4<\/strong>. foxes in the deserts<\/em> ] in the waste places<\/strong>, i.e. ruins. The prophets are like foxes; ruins are congenial to them; a condition of decay is their proper sphere; there they can burrow as their instincts prompt them. The main idea, however, is that their operations only increase the devastation and undermine and bring down anything that may yet be standing. In a declining and disastrous time the minds of men are excited and feed on the wildest schemes, and feeling themselves helpless they readily turn to those who pretend to speak to them in God’s name. And it only adds to their ruin when those to whom they turn have no higher wisdom than themselves.<\/p>\n In the deserts – <\/B>Foxes find a home among ruins etc. Lam 5:18<\/span>. So the prophets find their profit in the ruin of their country.<\/P> <\/p>\n Eze 13:4<\/span><\/p>\n Thy prophets are like the foxes in the desert.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n False prophets like foxes<\/strong><\/p>\n 1<\/strong>. <\/em><\/strong>These creatures are lovers of grapes, as we know by a common proverb; and consequently they did much damage in such countries as Judea, which abounded with vineyards, as is noted in Son 2:15<\/span>, not only by devouring the grapes but also by making holes in the walls and fences, whereby they laid open the vineyards to other ravenous beasts as well as to themselves. Just so did the false prophets to the cities of Judah: they did not only beguile people of their substance, by the character which they assumed, and the figure which they made among them; but by their false doctrines and subversions of the genuine will and Word of God they broke down the walls and fences from about them; I mean that blessing and protection of the Almighty which was annexed to the obedience of His own laws.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>In another respect did these prophets resemble the foxes in the deserts, that they could make breaches, but had not the faculty of stopping them up again. They did not call the people to repentance; or if they did, it was but such a superficial fast as we read of (Jer 36:1-32<\/span>), at which they read his prophecy, and then cut it in pieces and threw it into the fire. Their making up of their breaches this way was but like the labour of unfaithful builders; one laid the stones in the wall, and others daubed it with untempered mortar.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>These false prophets resembled foxes in their fraudulent practices. By crafty speeches and cunningly devised fables they misled the hearts of the simple. They studied how to suit their discourses to the various tempers of the people whom they conversed with; to prophesy smooth things to the stout-hearted, and terrible things to the timorous, that they might keep them all in the way which they would have them to walk in.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>These false prophets had another property of foxes, which was a prowling ravenous appetite. When they came out of their colleges into the vineyard, they resolved that the making of their fortune, the arriving at a plentiful condition, a goodly heritage, should be the first and greatest of all their cares. So little were they concerned for the welfare of the people over whom they pretended to be guardians and spiritual watchmen, that they would sell their souls, as God complains here, for handfuls of barley and morsels of bread.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>As foxes are of the number of unclean beasts, so these prophets were men of corrupt minds and loose morals. How prone they were to prevaricate with God, and seduce the people, to counterfeit a Divine mission, to run when they were not sent, to prophesy out of their own heart without a revelation, to proclaim their visions of peace when there was no peace, is abundantly set forth in this chapter. (W. Reading, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n False prophets like foxes<\/strong><\/p>\n The prophets are like foxes: ruins are congenial to them; a condition of decay is their proper sphere; there they can burrow as their instincts prompt them. The main idea, however, is that their operations only increase the devastation, and Undermine and bring down anything that may yet be standing. In a declining and disastrous time the minds of men are excited and feed on the wildest schemes; and, feeling themselves helpless, they readily turn to those who pretend to speak to them in Gods name. And it only adds to their ruin when those to whom they turn have no higher wisdom than themselves. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Verse 4<\/span>. Thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.<\/B><\/I>] The cunning of the fox<\/I> 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<\/I>, that they might not be overwhelmed with the reproaches and indignation of the people.