Ezekiel Chapter 13 Lecture
Ezekiel 13
The expression evokes images of a shepherd who, instead of leading his sheep to pasture and security, causes them to get lost. By taking a metaphor more commonly associated with political leadership Ezekiel has placed responsibility for the welfare of Yahweh’s people (ʿammî) squarely on the shoulders of the false prophets. However, instead of leading them to authentic pasture and rest, they have fed them with empty platitudes of peace. They have intentionally deluded them into a false sense of security with their pronouncements of šālôm, “well-being, salvation.”
To illustrate the deluding effects of their activity Ezekiel introduces a new metaphor. What is happening in the house of Israel may be compared with the way some build houses. In the first place, the walls are poorly constructed, perhaps because the mud used in the bricks is of a poor quality, or the bricks lack sufficient fiber to hold the mud together, or the mortar is deficient. But instead of correcting the defects in workmanship of the brick makers and bricklayers, as soon as the walls are up, other workmen come along and cover all the evidences of poor quality with plaster. The word for plaster, tāpēl, is rare and has been variously interpreted as “saliva”; “anything that lacks an essential ingredient,” in this instance plaster without the essential organic binding ingredient;71 a variant of ṭāpal, “to smear, plaster,” which suits the verb tûaḥ, “to smear, besmear, overlay,” associated with tāpēl throughout this passage (vv. 10–12, 14, 15) and the related statement in 22:28; a cognate to tiplâ, “vanity.” While the sixth-century prophets especially found in tpl a fitting expression for false prophets, here Ezekiel seems to have taken his cue from Jeremiah, who condemned the counterfeit prophets of Samaria for tiplâ, because they “led my people astray” through prophesying by Baal. Especially instructive is Lam. 2:14, which, perhaps under the influence of Ezekiel, speaks of prophets envisioning (ḥāzû) “emptiness” (šāwʾ) and “futility” (tāpēl). Ezekiel offers his own explanation of the term in 22:28: “They have smeared (ṭāḥû) tāpēl for them, envisioning emptiness (šāwʾ) and divining falsehood (qōsĕmîm kāzāb) for them.”
The expression evokes images of a shepherd who, instead of leading his sheep to pasture and security, causes them to get lost. By taking a metaphor more commonly associated with political leadership Ezekiel has placed responsibility for the welfare of Yahweh’s people (ʿammî) squarely on the shoulders of the false prophets. However, instead of leading them to authentic pasture and rest, they have fed them with empty platitudes of peace. They have intentionally deluded them into a false sense of security with their pronouncements of šālôm, “well-being, salvation.”