John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 13:19

"And ye have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hearken unto lies." — Ezekiel 13:19 (ASV)

Here God accuses these women of a double crime. One crime was that which I have mentioned: cruelly destroying the souls that were sacred to God and therefore destined to be saved. But He added a more atrocious crime—that of sacrilege, because they had abused the name of God to deceive.

Nothing is less tolerable than when God’s truth is turned into a lie, because this is like reducing Him to nothing. God is truth; if, therefore, that is abolished, what else will remain? God will be, as it were, a dead specter. Therefore, the Prophet, in God’s name, complains of both: You have profaned Me, he says, before My people. For just as the gift of prophecy was a rare and remarkable pledge of God’s love and fatherly concern for the Israelites, so when that gift was corrupted, the name of God was at the same time polluted.

For God was never willing to be separated from His word, because He is Himself invisible and never appears otherwise than as in a mirror. Therefore, God’s glory, sanctity, justice, goodness, and power should shine in the gift of prophecy. But when that gift is contaminated, we see how such a disgrace becomes a reproach against God.

In this way His holiness is defiled, His justice, virtue, and fidelity are corrupted, and His very existence called into question. So it is not without cause that God pronounces His own name to be polluted. Then He adds, among the people.

And this circumstance increases the crime, since God’s name was profaned where He wished it to be specially worshipped. For it was also profaned among the Gentiles, but since God had never made Himself known there, their profanation was less detestable. However, because God erected His throne among the people of Israel and wished His glory to shine there, we see how sacrilege increases while His name is profaned in that sanctuary which He had chosen. This is one crime.

But He also adds, on account of handfuls of barley and pieces of bread. Here God shows how much and how basely He was despised by those women, who sold their prophecies for a piece of bread or a few grains of barley that anyone could hold in his hand.

If they had demanded a great reward, their insatiable avarice would not have lessened their crime; but their impiety is all the more discovered when, on account of a small reward, they so prostituted themselves and the name of God. They boasted themselves to be the organs of the Holy Spirit; but when by this mask they deceived the people, injustice was done to the Holy Spirit, since for so paltry a reward they vainly boasted in their prophecies.

They prostituted even God Himself. In short, this was just as if, being corrupted by a small bribe of no value, they did not treat God’s name with sufficient respect to be withheld from the crime by the slightness of the recompense. A comparison will make the matter clearer.

If a person is tempted by a moderate reward to commit any crime and refuses, and then, when offered a far more valuable reward, yields to the temptation, this shows that his will was upright, though not sufficiently firm. But if anyone, for a mere trifle, undertakes to do what he is ordered and refuses no crime, this shows his readiness for all sorts of wickedness.

If a girl rejects bribes when she knows her modesty is being assailed, but yet yields for a large reward, here, as I have said, virtue struggles with vice. But if she prostitutes herself for a morsel of bread, she here manifests that depravity which all abominate. This, then, is God’s intention when He says that these women traded in their lies for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread.

If anyone objects that prophecies were anciently saleable, since it was customary for the people to offer the prophets rewards, I answer that the women are not condemned merely for receiving either the handful of barley or the piece of bread, but because they did not hesitate to corrupt God’s truth for a trifling gain and then to turn it into a lie.

The Prophet afterwards points out the nature of their deceit, for it would not have been sufficient to blame these women generally unless Ezekiel had pointed with his finger at their destructive deceptions.

Now, therefore, he says, that they slew the souls which were not dying, and kept alive the souls which were not living. We have said before that by this mark the true and righteous servants of God were distinguished from impostors. For the servants of God, who faithfully discharge the duty enjoined upon them, kill and make alive. For God’s word is life and brings health to lost mankind, but is a savor of death unto death in those who perish, as Paul says (2 Corinthians 2:15–16).

Therefore, it is true that prophets who faithfully and properly discharge their duty both kill and make alive: but they give life to the souls that are to be freed from death, and slay the souls that are devoted to destruction. For they denounce eternal death to all unbelievers unless they repent; and whatever they bind on earth is also bound in heaven (Matthew 18:18).