<\/P> <\/p>\n O Israel; a pathetical exclamation to awake Israel, both the dwellers at Jerusalem and those at Babylon. <\/P> Thy prophets, not mine, as Eze 13:2<\/span>. <\/P> Like the foxes; hungry and ravening, crafty and guileful, and living by their wits, but not one whit helpful to those they deceive. Such are false prophets. In the deserts, where want of prey makes them more eager of their prey, and where other devouring beasts endanger travellers, but no defence to them from foxes; these flee into their holes betimes, and leave the endangered ones. Or thus, O Israel, thou art like the desert, spoiled and robbed, and thy false prophets, like foxes hungry and hunting for some prey, live upon what they can catch, but will be no more profitable to thee than foxes are to the wilderness. <\/P> <\/p>\n 4. foxes<\/B>which cunningly”spoil the vines” (So2:15<\/span>), Israel being the vineyard (Psa 80:8-15<\/span>;Isa 5:1-7<\/span>; Isa 27:2<\/span>;Jer 2:21<\/span>); their duty was to haveguarded it from being spoiled, whereas they themselves spoiled it bycorruptions. <\/P> in . . . deserts<\/B>wherethere is nothing to eat; whence the foxes become so ravenous andcrafty in their devices to get food. So the prophets wander inIsrael, a moral desert, unrestrained, greedy of gain which they getby craft.<\/P><\/p>\n O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes of the deserts.<\/strong> The false prophets, as the Targum; these are called Israel’s prophets, because received, embraced, and encouraged by them; not the Lord’s, for they were not sent by him, nor had any messages from him; and such are comparable to foxes, for their craftiness and cunning, and lying in wait to deceive, as these seduced the Lord’s people, Eze 13:10<\/span>; and such are false teachers, who walk in craftiness, and handle the word of God deceitfully, and are deceitful workers; and to foxes in the deserts, which are hungry and ravenous, and make a prey of whatsoever comes within their reach, as these prophets did of the people,<\/p>\n Eze 13:19<\/span>. Kimchi interprets “deserts” of breaches and ruinous places in the walls of a vineyard, where the foxes lie, or through which they enter into the vineyard and spoil it; as these false prophets entered in among the Israelites, like to a vineyard, and did them much hurt and damage, by insinuating themselves among the weak, and those of little faith, which the above writer compares to breaches in vineyards; see So 2:15<\/span>. It may be the deserts may have respect to the land of Chaldea, where Israel was carried captive, and where these foxes, the false prophets, could play their part to advantage; not being under the notice and restraints of the sanhedrim at Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Hence Ezekiel exposes the snares of the false prophets. The ten tribes had been dispersed, just as if a field or a vineyard had been removed from a habitable neighborhood into desert regions, and foxes held their sway there instead. For they have many hiding-places; they insinuate themselves through hedges and all openings, and so break into the vineyard or field, and lay waste its fruits. Such, as I have said, was the condition of the people from the time of its dispersion. While the Israelites dwelt at home, they were in some way retained within their duty, as if fortified by certain ramparts. At Jerusalem, too, the high Priest presided over spiritual trials, that no impious doctrine should creep in: but now, since the people were so dispersed, greater license was given to the false prophets to corrupt the people, since the miserable exiles were exposed to these foxes; for they were liable to injuries just as if desert regions surrounded them. Being thus destitute of protection, it was easy for foxes to enter by clandestine arts, and to destroy whatever good fruits existed. Meanwhile Ezekiel obliquely reproves the people’s carelessness. Although they were dispersed, and were so open to the snares of the false prophets, yet they thought to have been attentive and cautious, and God would doubtless have afforded them aid, as he promises to his people the spirit of discretion and judgment whenever they need it. (1Co 12:10<\/span>.) But when the Israelites were wandering exiles, and attention to the law no longer flourished among them, it came to pass that foxes, meaning their false prophets, easily entered. Whence it follows that the people were not free from faults, since they exposed themselves to the snares of these false prophets. It follows — <\/p>\n (4) Like the foxes in the deserts.<\/strong>The comparison is sufficiently close if it is considered as extending only to these mischievous men living unconcerned among the ruins of their state and country, as the foxes find their home in desolated cities (Lam. 5:18<\/span>); but many extend the simile to the undermining of the ground by the foxes, as these prophets accelerated the ruin of their people.<\/p>\n 4<\/strong>. <\/strong> Like the foxes in the deserts <\/strong> Foxes do not build walls, but undermine them (Neh 4:3<\/span>; Lam 5:18<\/span>). Having seized their prey with great subtlety they run to the desert and hide themselves and it (Adam Clarke). Those who pretend falsely to speak in the name of Jehovah are worse than open enemies they are sly and dangerous as the greatest pest of the Orient (Son 2:15<\/span>; Isa 5:7<\/span>).