God’s hand shall be upon them, to seize them and bring them to
his bar, to shut them out from his presence, and they will find it a
fearful thing to fall into his hands. They pretend to be
prophets, particular favourites of heaven, and authorized to preside in
the congregation of his church on earth; but, by pretending to the
honours they were not entitled to, they lost those that otherwise they
might have enjoyed,
Their doom is,
(1.) To be expelled from the communion of saints, and not to be looked
upon as belonging to it: They shall not be in the secret of my
people; their folly shall be so clearly manifested that they shall
never be consulted, nor their advice asked; they shall not be present
at any debates about public affairs. Or, rather, they shall not be in
the assembly of God’s people for religious worship, for they shall be
ashamed to show their heads there, when they are proved by the events
to be false prophets, and, like Cain, shall go out from the presence
of the Lord. The people that are deceived by them shall abandon
them, and resolve to have no more to do with them. Those that usurped
Moses’s chair shall not be allowed so much as a door-keeper’s place. In
the great day they shall not stand in the congregation of the
righteous
(Ps. i. 5),
when God gathers his saints together to him
(Ps. l. 5, 16),
to be for ever with him.
(2.) To be expunged out of the book of the living. They shall die in
their captivity, and shall die childless, shall leave no posterity to
take their denomination from them, and so their names shall not be
found among those who either themselves or their posterity returned out
of Babylon, of whom a particular account was kept in a public register,
which was called the writing of the house of Israel, such as we
have
They shall not be found among the living in Jerusalem,
Or they shall not be found written among those whom God has from
eternity chosen to be vessels of his mercy to eternity. We read of
those who prophesied in Christ’s name, and yet he will tell them
that he never knew them
because they were not among those that were given to him. The
Chaldee paraphrase reads it, They shall not be written in the
writing of eternal life, which is written for the righteous of the
house of Israel. See
(3.) To be for ever excluded from the land of Israel. God has sworn
in his wrath concerning them that they shall never enter
with the returning captives into the land of Canaan, which a second
time remains a rest for them. Note, Those who oppose the design of
God’s threatenings, and will not be awed and influenced by them,
forfeit the benefit of his promises, and cannot expect to be comforted
and encouraged by them.
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10 Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying,
Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and,
lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar:
11 Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar, that
it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O
great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.
12 Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you,
Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?
13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even rend it
with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing
shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to
consume it.
14 So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with
untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that the
foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye
shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I
am the LORD.
15 Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them
that have daubed it with untempered mortar, and will say unto
you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it;
16 To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning
Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is
no peace, saith the Lord GOD.
We have here more plain dealing with the false prophets, and some
further articles of their doom. We have seen the people made ashamed of
the false prophets (though sometimes they had been fond of them) and
casting them away, as they shall do their false gods, with indignation;
now here we find them as much ashamed of their false prophecies, which
they had sometimes depended upon with much assurance. Observe,
I. How the people are deceived by the false prophets. Those flatterers
seduce them, saying, Peace, and there was no peace,
v. 10.
They pretended to have seen visions of peace,
v. 16.
But that could not be, for there was no peace, saith the Lord
God. There was no prosperity designed for them, and therefore there
could be no ground for their security; yet they told them that God was
at peace with them, and had mercy in reserve for them, and that the war
they were engaged in with the Chaldeans should soon end in an
honourable peace, and their land should enjoy a happy repose and
tranquillity. They told the idolaters and other sinners that there was
neither harm nor danger in the way they were in. Thus they seduced
God’s people; they put a cheat upon them, led them into mistakes,
and drew them aside out of that way of repentance and reformation which
the other prophets were endeavouring to bring them into. Note, Those
are the most dangerous seducers who suggest to sinners that which tends
to lessen their dread of sin and their fear of God. Now this is
compared to the building of a slight rotten wall, or, according to our
Saviour’s similitude, which is to the same purport with this
the building of a house upon the sand, which seems to be a
shelter and protection for a while, but will fall when a storm comes.
