Yechezkel 13

לעילוי נשמת Barbara Atlas, Bracha bas Avraham. She was a beacon of light to all who knew her. Barbara’s kindness and generosity had no bounds.

Liar, Liar

G-d addressed Ezekiel and told him to speak out against the false prophets who speak words of their own invention. Woe to the "prophets" who say whatever they want without having had a real revelation! They're like foxes, running through the breaches in a ruin (i.e., cowardly). They haven't actually stood up and "gone to bat" for Israel, preparing them for the hard times ahead. They lie, saying that G-d sent them when He didn't, so how can they expect their words to come true? Because they lied in His Name, G-d is against them and He will not count them among His people - even in the World to Come (i.e., the "afterlife"). They will also not be among those who return after the exile ends because they misled the people with false promises of peace. It's like they're building a structure of an inferior material that cannot endure. G-d will bring the storm that destroys the structure erected by the false prophets. It will collapse and they will be crushed inside of it. In truth, G-d says of the false prophets, there is no wall and there are no builders.

Next, G-d told Ezekiel to speak about the women who engage in sorcery and superstition. They were mediums and fortune-tellers, giving positive and negative forecasts as it pleased them to do. They trapped people by encouraging the wicked and disheartening the righteous. They profaned G-d by pretending to carry Divine messages and for what? Meager wages. With their lies, they condemned the innocent and caused the guilty to endure. Therefore, G-d will destroy their implements of fortune-telling and set right the injustices they have made. No longer will they spout nonsense as if it were prophecy; G-d will save the people from their schemes.

Author: Rabbi Jack Abramowitz