Ezekiel 13

Ezekiel 13:1

Jerome: Whatever was said at that time to the people of Israel now applies to the church. The holy prophets are apostles and apostolic people, but the lying and raging prophets are all heretics, whose leaders invent things from their own heart; the people are led astray by them and acquiesce in the falsehoods of others. — COMMENTARY ON Ezekiel 4:13.1-3

Jerome: The Ishmaelites represent those who are a law unto themselves, who yield to their own capricious hearts and evil desires. Ezekiel expresses the same thought: “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets that prophesy their own thought and do whatever their spirit impels.” We, however, must not follow our own inclinations and be labeled Ishmaelites, “obedient to themselves,” but rather be called Ishmael, “obedient to God.” — HOMILIES ON THE Psalms 15 (Psalms 82)

Jerome: (Chapter 13, Verses 1, 2) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy from their own heart: Hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God. This is what we have added: ‘who prophesy,’ and say to those who prophesy from their own heart, which the Septuagint omitted, and because it is not found in Hebrew, they added, ‘and you shall prophesy’ and say to them. This is a message against false prophets who deceived the people and, against God’s commands, prophesied something else. And let it not bother anyone that they are called prophets, for Holy Scripture has this custom, that it names each one of its prophecies and speeches a prophet, just as the prophets are called Baal, and the prophets of idols, and the prophets of confusion. Hence the apostle Paul also calls a Greek poet a prophet: A certain one of their own prophets said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons (Titus 1). And in Hosea we read: Like a prophet driven mad, a man carrying the Spirit (Hosea 9:7). But whatever was said to the people of Israel at that time is now applied to the Church: so that the holy prophets may be the apostles and apostolic men. But the false and mad prophets are all heretics, whose leaders invent falsehoods from their own hearts; and those who are led astray by them believe in the lies of others. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Origen of Alexandria: There is no kind of sin about which Scripture is silent and about which it does not teach its readers. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:1

Ezekiel 13:2

Origen of Alexandria: False prophets are teachers of the church whose words or life do not properly accord with the doctrine that they preach. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:1

Origen of Alexandria: If the Word of God accuses me, I will try to be converted. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:2

Origen of Alexandria: The word of the present can agree with those who teach in the church, as long as they do not teach other than what the truth demands. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:2

Origen of Alexandria: If anyone reading the gospel fits its proper sense to the gospel without understanding that the Lord speaks, he is a false prophet speaking according to his own heart in the gospel. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:2

Origen of Alexandria: If I find in Moses and the prophets the thought of Christ, I speak not according to my own heart but from the Holy Spirit. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:2

Ezekiel 13:3

Jerome: Since the name of prophets, according to the pattern of the Scriptures, is used of good and bad alike, they differ from each other in that good prophets are said to be wise and evil prophets are said to be stupid and senseless. The one refers to the people of the church, whereas the other refers to all heretics who depart from the Spirit of God and follow their own spirit, because in no way do they prophesy from divine impulse but from their own hearts. — COMMENTARY ON Ezekiel 4:13.3

Jerome: (Verse 3.) Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and see nothing. LXX: Woe to those who prophesy from their own heart and do not see at all, forsaking what is proposed by us and following their own spirit. Although the name of prophets, according to the rule of the Scriptures, is common to both the good and the bad, they differ in that the good prophets are said to be wise, while the bad ones are foolish and ignorant. The former is associated with ecclesiastical men, and the latter with all heretics, who, forsaking the spirit of God, follow their own spirit and prophesy not by divine inspiration but by their own heart. Hence, they see nothing. But whoever is wise, follows not the thoughts of his own heart, but the Spirit of God, according to what is mentioned in the earlier texts, that even animals and wheels followed the Spirit of God. And the prophet says: You shall walk after the Lord your God. And in another place: Lead me in the right path. And again: Your good Spirit shall lead me into the land. And for the people of God, the pillar of fire and the clouds were a guide in the wilderness. And Jeremiah speaks: I have not labored following you (Jerem. XVII, 16). But whoever of the heretics follows his own spirit, will stumble in darkness, and the blind will lead the blind into a pit? Although they may seem to see more in their mysteries, or rather orgies, than the ecclesiastical doctors, they do not see anything at all: because they have lost the sun of righteousness, and in vain imitate those who were previously called Seers, and to whom it is said: Go, you who see; turn back to the land of Judah; and in Bethel you will not prophesy (Amos VII, 12, 13). Therefore, the vision of Isaiah and Obadiah are placed in the titles. And the Lord commanded the apostles: Lift up your eyes and see (John 4:35). And the prophet earnestly prays: Open my eyes, and I will behold wondrous things out of your law (Psalms 119:18). — Commentary on Ezekiel