One false prophet built the wall, set up the notion that God was not at
all displeased with Jerusalem, but that the city should be confirmed in
its flourishing state, and be victorious over the powers that now
threatened it. This notion was very pleasing, and he that started it
made himself very acceptable by it and was caressed by every body,
which invited others to say the same. They made the matter look yet
more plausible and promising; they daubed the wall, which the
first had built, but it was with untempered mortar, sorry stuff,
that will not bind nor hold the bricks together; they had no ground for
what they said, nor had it any consistency with itself, but was like
ropes of sand. They did not strengthen the wall, were in no care to
make it firm, to see that they went upon sure grounds; they only daubed
it to hide the cracks and make it look well to the eye. And the wall
thus built, when it comes to any stress, much more to any distress,
will bulge and totter, and come down by degrees. Note, Doctrines that
are groundless, though ever so grateful, that are not built upon a
scripture foundation nor fastened with a scripture cement, though ever
so plausible, ever so pleasing, are not of any worth, nor will stand
men in any stead; and those hopes of peace and happiness which are not
warranted by the word of God will but cheat men, like a wall that is
well daubed indeed, but ill-built.
II. How they will be soon undeceived by the judgment of God, which, we
are sure, is according to truth.
1. God will in anger bring a terrible storm that shall beat fiercely
and furiously upon the wall. The descent which the Chaldean army shall
make upon Judah, and the siege which they shall lay to Jerusalem, will
be as an overflowing shower, or inundation (such as Solomon
calls a sweeping rain that leaves no food,
Prov. xxviii. 3),
will bear down all before it, as the deluge did in Noah’s time: You,
O great hailstones! shall fall, the artillery of heaven, every
hailstone like a cannon-ball, battering this wall, and with these a
stormy wind, which is sometimes so strong as to rend the
rocks
much more an ill-built wall,
But that which makes this rain, and hail, and
wind, most terrible is that they arise from the wrath of God,
and are enforced by that; it is that which sends them; it is that which
gives them the setting on
(v. 13);
it is a stormy wind in my fury, and an overflowing shower in
my anger, and great hailstones in my fury. The fury of
Nebuchadnezzar and his princes, who highly resented Zedekiah’s
treachery, made the invasion very formidable, but that was nothing in
comparison with God’s displeasure. The staff in their hand is my
indignation,
Isa. x. 5.
Note, An angry God has winds and storms at command wherewith to alarm
secure sinners; and his wrath makes them frightful and forcible indeed;
for who can stand before him when he is angry?
2. This storm shall overturn the wall: it shall fall, and the
wind shall rend it
(v. 11),
the hailstones shall consume it
(v. 13);
I will break it down
(v. 14)
and bring it to the ground, so that the foundation thereof
shall be discovered; it will appear how false, how rotten it was,
to the prophetical reproach of the builders. When the Chaldean army
has made Judah and Jerusalem desolate then this credit of the prophets,
and the hopes of the people, will both sink together; the former will
be found false in flattering the people and the latter foolish in
suffering themselves to be imposed upon by them, and so exposed to so
much the greater confusion, when the judgment shall surprise them in
their security. Note, Whatever men think to shelter themselves with
against the judgments of God, while they continue unreformed, will
prove but a refuge of lies and will not profit them in the
day of wrath. See
Men’s anger cannot shake that which God has built (for the blast of
the terrible ones is but as a storm against the wall, which makes a
great noise, but never stirs the wall; see
but God’s anger will overthrow that which men have built in opposition
to him. They and all their attempts, they and all the securities
wherein they intrench themselves, shall be as a bowing wall and as a
tottering fence
and when their vain predictions are disproved, and their vain
expectations disappointed, then it will be discovered that there was no
ground for either,
The day will declare what every man’s work is, and the fire
will try it,
3. The builders of the wall, and those that daubed it, will themselves
be buried in the ruins of it: It shall fall, and you shall be
consumed in the midst thereof,
v. 14.
And thus the threatenings of God’s wrath, and all the just intentions
of it, shall be accomplished to the uttermost, both upon the
wall and upon those that have daubed it,
v. 15.
The same judgments that will prove the false prophets to be false will
punish them for their falsehood; and they themselves shall be involved
in the calamity which they made the people believe there was no danger
of, and become monuments of that justice which they bade defiance to.
Thus, if the blind lead the blind, both the blind leaders and
the blind followers will fall together into the ditch. Note,
Those that deceive others will in the end prove to have deceived
themselves; and no doom will be more fearful than that of unfaithful
ministers, that flattered sinners in their sins.
4. Both the deceivers and the deceived, when they thus perish together,
will justly be ridiculed and triumphed over
(v. 12):
When the wall has fallen shall it not be said unto you, by those
that gave credit to the true prophets, and feared the word of the Lord,
“Now where is the daubing wherewith you have daubed the wall?
