13:10 “‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” 1 when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, 2 they coat it with whitewash.
1 tn Or “peace.”
2 tn The Hebrew word only occurs here in the Bible. According to L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:202-3) it is also used in the Mishnah of a wall of rough stones without mortar. This fits the context here comparing the false prophetic messages to a nice coat of whitewash on a structurally unstable wall.
3 sn These verbs, “pity” and “spare,” echo the judgment oracles in 5:11; 7:4, 9; 8:18; 9:5, 10.
4 sn A similar concept is found in Deut 32:10.
5 tn Or “you have multiplied your abominable deeds beyond them.”
6 tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.
7 tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.