Ezekiel 13:19

and will ye pollute Rather, directly: and ye profane me. To "profane" the Lord is to bring him down from the high sphere of purity or truth or power, where men's thoughts should place him, into the region of the impure, the false or unworthy the sphere of the common (ch. Ezekiel 20:39). To "profane" is the opposite of to "sanctify."

for handfuls of barley may signify, for mean and trifling hire. Others think that the offerings may be described which were presented in order to obtain the oracular response. In this case the rendering would be: withhandfuls of barley (see W. R. Smith, Journal of Philology, vol. xiii.). But comp. 1 Samuel 2:36; 2 Kings 23:9 with 1 Samuel 9:8; 1 Kings 14:3; 2 Kings 4:42; Micah 3:5. In Jeremiah 44:15 the women are represented as baking cakes to be offered to the queen of heaven.

the souls that should not die The righteous; cf. Ezekiel 13:22, ye have made the heart of the righteous sad. The meaning appears to be that the tendency and direction of their prophecies, like those of the false prophets, was in support of the wicked and adverse to those like-minded with the true prophets. They "slay" by their prophetic word (Hosea 6:5; Jeremiah 1:10, I have set thee to pluck up &c.) when they threaten evil; and so they make the heart sad (faint and despondent) of those whom the Lord hath not made sad.

Ezekiel 13:20. Chastisement of the prophetesses.

wherewith ye there hunt Or, where(or, wherein) ye hunt. A slight change of reading gives, wherewith ye hunt (Targ. Syr.).

to makethem fly Or, as R.V. marg. like birds(Ew.). LXX. omits.

For "pillows" as above fillets. The expression "from your arms" is not to be forced so as to imply that the bands or fillets were bound upon the arms of the prophetesses themselves (cf. Ezekiel 13:18).

even the souls that ye hunt The reading here is no doubt corrupt. The easiest change is to read: I will let the souls go, whose life (naphshäm) ye hunt as birds; cf. Proverbs 6:26 "the adulteress hunteth for the precious life." Cornill makes the excellent suggestion: "I will let the souls go free[reading othân ḥophshim] that ye hunt."