John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 13:10-11

"Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there is no peace; and when one buildeth up a wall, behold, they daub it with untempered [mortar]: say unto them that daub it with untempered [mortar], that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it." — Ezekiel 13:10-11 (ASV)

Here Ezekiel pursues the same metaphor he had used, with a very slight difference, for there is such an agreement that the connection between the former and the present sentence is apparent. He had said that the false prophets did not go up to the breaches and did not restore the hedges of the house of Israel. We have explained these words this way: teachers who discharge their duties honestly and sincerely are like builders who, if they see a breach in a wall, instantly and carefully repair it. They are like gardeners who do not allow either a field or a vineyard to be exposed to wild beasts.

So, just as he had formerly said that these false prophets did not go up to the breach because they were not affected by the dispersion of the people, but knowingly and willingly betrayed the people’s safety through open and gross treachery, so also he now says that they did indeed build a wall, but without mortar.

The word תפל, thephel, “untempered,” is explained in various ways, but I do not doubt that the Prophet meant sand without lime. Jerome thinks it is mortar without chaff, but my view is better: namely, that they built only in appearance. And in this, the image that the Prophet now uses differs from the preceding one.

He had said before, they did not go up to the breach. He now grants them more—that they really built. But it is easy to reconcile the two assertions: since they did not go up to the breach to provide safety for the people, and yet they pretended to be anxious and seemed as if they wished to restore the ruins.

But while the Prophet merely grants their intention, he adds that they were bad builders. It is just as if someone were to heap together a quantity of sand and moisten it with water; yet it would profit him nothing, for the sand disperses by itself and grows solid only with lime, thus becoming cement.

Therefore, the Prophet means that those impostors accomplish nothing seriously. And when they show great anxiety and care, it is in vain, because they only heap up sand and dust when they ought to temper the mortar with sand and lime. We understand then how these two passages mutually agree. Because, even because they have deceived my people—this is without a figure. Now he adds figuratively: they have built up a wall, but they have daubed it only with untempered mortar, that is, sand.

The kind of fallacies are now mentioned: because they said, Peace, when there was no peace. We reminded you yesterday that impostors have something in common with God’s true servants, just as Satan transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). We know that all the prophets were always messengers of peace. Now this agrees chiefly with the good news: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace. (Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:15).

Whenever God commends his own word, he adds its character of peace. For when he is justly at enmity with us, there is one way of reconciliation and remission of sin. This springs from the preaching of the gospel. The prophets formerly discharged this duty; and when these impostors strove to deceive the people, they stripped off their masks and deceived the simple because of the difficulty of discerning between themselves and the true servants of God.

And yet, as we said yesterday, no one could be deceived except through their own fault. For God indeed offers us peace and invites us to reconciliation by his own prophets, but on this condition: that we make war with our own lusts. This, then, is one way of being at peace with God: by becoming enemies to ourselves and fighting earnestly against the depraved and vicious desires of the flesh.

But how do false prophets preach peace? Why, so that miserable and abandoned men may sleep in the midst of their sins. We must diligently attend, then, to this difference, so that we may safely embrace the peace which is offered to us by true prophets and be on our guard against the snares of those who fallaciously flatter us with peace, because under a promise of reconciliation they foment hostilities between God and us.

How, then, can it happen that we can be at rest while God is opposed to us? Thou shalt say, therefore, to those who daub with untempered mortar, it shall fall. Here the Spirit signifies that the false prophets should be subject to the greatest ridicule when they shall be convicted by the event, and their folly shall be proved by clear proof.

Hence, also, we may gather the usefulness of the doctrine Paul teaches: that we must stand bravely when God gives free rein to impostors to disturb or disperse the Church. They shall not proceed any further, he says (2 Timothy 3:9). He says elsewhere in the same epistle (2 Timothy 3:13), They shall wax worse and worse; that is, as far as God pleases to be patient with them.

But meanwhile, the end is near, when the Lord shall shame all the impious false prophets and detect their ignorance, rashness, and audacity, because they dared to use his name in offering peace to the reprobate. Thou shalt say, therefore, the wall shall fall. He speaks here of doctrine.

There shall be an overflowing shower, he says—a desolating rain. Here the Spirit signifies that there shall be a violent concussion that shall disperse all the artifices of the false prophets and detect their frauds, when the Lord should bring on the Chaldeans and deliver the city to them.

Hence the same meaning is intended by the shower, by stones, by the rush of a whirlwind. But it was necessary to express the same thing in many ways, because the Israelites had grown sluggish through their fallacies and willingly seized upon what the false prophets said: that God would be propitious to them.

After he had mentioned the shower, he goes on to hailstones. The more probable reading is, Ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; unless perhaps it is better to take the verb תפלנה, thephelneh, transitively, as I am inclined to do: ye shall make fall. This apostrophe is emphatic because God addresses the stones themselves, and thereby obliquely reproves the laziness of those who thought to escape in safety through their flatteries.

When God, therefore, addresses the stones, he doubtless reproaches the Israelites for hardening themselves so completely. He adds the violence of whirlwinds, or of tempests, in the same sense. The violence of the whirlwinds, then, shall break down or overthrow the wall.

In conclusion, Ezekiel teaches that the doctrine of the false prophets needed no other refutation; the arrival of the Chaldeans and their boasting is like a storm and whirlwind to devastate the whole land. And thus he derides those babblers who used their tongues so audaciously. He says that those strangers should come to refute these lies, not by words only, but by a violent attack.