Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 13:9

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.

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. Ezr 2:62; Isa 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, Jer 29:32.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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 Psa 87:6; Exo 32:32); and therefore when the restoration Eze 11:17 shall take place these men shall not have part in it.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

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 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.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Mine hand; my power striking them; so that it shall be evident they fall under Divine revenge, as Pelatiah, Eze 11:13, and Hananiah, Jer 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 Ezr 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, Jer 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. They shall not be written in the book of eternal life, which is written for the just ones of the house of Israel, saith the Chaldee paraphrast. See Eze 12:15.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

9. mine handMy power invengeance.

not . . . in . . .assemblyrather, the “council”; “They shall notoccupy the honorable office of councillors in the senate ofelders after the return from Babylon” (Ezr 2:1;Ezr 2:2).

neither . . . written in . .. IsraelThey shall not even have a place in the registerkept of all citizens’ names; they shall be erased from it,just as the names of those who died in the year, or had been deprivedof citizenship for their crimes, were at the annual revisal erased.Compare Jer 17:13; Luk 10:20;Rev 3:5, as to those spirituallyIsraelites; Joh 1:47, and thosenot so. Literally fulfilled (Ezr 2:59;Ezr 2:62; compare Neh 7:5;Psa 69:28).

neither . . . enter . . .landThey shall not so much as be allowed to come back at allto their country.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

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 Eze 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 Ps 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 Isa 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 Ps 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 Re 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.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Besides, he afterwards points out the punishment; my hand, says he, shall be against the prophets. For although God threatens to become an adversary to the reprobate, yet this is not sufficient to terrify them, they are so stupid. But it is necessary to use another stimulus, namely, that God should display his power. This is the reason why he now adds, his hand should be against the false prophets. The hand is sometimes taken for a blow: but because God sees the impious torpid amidst their sins, he says that he would not only be their enemy and an avenger of his glory, but he brings forward his own hand into the midst. It follows, they shall not be in the counsel of my people. Some explain the noun סוד, sod, more subtlety than they need for that experience of God which is offered to the elect for their salvation. But this explanation is forced, for they are deceived in thinking that the Prophet’s meaning is different in the second clause, where he adds, they shall not be written in the list of the house of Israel: he repeats the same thing in different words: in the first place he had said, they should not be in the secret of the people: for סוד, sod, signifies a secret, but it is taken for counsel: they shall not be therefore in the assembly of the people: afterwards he adds, they shall not be in the catalogue of the house of Israel. He mentions a catalogue, because judges and others elected to any office were written in a list. We see, therefore, what the Prophet intends — for I am compelled to break off here — namely, that those impostors who wished to enjoy the prophetic title, were altogether without the Church, since God had cast them off.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(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.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

9. Mine hand shall be upon the prophets Ezekiel knew what it was to feel the weight of Jehovah’s hand (Eze 3:14). The controlling hand which forces the obedient prophet to do hard tasks will fall still heavier upon the disobedient. He who will not wear the gentle yoke of constraint must drag “as with a cart rope” his load of responsibility and sorrow. These false prophets, now praised for their patriotic citizenship, upon the return from the captivity shall not sit in the “council” as they do now, nor shall their names appear in the national register (Ezr 2:62). They boast of their special patriotism, but events shall prove that they are not even true Israelites. They will go into captivity, but they will never return again into the land of Israel. (See Eze 27:21.)

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Eze 13:9. They shall not be in the assembly, &c. They shall not be in the secret of my people; which is explained by the following words, Neither shall they enter into the land of Israel. The secret of God was, his purpose to bring back the exiles of Israel into their own land.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Eze 13:9 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.

Ver. 9. And my hand shall be upon the prophets ] God’s hand is a mighty hand; 1Pe 5:6 the heaven is spanned by it, the earth held in the hollow of it.

They shall not be in the assembly of my people, ] a Or, In the secret, or councils; they shall have no communion with them. A heavy threat; for the communion of saints, next unto communion with God, is the greatest comfort here attainable.

Neither shall they be written, ] As members of that commonwealth, – much less of the Jerusalem that is above, Isa 4:4 – but rooted out of the world, written in the earth (Jer 17:13 ; see Psa 69:28 ).

Neither shall they enter. ] They shall never come back out of Babylon, nor enter into heaven.

a Dicit eos fore prorsus extraneos ab Ecclesia. Tesseris Eeclesiae aspectabilibus abalienati permanebunt. – Jun.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)