Origen of Alexandria: In the same way that a saint prays with the Spirit and prays with understanding and sings with the spirit and sings with understanding, so the false prophet prophesies according to his own heart and follows not the Spirit of God but his own spirit. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:3

Ezekiel 13:4

Basil of Caesarea: At another time, because of his deceit toward his brother, he makes himself like the villainous fox. Truly, there is in him excessive folly and a bestial lack of reason, because, made according to the image of the Creator, he neither perceives his own constitution from the beginning nor wishes to understand such great dispensations that were made for his sake, so that he could learn his own dignity from them; he does not realize that, throwing aside the image of the heavenly, he has taken up the image of the earthly. — HOMILIES ON THE Psalms 19:8 (Psalms 48)

Jerome: (Versed 4 et sequentia) Your prophets, Israel, will be like foxes in the desert. You did not go up to face the enemy or build a wall for the house of Israel to stand firm in battle on the day of the Lord. They see false visions and speak deceptive divinations, saying, ‘The Lord declares,’ when the Lord has not sent them; yet they hope for the fulfillment of their words. Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination when you say, ‘The Lord declares,’ though I have not spoken?’ LXX: Like foxes in the deserts are your prophets, O Israel ((Add. they were or will be)). They did not stand in the firmament, and they gathered flocks over the house of Israel. Those who say in the day of the Lord did not rise: seeing falsehoods, divining vanities, those who say, says the Lord, and the Lord did not send them: and they began to stir up discourse. Did you not see false visions, and speak vain divinations? And you said, says the Lord, and I did not speak. Let us first speak according to the Hebrew. The prophets of Israel are like foxes, committing thefts of domestic birds every day: those who live, according to Aquila and the Septuagint, in the deserts; according to Symmachus and Theodotion, in walls and ruins: who cannot advance opposite, nor oppose a wall for the house of Israel. We read that Aaron stood in the middle against the fire devouring the people of Israel, and opposed a wall for the salvation of the people (Num. XVI). It is also said of Jeremiah, ‘Do not confront the Lord, nor stand against His wrath with persevering prayer’ (Jer. 7). Just as a wall is set against an enemy and is usually met head-on by the adversary, so the will of God is weakened by the prayers of the saints. Therefore, Moses is also told, ‘Let me alone, and I will destroy this people’ (Exod. 32:10), which shows that he had the power to hold back. These people cannot stand in battle on the Day of the Lord, to fight for the people with prayers and resist the judgments of God’s pleas. Therefore, because they see in vain and falsely prophesy, and claim to be sent by the Lord when they are not sent by Him, and persist in their errors, and desire to affirm their own words; they are accused of preaching empty things, saying that their lies are the words of the Lord. Furthermore, according to the Septuagint, the sense here is: All heretics are like foxes because of their deceit and wickedness, about whom the Savior speaks: Foxes have dens, and birds of the air have nests (Matthew 8:20). And it is written about Herod: Say to this fox (Luke 13:32). And about those same foxes that deceive the innocent and plunder the vineyard of Christ, Solomon speaks: Catch for us the little foxes, who spoil the vineyards (Song of Solomon 2:15). And in the psalm about those who are deceived by their trickery, it is sung: They shall go into the depths of the earth, they shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall become the portion of foxes (Psalms 63:10, 11). O prophets who are like foxes, they did not stand in the firmament; nor did they deserve to hear from Peter: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church (Matthew 16:18). Nor are they like Moses, to whom it was said: You stand here with me (Deuteronomy 5:31). Nor like him who says: He has set my feet upon a rock; but they have swayed with every wind of doctrine. They have not stood in the firmament, of which we read in the eighteenth psalm: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands. These gathered together the irrational ones, and due to the excessive innocence of the livestock, they are similar to the house of God. Hence, it is now said: And they gathered flocks over the house of Israel: neither they themselves rose, nor were they able to raise others; but whatever they did and do, they are full of lies. And what follows: And they began to stir up discourse, signifies that they indeed desire to rise up and lift themselves to heights; but what they desire, they cannot fulfill: and it is said to them: Have you not seen a false vision and spoken idle divinations? And what follows, and you were saying, ‘Thus says the Lord,’ and I have not spoken, it is not found in the Septuagint. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Jerome: They observe empty things and divine falsehood and say that they have been sent by God, although have not; and they persist in their errors, keen on establishing only what they are saying. They argue because everything they have preached is empty. — COMMENTARY ON Ezekiel 4:13.4-7

