Ezekiel’s greatest opposition is not from “overt” sinners but from false prophets both in exile with Ezekiel and back in Jerusalem. Jeremiah too had an especially difficult time with them (see Jeremiah 23; 27–28). The source of their prophesying is their own imagination and spirit. Their resources are all self-oriented. They are compared to jackals, which have a reputation for foraging among ruins (13:4). They show up after the damage has been done to feast on leftovers. Further, the false prophets shrink from the responsibility of being repairmen (13:5). By their philosophy nothing is seriously wrong; so why is there any need for one to “stand in the breach”?

Compounding their guilt is their (false) claim that they are speaking the word of the Lord (13:6–7). Theirs is a false hope: they…