What has become of all the fine soft words and fair promises wherewith
you flattered your wicked neighbours, and all the assurances you gave
them that the troubles of the nation should soon be at an end?” The
righteous shall laugh at them, the righteous God shall,
righteous men shall, saying, Lo, this is the man that made not God
his strength,
Ps. lii. 6, 7.
I also will laugh at your calamity,
Prov. i. 26.
They will say unto you
(v. 15),
“The wall is no more, neither he that daubed it; your hopes have
vanished, and those that supported them, even the prophets of
Israel,”
Note, Those that usurp the honours that do not belong to them will
shortly be filled with the shame that does.
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17 Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the
daughters of thy people, which prophesy out of their own heart;
and prophesy thou against them,
18 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the women that
sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of
every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people,
and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?
19 And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of
barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not
die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your
lying to my people that hear your lies?
20 Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against
your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them
fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls
go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.
21 Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out
of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be
hunted; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
22 Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous
sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the
wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by
promising him life:
23 Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine
divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and
ye shall know that I am the LORD.
As God has promised that when he pours out his Spirit upon his people
both their sons and their daughters shall prophesy, so the
devil, when he acts as a spirit of lies and falsehood, is so in the
mouth not only of false prophets, but of false prophetesses too, and
those are the deceivers whom the prophet is here directed to prophesy
against; for they are not such despicable enemies to God’s truths as
deserve not to be taken notice of, nor yet will either the weakness of
their sex excuse their sin or the tenderness and respect that are owing
to it exempt them from the reproaches and threatenings of the word of
God. No: Son of man, set they face against the daughters of thy
people,
v. 17.
God takes no pleasure in owning them for his people. They are thy
people, as
The women pretend to a spirit of prophecy, and are in the same song
with the men, as Ahab’s prophets were: Go on, and prosper. They
prophesy out of their own heart too; they say what comes
uppermost and what they know nothing of. Therefore prophesy against
them from God’s own mouth. The prophet must set his face against
them, and try if they can look him in the face and stand to what
they say. Note, When sinners grow very impudent it is time for
reprovers to be very bold. Now observe,
I. How the sin of these false prophetesses is described, and what are
the particulars of it.
1. They told deliberate lies to those who consulted them, and came to
them to be advised, and to be told their fortune: “You do mischief
by your lying to my people that hear your lies
(v. 19);
they come to be told the truth, but you tell them lies; and, because
you humour them in their sins, they are willing to hear you.” Note, It
is ill with those people who can better hear pleasing lies than
unpleasing truths; and it is a temptation to those who lie in wait to
deceive to tell lies when they find people willing to hear them and to
excuse themselves with this, Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur–If
the people will be deceived, let them.
2. They profaned the name of God by pretending to have received those
lies from him
(v. 19):
“You pollute my name among my people, and make use of that for
the patronising of your lies and the gaining of credit to them.” Note,
Those greatly pollute God’s holy name that make use of it to give
countenance to falsehood and wickedness. Yet this they did for
handfuls of barley and pieces of bread. They did it for gain; they
cared not what dishonour they did to God’s name by their lying, so they
could but make a hand of it for themselves. There is nothing so sacred
which men of mercenary spirits, in whom the love of this world reigns,
will not profane and prostitute, if they can but get money by the
bargain. But they did it for poor gain; if they could get no more for
it, rather than break they would sell you a false prophecy that should
please you to a nicety for the beggar’s dole, a piece of bread
or a handful of barley; and yet that was more than it was worth.
Had they asked it as an alms, for God’s sake, surely they might have
had it, and God would have been honoured; but, taking it as a fee for a
false prophecy, God’s name if polluted, and the smallness of the reward
heightens the offence. For a piece of bread that man will
transgress,
Prov. xxviii. 21.
Had their poverty been their temptation to steal, and so to take the
name of the Lord in vain, it would not have been nearly so bad as
when it tempted them to prophesy lies in his name and so to
profane it.
3. They kept people in awe, and terrified them with their pretensions:
“You hunt the souls of my people
(v. 18),
hunt them to make them flee
(v. 20),
hunt them into gardens (so the margin reads it); you use all the
arts you have to court or compel them into those places where you
deliver your pretended predictions, or you have got such an influence
upon them that you make them do just as you would have them to do, and
tyrannise over them.” It was indeed the people’s fault that they did
regard them, but it was their fault by lies and falsehoods to command
that regard; they pretended to save the souls alive that came to
them,
v. 18.