Origen of Alexandria: The fox is an animal good for nothing, sly, wild, ferocious. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:4

Ezekiel 13:5

Gregory the Dialogist: Whence it is well said to Ezekiel, “Take unto thee a tile, and thou shalt lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the dry Jerusalem.” And immediately it is subjoined, “And thou shalt lay siege against it, and build forts, and cast a mount, and set camps against it, and set battering rams against it round about. And do thou take unto thee an iron frying-pan, and thou shalt set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city.”

But although the ruler may nicely insinuate all these things, he procures not for himself lasting absolution, unless he glow with a spirit of jealousy against the delinquencies of all and each. For by the frying-pan is denoted a frying of the mind, and by iron the hardness of reproof. — Pastoral Rule, Part 2, Chapter 10

Gregory the Dialogist: To such men it is rightly said through the prophet: “You have not gone up against the enemy, nor have you set up a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in battle on the day of the Lord.” To go up against the enemy is to oppose with the free voice of reason any powers that act wickedly. And we stand in battle on the day of the Lord for the house of Israel and set up a wall if we defend the faithful and innocent against the injustice of the perverse with the authority of justice. Because the hireling does not do this, when he sees the wolf coming, he flees. — Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 14

Gregory the Dialogist: To such men it is rightly said through the prophet: “You have not gone up against the enemy, nor have you set up a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in battle on the day of the Lord.” To go up against the enemy is to oppose with the free voice of reason any powers that act wickedly. And we stand in battle on the day of the Lord for the house of Israel and set up a wall if we defend the faithful and innocent against the injustice of the perverse with the authority of justice. Because the hireling does not do this, when he sees the wolf coming, he flees. — Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 14

Jerome: Whom does he mean by all those who have come before me? Those who say, “Thus says the Lord!” But the Lord has not sent them; they who have come on their own authority and have not been sent are the thieves and robbers. — HOMILY 87 (ON John 1:1-14)

Ezekiel 13:6

Origen of Alexandria: All that they want is false, and they can never see the truth. Take an example. To read the Scripture and to hear something other than what is written is to have an untruthful picture of Scripture; but to hear Scripture and interpret it in accordance with the truth, that is to see the truth. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:5

Ezekiel 13:7

Jerome: The ministry of prophets is about speaking against heretics whose task is empty, whose visions are false and who persist in establishing their own words, because the Lord comes against them, rising up and lifting his hand over them to shake them, and he does not ensure that they are to be spared. — COMMENTARY ON Ezekiel 4:13.8-9

Origen of Alexandria: Pray for us that our words may not be false. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:5

Origen of Alexandria: This is what we are looking for, that the Lord will be present as a witness to my words, that he may himself confirm what is said by witness of his holy Scriptures. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 2:5

