Ezekiel 12:9

The false prophets would have no share in the restoration of Israel which Ezekiel foretold.

When he hath spoken a tiling'] RV 'and speaketh a word.' A true prophet will not answer insincere enquirers at all, but will leave it to God to answer them by destruction (Ezekiel 12:7). To give any answer is to be a false prophet, deceived if not consciously deceiving. I.. have deceived that prophet] the same idea as that of the 'lying spirit' from the Lord by which Ahab's false prophets were inspired (1 Kings 22:19; 2 Chronicles 18:18). The meaning can only be that the deception is the penalty of previous disloyalty to truth. No man becomes a false prophet without blame on his own part. To lend oneself to the purposes of insincere enquirers reveals a certain share of their spirit, which leads naturally to increasing blindness. As this law is of God's appointment the deception is in a certain sense His work. The OT. writers emphasised God's supreme control of all events, and were not troubled by the questions which may be raised as to the bearing of the events on the moral character of God. Hence they were not eareful to avoid exprèssions which appear startling to us.