The Ones Who Made It All Up — Modern Paraphrase | fresh.bible
The Ones Who Made It All Up.
Ezekiel 13 — God goes after the insiders who put his name on things he never said
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Key Takeaways
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The real damage of false prophecy is a double inversion: the righteous end up discouraged while the wicked end up comfortable.
📢 Chapter 13 — The Ones Who Made It All Up 🎭
had been delivering hard truth after hard truth to the in . But now God turned his attention to a different problem — not the people ignoring the message, but the people manufacturing a false one. There were in who were standing up, claiming to speak for God, and telling everyone exactly what they wanted to hear. And God had something to say about it.
What follows is a confrontation that goes somewhere unexpected. Not against foreign enemies. Not against pagan nations. Against the people inside the community who were using God's name to prop up their own words. And God was not going to let it stand.
Prophets Who Prophesied Nothing 🦊
God told to speak against the of — the ones who were making up their messages as they went along. And God didn't mince words:
"Hear the word of the Lord! Woe to the foolish Prophets who follow their own imagination and have seen nothing. Your prophets have been like jackals picking through ruins, Israel. You haven't stepped into the gaps. You haven't built up the wall for my people so it could stand in battle on the Day of the LORD. They've seen false visions and spoken lying predictions. They say, 'The Lord declares' — but I never sent them. And yet they actually expect me to make their words come true.
Have you not seen a false vision and spoken a lying prediction every time you said, 'The Lord declares' — when I never spoke?"
The image God used here is striking — jackals among ruins. Jackals don't rebuild anything. They scavenge. They pick through the wreckage looking for whatever benefits them. That's what these prophets were doing. The nation was crumbling, and instead of standing in the gap, instead of telling the hard truth that might actually lead to , they were picking through the rubble for personal gain. They saw an audience that wanted comfort, so they sold comfort. They sensed people wanted reassurance, so they manufactured reassurance — and stamped God's name on it.
Think about how dangerous that is. Someone borrowing God's authority to say what God never said. It happens more than we'd like to admit — in any era.
Three Words That Change Everything ⚡
Then God got personal. And what came next stopped everything cold. God said through :
"Because you have spoken falsehood and seen lying visions — I am against you, declares the Lord God. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and give lying predictions. They will not sit in the council of my people. They will not be listed in the register of the house of Israel. They will not enter the land of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord God."
" against you." Let that land. These weren't outsiders. These were people who operated inside the community, who used the language of , who looked and sounded like the real thing. And God said: I'm not just disappointed. I'm opposed to you. They would be cut off from the community, erased from the records, and barred from the . Complete removal.
There's a weight to this that's hard to overstate. God takes it seriously when someone claims to speak for him but doesn't. Not because God is insecure about his reputation — but because real people get hurt when someone hands them a lie dressed up in spiritual authority.
The Whitewashed Wall 🧱
Now God illustrated the problem with an image that's hard to shake. The false had been telling people "everything's fine" — and God compared it to a construction scam:
"Because they have misled my people by saying 'Peace' when there is no peace — and because when the people build a wall, these Prophets just smear it with whitewash — tell them: that wall is coming down. There will be a flood of rain, massive hailstones, and a violent wind.
And when that wall collapses, won't people ask you, 'Where's the whitewash now?'"
Then God declared the himself:
"I will unleash a stormy wind in my wrath. There will be a flood of rain in my anger and great hailstones to destroy it completely. I will tear down the wall you whitewashed and bring it to the ground — its foundation exposed. When it falls, you will perish in it. And you will know that I am the Lord.
I will spend my wrath on the wall and on those who whitewashed it. And I will say to you: the wall is gone. The ones who whitewashed it are gone — the Prophets of Israel who prophesied about Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace."
Here's what's happening in this image. The people were building something — a sense of security, a national identity, a for the future. But it was structurally unsound. The foundation was rotten. And instead of honest voices saying "this won't hold — we need to rebuild from the ground up," the false Prophets just slapped a coat of paint on it. Made it look good on the surface. Told everyone it was solid.
Whitewash doesn't strengthen anything. It just hides the cracks. And when the storm comes — and it always comes — paint doesn't hold a wall together. The people who told you "it's fine" won't be there to dig you out. That's the real danger of false reassurance. It doesn't just delay the problem. It makes the collapse worse because nobody prepared for it.
Hunting Souls for Profit 🕸️
God wasn't finished. He turned attention to a second group — women in the community who were practicing a kind of spiritual manipulation for personal gain:
"Son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own imagination. Prophesy against them and say: Thus says the Lord God — woe to the women who sew magic bands on every wrist and make veils for the heads of people of every size, in the hunt for souls. Will you hunt down the souls of my people and keep yourselves alive?
You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread — putting to death souls who should not die and keeping alive souls who should not live — by lying to my people, who listen to lies."
The language here is haunting. "Hunting souls." These women were using spiritual practices — charms, veils, divination tools — to trap and manipulate people. And the price tag was shockingly small. Handfuls of barley. Pieces of bread. They were trading people's spiritual well-being for almost nothing.
And notice the double damage: they discouraged people who were actually trying to do the right thing, and they gave false to people who needed to hear the truth. They had it exactly backwards. The left feeling condemned; the left feeling comfortable. All for a few scraps of profit.
God Tears the Nets 🕊️
But the chapter doesn't end with the indictment. It ends with a rescue. God declared through :
"I am against your magic bands with which you hunt souls like birds. I will tear them from your arms and set free the souls you've been hunting — free like birds. I will rip off your veils and rescue my people from your grip. They will no longer be prey in your hands. And you will know that I am the Lord.
Because you have crushed the righteous with lies — when I never intended to grieve them — and because you have encouraged the wicked so they wouldn't turn from their evil ways to save their own lives — you will no longer see false visions or practice divination. I will rescue my people from your hand. And you will know that I am the Lord."
There it is. God saw people being trapped by spiritual manipulation — and he said, "I'm coming to tear the nets." The image of souls being freed like birds is striking. People who had been caught, held, exploited by those who used as a tool for control — God said he would personally rip the trap apart.
This chapter is uncomfortable because it's not about some distant enemy. It's about people inside the community of faith who used spiritual language to deceive, manipulate, and profit. And God's response wasn't passive. He didn't say "I'll let it work itself out." He said " against you." But to the people who'd been caught in the trap, he said something different: I will set you free. That distinction matters. and , aimed in exactly the right directions.