Their teaching, therefore, is effective for destruction, as Paul also elsewhere teaches. We have at hand, he says, vengeance against every high thing which exalts itself against Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5–6). Therefore, honest teachers are armed with God’s vengeance against all unbelievers who remain obstinate.

But they convey life to those who repent, since they are messengers of reconciliation; indeed, they reconcile people to God when they offer Christ to them as our peace, and through whom the Father is gracious to us (Ephesians 2:16).

When false prophets desire to rival God’s servants, they omit the principal part, namely, faith and repentance. Consequently, it happens that they proclaim life to souls already adjudged to destruction, for they give life to the reprobate who are hardened in contempt of God by their flatteries, as they do not require of people either faith or repentance, but only a reward.

Therefore, it also happens that they slay the souls that ought not to die, namely, because nothing is prouder or more cruel than these false prophets. For they fulminate according to their pleasure and sink even to the lowest hell the whole world when no hope of profit appears.

Here then we see the vices of these women of whom Ezekiel treats so pointedly, that no one need be any longer deceived by them except through his own fault. From this we also gather a perpetual rule for examining doctrine, so that the deceptions of Satan do not surprise us into mistaking them for the word of God.

Let us learn, then, that the prophetic word is life-giving to us if we are dissatisfied with our sins and flee to God’s mercy with true and serious repentance; for all souls are slain who do not receive this kind of life. And whoever compares the papacy with that corruption which Ezekiel describes to us will see that, although Satan has many methods of deceiving people, yet they will always be exposed, just as he himself is.

Ezekiel spoke of veils and cushions. We see many rites exhibited in the papacy, so that the unbelieving, being snatched, as it were, out of the world, are not only delirious, but suffer themselves to be drawn in any direction like cattle by the grossest deceptions. But in their teaching we perceive what Ezekiel condemns: namely, that they give life to souls devoted to death, and slay souls that should have been kept alive.

For what is the meaning of their immense heap of laws, except to bury wretched consciences? For anyone who wishes to satisfy the laws of the papacy from his heart must cut himself to pieces, so to speak, throughout his whole life. We now perceive with what intent our Prophet will elsewhere say that legislators of this kind are relentless, since they remit nothing and exact all their conditions with the utmost rigor.

Consequently, it happens that these miserable souls perish, because despair oppresses them and overwhelms them in the depths. Meanwhile, we see how they give life to souls subject to death, since pardon is prepared for adulterers, robbers, murderers, and all criminals, if they only buy themselves off, as priests and monks of the papacy pretend that God is appeased by satisfactions and prayers.

Thus they thrust expiations of no value upon God; and, to speak more correctly, trifles and follies, which do not deceive even children, they call expiations, as if God could change His nature. Therefore, we must diligently note this passage, that we may know how to distinguish between true and false prophets, and may not despise the test which the Prophet puts before us.

He says, in deceiving My people by listening to a lie. He accuses some of lying, and others of willingly embracing it. For the noun כזב, kezeb, which is repeated, is derived from the same root. Here, again, God undertakes the cause of His people; for though they were all worthy of being drawn into exile by Satan, yet when God took care of them, it was like snatching them out of Satan’s hand and claiming them as His own special people.

This is one point. But meanwhile, these wretches are deprived of all excuse for seeking false oracles. For the Prophet pronounces them deceived because they listened to vanity—that is, because they wished to be deceived, since it was entirely their own fault, and they could not in any way evade it.

It is true they were deceived under false pretenses through the abuse of the prophetic name, and so their vision was obscured by a darkened cloud. But still, they thought they had gone to the fountain, for no opening would have been found for Satan if they had been properly fortified.

God had surrounded them with ramparts by giving them a law to protect them from all fallacies. Since, then, they thus exposed themselves of their own accord, it is not surprising if God allowed them to be deceived.