Ezekiel 13:9

13:1-9 Where God gives a warrant to do any thing, he gives wisdom. What they delivered was not what they had seen or heard, as that is which the ministers of Christ deliver. They were not praying prophets, had no intercourse with Heaven; they contrived how to please people, not how to do them good; they stood not against sin. They flattered people into vain hopes. Such widen the breach, by causing men to think themselves deserving of eternal life, when the wrath of God abides upon them.

And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies,.... Meaning, by his hand, not the true spirit of prophecy, attended with a divine power and energy, as in Ezekiel 1:3 ; but the wrath and power of God seizing on them and punishing them. So the Targum, "and the stroke of my power shall be upon the false prophets, &c.'' The sense is, that they should feel the weight of his hand, and the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his wrath, by inflicting punishment upon them: they shall not be in the assembly of my people; shall have no place in the church of God, nor fellowship with the saints; they shall not join with them in religious worship here; but either shall be left by the righteous judgment of God to separate themselves from them, or shall be excluded their communion; and much less shall they stand in the congregation of the righteous hereafter: or, "they shall not be in the secret", or "council of my people" (g); shall not be consulted by them on any account, civil or religious; or not be let into the secret counsels of the Lord, as the Lord's people be, who are his favourites and his friends; see Psalm 25:14.

The Targum is, "in the good secret which is hidden for my people they shall not be:'' neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel; their names shall not be in the roll or register of those that return from captivity, as in Ezra it but shall die in their exile; they shall not be in the list and catalogue of the citizens of any city in the land of Israel, particularly of Jerusalem, the chief city; see Isaiah 4:3; and it should appear that their names were never written in the Lamb's book of life; or that they ever were among the number of God's elect, the true and spiritual Israel of God. So the Targum, "and in the writing of eternal life, which is written for the righteous of the house of Israel, they shall not be written;'' see Psalm 69:28; neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; should not return to the land of Israel, when the captives should at the end of the captivity; nor enter into the land of Canaan, the heavenly rest, which remains for the people of God; for into the New Jerusalem state shall nothing enter that makes an abomination, or a lie, as these prophets had done; see Revelation 21:27; and ye shall know that I am the Lord God; omniscient, omnipotent, true and faithful, holy, just, and good. (g) "in secreto populi mei non erunt", Montanus; "in arcano", Munster; "in comilio", Junius & Tremellius, Calvin, Polanus; "in concilio", Vatablus.

(9) The assembly of my people. —The original word bears also the meanings placed in the margin, but the sense here is correctly given in the text. The several clauses are intended to emphasise the utter exclusion of the false prophets from the people of God: they shall not be in the congregation; their names shall not be written in the genealogical registers of Israel; they shall not even enter the land when the purified and repentant people should once more return.

Verse 9. - Mine hand shall be, etc. After Ezekiel's manner, the thought of ver. 6 is repeated in an altered form in vers. 7, 8. What had been a statement appears as a question to which there could be but one answer. The prophet, as it were, cross examines his rivals. Could they deny the charge? Was not every word of it true? Then, after the statement of the sin of the false prophets, comes the proclamation of the punishment. The hand of Jehovah would be upon them for evil and not for good. In the assembly of my people. The Hebrew word indicates not a large popular gathering, but a secret council of those who deliberate together to carry out their plans ( Psalm 89:7 ; Psalm 111:1 ; Jeremiah 6:11 ). The prophets who had acted together, and been looked up to by the people as forming such a council, should lose that position of authority. The words that follow point to a yet lower degradation. They should be in the strictest sense of the word excommunicated. The city of Jerusalem, perhaps every city of Judah, had its register of citizens. In such a register were inscribed also the names of proselytes of other races ( Psalm 87:6 ), and so men came to think of a like register as kept by the King of kings, containing the names of those who were heirs of the "life" of the true Israel ( Exodus 32:32 ; Isaiah 4:3 ; Daniel 12:1 ). In neither of those registers, the earthly and the heavenly (but stress is probably laid upon the former), shall the false prophets find a place.

Ezra 2:62 gives an example of the use made of such registers on the return from the Captivity. One notes the contrast between the " my people" which recognizes Israel as still the heritage of Jehovah, and the " thy people" used in Ezekiel 3:11 of the rebellious house of the Captivity. For the false prophets there should be no return to the land of Israel such as that which the prophet anticipated for the faithful and the penitent ( Ezekiel 37:21 ; comp. Isaiah 57:13 ). Here there is no specific mention of the name being struck out. The prophet contemplates a new register, in which their names will never even have appeared. Ezekiel 13:9

9 . The punishment is described in three steps, which form a climax. At present these prophets possess influence, they are counsellors and leaders; when Israel is a nation again upon her own land they shall have no place in the council of the people—read council for assembly as marg. Now they occupy a high place in the roll of citizens, and have names distinguished; then their names shall not be written in the writing (i.e. the book or register-roll) of the house of Israel; cf. Ezra 2:62 ; Isaiah 4:3 . And finally, they shall not have a place in the land at all—Israel shall return, while they shall perish. Jeremiah had already used the same language in regard to Shemaiah, a prophet who misled the exiles, Jeremiah 29:32 .

And my 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 {e} 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. (e) That is in the book of life, in which the true Israelites are written.

Assembly - Here "the congregation of the people." These false prophets were to be struck off from "the writing" or, the rolls, in which the names of all Israelites were registered (compare Psalm 87:6 ; Exodus 32:32 ); and therefore when the restoration Ezekiel 11:17 shall take place these men shall not have part in it.

Mine hand; my power striking them; so that it shall be evident they fall under Divine revenge, as Pelatiah, Ezekiel 11:13 , and Hananiah, Jeremiah 28:15,16 . Or if they escape this stroke, they shall not be in the assembly of my people; have no seat among the rulers, nor voice among the counsellors, nor credit among the judges of my people; but, as false fellows, teachers of lies, be branded with infamy after the return from captivity. Or, they shall not be among those that return, dead before, or rejected as dangerous seducers and blasphemous abusers of the name of God. It may also refer to the excluding them out of. the assembly of glorified ones in heaven. Neither shall they be written; registered among those that return, of which registry Ezra 2:1,2 , but blotted out for their impiety; this literally: mystically, it may be an obliterating or blotting them out of the book of life; they shall not be written with such as shall escape spiritually, they shall not be found among the elect that shall live for ever. Neither shall they ever more come into the land of Israel, not survive the captivity. Or, with disgrace cast off, shall die in strange lands. In brief, the approaching prosperity which they promise the people none shall see, Jeremiah 29:21,32 ; but the prosperity after seventy years’ captivity, which I promise, my people shall see, but these false prophets never shall see, my hand shall be so against them.

9. mine hand—My power in vengeance. not … in … assembly—rather, the "council"; "They shall not occupy the honorable office of councillors in the senate of elders after the return from Babylon" (Ezr 2:1, 2). neither … written in … Israel—They shall not even have a place in the register kept of all citizens' names; they shall be erased from it, just as the names of those who died in the year, or had been deprived of citizenship for their crimes, were at the annual revisal erased. Compare Jer 17:13; Lu 10:20; Re 3:5, as to those spiritually Israelites; Joh 1:47, and those not so. Literally fulfilled (Ezr 2:59, 62; compare Ne 7:5; Ps 69:28). neither … enter … land—They shall not so much as be allowed to come back at all to their country.