“Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!”
My Notes
What Does Ezekiel 13:3 Mean?
God pronounces woe on false prophets who "follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing." Two devastating charges: they follow their own spirit (their source is themselves, not God) and they have seen nothing (their visions are fabrications, not revelations). They're not corrupted prophets who once heard from God and went astray. They never heard from God at all.
The phrase "follow their own spirit" (holkhim achar rucham) describes prophets whose only source of inspiration is their own imagination. They don't wait for God's word. They generate their own. They don't receive visions. They manufacture them. What they present as divine revelation is actually human product—their own thoughts dressed in prophetic clothing.
"Have seen nothing" is the bluntest possible indictment of a prophet. The entire function of a prophet is to see—to perceive what God reveals. A prophet who has seen nothing is a contradiction in terms. It's like a doctor who has never studied medicine or a pilot who has never seen a plane. The fundamental qualification for the role is absent.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How do you discern whether someone who speaks 'for God' is actually speaking from God or from their own spirit?
- 2.Have you been damaged by a false prophet—someone who claimed divine authority for human opinions? What happened?
- 3.Is there any area where you might be 'following your own spirit' and calling it God's direction?
- 4.What does it mean that these prophets 'have seen nothing'? How does that change how you evaluate spiritual leaders?
Devotional
"Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing." They speak for God without hearing from God. They prophesy visions they never received. They present their own thoughts as divine revelation—and they've seen absolutely nothing from the one they claim to represent.
This is one of God's fiercest pronouncements because it targets the people who use His name to validate their own ideas. Not atheists who reject God. Not skeptics who doubt Him. Prophets who claim to speak for Him while inventing every word. People who stand in spiritual authority and deliver messages they generated internally, not received divinely.
You've encountered these prophets—maybe not in biblical costume, but in modern equivalents. The person who says "God told me" when God said nothing of the sort. The leader who wraps their own opinions in spiritual language to give them divine authority. The teacher who presents personal preferences as biblical truth. They follow their own spirit. They have seen nothing. And they cause more damage than almost any other kind of person because they damage people's ability to trust God by associating His name with lies.
The discernment question this verse raises is essential: when someone says "thus saith the LORD," how do you verify whether the LORD actually said it? The false prophet sounds like the true one—they use the same vocabulary, the same authority, the same formulas. The difference is in the source: their own spirit versus God's Spirit. Learning to tell the difference is one of the most important spiritual skills you can develop.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes of the deserts. The false prophets, as the Targum; these are called Israel's…
That follow ... nothing - Better in the margin. A true prophet (like Ezekiel) spoke “the word of the Lord,” and declared…
The false prophets, who are here prophesied against, were some of them at Jerusalem (Jer 23:14): I have seen in the…
foolish prophets The word, not used again by Ezekiel, is rather a moral term, meaning destitute of that wisdom the…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture