John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 13:21

"Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah." — Ezekiel 13:21 (ASV)

What the Prophet had said concerning the pillows he now pronounces concerning the veils, which they customarily used to cover either their own heads or those of the persons who consulted them. The conclusion is that God would put an end to such follies.

For the people were so fascinated by these foolish things that it became necessary to strip away these masks, since these women were always ready to deceive. He also adds that he would do this for the benefit of his own people.

We have said that this should not be extended generally to all the sons of Abraham according to the flesh, for God allowed almost all to perish, as he had said through Isaiah:

“Even if your people had been as the sand of the sea-shore, a remnant only shall be saved,” (Isaiah 10:22).

Therefore, when God speaks here concerning his own people, this sentence should be restricted to the elect. This is similar to what is said in the psalm: How soft and kind is God to his people Israel; and then he adds by way of correction, to those who are upright in heart (Psalms 73:1).

Since many boasted of being Israelites who were very unlike their father, and by being degenerate deprived themselves of that honor, the Prophet therefore restricts God’s goodness particularly to the elect who are upright in heart, after he had spoken of the whole people.

Although Ezekiel did not distinctly express what we have cited from the psalm, yet the sense is the same. This is easily gathered from the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 11:5, 6), where God sets before us the remnant preserved according to God’s gratuitous election.

In the same sense, it is added, that they should no longer be for a prey. We have said how these women hunted these wretched souls, not only for purposes of gain but also because Satan abused their fallacies.

Thus, it happened that these souls were enticed to their destruction.

For this reason, God pronounces that they should no longer be their prey. And he repeats what he had already said: you shall know that I am Jehovah.

Here God brings before us his power, because we know how safely hypocrites can trifle with his sacred name; and this easily appears in the boldness and licentiousness of these women.

Hence, God here threatens them: he says that they should ultimately feel who had spoken, since they ridiculed Ezekiel and his other servants.

There is, then, a silent antithesis between God and the prophets—not that God separates himself from his servants, for the truth, of which they are ministers and heralds, is an indissoluble bond of union between them. Rather, the language is adapted to the understanding of those with whom the Prophet is dealing.

Now, since these women were so unrestrained, he says that it was not his servants who were despised by them, but God himself.