Ezekiel 13:3

foolish prophets The word, not used again by Ezekiel, is rather a moral term, meaning destitute of that wisdom the beginning of which is the fear of the Lord (Psalms 13:1). Jeremiah charges the prophets of his day with shameful vices, "They commit adultery with their neighbours" wives" (Jeremiah 29:23; cf. Jeremiah 23:14, and pass.); but, without supposing that all the "false" prophets were so bad, it characterized them in general that they were superficial men in a moral sense. Their notions of religion and life were not high or strict, and hence they saw nothing in the condition of the people or the state calling for the judgment of God, and prophesied "peace." This was what distinguished them from Jeremiah and other prophets whom we call "true." Micah says in opposition to them: "I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin" (ch. Ezekiel 3:8); and Jeremiah goes so far as to declare it to be the mark of a true prophet that he threatens judgment upon the nation (Jeremiah 28:8-9). A true prophet is one by whom the Lord speaks, and a "false" prophet (the expression is not used in the Old Testament, though the prophets are said to speak "falsely") is one by whom he does not speak. This is true: but the converse has also its truth the Lord did not speak by these prophets because they were "false" (1 Kings 22:6 seq.). There is a spirit of false prophecy as well as a spirit of true prophecy. The spirit of true prophecy is the spirit of the theocracy and of the religion of Jehovah, the spirit that comprehends its principles, sympathises with its lofty morality, understands its aims, and therefore can perceive the true means to be used for fulfilling them. The spirit of false prophecy is the untheocratic spirit, which, even when speaking in the name of Jehovah, has not entered with any profoundness into the nature and aims of his kingdom, and consequently misapprehends the means needful to further it. In his encounters with the prophets of his day Jeremiah opposes them in three spheres: that of policy; that of morals; and that of personal experience. In policy the genuine prophets had some fixed principles, all arising out of the idea that the kingdom of the Lord was not a kingdom of this world. Hence they opposed military preparation (Psalms 20:7), riding on horses and building of fenced cities (Hosea 14:3; Micah 5:10-11; Isaiah 31:1), and counselled trust in Jehovah (Isaiah 7:9; Isaiah 10:20-21; Isaiah 17:7; Isaiah 30:15). These prophets were moving forward (often unconsciously) towards that conception of the kingdom of God which has been realized in the "Church;" and external providence was shaping the history of the nation on lines parallel to this conception, which eventually received form by the destruction of the state and the reduction of the people to be a mere religious community. The false prophets, on the other hand, desired their country to be a military power among the powers around, they advocated alliances with the Eastern empires and with Egypt, and relied on their national strength (Amos 6:13). Again, the true prophets had a stringent personal and state morality (see above). In their view the true cause of the destruction of the state was its immoralities. But the false prophets had no such deep moral convictions, and seeing nothing unwonted or alarming in the condition of things, prophesied of "peace." They were not necessarily irreligious men, but their religion had no truer insight into the nature of the God of Israel than that of the common people (Amos 5:18); hence they pointed to the Temple as the house of the Lord, which he must protect; while Jeremiah told them that they had made it "a cave of robbers," in which they thought themselves safe after committing their crimes, and threatened it with the fate of Shiloh (Jeremiah 7:26). And finally Jeremiah expresses his conviction that the prophets whom he opposed did not stand in the same relation to the Lord as he did; they had not his experiences of the word of the Lord, into whose counsel (Amos 3:7) they had not been admitted, and they were without that fellowship of mind with the mind of Jehovah which was the true source of prophecy (Jeremiah 23 pass.). Hence he satirizes their pretended supernatural "dreams," and charges them from conscious want of any true prophetic word with "stealing" words from one another. Cf. Ezekiel 13:6 and ch. 14.

their own spirit The term is used in opposition to the "spirit" of the Lord which inspired the true prophet, who is called "a man of the spirit" (Hosea 9:7). As distinct from heart "spirit" is rather the force or power moving the prophet. In early times the prophets were the subjects of considerable excitation; and looking on them thus powerfully affected men recognised the influence of the spirit of God upon them.

and have seen nothing Rather: and (go after) that which they have not seen. They did not see, though no doubt they thought they saw. They were self-deceived.