<\/p>\n “O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes in the waste places (ruins). You have not gone up into the gaps, nor made up the fence for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of Yahweh.”<\/p>\n The picture is a vivid one of foxes running around in the ruins of a city. They build their dens in the ruins, and forage and scavenge, but they do nothing about the state of the city. So it is with these prophets. They have ignored the gaps in the understanding of the people, and have not built them up ready for what is coming, for they have not seen it themselves. Nor have they caused them to physically strengthen the walls of the city by their warnings. Instead of ‘rebuilding the walls and filling in the gaps’, by preparing the people for the coming ‘day of Yahweh’ about to fall on them, they are like foxes who make comfortable holes for themselves in the ruins and scurry around building nothing, scavenging for what they can find, making false promises that will not be fulfilled. They are nothing but parasites.<\/p>\n Note the phrase ‘the day of Yahweh’. It refers to any period in history where God manifests His judgments. God is longsuffering and gives man much leeway, but there comes a time again and again when man’s sins come in on himself and devastating consequences result. And each such ‘day of Yahweh’ leads on to the next, until the final great ‘day of Yahweh’ when He brings in His final judgments.<\/p>\n (The alternation between ‘they’ and ‘you’ in these verses makes it uncertain when it is the people who are being addressed, and when the prophets, but it makes no difference to the sense. If ‘you’ is seen as applying to the people it simply incorporates them into the sins of the prophets).<\/p>\n Eze 13:4<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>Like the foxes in the deserts<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> Or, as the apostle styles them, 2Co 11:13<\/span> deceitful workers, <\/em>who craftily insinuate false doctrines into unstable minds, and at the same time are hungry and ravenous, greedily catching at the least appearance of advantage. Houbigant renders it, like the foxes in the walls; <\/em>for it is usual with these animals in Palestine, we are told, to frequent ruinous walls and places of that sort, in search of the lesser animals for their prey. The next verse seems to allude hereto. Houbigant renders it, You do<\/em> not ascend the ruins to strengthen the wall for the house of Israel, nor to stand, <\/em>&c. but merely, like hungry and insidious foxes, to feed yourselves from the vain credulity of the people. Others, however, understand the phrase of standing in the gap, <\/em>as allusive to the intercession made by Moses for the Israelites; whereby he withheld, as it were, the hand of the Almighty, when it was stretched out to take vengeance on the people in the wilderness. In the 5th verse we may read, You have not stood in the breach, nor<\/em> repaired the fence, <\/em>&c. <\/p>\n Eze 13:4 O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.<\/p>\n Ver. 4. O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes.<\/strong> ] Cowardly, crafty, cruel, greedy: venatores eludunt, et cum mortuae videntur, reviviscunt.<\/em> Heretics are such, and false prophets; Arius, for instance.<\/p>\n foxes = jackals. <\/p>\n deserts = ruins. <\/p>\n prophets: Crafty, mischievous, and ravenous; always scheming something for their own interest; while they would not risk their persons to avert the mischief which they had caused. <\/p>\n like: Son 2:15, Mic 2:11, Mic 3:5, Mat 7:15, Rom 16:18, 2Co 11:13-15, Gal 2:4, Eph 4:14, 2Th 2:9, 2Th 2:10, 1Ti 4:1, 1Ti 4:2, Tit 1:10-12, Rev 13:11-14, Rev 19:20 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Jer 20:6 – thy friends Luk 13:32 – that fox<\/p>\n Eze 13:4. The fox Is a destructive creature (See Son 2:15) instead of a helpful one, and these false prophets were compared to them.<\/p>\n 13:4 O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes {b} in the deserts.<\/p>\n (b) Watching to destroy the vineyard.<\/p>\n The Lord compared these false prophets to foxes or jackals (Heb. shu’alim<\/span>) that prowled around among ruins looking for holes in which to hide (cf. Neh 4:3; Lam 5:18). The same Hebrew word refers to both animals. They had not tried to repair conditions that had resulted in Israel’s weakness and vulnerability nor had they strengthened the nation spiritually (cf. Eze 22:30). Building the wall around the house of Israel so it could stand in the battle of the day of the Lord refers to preparing the people for the invasion and siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The only concern of foxes and these prophets was their own welfare and self-interests. They contributed nothing to the welfare of other needy people.<\/p>\n O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. 4. foxes in the deserts ] in the waste places, i.e. ruins. The prophets are like foxes; ruins are congenial to them; a condition of decay is their proper sphere; there they can burrow as their instincts prompt them. The main idea, however, is … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 13:4”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"