Ezekiel 13:8

Jerome: (Vers. 8, 9.) Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have spoken idle words and have seen falsehood, behold, I am against you, declares the Lord God. And my hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord God. LXX: Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God. Because your words are lies and your divinations are empty, therefore behold, I am against you, says the Lord God, and I will stretch out my hand against the prophets who see falsehood and speak empty words. They will not be in the discipline of my people, nor will they be written in the scroll of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. And they will know that I am the Lord. Under the guise of prophets, this speech is against heretics, who speak empty words and see falsehood, and they persist in establishing their own doctrine. May the Lord Himself come against them and rise up, and may He stretch out His hand against them to strike, and may He not hold back in sparing them. And He threatens that they will not be among the assembly of the people of the Lord in the future, nor in His Church, but in the synagogue of the devil, nor will they be written in the house of Israel. About which it is said in another place: They will be written above the earth (Jeremiah 17:13): not in the land of Israel which is the land of the living, about which it is now said, nor will they enter the land of Israel, but in the land of the dead and the shadow of death, so that after they have endured these things, separated from the assembly of the people of God, they may understand that He is the Lord. Instead of ‘for what we render, they will not be in the council of my people,’ the Seventy translated, ’they will not be in the discipline or correction of my people.’ For there is one kind of correction for enemies, another for sons. Hence Jeremiah says: Correct us, O Lord, but with judgment, not with anger, lest you make us few. Pour out your anger on the nations that have not known you, and on the kingdoms that have not invoked your name. (Ibid. X, 24, 25). — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 13:9

John Cassian: Because [Judas] was corrupted by the plague of covetousness and had his name struck out from that heavenly list, it is suitably said of him … “They shall not be in the counsel of my people, nor shall they enrolled in the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel.” — Conference 17:25

Ezekiel 13:10

Ambrose of Milan: For there is a peace that does not have an offense, and there is one that has it: which is from love, it does not have an offense; which is from deceit, it has. Therefore, the Prophet also says: Peace, peace; but where is peace (Ezekiel 12:10)? Therefore, let us seek the refuge of peace for sinners; for they conspire against the innocent, they gather together to oppress the righteous, to destroy the widow, or to assault her modesty. — Interrogation of Job and David 3.3.6

Augustine of Hippo: They who choose to declare their own honor have refused to dwell in [God’s] house; and therefore they do not sing a new song with all the earth. For they do not share it with the whole world; and hence they are not building in the house but have erected a whitened wall. How sternly does God threaten the whitened wall?… What is the whitened wall but hypocrisy, that is, pretense? Outside it is bright; inside it is dirt. — EXPLANATIONS OF THE Psalms 96:3

