5 Yes 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?

Ver. 17. Heb. them that are prophets out of their own hearts. Jer. xiv. 14; xxiii. 16, 26. Heb. walk after. Or, and things which they have not seen Cant. ii. 15. Psa. cvi. 23, 30; chap. xxii. 30. Or, breaches.- iHeb. hedged the hedge.

NOTES ON CHAP. XIII.

of true Israelites that return from captivity; and they shall never have a possession in the land; they shall be exhereditated and expatriated. They shall all perish in the siege, by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence.

and to the world for some thousands of years.

Verse 4. Thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.] The cunning of the fox in obtaining his prey has been long proverbial. These false prophets are represented as the foxes who, having got their prey by great subtlety, run to the desert to hide both themselves and it. So the false prophets, when the event did not answer to their prediction, got out of the way, that they might not be overwhelmed with the reproaches and indignation of the people.

Verse 5. Ye have not gone up into the gaps] Far from opposing sinners, who are bringing down the wrath of God upon the place, you prevent their repentance by your flattering promises and false predictions.

Ye have neither by prayers, example, nor advice, contributed any thing for the preservation of the place, or the salvation of the people's souls.

Verse 9. They shall not be in the assembly of my people] They shall not be reputed members of my Church, They shall not be reckoned in the genealogy

is bad, and their mortar is worse. One gives a lying vision, another pledges himself that it is true; and the people believe what they say, and trust not in God, nor turn from their sins. The city is about to be besieged; it needs stronger fortifications than what it possesses. The prophet should be as a brazen wall for its defence; and such my prophets would have been had the people received the word from my mouth. But ye have prevented this by your lying vanities; and when you have perverted the people, you pretend to raise up a rampart of specious prophecy, full of fine promises, for their defence. What one false prophet says, another confirms; and this is like daubing over a bad wall with bad mortar, which prevents its blemishes and weaknesses being discovered, though it has no tendency to strengthen the building,

Verse 11. There shall be an overflowing shower] That shall wash off this bad mortar; sweep away the ground on which the wall stands, and level it with the earth. In the eastern countries, where the walls are

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will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall Tarquinii Prisci, be an overflowing shower in R. Roman., 23. mine anger, and 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.

17 Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, which

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prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them, Ol. XLVI. 3. 18 And say, Thus saith the Tarquinii Prisci, Lord GoD; Wo to the women R. Roman., 23. that sew pillows to all arm holes, 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 a 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;

built with unbaked bricks, desolations of this kind are often occasioned by tempestuous rains. Of this sort of materials were the walls of ancient cities made, and hence the reason why no vestige of them remains. Witness Babylon, which was thus built. See the note on chap. iv. 1.

Verse 17. Set thy face against the daughters of thy people, which prophesy] From this it appears that there were prophetesses in the land of Israel, that were really inspired by the Lord for as a false religion necessarily implies a true one, of which it is the ape; so false prophetesses necessarily imply true ones, whom they endeavoured to imitate.

That there were true prophetesses among the Jews is evident enough from such being mentioned in the sacred writings. Miriam, the sister of Moses, Exod. xv. 20; Num. xii. 2; Deborah, Judg. iv. 4; Huldah, 2 Kings xxii. 14; Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, Luke ii. 36; the four daughters of Philip the deacon, Acts xxi. 9.

Calmet observes that there was scarcely a heresy in the primitive Church that was not supported and fomented by seducing women.

into gardens.

seems to point out that state of softness and effeminacy to which the predictions of those false prophetesses allured the inhabitants of Jerusalem. A careless voluptuous life is that which is here particularly reprehended.

And make kerchiefs] The word kerchief is French, couvre chef, that which covers the head; hence handkerchief and neck handkerchief, and pocket handkerchief, are pitifully improper; because none of them is used to cover the head, from which alone that article of dress has its name. But what are we to understand by kerchiefs here? Probably some kind of ornamental dress which rendered women more enticing, so that they could the more successfully hunt or inveigle souls (men) into the worship of their false gods. These they put on heads of every stature women of all ages, komah, of every woman that rose up to

inveigle men' to idolatry.

The word ninDOD mispachoth, translated here kerchiefs, and by the Vulgate cervicalia, bolsters, Calmet contends, means a sort of nets used in hunting, and in every place where it occurs it will bear this meaning; and hence the use to which it is here said to be applied, to hunt souls.

Parkhurst. These false prophetesses decoyed men into these gardens, where probably some impure rites of worship were performed, as in that of wx Asherah or Venus. See Parkhurst under 5.

Verse 21. Your kerchiefs] Nets, or amulets, as some think.

Hypocrites threatened

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22 Because with lies ye have R. Roman., 23. made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that

с

Verse 22. With lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad] Here is the ministry of these false prophetesses, and its effects. They told lies: they would speak, and they had no truth to tell; and therefore spoke falsities. They "saddened the souls of the righteous, and strengthened the hands of the wicked." They promised them life, and prevented them from repenting and turning from their sins.

8; xv. 7.

Verse 23. Ye shall see no more vanity] They pretended visions; but they were empty of reality.

Nor divine divinations] As God would not speak to them, they employed demons. Where God is not, because of the iniquity of the people, the devil is, to strengthen and support that iniquity. And if he cannot have his priests, he will have his priestesses; and these will have a Church like themselves, full of lying doctrines, and bad works.

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THEN a came certain of the
elders of Israel unto me, and

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the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his

came unto me, saying,

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4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to Chap. viii. 1; xx. 1; xxxiii. 31.- bChap. vii. 19; ver. 4, 7. NOTES ON CHAP. XIV.

Verse 1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me] These probably came to tempt him, or get him to say something that would embroil him with the government. They were bad men, as we shall see in the third verse.

Verse 3. These men have set up their idols in their heart] Not only in their houses; in the streets; but they had them in their hearts. These were stumblingblocks of iniquity; they fell over them, and broke the neck of their souls. And should God be inquired of by such miscreants as these?

Verse 4. According to the multitude of his idols] I will treat him as an idolater, as a flagrant idolater.

6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his

e2 Kings iii. 13.- -d Or, others.

Verse 7. And cometh to a prophet] Generally supposed to mean a false prophet.

I the Lord will answer him by myself] I shall discover to him, by my own true prophet, what shall be the fruit of his ways. So, while their false prophets were assuring them of peace and prosperity, God's prophets were predicting the calamities that afterwards fell upon them. Yet they believed the false prophets in preference to the true. Ahab, about to engage with the Syrians, who had possession of Ramoth-Gilead, asked Micaiah, the prophet of the Lord, concerning the event; who told him he should lose the battle. He then inquired of Zedekiah, a false prophet, who promised him a glorious victory. Ahab be.