If they would but be hearers of them, and contributors to them, they
might be sure of salvation; thus they beguiled unstable souls that had
a concern about salvation as their end but did not rightly understand
the way, and therefore hearkened to those who were most confident in
promising it to them. “But will you pretend to save souls, or secure
salvation to your party?” Those are justly suspected that make such
pretensions.
4. They discouraged those that were honest and good, and encouraged
those that were wicked and profane: You slay the souls that should
not die, and save those alive that should not live,
v. 19.
This is explained
(v. 22):
You have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made
sad; because they would not, they durst not, countenance your
pretensions, you thundered out the judgments of God against them, to
their great grief and trouble; you put them under invidious characters,
to make them either despicable or odious to the people, and pretended
to do it in God’s name, which made them go many a time with a sad
heart; whereas it was the will of God that they should be comforted,
and by having respect put upon them should have encouragement given
them. But on the other side, and which is still worse, you have
strengthened the hands of the wicked and emboldened them to go
on in their wicked ways and not to return from them, which was
the thing the true prophets with earnestness called them to. “You have
promised sinners life in their sinful ways, have told them that they
shall have peace though they go on, by which their hands have been
strengthened and their hearts hardened.” Some think this refers to
the severe censures they passed upon those who had already gone into
captivity (who were humbled under their affliction, by which their
hearts were made sad), and the commendations they gave to those who
rebelled against the king of Babylon, who were hardened in their
impieties, by which their hands were strengthened; or by their
polluting the name of God they saddened the hearts of good people who
have a value and veneration for the word of God, and confirmed atheists
and infidels in their contempt of divine revelation and furnished them
with arguments against it. Note, Those have a great deal to answer for
who grieve the spirits, and weaken the hands, of good people, and who
gratify the lusts of sinners, and animate them in their opposition to
God and religion. Nor can any thing strengthen the hands of sinners
more than to tell them that they may be saved in their sins without
repentance, or that there may be repentance though they do not return
from their wicked ways.
5. They mimicked the true prophets, by giving signs for the
illustrating of their false predictions (as Hananiah did,
and they were signs agreeable to their sex; they sewed little
pillows to the people’s arm-holes, to signify that they might be
easy and repose themselves, and needed not be disquieted with the
apprehensions of trouble approaching. And they made kerchiefs upon
the head of every stature, of persons of every age, young and old,
distinguishable by their stature,
These kerchiefs were badges of liberty or triumph, intimating that they
should not only be delivered from the Chaldeans, but be victorious over
them. Some think these were some superstitious rites which they used
with those to whom they delivered their divinations, preparing them for
the reception of them by putting enchanted pillows under their arms and
handkerchiefs on their heads, to raise their fancies and their
expectations of something great. Or perhaps the expressions are
figurative: they did all they could to make people secure, which is
signified by laying them easy, and to make people proud, which is
signified by dressing them fine with handkerchiefs, perhaps laid or
embroidered on their heads.
II. How the wrath of God against them is expressed. Here is a woe to
them
(v. 18),
and God declares himself against the methods they took to delude and
deceive,
But what course will God take with them?
1. They shall be confounded in their attempts, and shall proceed no
further; for
(v. 23)
you shall see no more vanity nor divine revelations; not that
they shall themselves lay down their pretensions in a way of
repentance, but when the event gives them the lie they shall be silent
for shame; or their fancies and imaginations shall not be disposed to
receive impressions which assist them in their divinations as they have
been; or they themselves shall be cut off.
2. God’s people shall be delivered out of their hands. When they see
themselves deluded by them into a false peace and a fool’s paradise,
and that though they would not leave their sin their sin has left them,
and they see no more vanity nor divine divinations, they shall
turn their back upon them, shall slight their predictions. The
righteous shall be no more saddened by them, no, nor the wicked
strengthened: The pillows shall be torn from their arms, and the
kerchiefs from their heads; the fallacies shall be discovered,
their frauds detected, and the people of God shall no more be in their
hand, to be hunted as they had been. Note, It is a great mercy to be
delivered from a servile regard to, and fear of, those who, under
colour of a divine authority, impose upon and tyrannise over the
consciences of men, and say to their souls, Bow down, that we may go
over. But it is a sore grief to those who delight in such
usurpations to have their power broken and the prey delivered; such was
the reformation to the church of Rome. And, when God does this, he
makes it to appear that he is the Lord, that it is his prerogative to
give law to souls.
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