Jerome: (Verse 10 and following) Because they have deceived my people, saying: peace, and there is no peace. And he was building a wall: but they were plastering it with mud without straw. Say to those who plaster without mortar, that it will fall. For there will be a overflowing rain: and I will give great stones falling from above, and a stormy wind blowing. Indeed, behold, the wall has fallen. Will it not be said to you, where is the whitewash that you plastered? Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: I will unleash the spirit of storms in my anger; and there will be a torrential rain in my fury, and great stones of wrath will be poured out, and I will destroy the wall that you have whitewashed without mortar, and I will level it to the ground; its foundation will be exposed, and it will fall and be consumed in its midst; and you will know that I am the Lord. And I will fulfill my anger against the wall and against those who whitewashed it without mortar; and I will say to you: The wall is no more, and there are no longer any who whitewash it. The prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem see a vision of peace, but there is no peace, says the Lord God. LXX: For they have deceived my people, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. And this one builds a wall, and these ones plaster it with folly. Say to those who plaster with folly, it will fall. There will be a flooding rain, and I will give great stones for their joints and they will fall. And a wind will come and tear it apart. And behold, the wall has fallen, and they will not say to you, ‘Where is the whitewash that you whitewashed with?’ Therefore, thus says the Lord Adonai: I will break the spirit of fury that carries away, and rainwill overflow in my anger, and I will bring great stones in fury to a consummation, and I will dig up the wall that you have plastered, and it will fall. And I will put it on the ground, and its foundations will be exposed, and it will fall. And you will be consumed with reproach, and you will know that I am the Lord. And I will complete my fury on the wall, and on those who plaster it, it will fall. And I said to you: There is no wall, nor those who plaster it, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem and see peace for her: there is no peace for them, says the Lord God. The prophets of Israel, who will not be in the assembly of the people of God, nor be written in the scriptures of the house of Israel, nor enter the promised land, therefore suffer these things because they have deceived my people, proclaiming peace and prosperity by the severity of repentance and the wrongfulness of conversion, according to what is said elsewhere: Peace, peace, where is peace? (Jeremiah 8:11) Therefore, God figuratively built a wall for them through the commands of the law and the words and warnings of the holy prophets. For this Hebrew word signifies ‘His’, that is, it would repel every incursion of wild beasts and hostile attack from them, while they turned to God, they would be surrounded by this like a very strong wall and fortress. But the false prophets, not once but often, promised them peace, for this repeated talk of peace signifies this. And they were building the very wall which is called ‘Cir’ in the following, the false prophets were coating it without any restraint, as Symmachus interpreted, that is, with pure mud, and that it did not have straw, so that it could not provide any strength. But indeed, both the Septuagint and Theodotion interpret it as folly: but the eagle has interpreted the Hebrew word Thaphel as ἀνάλῳ, which means without salt, passing from one translation to another, just as food without salt has no flavor: so too clay, without straw to strengthen and bind it, can offer no strength to a wall. Say, he says, to those who make empty promises and pledge useless help, that this wall and this structure will fall, and I will send a very violent rain, namely the most fierce enemies. But it refers to the Babylonians and the Chaldeans; and it signifies the same hails stones falling from above, everything through a metaphor, by which a sudden whirlwind overturns and destroys an unstable wall; and afterwards it is said to them, that is, to the false prophets, Where is the plaster with which you plastered it, and where is the help that you promised? But whatever we have said about false prophets can also be applied to heretics, for all their God-inspired inventions will be dissolved by God’s wrath; and the structure of false teachings, which the Holy Spirit does not support, shall fall and crumble down to its foundations and turn to dust, and become equal to the wall of the earth, and fall, and the prophets who made promises and the people to whom the promises were made shall be consumed in its midst; so that once He has completed His wrath and says to them: this is not a wall, that is, this is not your defense; and there are none who plaster it, but all are empty and amount to nothing: then you shall come to know by these actions that I am the Lord. But in order to know who these individuals are who daub the wall, it follows, the prophets of Israel, that is, the false prophets, who prophesy to Jerusalem and see for her a vision of peace, these are the cause of sin and ruin, and foolish security. For there will be no peace, says the Lord, because the Lord did not send them, nor did he speak to them. This which the Septuagint translated as ‘and on their joints’ is not found in the Hebrew. However, it signifies the joints of the stones in the wall, or the supports of wood, by which the walls are strengthened. And also that which we read above: he himself was building the wall; most people report that Israel, who promised himself either the empty help of the Egyptians or of peace, was referring to the people. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Jerome: How is the cause helped by the people who dance attendance on these people with itching ears who know neither how to hear nor how to speak? They confound old mire with new cement and, as Ezekiel says, daub a wall with untempered mortar; so that, when the truth comes in a shower, they are brought to nothing. — LETTER 133.4

Ezekiel 13:13

Clement of Alexandria: The words that follow describe and condemn some sin that has been committed. The judgment contained in these words is just, for it is as if he were giving notice in the words of the prophet that, if you had not sinned, he would not have made these threats.… The inspired Word exists because of both obedience and disobedience: that we may be saved by obeying it and educated because we have disobeyed. — The Instructor Book 1

Ezekiel 13:17

Jerome: (Verse 17 and following) And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own heart, and prophesy against them, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Woe to those who sew cushions for all armholes and make veils for the heads of people of every height, to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of My people, and keep yourselves alive? And will you profane Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, killing people who should not die, and keeping people alive who should not live, by your lying to My people who listen to lies.’ Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your cushions, with which you hunt the flying souls, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will release the souls whom you hunt, souls to fly. And I will tear off your necklaces, and I will free my people from your hand, and they shall no longer be in your hands for plunder. And you shall know that I am the Lord. Because you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad, and you have encouraged the hands of the wicked, so that he does not turn away from his evil way and live, therefore you shall no longer see false visions nor practice divination. And I will deliver my people from your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord. LXX: And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own heart; prophesy against them, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their sleeves and make veils for the heads of people of every height, to hunt souls! Will you hunt down the souls of My people, and keep yourselves alive? And will you profane Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, killing people who should not die, and keeping people alive who should not live, by your lying to My people who listen to lies?’ Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your cushions, on which you gather souls, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will release the souls that you have perverted, their souls into dispersion. And I will tear off your veils and deliver my people from your hands, and they shall no longer be in your hands for a gathering. And you shall know that I am the Lord. Because you have perverted the soul of the righteous unjustly, and I did not pervert him, and you strengthened the hand of the wicked, so that he would not turn from his evil way and live. Therefore, you will no longer see your lies, and you will not be able to divine any divinations from now on. And I will free my people from your hand, and you will know that I am the Lord. A divine word was directed above the prophets, who were lining the wall with clay, which had no straw, and could not give any strength to the wall or the mortar. Now, they are commanded to put their faces or direct them against the prophetesses of the people, and, as the Septuagint translated, to harden. But just as some false prophets were inspired by a diabolical spirit to subvert the commands of God, so too against prophetesses, such as Deborah (Judges 5) and Huldah (2 Kings 22), and in the Acts of the Apostles, the four daughters of Philip the evangelist prophesying were inspired by a demonic spirit (Acts 21), there were also others of the same sex, among whom were Prisca and Maximilla, who by their false prophecy subverted the faith of truth. However, the Hebrews are said to be skilled in the evil arts through necromancy and the Pythian spirit, such as the one who was seen to have raised the soul of Samuel (1 Samuel 28); and in the Acts of the Apostles, there was a fortune-telling woman who gained much wealth for her masters through divination, from whom an unclean spirit was cast out by the command of the apostle Paul (Acts 16). But we will say that other heretics preach power through the falsehood of their doctrines. Pythagoras and Zeno were among them, from whom the Stoics originated: the Indian Brachmans and the Ethiopian Gymnosophists, who, due to their self-control in food, are considered a marvel by their nations (or, unbelievers). And rightly they are said to whitewash the wall and promise some strength; but because they do not have the seasoning of Christ, their labor is in vain, and their building will perish. For unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain (Psalms 127:1). But other doctors of pleasures and desires, such as the Epicureans, the Pyrrhonians, Jovinianus, and Eunomius, say: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Therefore, the prophet is commanded to set or harden his face against the daughters of his people. First, it must be explained what it means for the face to be set or hardened. Indeed, it is that which is written about the Lord: ‘The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth’ (Psalms 34:16). For just as wax melts before fire, so sinners perish before God’s presence. In the same sense, the prophet says: Son of man, set your face against Theman, Darom, and Nageb. And again: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against the children of Jerusalem. And a little later: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against the children of Ammon. And again: Firmly set your face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt (Infra, XXIX, 2). And again: Son of man, set your face against Gog and Magog. And in another place: I will set my face against that man, and I will make him a desolation and a byword, and I will remove him from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord (Infra, XIV, 8). Woe, therefore, to these heresies and doctrines which, promising rest, deceive people of every age and sex, in order to capture the souls of the wretched and lead me away from my people, while I am believed to love pleasure. And this not because of their barley, or the barley of the half-farsang, as we read in Hosea (Hosea V), but because of a handful of barley, by which animals are intoxicated, and a fragment of bread. Not whole bread or solid testimonies of the Scriptures, but those which have been broken, cut, and diminished by heretical depravity; so that they deceive and lead astray even the holy ones, and drag them to death; and they claim to give life to sinners with empty promises. Therefore, the merciful and compassionate God does not kill the prophetesses themselves, but he breaks their spindles, which like nets capture flying souls, so that once they are broken, they have the freedom to fly. And they would tear the veils or kerchiefs, in which the principal soul would recline, and with which the heads of the deceivers would be covered. Since the Apostle teaches that the heads of men should not be covered, but should have the glory of the Lord revealed (II Cor. III). For, he says, you were breaking the spirits of those who serve God with false terrors, and you were holding the impious captive with fraudulent promises, so that, while they were repenting, they would not regain the life they had lost. Therefore, you shall by no means see empty visions, nor shall I call your lies prophecies; but rather divinations, of which it is written: There is no omen in Jacob, nor divination in Israel (Num. XXIII, 23): so that I may deliver my people from your hands, and you may know that I am the Lord who has rescued the lost. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Origen of Alexandria: This face, that is to say the ruling faculty in our soul, if it is not fixed toward what it should understand in the manner that it sees, it announces to its hearers that what it looks at has not in fact been seen. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 3:1

Origen of Alexandria: It should have a face that wants to be fixed toward what it is striving to understand, and for this reason the order is always first given to those who want to prophecy to make their face firm. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 3:1

Origen of Alexandria: Soft are the souls and intentions of those leaders who always compose resonant and harmonious words. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 3:3

Ezekiel 13:18

Ambrose of Milan: The Holy Spirit poured out upon the prophet lamenting the misfortune of our frailty, which neither had rest in this life nor retained anything in the sudden encounter with death, that humanity would not rise again until the one came who did not patch the new onto the old nor put a new piece of cloth on an old garment; but rather made all things new, as he himself said: Behold, I make all things new. For he is the resurrection, he is the firstborn from the dead, in whom we have indeed received a foretaste of the future resurrection, yet he alone has already risen with eternal resurrection. — Interrogation of Job and David 1.7.25

Gregory the Dialogist: For from love of himself the ruler’s mind is inclined to softness, because, when he observes those that are under him sinning, he does not presume to reprove them, lest their affection for himself should grow dull; nay sometimes he smooths down with flatteries the offence of his subordinates which he ought to have rebuked. Hence it is well said through the prophet, “Woe unto them that sew cushions under every elbow, and make pillows under the head of every stature to catch souls”; inasmuch as to put cushions under every elbow is to cherish with bland flatteries souls that are falling from their uprightness and reclining themselves in this world’s enjoyment. For it is as though the elbow of a recumbent person rested on a cushion and his head on pillows, when the hardness of reproof is withdrawn from one who sins, and when the softness of favour is offered to him, that he may lie softly in error, while no roughness of contradiction troubles him. — Pastoral Rule, Part 2, Chapter 8

Jerome: Woe to those heresies and teachings! They promise respite and deceive every age and gender, in order to capture the souls of unhappy people, and they defame me to my own people until I am believed to desire nothing but my own pleasure. — COMMENTARY ON Ezekiel 4:3.17-23

Origen of Alexandria: The Word of God must proclaim what is for the salvation of the hearer, what exhorts him to continence, to the practice of sensible actions, to all the things to which the person who is assiduous in works and not pleasures must apply himself in order to be able to obtain what God has promised. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 3:3

Origen of Alexandria: When the work of the speaker is deployed in licentious talk, a veil is placed on the head of everyone regardless of age, not just the children and the young but also the elderly. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 3:3

Origen of Alexandria: Allow me, O Christ, to break all pillows made for the luxury of souls. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 3:4

Ezekiel 13:19

Gregory the Dialogist: It often happens that a Pastor is moved by hatred or favor toward any neighbor; but those who follow their own hatreds or favor in the cases of their subjects cannot judge worthily concerning their subjects. Whence it is rightly said through the prophet: They were putting to death souls that do not die, and giving life to souls that do not live. For he puts to death one who is not dying who condemns the just. And he strives to give life to one who will not live who attempts to absolve the guilty from punishment.

Therefore the causes must be weighed, and then the power of binding and loosing must be exercised. It must be seen what fault preceded, or what repentance followed after the fault, so that those whom almighty God visits through the grace of compunction, the sentence of the pastor may absolve. For then the absolution of the one presiding is true, when it follows the judgment of the internal Judge. — Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 26

John Chrysostom: There were probably in the time of our ancestors also some who … “did the works of the false prophets”; … a thing, by the way, done (I think) by some even today. When, for example, we say that he who calls his brother a fool will go into hell fire, others will say, what? Impossible, they say. And again, when we say that the “covetous person is an idolater,” in this too again they make excuses and say the expression is hyperbolical. And in this way they underrate and explain away all the commandments. — HOMILIES ON Ephesians 18

Ezekiel 13:21

Origen of Alexandria: We flee what is bitter, even though it is good for us, and we do not want to labor, because we are softened by pleasures, because we do not know that it is impossible to be a friend of pleasure and at the same time a friend of God. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 3:5

Ezekiel 13:22

Origen of Alexandria: Let us pray that God will deliver us even from the hand of such leaders who, wherever they are, speak to please their hearers and cut and divide the church, because many are more fond of pleasures than they are of God. — HOMILIES ON Ezekiel 3:6